Exciting, disheartening, and inexorable, opening Betsy Fisher Basalt continues at its glacial pace.   

Our happy hope was to be open by the end of June.  We just needed to pull up the carpet, add some dressing rooms, and hang new lighting.   

We also need building permits, HOA approval, and actually available pros: an architect, lighting and interior designers, and contractors. Some of these essential pros explain why they will charge you but unnervingly refuse a guesstimate.  Team assembled. 

First, we discover the ceiling is not up to code. To meet standards takes two plans, two months and an inspection. The black steel ceiling above got a shiny white fire-retarding coat of paint. 

Wayback in May, deciding on a painted concrete floor seemed like a simple, elegant improvement to standard commercial carpet. Not exactly. By mid-August, with interior designer Liz Pettit’s input, Mickey Krentz has a super mix of colors to apply.

Finalizing the lighting plan happens this week, and their submission makes final permits possible.

One of the reasons Lyle and I have been able to tolerate the pace was the decision made and revisited regularly:this new store is meant to be life enriching and fun, not a renewed source of stomach lining dissolution. With Kit’s daughter coming into the world next month and POP! DC on the horizon, we mostly shake our heads and ask each other,“Why did we get back on this crazy ride?”