Almost there!

Well, we are moving into the final phase of our preparations.  All of the renovations are completed and the fab four (as I'm calling us just now!) have cleared our diaries for next week.  We are starting very early on Monday morning to meet a truck with 3 palette loads of ophthalmic instruments on them, before the downtown traffic gets busy.  To eye geeks like us, three palette loads of ophthalmic instruments is almost better than Christmas morning!  Almost!!

We're now not allowed to enter the unit before Monday as Millroi have put the last sealant on the floor and it would ruin the finish, so we are left with peaking in the windows - so close and yet untouchable!  I've included a sneaked picture from the work being done.

It's going to be a great week next week!

Vision East Expo - Sunglasses! Sunglasses!

While it was almost all work at Vision Expo in New York, there were some moments to enjoy trying on some of the cool new eyewear (for research purposes, of course!).

Here are a some pictures:

Mike modeling an ic! berlin.

Euan sporting the special edition ic! berlin "Splash"!

Euan, John & Mike all featuring the ic! berlin special edition "Psycho" collection - only sold as a set of 3!

John, Mike & Euan - a little more relaxed on the last day.  Safe in the knowledge that we now had some awesome collections to open with!

Euan, John and Mike had a hectic visit to New York.  The trip started very early on a cold Friday morning, but we were all full of excitement and energy, this was going to be a trip like no other!

The sole purpose of this trip was to meet with the best eyewear providers in the world in one single location so that we could put together the most wonderful collection of spectacles in a single location.  Read all about our trip in the various news posts.

Finding our location

It was the 13th of September, surely that shouldn't be a lucky day.  Perhaps because it wasn't a Friday, for us it has turned out to be a great day!

This is the day that we first visited the location on Blowers Street which would become our office. 

I have to admit, when I first saw it from the outside I wasn't holding out much hope.  It was a tired looking building with all of the signage from a business which had just failed.  We had taken the time come to see the unit, though, so we may as well have a look inside.

Wow!

What you may not realise from the outside and what I certainly didn't appreciate is how beautiful the building is on the inside.  There is exposed brickwork which is original, over 100 years old.  The space is fantastic with thirteen foot ceilings.  From the moment we walked around inside we were excited.  This was not the first time, though, we had been excited about other locations as well.  5240 Blowers Street was unique, though, it offered us a completely blank canvas.  Rip up the tired looking laminate, take down the rickety partitions and we were left with 2000 square feet of space which was open, fresh and so, so usable (okay, it took a little imagination too see that).

Over the next coming weeks and months we planned, considered, negotiated, formulated.  The winter set in and things seemed to take four times as long as we'd originally estimated.  Through it all, though, was a vision of what we could do.

We were excited!