- House Update. First, our house closes on Friday, Feb. 29. Looks like it's a go. The only concern was a higher radon reading during the inspection with a rather odd reading that started at around 14 and then plummeted and bottomed out. Radon is fairly common around these parts, especially in finished basements and the safe level is between 1-4. We asked the seller to take care of the problem. He agreed to pay for a second test, since no one is sure what the problem was. If it fails this second time, he will put in a venting system to take care of the problem.
- Movin in Date. Our move in date to move into our house is March 1. So if you're in the area and want to help well be starting at around 8:30. We are still a bit short on strong-armed help. If you'd like to pitch in, drop us an email at Jeff at Javajourney.org (replace the at with the @ sign). Our new address will be 6191 Mountainside Drive, Hickory, 28601.
- Coffee Shop Locations. We've called on several potential locations and have peered in the windows of a few more. The one that looks most interesting is a closed Chinese Restaurant on Hwy 321 which is not far from our new house. The building is on an end unit in a small strip mall and would even allow room for a drive through window. We learned that someone is already interested in that side of the building and the owner is willing to divide up the space. So we are not out of the running yet. We were told to check back with them in a few weeks to see what the latest is. This seems like an ideal location as it is on a route with plenty of traffic, no coffee shops, quite a few business including offices and has nearby neighborhoods--just the mix we are hoping for.
- Coffee Shop Stuff. We continue to work on the business plan and are down to the nitty gritty of figuring out cost of supplies and potential suppliers. Think we may have found a nearby coffee roaster which we definitely need since our coffee supplier in CA has decided to close up shop. For furniture, we like the look of the school house style chairs. These are sturdy, slat-backed chairs. Teena stumbed on to one set of dining chairs that were very close to this style at Goodwill. They just need a little touching up with stain but she was thrilled to find 5 chairs that might serve our purposes. They just need some of her famous refinishing tlc.
- Fundraising. As you probably already know, this coffee start up will not be cheap so the more we can whittle down the amount we need to take out in loans, the happier we will be. Teena put into a call to an organization through the Escript site. (Escript is one of the ways we are asking our supporters to help us at no cost to themselves). The auto auction folks take car donations and then give the bulk of the income raised back to the charitiy. Many schools and other non-profits use this organization to raise funds. Looks like it might bear some good financial fruit. More on that in a later post. But if you know anyone with a car, boat or even airplane they might want to donote on our behalf, tell them to contact us. We haven't yet set up our account with them but hope to very soon.
- Networking. God is doing some amazing things in the realm of networking. We have been invited to share the Java Journey vision with First Baptist Church in Taylorsville (just outside of Hickory). We have also been attending a young church in Clemmons, NC called Crossfire while we waited to settle on a house. Today pastor David asked us to share a bit about Java Journey with their congregation. What a nice surprise. He wants us to have lunch with him soon to discuss possible ways the church can support the coffee shop ministry.
It has been such a delight so far to see how diverse and loving the body of Christ is. We hope Java Journey will be a ministry that allows many different Christians from many different churches to pull together to reach people for Christ. It is exciting to see the possibilities.
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