My feet are sweaty
I previously mentioned a lot going on for me this week. First, Season 3 of my podcast started Wednesday. The next day was the culmination of a gigantic project in my life. Almost 3 years ago, my husband and I visited San Angelo TX. We visited for a camping weekend. I wondered aloud, “how many coffee shops do you think San Angelo has?” We owned 2 coffee shops. That sentence changed our family and business trajectory.
Making the decision to uproot our firmly planted large family, was a gut wrenching one. We lived in small town. Our children had lifelong friends. We had 10 acres of land to build our “forever home”. But our kids have really ambitious parents who are capable of making cool shit happen. We moved to San Angelo in July of 2019. We took some time to breath that summer, then got to work to find a place to bring our dreams to fruition.
After 2 attempts, the third time was the charm and we found a commercial space. It’s a former car wash and service station. We got to work on the lobby portion of the former car wash. We would get to the car wash portion at a later date. We demo’d the place. Daniel worked on plans. We got to work, hoping to open around June if 2020.
Then we all know what happened in March of last year. Our industry was hit hard. I categorize us as Service industry in a tourist economy. Woof. We were expecting growth in 2020, certainly not hitting a brick wall and worrying about keeping our existing businesses open. For 3 months, our new venture sat virtually untouched. We were pulled away to keep what we had going, albeit from afar and four young children were now home full time.
When summer began, my husband and father resumed worked at the new location, Buttercup. My retired father has gained countless new skills this year as my husband’s crew mate. My dad has swept the floor of Buttercup with the love of a father mixed with his love of orderly accomplishment. I have compensated my dad with food, either Sunday brunches or weeknight dinners, I’m always inquiring “didya eat?”
My husband has been a general contractor, project manager, Tim the Tool Man Taylor, fueled by his never ending ambition and abilities. He stared the project by stretching his skills into making legit plans for the place. Then he dove into his beast mode and went hard the rest of the year. He has put blood, sweat, and tears into the walls of our building. The man can DO SHIT y’all. “He built it” is a phrase I use often. He will inspire you to unleash your own skill set.
Once the children were back in school, I joined the crew. My dad called me “the new girl” and lamented I got away with shit because I was “sleeping with the boss”. (My family is funny) The worksite was less than ideal. I would run to the wal-mart bathroom across the street whining “when can we get the bathrooms done?” We’d eat lunch on cardboard boxes covered in dirt, sharing 2 chairs left over from the previous owner. It was hot. Did I mention there was no AC? I live in TX. My dad and husband spent the summer working in the un - conditioned texas heat. My dad took to working at night, or early morning, during this time. I will be paying him back in sunny side eggs forever.
All the while, a pandemic raged on and an economic shit show carried on. There was never any doubt that we would open Buttercup. It would just be a lot longer than we planned. The project has felt INTERMINABLE. It’s been stressful AF. It’s not been pretty. We’ve certainly not been our “best” this year (whatever that even means). But it’s finally done. We did it. Buttercup is open.
2 days ago we hung a sign up and whispered to our social media followers “we’re opening the drive thru tomorrow”. It’s a “soft opening”. We are only serving coffee, out of our beautiful drive thru window, for the time being. Every week or so, we will add an offering and more employees.
We have worked every day and most nights the last month. It’s hard to explain the details put into this kind of project. And y’all, we did it all. (That state permitting would allow lol) Friends asked “Who did the floors for ya?” We did. Who pained the parking lot lines? We did, with the help of our friends last weekend. Who made the website pictographs? I did. (That husband of mine suggested that I could figure out Adobe and had that Apple Pencil) I Marie Forleo’d that shit. I figured it out. Who painted it? We did. Did y’all do that tile? Fuck yea. That light fixture….. you guessed it.
I am as tired as a new mother. I know this season is just that, a season. I will get proper amounts of sleep again. I will get back on an exercise schedule. I always do. Through the fatigue and brain fog, I am feeling so proud and grateful and accomplished. We are entrepreneurs in the truest sense of the meme as we “build the parachute after we’ve jumped off the cliff”. We finished sewing the parachute this week, it’s been a long free fall.
My heart is full, my feet are sweaty (family joke about being tired), and my hair is dirty. I’m going to fall asleep on the couch during Friday Family Movie night. Big love y’all. Big love.
Jessie & Daniel Browning at Buttercup January 7th, 2021. Photo taken by Mac Sedino
