Hello, it’s me! 🙈
It’s been a couple of months since I last shared an update on The Peach, but that’s actually GOOD NEWS. Because finally, at long last, we found our home. We just announced our opening date September 23rd (woohoo!). So in this letter, we’re talking renovations!
Before I get into the work, here are some pictures of the space before we started renovations:
1. The reception
2. Changing rooms
3. The main studio
I’ve talked in previous letters about changing priorities and rethinking the importance of certain features. However, when I found this former boxing gym, it checked ALL the boxes, including the ones I had taken off my checklist. We’ve got a reception, we’ve got showers, we’ve got a coworking space, … When I visited the space the first time, I knew this was a unique opportunity, so I jumped on it!
But the space came with 2 major hurdles.
After looking at many spaces, I had actually decided that I wasn’t on the market for a fixer-upper. I wanted a space that I could move into, put up some paint, and install poles. That is not this. This studio was in rough shape with both known challenges (broken tiles, horrid toilets, banged-up floor) and unknown challenges (leaky pipes, questionable electric).
The second hurdle is that with so much more space than expected, there’s proportionally more spaces to design and more work to do.
Without going into all the painful details and mistakes that will make for good anecdotes in the future, let me tell you about about how I am tackling this monster project.
Hiring a designer
This was not something I really planned on doing. I always thought I’d figure out a good look for the studio without professional help (ok, I’ll admit I was counting on Jacob to do most of the design brainwork because he has much better taste than me). I stumbled upon a designer – another expat mom – because I was looking for some contractor contacts and initially was sold on the fact that it was going to be infinitely easier to find people to complete the renovations with a professional by my side. However, when the first round of designs came back, I was immediately sold on that aspect as well. Never in a million years would I have thought of the eye-catching details that Any (the designer) came back with. Not only that, but with Any’s designs, we got the most amazing renderings that are so realistic that it’s hard to believe they’re not photos of the space! Here are some of my favorite captures (and yes, extreme spoiler alert, although we’ve also made a number of modifications):
Isn’t that amazing? Any created these after having spent just 3 hours at the studio! I would love to use these for marketing materials, but alas decided it’s probably better to wait and use real photos… And of course, some elements are different or removed for practical or budgetary reasons.
Beginning renovations
This has truly been such a revelation. When I first walked through the space and the general contractor quoted me at least two weeks just to prep walls, I was shocked. Little did I realize that prepping the full space was actually the majority of the work and would take close to two months! Naïvely, I went in thinking “well we’re not tearing down walls and the showers and toilets already exist”. Turns out, there is SO MUCH MORE that goes into it. Smoothing out walls, mold treatments, electric diagnostics, finishing floorboards, and the list goes on.
So here we are, just over 2 weeks until opening, and it feels like we’ve only just begun on the “actual” renovations. That is, paint is mostly done, floors were put in a while back, tiling is an ongoing project, and we’ve got boxes on top of boxes with all the finishings such as lights, coat racks, yoga mats, cleaning supplies, and more.
Unfortunately we are still uncovering unwelcome surprises (such as the fact that there seems to be no hot water) and the daily details that don’t quite match up with what I had in mind. But we will get there!
The good news
We’ve got a killer schedule and have started to get class signups! I am so excited to be able to share this concept with others and can’t wait to be teaching again regularly, meeting students, and growing every day. When we released the schedule, we got several questions about classes, given that it looks nothing like what you’d see in other pole studios today. But if you’re wondering, you can take any class on our schedule, regardless of your level!
Alright, that is all for now! But I look forward to checking in again after the opening and sharing our first learnings.
As always, with love,
Tamar
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