McHuston Booksellers

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Tag: Broken Arrow (Page 130 of 141)

Awnings and Yawnings.

March 22, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The cloudy-rainy weather makes me wish for an all-day layabout in bed, preferably with a good book! But the hiatus is over and the days of lounging around while waiting for the building to be completed are gone.

I missed the awning! And I’m happy to report that it has been restored to the front of the building. It comes a little late, rain-wise, but that’s all right.

As you can see in the photo, the former law firm’s identity has been removed from the front of the canvas. Of course, if you have a hankering to see that, you can travel back in time by way of Google Earth, which has not updated its images of downtown Broken Arrow since the Main Street Tavern moved in, and the Glamour Gowns and More building was remodeled.

The new McHuston Booksellers building is pretty much completed now, with only a few minor behind the scenes things. Weather-stripping the back door, for example.

Tables and chairs are scheduled for delivery today, even though they’ll have to be pushed to the side again to allow the moving of the remainder of the book shelves and cases. Bit by bit it is coming together.

I’ve already given a couple of pre-opening tours to the curious, and I wish I could do it for everyone. There is nothing like word-of-mouth advertising, and the more folks who see the wonderful renovation of this century-old building’s interior, the quicker the word will spread that the store is reopening!

The new question is – When will that come?

I’ve been telling people that it will take some time (and cooperative weather) to get the one-thousand boxes of books moved back onto the shelves. And that’s after getting the last of the shelves installed.

The checkout counter won’t take long to set up, and the sales systems are already in place and ready to go.

April 1st would be a good target date. Whether it is realistic or not is the next question. In the meantime, blogging-break is over and it is time for back to work!

Let the Books begin: McHuston Booksellers on Main.

March 13, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Let the work finally begin.

Not that there hasn’t been a lot of that going on already, at the site of the former Francy Law Firm on Main Street. It’s just that the work from this point forward is a different kind.

There won’t be professional carpenters, contractors, plumbers, and HVAC workers. Just me. And the volunteers. And there aren’t many of those.

But that’s okay.

It’s been a labor of love all along, running the bookstore in Broken Arrow. The book industry is changing almost every day, what with electronic readers, authors posting chapters in their online blogs, store closings, and a general decline in reading habits. There are still plenty of things being read, but a lot of the reading is online: blogs, websites, tweets, news aggregators, and Facebook updates.

That piece of paper, the final page of a small stack of numbered papers, has my signature on it. The lease is signed, and the official okay to begin moving items into the new location has been given, as of Tuesday, March 12, 2012.

That’s just shy of five months since receiving the official heave-ho notice from the previous landlord, who declined to provide a month-to-month rental arrangement to allow the bookstore to remain in operation until the new location was completed.

No hard feelings.

It just amounts to more work, moving for a second time those items carried into storage five months ago. And that work begins Tuesday.

Well, in all honesty – it could. Due to the timing, it won’t really get started until Wednesday to avoid a scheduling conflict – of all things.

Then, the shelves may be hauled out of the church where they’ve been stashed, to be reconstructed in the new location.

Books to follow that – but, all things in due time.

Let’s get the shelves rebuilt first. In the meantime, I snapped a couple of pictures of the exterior on my way back from signing the lease, showing the brick front without awning, and the trusty old Firebird parked in front. Click for a bigger view.

PS. The old Pontiac doesn’t look too bad for 16 years on the road, eh?

An update with photo.

March 7, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I’ve run into more people in the past few days than I have in the past four months – asking about the bookstore and its current status. It’s a pleasure being asked, and I only wish that I could run into every first-time, occasional, or regular customer to give a personal update. I know there are some folks who likely believe the store folded up the tent. Not true!

We’ve moved into March and are about a week out from St. Paddy’s Day, another calendar date I had hoped would find McHuston Booksellers ready-stocked and open for business. I’m doubtful that date can be met, as the occupancy of the new building has not been green-lighted.

From the photo, taken from the sidewalk and looking in through the front windows, you can see that the building has every appearance of completion, looking in through the front windows. There are a couple of things that are apparent, such as the front awning, which has seen the frame installed, but not the canvas.

The interior is a beautiful thing to see – high-ceilinged, suspended light fixtures, wood centerline columns with counter-height desks. The tile floor has the appearance of wooden planks, but will be so much easier to care for.

As noted in an earlier post, shelves have been acquired from a now-closed Tulsa bookstore that originated at the Novel Idea location of so many years ago. Those, and another set that came from a Barnes & Nobel location, are currently hiding in my sister’s church until the official go-ahead is signaled (with immense thanks to her and her pastor).

Books are still being acquired, although – without immediately shelving on which to house them – the purchases are quite a bit more selective. It will not be too long now before the shelves can be reassembled and the books restored.

To answer the question, though – I can’t say with any assuredness the exact date. The building looks finished to me, but then, I’m no contractor and I don’t know the process. Inspections and such are out of the control of everyone except the inspector. I hope they’ll be wrapped up in the next week or so and permission to move in will be granted.

In the meantime, behind the scenes work continues!

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