you did what?

I’m sure you’re confused. Let me back up a bit.

Back during the pandemic, I started looking at (and dreaming about) a building in a historic district. It was super cute, with apartments on top you could live in, and the shop area down below. It was in an area with two other quilt and sewing shops on the same street, making our location an easy add-on when shopping.

We’d grab coffee and sit out in front of it in our car, like a couple of creepy folks. And I investigated it pretty hard, including the other businesses on the block, and the building’s current leases. And then… It was gone. Just like that.

I really mourned the loss of a building I didn’t have. I hadn’t made an offer, but I had dreamed about it pretty hard. It was gone. Sold to someone else. I really felt it.

Time went by and in April 2022 my friend Amy and I went to Paducah KY for the AQS Quilt Week. We were excited to get to the show, see people we knew, and scope it out to see if we should vend there next year. While in town, we drove past a building known locally as “The Quilt In A Day Building”, well…. because it has a giant QUILT IN A DAY sign painted on the side. And it was for sale.

I yelled to Amy “Stop the car!” and we both get out and peer into the windows. I look up online how much it was going for… $100K more than my dream building in Illinois. Just as I’m getting down in the dumps about it Amy says “HEY! The one next door is for sale too!”

So we look inside… It’s really neat too! I look it up online. It’s going for $100K LESS than the dream building! WAIT. WHAT?

The rest of the day my mind keeps going back to that building. The 6 hour drive home with Amy, it’s all I can talk about. At dinner we talk about the pros and cons list…. and that cons list is mighty mighty small. When we get home, Amy and I burst in on Charlie’s quiet night with excited giddiness over the find. I tell Charlie he has to see it for himself. And with that, we book a return trip to Paducah two days later.

We visit the building with our realtor, and by the end of the tour my mind had been made up. Charlie needed more convincing, but by the end of our six hour ride home to Chicago, we had made an offer.

Needless to say, it all worked out, as here I sit writing this in our building in Paducah.

It’s been a little bumpy on the way here, with moving companies and selling our home in Chicago, and all that. We made it, we have our little slice of historic downtown Paducah, and we are working on transforming it.

Stay tuned for more of the adventure as it happens!