The little house on Union

Shanty is turning 1 July 1st and I thought this would be a great time to tell the Shanty story in the shortest form I can. Many people ask about the little house on Union and how it came to be Shanty....

7 years ago I moved to this little town to be with my best friend and the love of my life David. Always knowing "someday" I'd have a store, but also a dreamer....I would drive down Union Street (a side street that turned into a one way main street) and look at the little homes that needed a lot of work. I always said to David "If one of those houses ever comes up for sale I WANT IT!! " Well one day he comes home and slaps one of those For Sale flyers for N.235 Union on the counter. Let me tell you we were in no position to buy a major fixer upper, renovate, and open my dream at that point, but this was it! I made it happen...very creatively. The big bonus was we had great renters that were in it and had no intentions of leaving anytime soon...so we had time to sit on it and wait for life to catch up.

After a couple years and a couple of sweet additions to our family, our kind renters were ready to move out. It still didn't seem like the right time yet to move in on my dream ...did I say two sweet LITTLE kids....so we decided to just clean it up a bit and rent it a while longer. I remember David and I over at the house, inside....it's in really bad shape....we are talking about what to do to make it livable for the next renters and all I can think of is...were my register would go, what wall would need to come down....would it be possible to just do it? It was that day, that moment that I knew...I always dreamed it but I don't think I ever believed it until that moment. That's how it happens sometimes I think...dreams....you just decide. You decide, make a step, then the other steps just happen. It's not brave....its just??????

2 years later and a lot of work (Thank You David, Mom and Dad, Melanie, Rushelle, Rob and everyone else that had a hand in it and encouraged us), a lot of sacrifices (Thank You Caden and Norah and David again), we were ready to make it official.

I remember the morning of July 1st barely. Melanie, Rushelle and I were at the store very early going over any last minute things we could think of. We toasted to Shanty and our hopes with Mimosas. Then we tore down the "Opening In July" sign. Walked outside and placed our old metal OPEN sign on the chair and crossed our fingers people would come.

They came!! (THANKS Janice and Sharon Martin, our first customers) Every family member, every friend and so many new faces that we now call our Shanty friends. We received so much encouragement, kind words and praise. I felt like saying Sally Fields infamous words...."they like us...they really like us"

So here we are 1 year later. Check back soon to see how we will be celebrating this great milestone!! This will be a celebration of THANKS! to all of you.