Renovation Update (and Exciting News!)
When I last wrote about our heroic renovation efforts (perhaps I didn’t use that descriptor at the time, but six weeks later, I feel it’s apt), we were neck-deep in a lot of work with little visual progress made. I still had only a hopeful expectation of a timeline and no real way to move forward with other plans that were contingent upon meeting concrete deadlines. So, it was hard to answer questions about the timing of our big change and how that would work. But now…
WE HAVE NEWS!
I will spare you the intricate details of all the details (so. many. details.) that needed to fall into place, but the summary is that we are within spitting distance of finishing the ground-floor work on our building and have made serious progress upstairs. This means…
We are changing our entry door!
Come mid-April, we are changing our entry door to the left-hand entry as you are facing our building. We will still be putting finishing touches on our entry hallway, but our new lights and paint job have gone a long way to improving the space.
Because…we have a new business moving in!
May 1, we have a wonderful new small business moving into our ground floor retail space and I could not be more excited about it. She’s an Alexandria native and her shop will be a fabulous complement to Old Town’s boutiques. I’ll do a full post in a few weeks on Nicole and her sustainable clothing and accessories shop, but suffice it to say it will be fabulous.
But where will Alx&Co. be?
We have a brand-new reception space in the back of our ground floor which will serve as our entry “hub” for the next few weeks while we finish upstairs. Currently, our third floor is completely demolished as we tore out old 70s (not in the cool way) paneling and are rebuilding these rooms from the studs out. Our second floor consultation space is still open for private appointments, so fret not, you will still be able to visit and pick out diamonds in peace. This experience has been a rollercoaster, and, to be sure, we are only half-way through the ride. But, it feels immensely gratifying to have serious progress made and an exciting new business moving into our street-facing space. All of these changes are being made with the intent of providing a more comfortable, intimate space for our clients to visit and we hope to keep these ongoing changes as easy to navigate as possible. That said, we know that having your trusted jewelers go and upend their space after 40 years is never easy to digest, so we greatly appreciate the continued loyalty and understanding our clients have shown along the way. Please bear with us, we promise it will be great, and THANK YOU!