This is kind of a fun opportunity in the middle of all the crazy to say hi to all of you and see how you’re doing! I hope you’re staying healthy and that you have enough toilet paper and all that. I don’t usually get a chance to chat with you unless I know you in real life. But since we’re all sequestered in our little bubbles, why the heck not?
Toilet Paper Controversy
The first thing I’m going to do is start with some controversy. I know that hordes of you are making fun of those who really like toilet paper. Confession: I really like toilet paper. I mean, a lot. Like, in normal circumstances, I do not feel safe or comfortable if we don’t have at least an entire Costco case of toilet paper on hand in the garage. I don’t know if I need to retrain my kids on how much to use or not, but in our family of five, we go through the stuff like there’s no tomorrow.
The worst-case scenario for me under normal circumstances is running out of toilet paper and having to buy it at Publix, which is expensive. Needless to say, toilet paper is the first thing I would want to have enough of if there were a crisis. Some of you have mature landscaping in your yards and can use leaves. We do not have that luxury, as we only had holly bushes in our yard and recently replaced them with toddler-sized plants. I admit it. I love toilet paper, and I don’t care who thinks that’s crazy.
It’s good to get that off my chest.
Coffee Essentials
The next thing I made sure I had was lots of ground coffee. We recently replaced our 5-cup coffeemaker with a 12-cup, meaning we go through a 2.5lb bag of coffee beans almost as fast as a pack of toilet paper. We no longer own a grinder since nothing we’ve found does the job, as well as the industrial ones at Costco. So what we do is buy several bags of Starbucks coffee beans at Costco when they’re on sale and then bring one of the bags back in to grind it whenever we’re low, so it’ll stay fresh. So imagine my panic when I found out that the coronavirus threatened to make life not normal. I saw a dwindling bag of ground coffee and made it my mission to get two more bags ground, come hell or high water. I was successful, and now I have five pounds of ground coffee sitting ready, assuring me that life will continue as usual.
The next crisis item is Coffee-mate creamer. Thankfully I bought tons of bottles of Christmas flavors in the fall so they’d get me through the many following months of not being able to obtain Gingerbread or Pumpkin Spice (thankfully, Peppermint Mocha is no longer considered a holiday-only favorite). This hoarding situation caused a small problem in us not being able to fit much food in the freezer, but imagine my good fortune when I realized that I had not only a load of toilet paper and ground coffee but also my favorite creamers. So, all in all, I’d say we’re weathering the crisis on the personal front just fine. I hope the same is true for all of you.
Keeping The Kids Busy
On the kid-crisis/no-school front, we’re also okay with that since we homeschool anyway. But the classes and sports the kids are actually in are canceled, which is a bummer. They’ve been spending their normal time doing their homeschool work and then lots of their free time earning money by painting rooms we’ve been meaning to paint. I absolutely hate painting, so we had kids. This way, we flash a five-dollar bill and can easily employ children to get multiple rooms painted. The only problem is that they lack attention to detail. But, I can quickly put my design-perfectionist ways aside when I realize I don’t have to paint at all anymore. Thank you, Jesus, for that. And I mean that with every fiber of my being.
Business Moving Forward
And, on the business front. I can’t imagine anything worse for a small business than having the entire economy shut down, so I would imagine that if this is an extended shut-down, it won’t be so happy for us. It didn’t help that there were massive tornadoes in our area right before all this. Right now, though, our current kitchen clients are healthy and fine and still going strong with their kitchens (and one narrowly escaped being destroyed by the tornado). As for the next wave of clients, I’m hoping that the economic uncertainty doesn’t keep everyone from planning ahead. I really do not think the world as we know it is ending or that this will be a long-term thing. But other people may, and that will probably affect our business a lot.
That said, I am so thankful for all of you who are and have been our clients (and for those who will be in the future!). It really means a lot to us. Behind the scenes, we talk about how thankful we are for you by name and how we can make every detail of your project as amazing as possible. We take great care to make sure your kitchen designs are just right and that the products we offer are ones we would put in our own home.
We enjoy your company during our meetings and always proudly point out your home to our kids and tell them a little about you and what your kitchen is like. We know you have other options when it comes to cabinetry and design, and your faith in us encourages us. Thank you for that. You really have no idea how much it means to us.
The most helpful thing you could do for us is to recommend us to your friends who will be doing kitchens in the future or who are building custom homes. If you haven’t already, if you could take the time to write us a Google review, that will help as well. These are stressful times for all small business owners, and we would love your support. If you don’t live in our area and want a kitchen with Starmark cabinetry, we are doing those out of town as well. We have recently teamed up with a custom builder who does work all over the country, and we’ll be providing the kitchen design and Starmark cabinetry for him. Just fill out the contact form on our website or email us at kitchens@hollythompsonhomes.com for more info about how you can utilize our services from out of our area.
Thanks for following along! We love you guys!! 🙂
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