Diary — January 30

1/30/26

It has been a week of ups and downs.  On Monday, the city of Peoria signed off on the application for a building permit for the store.  I am not planning to do a lot of work inside the shop.  The walls are crying for a new coat of paint and some of the ceiling tiles will be replaced.  The gallery needs a system to hang paintings and other artwork. After this work is completed, we will install shelves around the perimeter of the shop and sprinkle in the furniture.  Then there is the matter of ordering, receiving, and shelving all the books.   Still, getting the “ok” from the city is  a relief and means that work can begin soon.

I headed back to the shop on Tuesday to play with paint options and wait for the delivery of some shelves.  During my lunch break, I received a frantic call that a pipe had burst in the “Cottage on Cooper”, my Airbnb up the hill in the Moss Bradley neighborhood.  Water was gushing from the upstairs bathroom through the ceiling and walls down into the kitchen and basement.  It appears that my last guest turned off all the heat when he departed on Sunday leading to arctic conditions in the house and then the frozen and burst pipes. A plumber arrived on Wednesday afternoon to scope out the problem.  More plumbers were then scheduled to arrive  on Friday to try and solve the problem. 

On Thursday, my friend KP rented a U-Haul, and we picked up books and some furniture from my condo in Chicago, destined for the shop.  We then swung by Volumes,  a bookstore in Wicker Park that closed at the end of December.  I had agreed to purchase some of their shelves and two octagonal tables.    With the help of three gents who were packing up fixtures for another purchaser, we loaded up the truck and headed south.  A few hours later the store was filling up with new shelves and tables.

The plumbers came as scheduled on Friday. After 8 hours of work, some of the broken pipes in the basement and kitchen had been identified and replaced. The plumbers made multiple holes in the walls and were still unable to find or fix the bathroom leak.  A plumber will return on Monday to reassess the scope of the work.  It appears that repairs will continue well into next week.  Tonight,  I will work on cancelling reservations for all of next week’s guests.