The Story of Shaddow Domain: Episode 6 - I told you to go before we left!

Wow... what a hot mess.

Many of you remember, or have heard, that our first location lacked a restroom. As you can see from the above pic, that was only one of our, let's say, issues.

So, there we were, with two rooms. Threadbare blue carpet in front, 70’s lime green shag in back (I really wish I had a picture of that), and neither of those rooms was a restroom.

Thankfully the bar next door was willing to let us use their bathroom, but anyone under 21 had to go around the corner to the laundromat to use the facilities. This went on for 14 years, and I don't know how it became so normal, but it was.

You'll see in the pic above a vintage used fridge we used as a display for a very, very short time. Did you know an unplugged, closed fridge will acquire a distinctly un-retail friendly smell? I didn't, but I learned quickly. Add a few shelves dumpster dived from behind Toys R Us (note: don’t do that) and a LOT of generously donated gridwall and hooks from a Michaels Crafts remodel that we are still using today, and we were off and running. Someone, I don't remember who, either sold or gave us the blue shelving on the left of the pic, which was handy but didn't last long. The only thing in that pic that we still have after 20+ years is the glass case in the center of the pic, which now lives happily in the museum.

A few years later we were able to have the front of the building painted and install the flourishes that (I think) still exist there today. I was looking for a pretty specific color for the front; not tan, not grey. What I ended up with was a purple tint that may guarantee that I never pick out paint for anything larger than a door ever again. Later still, we managed to replace the carpet, a black and red stripe that turned out much better than the paint choice, and of which I also don't have pictures. Bummer.