Austin Modern: Austin Modern Page one

We've been kicking around the idea of starting a blog for the shop for a while.... Jim has his you'llshootyoureyeout blog for his vintage board game finds, and my friend Ronn with Futures Antiques blogs about his shop and customers... sometimes without mercy..
Often times something funny happens at the store and there's no one else to share it with outside of whomever we see over dinner.
So here's the blog.
We'll post updates from the store, either cool new finds, or unique restoration products, interactions with the inhabitants of the revolving freakfest that is North Loop....

So far, we've been on North Loop for almost 5 years now and we've seen a fair bit of changes.
When we first moved in we were the first retail store east of Ave E, which was like pulling teeth since there is that little bend in the road and historically no one ever drove east of the bend.

Luckily our friends at RoomService Vintage were kind enough to let us hang a banner that said "More Vintage, 2 Blocks". That banner has been there for almost a year and we've been here for almost 5 and people still walk in and say "Hey, when did you guys open? I've never been here!"
Funny. I've been waiting for YOU to come in for years! ha ha

North Loop is weird, there are these clusters of aging businesses and aging buildings, and the rest of the neighborhood has gentrified over the years. Someone said the other day that we had helped with the gentrification. I wasn't sure how I felt about that.
When we first moved in the building looked like this:

Kinda sad little shack of a building. But I loved this building from afar. I used to be across the street in a sadder little shack totaling a grand 450sq feet. 450. Most studio apartments are bigger than that! And yet I had a little store in a little building and most slow days I'd sit in front of my business and stare at this abandoned building. Long story short we moved into this building. And after 14 grueling days in 110 degree Texas heat and mostly by myself, I made this:

And then after another year we did this and this: Which involved the near loss of Jim's thumb and a lot of Watermelon. Summer in Texas you have to have watermelon!