We want to start by apologizing that we have not been posting as frequently recently, but we promise we have a good reason!
If you’ve walked by our cafe anytime in the last two weeks, you’ve probably seen us painting! The full team and some friends have been at affoGATO constantly, trying to prepare the walls to install the cat walk shelving, coffee counter, and other furniture.
(Skip down for non-painting related updates)
The walls were originally bright pink and black with pink velvet wallpaper stripes on the main wall. We started by removing the wallpaper (which was super thick and damaged the wall when removing), then cleaning the entire cafe and cat lounge. This took some time since the space was previously used for food service.
Next, we picked up our paint and supplies from Sherwin Williams. When we posted our renderings last time and mentioned that we were going to use their paint, they were incredibly kind and actually sent us a gift card to help with our project! In case you missed it, these are the colors we selected:
We started on the cafe side, painting two walls in burgundy (Wild Currant) and the other wall and the beams above the partition wall in light gray (Krypton). The red feels super energizing, perfect for getting your caffeine fix!
From this:
To this!
Next, we started in the back of the cat lounge, which was originally almost entirely black. We had to sand and prime everything, then repainted the ceiling white. There are no windows in the back, so it really brightened up the space!
From this (Pic from TripAdvisor):
To this!
After that, we started on the blue (Dress Blues) on the cat lounge side. Such a lovely, relaxing color! We did the smaller blue archway, back wall, and above the window in the cafe side. We have also entirely painted the cat lounge bathroom, and have started the cafe bathroom. Each are gray with an accent wall matching their section.
We completed the first layer of mud to prepare the cat climbing wall for painting. We plan to finish repairing that wall this weekend, which we’re super excited about!
While painting has consumed most of our time for the last two weeks, there are a few other important updates that we would like to share!
First, and most importantly, we got our conditional approval from Cleveland’s Building and Housing Department! This means that we’re officially allowed to complete our plumbing, electric work, and the construction of the partition wall between the cafe and cat lounge.
The only part that we’re still waiting on in order to get fully approved is the health department. They had a few extra questions for us that we were able to clarify, so we hope to get full approval very soon, which would put us closer to setting an opening date.
We have also been working on other renovation projects such as building the cafe counter and catwalk shelves off-site. Everything is coming along great, and we’ll post some sneak peeks of those once they’re in the cafe. We’ve also been putting together some pre-opening infrastructure such as the scheduling and point of sale systems.
Thank you for your patience regarding the donor shirts. The order is in, but there were a lot of you (thank you!) and we are working with a small local company, so we expect it to take some time. You can see the concept pics in our last post.
As we also mentioned in that post, we participated in the Taste of Tremont on July 15th. We sold delicious Rising Star cold brew and Storehouse green iced tea. It was a hot day, so we’re especially grateful to everyone who stopped by to grab a refreshing drink, chat with us, and ask questions! We still have a few of the non-donor shirts left, so if you would like to buy one before we open, just shoot us a message.
(This is what the non-donor shirts look like)
Since the renovations, an additional funding application, and Health Department approval are still ongoing, it’s still impossible for us to set an official opening date yet. We’ve been working all day, every day to open ASAP, and are still planning to open in August if at all possible. As soon as we have an opening date, we will announce it here on our blog first.
Finally, we just want to say thank you to everyone who has been keeping up with our progress! We’ve had lots of people calling with questions, and even waving to us through the windows while we work! You all keep us so motivated, and we can’t wait to open and meet you all!