BTS, got wood?

Measuring the floorboards at the Stripping History museum. The Awesome folks we rent from are looking for some of this same lumber to replace a few spots on the floor. Let me know if you have any leads. I’m hoping one of my leads works out but if not I may need a backup.

Our landlord is working hard on the build out. It’s a pretty simple plan with one great room that’s about 2k sq ft. I love the space! It’s exactly what I was looking for. Originally I wanted to rent from my sister, 40 min away but I needed to pivot for easier access. This space is a 5 min drive and that’s pretty much the only difference. My sister kindly offered me her space for free but it needed to be in Davenport. I’m thankful to Annie for being so supportive as a sister and offering me her space, it’s a rare and beautiful, historic spot and looks just like this space, so I got very lucky. Both spots have original tin ceilings and the same layout. The Davenport building (the one we went with) was built in the 1890’s, along with many buildings in Davenport. Our new landlord has been amazing. She has been so supportive of American Pickers from the start. She did much of the local market research for History while Mike was in the beginning stages of development. She played a crucial role in our success. She is a big fan of burlesque and has been to my shows. I love that!

Originally we were thinking to paint the ceiling white. After our friend scraped off the old paint on the original tin ceiling, we gotta look at what the original tin looked like, and it was glorious, even with the patina of the eggshell paint over top the tin, allowing the original gorgeous, almost holographic tin with rainbow striations peeking through the old paint was really inspiring. It felt more true to the building to leave it like that so we’re having him Cover it with a clear polyurethane. We decided to go with the patina. The walls will all be stark white. The first installation is going to be superstars of the 70s, I’m really excited about this one! I will get to feature the costumes of my Burlesque mother Tempest storm as well as other amazing artists like Marinka, Lorraine Gail Smith, Hedy Jo Star and a truly inspired, vintage Fredericks of Hollywood collection. I know some of you have already purchased the book on Marinka that I posted. I think it would be a really fun thing to start up Burlesque book club where we can meet online and discuss the book we’re currently reading. Thoughts? Would anybody be interested in this idea?