Fresh baked, all natural dog treats ready to go! That's a Beefy Hearts and People Pops in the picture.

Almost there, folks! We’ve been working our tails off getting the shelves stocked, store decorated, and all the goodies baked. It looks like all of our baking equipment won’t be here in time for the opening. So we’ve decided to bake everything at our sister store, Bone Appetit, for all the initial batches. Our counter tops are being polished as we speak and will hopefully be installed today or Monday. We’re also waiting on a few crucial display fixtures to arrive. Those few things are going to keep us from opening on December 1st. It does feel good to have something that finally resembles a store!

A sneak peek!

Barring unforseen circumstances, we’re expecting a “soft opening” mid to late next week. That just means we aren’t yet ready to do a full on Grand Opening just yet. We will definitely be open in December, so save your pet gift purchases until then!

A doggie heaven awaits beyond that brown paper...

Even though we won’t be 100% and we’ll still be figuring some things out, we’d love it if you’d stop by and say hello. I’ll be the tall guy pecking at the cash register with its user’s manual in my hand.

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The Baker's Dog Toilet! Click for a larger version. Go on. I know you want to.

WE HAVE WATER! HUZZAH! If you’ve been following our updates, you’ll know we’ve been trying to get running water in the store for several months now. A plumber showed up this week and literally had everything working within 20 minutes. It seems like such a small thing. But without water, it has been difficult to do the construction and cleaning that needed to be done. Not to mention actually making dog treats and, uh, answering nature’s calls.

It seems a lot of things have clicked into place this week. I installed cabinets and counter tops in the baking area. We finally figured out our front counter layout and I got the cabinets for that as well. We finished out the bathroom as much as we plan to for the time being (Need bathroom vent fan installation pointers? Just ask!). The Fire Inspector stopped by since we applied for our business license. We’re not quite ready for him just yet but I asked for his initial thoughts and it sounds like that’s going to be simple to deal with.

Perhaps my proudest moment this week was when I got tired of pricing out $300 office partition walls. I decided to make my own for about $100. It is the exact dimensions I wanted and blends in quite nicely if I do say so myself. My workstation and the big printer sit behind it so the public doesn’t have to see my messy desk and wires. Can you see them?

View from the front. Almost there!

View from the baking area. I haven't finished the side wall of the partition yet.

Save a couple of displays and maybe a table or two, I think all of our large fixture and furniture purchases are done. Now it’s all about the finish work and details. Tracy is literally sitting inside the bakery case cleaning it as I write this. Thanks to her, I have no doubt that our dog bakery will be more meticulously cleaned and maintained than most people bakeries!

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I think he's rolling his eyes about us still not having water service at the store yet!

Well folks, I definitely feel like we’re over the hump on progress. This week we bought and installed freezers and a couple of counters. We’re still waiting on our mixer and dough press to be shipped from Michigan. Once those are here, we’ll get the electrician to wire it all up and we’ll be ready to cook! In the meantime, we need to make the final decisions on how our front counter and bulk treat area needs to be built. I also have some “nerd work” to do in tuning the photo labels’ layout and getting that darn online store up and running!

View from the front retail area

Fancy pants ovens and freezers

View from the back door

Besides that, the only other big thing left to do is all of the little things left to do. I’m not sure we’ll be fully operational by “Black Friday“, but we’ll definitely be open for this holiday shopping season!