A Tale of Two C&Cs

It's that time of week again, boys and girls, and today we're going to deep dive into the renovation process for our Camden branch. This is the tale of my summer of renovation with Cleaners & Coffee, one of my sweatiest, most rewarding experiences to date. I pretty much spent all summer with paint on my hands, and just when I'd finally managed to scrub it off, it was back into the thick of it.

First, a bit of background information-- we got the keys to 84A Camden Rd on June 11, 2024. Has was in Sardinia (what a slacker). Keep scrolling to see how it looked when we got the keys, the long, sweaty renovation process, and how we got it ready for our official shop opening 78 days later.

The Brainstorm

Before we took over the lease, the place was a barber, so our first order of business was to clean out all the hair and stubble bits (oh my god they were everywhere) and to plan the layout for our new shop.

Here's a few snaps from before we did anything to the place (the gold paint had to go...)

Once we finally had access to the place, it was time for the real work to begin-- I had to go on holiday! Croatia was beautiful, thanks for asking ;)

While I was away sunburning and in a constant state of dehydration, Has did the most fun parts alone, something I still haven't forgiven him for.

Operation Blank Canvas

Next on the docket, we had to plaster the walls and prep the shop for a complete makeover. It was at this point in the process we snapped the iconic pic of Has and Kaz that graces our house blend espresso.

Paint the Day Away

After we had our blank canvas primed and ready, Has and I started the grueling process of painting the shop from floor to ceiling (literally). Except we started with the ceiling.

Fun fact: I tried to prank Has by pretending to have fallen off the ladder, laying "unconscious" on the ground when he came back from a quick trip to the other shop. Instead of seeing the ladder toppled over, and me motionless on the ground, he didn't have his glasses on-- so he didn't see anything. When I eventually moved, out of concern that he was in shock from thinking I was dead, he finally noticed I was there.

The following is a brief snippet from the four minute long video I took trying to get his reaction, which was ultimately pointless.

ANYHOO, each coat had to be completed in small sections, because the concrete effect paint needed to be troweled before it dried.

That explains some of the more precarious ladder positions Has found himself in, all for the love of the trowel. It also explains my ingenious coffee cup paint holder for when I had to get the tricky spots in the high corners.

Although they're great for flat whites, our cups don't hold up terribly well with repeated use as paint cans.

Three coats later, we'd finally finished what I thought was the hard part, but we'd only just begun. My sweaty renovation summer was just getting started.

I'd never forgive myself if I didn't mention one of the bright spots of my summer, when Has tried to bring 9 incredibly full orange juices back to the shop for everyone. I got mine, it was lovely, but he fumbled the last 8 all over the driver's seat. Iconic.

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Carpentry and Electrical Work: Adult Legos

When we say everything in our shop is hand-built by us, that's not even an exaggeration. I used to think Has must be stretching the truth just a little bit when he said that about Crowndale, but I can vouch that every light fixture, clothes rail, and bar top in this shop was hand assembled by either me, Has, or Kaz.

Once we'd assembled and painted the dry cleaning desk and espresso bar, Kaz and I got to work on rewiring some of the lights-- I still can't say exactly what we did, but I know he showed me which pieces needed swapping out and reconnecting on each base, after which I just repeated the process.

When you have someone as handy as Kaz who can explain exactly what needs to happen, electrical work really is just adult lego. And I think we can all tell that I was a lego kid.

Once the lighting was rewired, I was given the joyously tedious task of painting all of the fixtures black to match the ceiling. I finished that job and moved straight into staining the countertops, although the real difficulty was in not staining the floor/myself in the process.

FINAL TOUCHES

By mid-August, we were in the final stages of prep. I didn't realize how long it would take to stock the shop up--it seems like every trip we made to stock cups and equipment, we remembered something new that needed doing.

Has wanted the shutters to have a clean look, so after having some fun with it, we painted the entire shutter black. Has told his dad we would only need two cans--- we ended up using like 9. I said to him after we left for the day, we've just created the perfect blank canvas for every tagger in Camden. And boy, we really did :/

After hanging the last few bits on the walls, touching up the paint, and stocking up, we were ready to open Cleaners & Coffee #2. Here's a bonus video of Has trying to peel the vinyl off and not realizing how hard it would be:

As to what the actual experience of opening the shop was like, that's a story for another day, although spoiler: it was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life.