We taped, we painted, we unbolted and then re-assembled new tabletops, we ate so much spicy crispy chicken and drank coffee like it was water, we made Pinterest worthy accent decor at midnight, we laughed, we freaked out, we said “Oh my gosh, how will we finish it all?”, we left at 11 pm and were there at 8 am the next morning, we came in despite feeling sick, we stayed up til 4:30 am painting koi after koi after koi, we freaked out a little more, we marveled at a gorgeous handmade table that was so heavy it took everyone and hand to move, we resignedly laughed as one box of orange bar stools ended up being pink (of course!), and we got it all done in one weekend. We truly gave Kikku Japanese Food a Restaurant Makeover.
But how did we do it?
With lots of elbow grease and volunteers, that’s how! Here are a few (billion) photos from this weekend
Our new events coordinator, Jennifer, gets hands-on right away in her first week on the job! Welcome aboard!Downtown Dot isn’t so great at taping or painting, but our amazing intern Tatevik is good enough for both of them.Did we mention that we had to tape a lot?A lot.Seriously, the taping was endless.But finally we got all of those individual window panes taped off and were able to begin painting! Angela means business!Silvia got to do the first bold strokes of orange.Angela (The other Angela!) worked on some of the smaller details on the pillars and panels.Kelsey begins marking each table base as we prepare to add new tabletops.We never know if Matt is really working or just cracking bad jokes. The photo leads us to believe both.Important discussions between Angela and Albert about that wall.Kim’s kids Cary and Mollie got in on the action and made sure that the wall was completely covered in orange paint. And by the end of the morning, they were also completely covered in orange paint.Rocio is so good she can talk on the phone and paint at the same time.Mollie, showing off how gorgeous the orange wall is gonna be for everyone’s selfies.Silvia, handling the little details.Kim’s hands were just that messy. Rocio had to dip hers in the paint bucket to keep up.Andri securing the plastic to the windows. Tape for days.Angela and Angela, the dream team.Silvia, showing off her ruined paintbrush! We laughed so hard at it!Go teak Kikku!
Here are a few of the photos Silvia got of the various folks who worked on the project:
Thank you to all of the volunteers who joined us, alongside our staff, the Kikku staff, and our AMAZING sponsors- many of whom got their hands dirty in the name of redevelopment! Yippee!
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