Winding Down

More steps towards closing down my business.

Yesterday Doug went pressing one last time, then started taking the heavy duty wiring apart in preparation for disassembling Puff.  I will really miss the ease of hard pressing my textiles, but on the other hand, I used a small flat bed press for about 20 years before acquiring Puff, but with my new reduced production as a hobby weaver, I am really really glad I kept the small press.

Mine is an Elna, but Singer and other sewing machine makers like Pfaff are apparently making them.  They are more expensive than an iron, but press about 4 times as much area.

Today he will go back to the annex and continue to work on preparations to take Puff apart.  His helper is available tomorrow, he thinks, so a lot of what he does today will just make their work together tomorrow easier.

This morning I submitted the sales taxes - GST (federal) and PST (provincial).  That is the last time I will have to deal with collecting/remitting those.  My appointment with the accountant will help me close down those accounts so that both government agencies know my business is in fact shut down.

We have given the landlord notice that we will be out of the annex by the end of January.  Since I doubt he can find a new tenant to move in Feb. 1, we may ask for a week's extension if necessary, given the weather and the icy loading ramp which may make moving Puff out problematic.  But we have contacted someone with a self-loading flat deck and will have to work within their schedule as well.

I took yesterday 'off' from weaving, first having a long brunch with a friend.  She has been very busy so it was great to catch up on all that she has been doing.  Then I tackled my Dec. ledger, got that balanced, reconciled with my cheque book and with the filing of the taxes this morning am well prepared for my appointment with the accountant on the 16th.

We are nagging the landlord to cash the January rent cheque so I can close my business chequing account as soon as the last two cheques I wrote clear the account.

It took me years to build my business into what it was - taking 7 months to get it all shut down is not unexpected.  I'm just so tired of the constant juggling, rearranging, remembering more things that need to be dealt with.  My business telephone number will be closed on Jan. 11 so at least we won't have all the spam phone calls that line gets.  And no, I couldn't list my business number on the Do Not Call Registry - any business may call any other business.  So we just had to put up with it.  Since we rarely get any phone calls for us, the interruption to what we were doing to answer yet another spam call was annoying to say the least!

Doug has some more people to contact re: AVL parts and will work on those soon.  If you haven't heard from him, he's been a bit busy.  As soon as his list gets updated, I will post here just in case anyone else is interested in anything that is left.

Today I am going to ignore the looms and start clearing clutter out of the guest room, remove a pile of clutter from the living room floor to pile somewhere in the studio.  I fear that goat trails will begin to appear as we do the final push to move things out of the annex.  I just don't have the energy to start diving into boxes to see what is in them, stirring up decades of dust as I do.  (I'm allergic to dust, so every box sets off more sinus issues.)

There is one more set of shelves to be moved from the annex.  They couldn't be moved last week during the snowfall, and now the ramp to the annex loading dock is akin to a luge run.  Doug will try to back the truck up today so that he doesn't have to walk up the slippery slope.

Anyway, that is where we are and what we are dealing with.  Thanks for letting me vent...