How it all began…

On January 1st a family friend of ours handed me a bag of his coffee beans that he roasts out of his garage at home.

"Would you ever roast for me if I opened up a coffee shop?" I knew he wasn't really interested in scaling up his roasting- he's retired and still incredibly busy helping out others, but the question just bubbled up out of me.

Little out of left field for a Sunday chat after church, but it felt relevant given the fresh coffee I was holding, and maybe it had something to do with the first of the year? Dreaming out loud and all that.

"I really have wanted to open up a coffee shop on Main St. in Whitestown in an old house, that has space for my photography business also. I just haven't been able to find a place."

He just stared at me for a minute and smiled. He asked me how serious I was- which was fair- and I told him I was super serious. This has been a dream of mine for the 8 years I've lived here in Indiana but the timing has never been right. I was having and raising babies most of those years and working my photography business in the nooks & crannies of my time.

He told me he might know of a place but needed to talk to the person first. Unbelievable to leave me hanging like that! I told him to tell me as soon as he could and we went our separate ways.

Later that week we connected and he told me about the property at 607 S. Main St. that his son Mario owned. Mario was getting it ready to rent out as a residential property but they had both commented previously about what a great coffee shop the house would make.

Eeeep!

He told me right away it was a very slim chance but invited me to go look at it. It's a few minute drive from my house and I was over there as quickly as possible.

I've never been one to do things the easy way so it's not surprising I'd find a location for the coffee shop as a first step.

I knew immediately upon arriving at the house that it was what I was looking for and more.

607 S. Main St.

How was I just seeing it for the first time when I lived minutes away? Not only was it beautiful- but the possibilities were just endless. "It's perfect," I told my husband.

Those are scary words aren't they? With them comes so much risk of getting hurt or disappointed. And, of course, perfection is not reality.

I could see it all unfolding there. My desire to own a space that offered hospitality to my community, where I could curate beauty, make space for conversations, and provide what I would argue is the best beverage around—coffee.

With only a thousand obstacles in the way and endless things to learn about running a brick and mortar, I had found my spot. Cloud nine had my name written all over it.

The property owner, Mario, is the son of some friends of ours. He met me at the house and we talked more about his vision for the property and what it would entail if we wanted to go about turning the space into a coffee shop.

In the eight years previously, I had pursued various locations on Main St. for this coffee shop dream, but none ever gained traction. The landlord wouldn't respond, or the property would get picked up by someone else, or the timing wasn't right.

With more questions than answers, we decided to both think about it and start taking next steps. I left feeling so fortunate to not only have found such an awesome location but to have found a landlord that caught the vision. It just all felt very fragile, too. Like it could slip away before I even had it.

First up, I needed to get in touch with our town and figure out what needed to be done to convert an old home into a business. I anticipated the onramp here being much shorter than it really was, because getting my very risk-averse husband to be all-in on this dream was actually the easy part.