More "after" photos

A few "finished" photos

Grand Opening

We invite you to come meet and mingle with us at our
Grand Opening Open House
Saturday November 14th, 6-8pm

During the reception:

All PureOlogy products are
BUY ONE GET ONE FREE

All Schwarzkopf Osis products are
BUY ONE GET ONE HALF OFF

Featuring art and acoustic sounds by local Artists
Complimentary wine and hors d’oeurves

The Origins of "Ori"

After whittling down our lists to two, we both agreed upon Salon Ori. This came off of AmberJean's list and is the nickname of her Grandfather, Oris Hegge. After researching the name, just in case it had derogatory meanings or could be taken as a culture sensitive word, we discovered that the word Ori represented us very well. The word itself is a positive cross-cultural reference.

Ori is a popular name in the Hebrew language. The name means "my light".

Yoruba is a dialect continuum of West Africa with over 25 million speakers. The native tongue of the approximately 28 million Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The Yoruba use Ori to refer symbolically to the spiritual being; that is the soul or the indiviual ego.

2...1...

We definitely ran out of time quickly. Salon Ori opens its doors today. We aren't at "pristine" status like we hoped, but hopefully our clients give us a little slack. We are functional, and it will be comfortable, just not the prettiest thing on the block.

Thank You!!!

Without all of you Salon Ori wouldn't have been possible. Thank You!!
To:
Our amazing significant others, Tony and Augie. Brad and Becky Hunt. David and Sheila Hegge. Aaron Johnson. Erick Hegge. Shawn Hunt. Ryan Hunt. Brett Hunt. Brandon Hunt. Brittany Hunt. Guillermo Martinez and family. Sara Gille. Danielle Mora. Rashi Saberwald. George Doyle. Don Boomsma. Ashley Ryan. Mary Wurzburger. Liz Nelson. Renee Wixon. Rada and Callie Espinoza. Eric and Jen Page. Ashley Wurzburger. Dan and Alicia Shoemake. James Barsness. Jesse La Point.

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3...

9

Our neighbor, Claire, from the Yoga studio stopped by with a cute quirky vase with a beautiful rose. It doesn't quit fit the salon decor yet.














Today we spent our time prepping and priming the front of the building. Sara came back for another try at helping out, dressed more appropriately this time.:) Luckily we were just priming cause the days seem to be getting shorter and we quickly ran out of sunlight to paint by.

10 days to go.

Our focus is on the ground, well on the floors. Sanding, filling, grouting oh my. We have discovered another one of those things that we will never do again. Refinishing hard wood floors. Although the photos don't show it, AmberJean's friend, Ashley, came and put in a good days work to put the finishing touches on the sanding job. Thank goodness, cause if AmberJean had to feel that vibration for another second.... well, let's just be thankful she didn't. Brad has just about accomplished all his ceramic tile duties. And he has claims to the best looking part of Salon Ori thus far. Next is getting the hardwood floor installer, Rada, in there to perfect the reception and processing areas.

The final countdown!

Life on Salon Ori

Slowly but surely Salon Ori's project list is getting crossed off. Demolishing was assisted by all hands available. Jen's family in-laws donated many for the occasion, as well as random friendly patrons here and there.

(Angel demolishing the bathroom)




(Veronica assisting with demolition)

Putting the pieces back together has been an enduring process. Jen's sister, Ashley, joined us for gardening and helped pretty up the front. AmberJean's friend Memo and family(including his 7 year old son and 3 year old daughter) came and blasted through the first coat of paint in most the rooms. AmberJean's friend, Rashi, joined in with clean-up.



(Ashley manning the ladder)

Without the men in our lives we would be nothing. Tony and Augie have been diligently slaving away on every project handed to them. With there help we have been able to just about finish all the framing and dry wall, contrive and implement an idea for the front curb appeal, control the industrial sanding machines, and everything in-between. AmberJean's Dad and Brother put in long hours on the technical bones of the building, while Tony's Dad has been rigorously installing ceramic floors. And Aaron, a friend on Jen and Tony, has been donating his time to install the beautiful trim throughout the building.(David working with the power tools)

the last month

We have completely slacked on the blogging detail. From this blog it looks as though we haven't done anything in a month. When in reality we have been working to serve Salon Ori just about every waking hour! We've had hordes of family and friend lending us their time and skills. And it's worth it. The place is finally starting to look like it could soon be a salon. Fitting the final pieces of the puzzle together this month is going to be a tad complicated, with Jen back to work and the boys back to school, and AmberJean slacking off as usual:). But we are confident that we'll have a functional salon for our October 1st opening date.

Demolition Day.

Salon Ori went from bad to worse yesterday. All in the name of getting better.

We started a to-do list, but unfortunately we weren't able to properly mark anything off. Just about everything on the list has been addressed, but nothing has been totally completed.

The boys got to have their fun. When the sledgehammer showed up, dreams of reckless destruction came over all. Tony and his brother, Shawn, were forced to hold back and use their small crowbars for their first project. Subsequently, Shawn never got the glory of half-hazard sledgehammer destruction. Augie and Tony prevailed and took out a few well worn walls.Shawn ready for work.

Tony and Shawn tearing out the floors.

Augie's sledgehammer project.

Tony using power tools.

More scraping was accomplished. Becky, Tony's mother, came and provided release from the monotony of hours full of paint removal. This project just may deter us from ever wanting to scrape anything again.

We feel very fortunate to have such a great network of friends and family willing to help us out! Without them, this project would be impossible!

Week One complete!

The first week of Salon Ori plugged along. Scraping is definitely a harder business than we all expected. We had high hopes of having a presentable store front by the end of week one, but instead things just look worse.



We were fortunate enough to have Danielle, AmberJean's friend from San Francisco, come and power through a section for us. This saved our sanity for the day. Of coarse it was suppose to be a bit of a vacation for her, instead she worked two days at the Salon. We did reward her with mandatory Pizza Luce.









Sara, or Gilletine (as she is known amongst friends) made a guest appearance as well. We had a hard time delegating work to someone dressed so nicely. However, she did manage to take down a few track lighting strips.

Work in Progress

Today was our first official day of working on the building. We are quickly discovering that things take longer than the movies make it seem. 30 second montages are so deceiving!


We set out to strip and paint the front of the building today. In the end, we stripped half the desired area and didn't even open a can of paint.



Augie joined us today, but he was keen on demolition, not scraping. He may have been slightly disappointed since the ceiling he was "tearing down" actually required careful removal in order to salvage the pieces to donate to the Re-Store. We will have to make sure to save the real demolition for him on another day.

Salon Ori

Salon Ori
Opens October 1st, 2009!
Located at:
1166 Selby Ave
Saint Paul, MN 55104
Keep posted for news and updates.