Green Bean Coffeehouse Seattle

We are OPEN!

2010-07-16T16:13:00.000-07:00

It was a full day of coffee, food, smiling faces, news cameras and lots of goodness! Make sure you come by and say hi!

Baker Bob is Baking...

2010-07-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

The refrigerators are full of groceries, the oven is on and baker Bob is in the kitchen cooking up a storm for the day we have all been waiting for, opening day in our new location! We are delighted to let you know that in just 2 days, on Friday, July 16th the Bean will be opening it's doors once again! We won't be doing a big Grand Opening bash until a little bit later (maybe the following weekend) but we do hope you'll stop by for a cup of coffee or a piece of delicious quiche. We think you'll be happy you did.

Grand Re-Opening Delayed...Again

2010-07-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

Ok,
We are excited. We cannot wait to open our space to you all, serve you a mean cup-a-joe, and sit across one of our many tables and share a conversation. Can. Not. Wait.

However, in our excitement, we have probably been a wee-bit-over-optimistic. So it is with what I hope is a healthy does of realism (but no less excitement) that we have to say...

We are NOT having the Re-Opening gala or the art auction this Friday (July 9th), and we are NOT opening this Saturday (July 10th).

We are deeply sorry to have sent out conflicting messages about our opening, and hope that you can understand we're doing all we can to open as quickly as possible.

So stay tuned...

- The Green Bean Team

the Greenwood Car Show

2010-06-28T22:52:00.000-07:00

We had a GREAT time at the Greenwood Car show on Saturday. The new space is almost ready and looks absolutely fabulous. It is just incredible the work that has gone into transforming the space – we have had many dedicated volunteers and workers without whom none of this would have happened!

A couple of highlights from the day of the car show:

- Several dedicated and talented face-painters

- Incredible pastries thanks to Ali and Bob

- SUNSHINE!!

- First showing of our patio furniture – woo hoo!

- A chance to talk to passersby about the Green Bean, our excitement for it, for the neighborhood and our overall vision for building community in Greenwood

- Hot, fresh-brewed samples of our coffee, thanks to Romeo’s

- did I mention a gorgeous day with tons and tons of people?

- and so many more…

Overall, it was a great day of connecting with people, giving tours of the new space and getting to tell more people about the Green Bean. We are so excited and honored to be a part of such a wonderful community.

Don’t forget – we open JULY 10^th! Grand Opening reception is on July 9^th, 7-8pm.

Facepainting, talking, eating galore. and check out those gorgeous flowers!

The Green Bean!

The patio in the distance...surrounded by the beautiful sight of many strollers. So
much fun to have so many kids around!

So many people!

The Final Push

2010-06-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

We’re in the final stretch to get the Bean open in its new location! Things are starting to come together but now is a critical time to have volunteers helping. John has LOTS of small projects that will be show stoppers if they don’t get done…and then we also have a myriad of more aesthetic projects we need help on as well. So whether you have the skills to construct...or clean, are creative or not, WE NEED YOU! If you have even an hour or two you can offer between now and Jul 10 please sign up…obviously we’d love to have helpers sooner if possible.

John is requesting that people sign up on the online calendar again (it has been updated with new dates) so he knows who to expect and when. This is so he can be prepared with proper supplies on hand for the projects you’ll be doing. To sign up click the Volunteer Coordination Sheet at the top of this blog. Please just be sure there aren’t already more than 3 people planning to be there at the same time.

Some examples of projects yet to be done
- Entire interior dusted, ceiling to floors
- Entire space mopped (multiple times)
- All insulation put back in ceiling and tiles replaced
- Touchup paint on all painted surfaces
- Handicap rail installed in men’s’ restroom
- Remaining furniture painted
- Framing and buildout of storage closet in meeting room
- East wall of meeting room drywalled, taped and painted
- Multiple signs to be hand-lettered and painted (restroom signs, parking signs, hours of operation, etc)

Onward and Upward!

2010-06-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hello friends!

Everyday the Green Bean becomes more and more alive!

A few updates....

We are no longer in the Sip & Ship. You will just have to wait a little while longer for another Cowboy Cookie or delicious latte! We are focusing on the new space and it is coming together beautifully! The Sip & Ship is still doing coffee, so go on over, extend a hand of thanks and grab a Father's Day card!
The floors have been trenched, plumbing is in and cement will be poured on Friday and then the coffee bar will be built. You can see those great holes in the ground next to our resident sweep-and-keep-the-construction-site-clean man Keith!

The counter's are being built with a wonderful new bar to sit at!

We have some colorful and comfortable new chairs for the outside that got tested out in our warm sun!

If you were in the neighborhood in the last three days you would have seen large groups of high schoolers making the exterior look quite a bit different. We could not thank the wonderful choir group of Hyde Park Baptist Church enough! A few of the things they accomplished while they were here:

Rip out all the weeds and build a barrier out of old McDonald's trash cans with their super strong muscles!

And.... PAINT THE BUILDING!!!! The last two days we said "HELLO, Greenwood! We have arrived!" It will soon be muraled, so keep your eyes peeled!

PERMITS!!!!!

2010-06-04T18:43:00.000-07:00

we have them!!!! permits, that is...

Now, its GO TIME!

Our goal is to be open by the Greenwood Car Show which is Saturday, June 26th. With the permits coming in later than planned, we are now doing this Extreme Home Makeover style and we NEED YOUR HELP! All hands are welcome, needed and will be utilized.

Check out our Volunteer Work Schedule, sign up and show up. You will be greeted with smiles, coffee and gloves!

Here are a few things we still need:

We still need two leather couches, preferably in red or chocolate brown and a modern style. Here is an example of what we hope for!

We would love to have outdoor seating for when we open. Ideally, we would like adirondak chairs and picnic tables.

We may end up purchasing these, but if you have one or know where to find one for a good price, send a picture or website link to Emily at

help@greenbeancoffee.org.

Rebuild Finance Report as of 5/30

2010-06-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

Rebuild Finance Report as of 5/30
Account	Actual	Budget
010 Tear Out	$ 948.54	$ 5,000.00
020 Electrical	$ 128.77	$15,000.00
030 Plumbing	$ 6.10	$ 5,000.00
040 Flooring	$ 84.57	$ 250.00
050 Heating	$ -	$ 2,500.00
060 Coffee Bar Build-Out	$ 4,946.64	$25,000.00
070 Paid Day Labor	$ 3,316.42	$ 7,500.00
080 Tools & Safety Equipment	$ 2,215.94	$ 5,000.00

110 Furniture & Decor	$ -	$ 1,500.00
120 Espresso/Kitchen Equipment	$ 19,668.88	$25,000.00
130 Office Supplies	$ -	$ -
140 Computer Equipment	$ 2,130.87	$ 5,000.00

200 Losses in Sip & Ship	$ 4,000.00	$ -
TOTAL	$ 37,446.73	$96,750.00
Budget Remaining	$ 59,303.27
Cash On Hand	$ 41,558.26
Overage/Shortfall	$(17,745.01)

Rebuild Finance Report as of 5/23

2010-05-26T17:18:00.000-07:00

Rebuild Finance Report as of 5/23
Account	Actual	Budget
010 Tear Out	$ 948.54	$ 5,000.00
020 Electrical	$ 128.77	$15,000.00
030 Plumbing	$ 6.10	$ 5,000.00
040 Flooring	$ 84.57	$ 250.00
050 Heating	$ -	$ 2,500.00
060 Coffee Bar Build-Out	$ 4,946.64	$25,000.00
070 Paid Day Labor	$ 2,148.23	$ 7,500.00
080 Tools & Safety Equipment	$ 2,215.94	$ 5,000.00

110 Furniture& Decor	$ -	$ 1,500.00
120 Espresso/Kitchen Equipment	$ 12,004.99	$25,000.00
130 Office Supplies	$ -	$ -
140 Computer Equipment	$ 2,130.87	$ 5,000.00
TOTAL	$ 24,614.65	$96,750.00
Budget Remaining	$ 72,135.35
Cash On Hand	$ 54,036.87
Overage/Shortfall	$(18,098.48)

Dreaming Big

2010-05-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

We're dreaming big as we look to the future in our new bigger home. We feel like what the Bean does well is welcome and respect individuals from all walks of life and so we hope to do that even better and with a greater level of intentionality in the future. We also realize that it's not just our staff that cares for our customers this way...it's customers caring for customers. We love that. And we hope to see this epidemic of people loving people continue to grow too.

If you'd like to read a bit more about some of the specific ideas we have and the ways you can help, check out the hours/events page of our website...and then let us know what you think!

Still Waiting...

2010-05-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hi friends, sorry we haven't been posting updates the last few weeks but the truth is there hasn't been much new to report because we're still waiting on the permits from the City of Seattle. Please say a prayer that they approve our application this week. If they don't we are going to have to start considering pushing our open date in the new space back into July. We really don't want to have to do that!

We aren't completely sitting around twiddling our thumbs though. We continue to love seeing you all when you come in for coffee or a treat. PLEASE come see us! We're also enjoying training a whole batch of new volunteers to help out behind the counter in our new space. So if you see new faces behind the counter be sure to say hi. AND, we've been having fun conversations with a variety of you who are interested in hosting events, classes, live music, etc in the new space. We are thrilled to pieces to be dreaming together with our friends and neighbors!

Hopefully tomorrow...

2010-05-13T19:23:00.001-07:00

Cindy Black, the wonderful architect who has helped us submit our plans to the City for permitting sent us a link today to the city website where we can track the status of our permits...A couple of the required reviewers have done their reviews and APPROVED our application. 3 out of 7 are still undone. However, the website indicated that at least 2 of the reviews are scheduled to be completed tomorrow! So keep your fingers crossed or say a prayer that they DO complete their reviews tomorrow and that we pass!

On a different note, here's another picture of the cabinets taking shape...or rather, sunning themselves in John Eidson's backyard!

5/9 Finance Update

2010-05-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

Rebuild Finance Report as of 5/9
Account	Actual	Budget
010 Tear Out	$ 948.54	$ 5,000.00
020 Electrical	$ 128.77	$15,000.00
030 Plumbing	$ 6.10	$ 5,000.00
040 Flooring	$ 84.57	$ 250.00
050 Heating	$ -	$ 2,500.00
060 Coffee Bar Build-Out	$ 3,524.51	$25,000.00
070 Paid Day Labor	$ 1,272.08	$ 7,500.00
080 Tools & Safety Equipment	$ 2,215.94	$ 5,000.00

110 Furniture& Decor	$ 1,422.13	$ 1,500.00
120 Espresso/Kitchen Equipment	$ 10,480.00	$25,000.00
130 Office Supplies	$ -	$ -
140 Computer Equipment	$ 2,130.87	$ 5,000.00
TOTAL	$ 22,213.51	$96,750.00
Budget Remaining	$ 74,536.49
Cash On Hand	$ 56,446.02

Cabinet's Taking Shape

2010-05-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

Don't think that just because you aren't seeing changes happening inside the new space this week that nothing is happening! John is diligently working on building our new cabinets at home in his workshop. Here are a couple pictures...

Still Waiting...

2010-05-11T09:51:00.000-07:00

No word yet from the city on the building permits and so we continue to learn patience! In the meantime we have begun training a new bunch of volunteers who are excited to jump into life at the Greenbean when we move. We have about 15 people, including a big group from Greenwood Christian Church at an orientation meeting last Thursday night and we're just thrilled to look forward to all these new people helping to love Greenwood with us! Thanks to everyone who came!

We also continue to dream about the various ways our new space will be used. We are really hoping to have ESL classes there, Open Mic nights, Live Music and as many community classes and events as we have volunteers to run them. What are you good at? What are you passionate about? We'd love to talk with you about ways that you could share those gifts and passions with Greenwood! Maybe you're a nurse and would enjoy teaching a community health class. Or perhaps you are a pro at knitting and would like to teach a basic knitting class. Email manager@greenbeancofffee.org if you'd like to volunteer yourself as a teacher/facilitor!

New Target Open Date, Saturday June 26

2010-05-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd let you all know that John and I (Summer) sat down today and put our heads together while looking at a calendar and think we've determined a realistic goal for opening in the new space...it's not Memorial Day anymore (the wait time for the permits combined with a couple planned vacations) has led us to set the target Grand Opening Date at Saturday, June 26th. Our hope is to do a big reception on the evening of Friday, June 25th in the space which will include a silent auction of donated art pieces to raise money to complete the buildout of the meeting rooms at the back of the space. We hope you'll mark your calendars and plan to be around that weekend to celebrate with us!

On other fronts, we are still waiting to hear about permits from the city but John is at home diligently building all of the counters in pieces so they're ready to bring in as soon as we're allowed. He thinks that once we have the go ahead to start work again that we can be done with the buildout in 3 weeks. So stay tuned for word. We'll send out a newsletter and update the blog as soon as we need volunteers again!

5/6 Finance Report

2010-05-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,
It's been a while since my last report, and I've found a format which might be more informative, so here goes.

Rebuild Finance Report as of 5/6

Account	Actual	Budget
010 Tear Out	$ 948.54	$ 5,000.00
020 Electrical	$ -	$15,000.00
030 Plumbing	$ 6.10	$ 5,000.00
040 Flooring	$ 84.57	$ 250.00
050 Heating	$ -	$ 2,500.00
060 Coffee Bar Build-Out	$ 2,310.78	$25,000.00
070 Paid Day Labor	$ 1,272.08	$ 7,500.00
080 Tools & Safety Equipment	$ 1,917.78	$ 5,000.00

110 Furniture& Decor	$ 1,422.13	$ 1,500.00
120 Espresso/Kitchen Equipment	$12,610.87	$25,000.00
130 Office Supplies	$ -	$ -
140 Computer Equipment	$ 2,130.87	$ 5,000.00
TOTAL	$22,703.72	$96,750.00
Budget Remaining	$74,046.28
Cash On Hand	$58,082.30

Thanks to Cindy our Architect!

2010-04-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

If you see Cindy Black, the Beans resident architect extraordinaire give her a big hug and HUGE THANK YOU. Cindy has put in a LOT of time in the last days and weeks drafting and then refining drawings of our building plans and helping us to mesh our dreams with reality and the city of Seattle's various and sundry codes and regulations. All this hard work culminated in a meeting at 8am this morning with the city to apply for our building and health department permits...the good news is that they accepted our application...the bad news is that they told her it would be 2-3 weeks before we'd be hearing back from them. SO, that means 2-3 more weeks before we can really start building out the coffee bar area of the store.

Never fear though, our fearless manager John Eidson still has a lot of projects for helping hands to do...painting furniture and cleaning to name 2 of them...but be sure to email him at jjeidson@gmail.com to confirm that he'll be at the site when you want to work. He's been working 6 days a week for the last several weeks and so he might be taking a few days off as we await the permits.

A couple highlights from the week:

We now have ALL of our equipment with the exception of our espresso machine, 1 grinder, our cooled pastry case and a toaster! Yeah! If you have time next week and would be interested in driving to Kelso to pick up a couple of these items please let Summer know by emailing manager@greenbeancoffee.org
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church donated a 14ft long pew which is going to become lovely seating for folks with laptops
Ozzy scrubbed out the far back cooler which was the last untouched McDonald's holdout....the space is now 'gross-free' thanks to his hard work!
Nathan Marion from Fremont Abby and Blue Tree walked through the space to offer his wisdom as a consultant who's helped create similar spaces in the past...with a specific eye for how to make the Bean an appealing venue for the arts
Rebecca Miller, Laura Watrous and Jane Warner met to continue dreaming for our future kid's corner...and Jasmine Underland is dreaming about starting a MOPS groups...get ready families!

clean and painted

2010-04-27T21:56:00.001-07:00

The blue walls and a few of our bar stools - it's looking more and more like
the Green Bean everyday. Woo hoo! and so clean...

Go green!

Chairs that were a surprise buy at the
restaurant liquidation sale.

Refrigerators and more... so exciting.

Painting!

2010-04-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

The beginning of a full day of painting. Go Allison! The space had previously been
pressure-washed - that really changed how everything looked. You can't even
tell that there ever was grease on the walls. Even the bathrooms got cleaned -
thanks to everybody who has been spending time there!

Repatching ceiling tiles - now it's all painted and looks great.

John in his space suit spray-painting the ceiling. :)

Colors, Refrigerators and Furniture!

2010-04-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

You wouldn't believe the progess that's been made in the new space in this last week! Here are some highlights:

All the holes in the floor from the old McD's furniture were patched by Ozzy and Jesse
The walls were prepped for paint by Sarah
On Wednesday Emily from SPACE interior design in Greenwood did a complimentary color consult and helped us pick out beautiful, bright, Greenbeanish colors for the walls
The ENTIRE interior was painted on Friday by a huge group of you....THANKS
We made a trip to Portland on Friday to purchase fridges, soup warmers, shelving and more...and scored 2 orange wingback chairs for FREE!
Saturday the back wall of the kitchen was constructed with help from Cole and Ben so you can now see where the kitchen, seating area and back rooms will be
Donations are beginning to come in...children's books, adult books, a piano bench, 2 rugs, a router, mirror for the men's room....yeah! Thanks SO MUCH for all of your generosity!

What's next? We're beginning to collect donations this week, and setting up the shop to begin painting furniture...and we're awaiting word that our building permit has gone through so we can begin work on the actual kitchen area. So we still need helpers...but can now use folks interested in redoing furniture in addition to construction!

The Joys of Community!

2010-04-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

Highlights from Yesterday:

Steve, one of our regulars at the Bean popped into the new space and thinks he might be able to put to good use the room sized walk in cooler, the ONE piece of equipment that hasn't been taken away yet!
Another regular, Chris, stopped in and offered to wash all the windows when it's time
We're having GREAT responses in our efforts to locate artists to help paint whimsical vines on the outside of the building! Now to get in touch with them all!
Yet another customer overheard us talking about paint samples 2 days ago and gave us the info for a local interior designer who's coming in today to do a FREE color consult! Emily Lauderback from Space, a Greenwood interior design Collective...check her out!
And finally, our children's corner has it's first donation of books from Mark who's kids practically grew up in the Greenbean. Thanks Mark!

What an amazing community project!

Green Bean Wish Lists

2010-04-19T17:16:00.000-07:00

We've had a lot of you asking how you can help and what we need....so we've put together 2 wishlists. If you have furniture/decorative things/etc you'd like to donate look at the first list. If you'd like to help purchase some of our espresso or baking equipment look at the 2nd link

Greenbean Wish List
Espresso & Baking Equipment Wish List

Thanks so much for contributing to the re-beginnings of this beautiful space!

Every Bit Helps!

2010-04-19T17:02:00.000-07:00

253 volunteer hours logged in the first week of construction! Hoorah! So much has been done but we still have a lot to do. So if demo scared you, now's the time to stop by for just an hour or two and have John set you to work on one of many smaller tasks. Here are a few things we need done this week:

patch the floors with tiles where we removed chairs and partial walls
cut bolts off in outdoor seating area where the McDonalds playland used to be
repair ceiling
PAINT!

We are hoping to begin painting the interior of the space this Friday and Saturday! Come join us for a painting party extraordaire!

Cleaning up

2010-04-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

Silas, Joe and Ozy hard at work cleaning up the outside. That rubber proved to be far heavier and more difficult to move than we expected! A few wheelbarrow mishaps and bush collisions later, though, it was cleared! It's going to look great! (and already does).

Cole and Jesse fixing the ceiling tiles - spray painting is next.

Ewww....

2010-04-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

By now, nothing we find in this space should surprise us. Here is Ozzie, scraping grease off the wall. This is in addition to the many french fries we have found, rotting in the back cooler, on the floor and floating in vats of oil. Wow.

It is coming along...

2010-04-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

John and Jesse removing one of the hoods - it's always a surprise what you find!

All the tables from the McDonald's - now they're all gone! Thanks the scrap metal guy.

John trying to pry out a fryer.

Jesse disassembling another stove.

See all that equipment? It is now GONE! Good job everyone.

Finance Update

2010-04-14T17:58:00.000-07:00

I'll be posting weekly updates on rebuilding expenses. As of 4/13/10, we've spent $742.93 on supplies and equipment for the demolition and excavation of the old McDonald's interior. Our balance in the rebuilding fund is $78,446.33. We're still hoping to raise another $20,000 to complete the project. I'll keep you all posted as we receive additional donations.

Removing deep fryer vent

2010-04-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

John cutting out the deep fryer vent. Whew.

Work is moving fast, stop by and see

2010-04-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

Whew! As you can see/read - work is moving fast! Having so many volunteers is SO helpful - thank you. Last night, some guys came to take out the fire suppressor above all the stoves and fryers and they had to get at the gas line for a certain part. Right as they were starting to access it, something started hissing. It took ten minutes and someone jumping over an 8 foot high fence to get the leak to stop - by that time the whole of Greenwood smelled like gas. whoops. Guess those are the kind of things that happen when your re-modeling an old McDonalds! Overall, things are going off without a hitch. Just today we got rid of all of the tables and chairs - yeah!

Come on by and say hi or stay awhile and help out - we'd love to see you!

100 volunteer hours already

2010-04-14T08:52:00.001-07:00

If you haven't been by the new space in awhile, stop by because you'll hardly recognize it! All of the McDonalds furniture is out, all the half walls that divided the space are gone, and most of the old kitchen equipment is gone! We've had over 100 volunteer hours already put in and the space is looking great.

Today:
- some guys with a front loader are coming to drag away the large concrete barriers that are blocking the drive through
- a metal recycler is coming to take away the remainder of the metal kitchen 'stuff'
- Romios pizza is donating lunch to all the volunteers!

Haven't signed up to help? Now's your chance...click here!

Demo begins

2010-04-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

Jessie working hard to remove the chairs/table.

The rebuild has begun! Thursday was the first day, filled with tearing out, knocking down - good stress-relieving activities. The focus was initially to see what we had to work with - seeing how the walls were constructed, what is behind the beautiful tapestry-like boards lining the cinder-block walls, etc... You get the picture. Friday was full of removing the chairs and tables (a difficult job as they are bolted into the floor) and opening up to several people from local restaurants coming through to survey and take the equipment we are not keeping. Hard work is also being put into conserving and recycling as much of our waste as possible.

Friday was also spent trying to get ready for volunteers to start coming and putting they're wonderful hands to work in the space come Monday. We would LOVE to see you - whenever, for however long you are available. One hour, two hours, half a day - please come. It would be great to see you and work alongside you. Thanks for checking in - more updates to come.

Click here to be taken to the google spreadsheet where you can sign up to come in and help:

Lease signed

2010-04-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

We signed the Lease for the McDonalds space. Expect construction to begin in the coming week! We're planning on mainly a volunteer basis for doing the remodeling and our contractor John Eidson assures us that if you are willing to work but don't know what to do he can use your skills. Just check the Volunteer sheet and sign up for a day and time so that we don't have more people than we can effectively use show up all at once.

Check here for the latest news

2010-03-16T16:35:00.001-07:00

My dream is that this blog tool can serve to allow people to write encouraging stories of volunteering at the Bean and also be a link to the coordination spreadsheet. John can update the page now and again with money spent to date and a description of the coming weeks plans for build out.