Revive Jennifer's Dream: A Quirky Thrift Store

My name is Jennifer, I am an Arizona native, worked and saved for years to try and accomplish my dream. I no longer work for anyone, not quite old enough to retire and was finally in a position to begin my journey opening my quirky secondhand store.

I saved $58,692.37 aside from my personal money by the time I stopped working so I could open a thrift store.

I like creating, refurbishing, fixing and remaking things that others do not want, do not have or do not know about. I have a greenhouse and love plants of all kinds, I have a vegetable garden an herb garden and flowers, vines and plants of so many different kinds. I love art and bright colors. I take items that people toss out and are headed for the landfill but really do not belong there because they are bad for the earth and will not break down in any good ways, like old bikes bar b ques metal chairs and many other items that I find in the desert or along the road where someone has decided that is there dumping sight. I turn these items into useful items again and resale them.

I turned an old BBQ into an herb garden an old bike into a planter/yard art, children's chairs into easter decor and so much more. I make and buy jewelry too

I also purchase products (mainly thrift or discounted items) to make glass and ceramic yard and garden art along with other arts, crafts, holiday decor and more.

Over the years people have become familiar with me and my "store" and I receive a fair amount of donations and have now transitioned to a temporary thrift store that is unique, quirky, fun and affordable for any budget.

I went from street fairs and farmers markets, to hauling and setting up on weekends at the swap meet and making enough after 6 months to finally rent a permanent building at the swap meet, so I am only open when they are what started at 3 days a week went down to 2 and the swap meet was bought out by a large corporation and is now drastically failing and struggling for business, and this rolls down on me, my next step would be a brick and mortar building open every day of the week and from there.....SUCCESS

Or so I thought, my husband has been in is house since the 1980's and he works in construction, he remodeled, rebuilt, fixed/repaired and replaced whatever was needed and did a fabulous job, never cut corners and always does things by code and gets permits when needed. His homeowners insurance always accepted his pics, receipts, and all was good for almost 38 years. Then one day out of the blue they said unless we had recently had a licensed contractor build a new roof, replace the electrical box that goes to the entire house, rebuild the front porch, upgrade our heating/furnace(we do not have a furnace) and cut down several trees that are taller than the house , but are not near the house and remove anything that is leaning against the house or is on the front porch, completely remove our stacked fire wood that is not near any structures and is cut and stacked neatly, the fire wood is for the woodstove that heats our home, we do not have a furnace or even a spot where one ever existed, which completely confused the insurance person causing them to just keep repeating themselves until we disconnected the call. WE cannot drop our homeowner's insurance; we can get another company to insure us but regardless we have to have insurance on our home, and we have an inground swimming pool, so insurance is a HAVE TO. I won't go into all the details but needless to say we used all but $1254.32 of my over $50,000.00 savings to have my thrift store on the home and re-insuring it with another company. I am so thankful we have our beautiful home, and it is properly insured, but my dream of leasing a brick and mortar has now become unreachable due to funding. I am ready to call it quits and go get some cheesy job and just exist. But my husband WILL NOT let me give up. That is when I thought, I have heard of Go Fund Me and am willing to give this a try. So here I am....

During my journey I have had SEVERAL financial setbacks after the insurance fiascos and each time I am ready to make a larger step I get knocked back again. My husband works full time at the job he has had for 38 years and was looking forward to retirement and running the store with me. During the first year that I stopped working and started my journey, my husband was told by his doctor that he needed surgery on his leg to help blood flow or he would lose his leg, by the end of the year he had 3 surgeries to put stints in his veins and arteries in his legs, we have very large deductibles and have to pay between $3,000 & $5,000 per surgery in full on the day of surgery and also have no income while my husband recovers, 2 to 3 months depending on where the stints were placed, so we are drastically depleting our savings and other things that were for retirement, By the time our deductible was met, the year ended, and we have to start all over again!! That doctor did 2 more surgeries the following year and there went another $7,200 that we pulled from our IRA. during this time the company that my husband worked for since it opened its doors sold out to a new person, so now our insurance has changed and is the worst EVER and here we go with a new deductible and another $2500 out of pocket on top of that and come to find out now my husband is told he should have never had that many stints and if his arteries in his legs aren't ruined he will need to have Teflon arteries put in and attached to his existing veins and will be out of work for a long period of time per leg. one heals and then they do the other one. now our finances are in shambles, I have started over with my store so many times, hauling my items, setting up outside, making enough to rent a building, seeing progress and then having to use all my hard earned and saved money just to survive so my husband can have surgeries and fully recover. Then start overhauling stuff, building up, etc... This past year we had to have another surgery that the insurance would not cover at all and even with the discounts that the hospital gives for paying in full it sunk us, once again I built up from scratch, my husband was working pretty steady again, and the worst thing in the world happened. MY beautiful 29-year-old daughter suddenly passed away, no explanation, no warning, nothing. The doctors said her heart just stopped for no apparent reason and by the time her friend found her she had been without oxygen too long for her brain to survive. Not only was this another financial set back but this was when I wanted to throw in the towel and just give up!!! Financially drained, emotionally drained and just plain tired!!!!!!!!!! and not really caring anymore now that my little angel is gone... My husband still refuses to let me give up. He must know something I do not know, because this all feels like I have been defeated to me.

I took the summer off, haven't done much of anything, everything is stored in my laundry room, extra room and green house since I have not cared to grow anything. I still look at retail shops for lease and wonder if this was the single most stupid idea I have ever had and just continued to run with. So, I see an ad for a 900 square foot brick and mortar building in a strip mall that is only 20-minute drive if I take the interstate and the price is crazy low!! I am skeptical, but my husband is not going to let me throw in the towel just yet, he goes down and puts a deposit on the building, sight unseen so that no one else can snag this great deal and he says we will figure out the rest!!! By now I know better, but I get super excited, start building up my stock, making signs, refurbishing and building shelves, OMG I just can't make stop getting everything ready to move into my forever thrift store and boutique. We have to wait until the first of August to see the inside, and it feels like an eternity. Here is where I know in my heart of hearts that this journey was never meant to be. This building and the entire strip mall are so dilapidated it would take hundreds of thousands of dollars and many months just to be able to open a door.

In order for me to lease a brick and mortar building I would need one years' worth of rent, utilities, insurance, pos system etc... in the bank, that way if the economy fails, I fail or life happens, I will still be able to fulfill the terms of my lease and have no credit issues or breaking any lease agreements. I need to find a way to replace the money I originally saved for this journey so I can continue forward and my only option at this time is to hope that this Go Fund Me website works for me.