health inspection...A+mazing

as of 6:30am, tuesday, april 29 we have power! we not only recieved the good new regarding our electricity, and the fact that the county has granted us power, but, we too passed our health inpection!

yahoo!

we were thinking the worse and praying for the best, and sure enough...passed on the first walk through...! yahoo!

computer system is up...lights are setting the mood, inventory is putting away the echo in the shop, and we are looking to open for business next week. wow!

victor is so relieved, and exhausted physically and mentally. he's been working hard, he's scared, nervous, happy...!

now that wine and accessories are coming in everything is getting closer to becoming real. this is an end to a new beginning! the end of the construction phase, and the begining of our retail phase. we're making our way into the big world of becomming a retail store!

we now only have one more county step, which is the final walk through. and then pay an additional 2k, for working on our conditional use permit {cup} to sell alchol. the county worked so hard{LOL} on our case, clocking in everytime they had something to evaluate, that we went over our $9500 retainer. did you know the county works like a law office? every phonecall, every pulling of you case/file inquiry, you have to pay for that. and don't think you can question the county, because then they give you the time sheet and record of the person, or persons, that typed something regarding your case. amazing isn't it?

can you say, under worked and over paid.

and, some people still aren't clear on their responsibilities, or clear about their own county rules and regulations. can we all say...amazing! like the one blog in that i talk about "42 or bust!" and, guess what? the county workers still don't know and are not clear about the 42 license as of today!

amazing!

bottom line is, we will be open for business real soon! we will be pouring some wine and cutting up the cheese in about 7 days.

see ya'll soon!

so get ready, because....

"this here is the wildest ride in the wine-derness"

yahoo!

electricity! again.

well, it has been said that by tuesday we should have power! yahoo!

product is comming like crazy! and corporate is coming out next week, while we're open to make sure that we work through all the kincks before grand opening. i think this is going to be fun for victor. he's finally seeing stuff happen! and there is no underestimation that he sure is excited! we just put in our order for wine bags, accessories, and cute wine related shirts with rhinestones. just the cutest things for women. and gagets for men, just in time for father's day. we also have great gifts for those professionals in you family that seem to have everything! well, we have the perfect gifts for them...they'll never see it coming! we are going to have some of the cutest wine charms, so that way, you never have to use the same ones twice at you house wine parties.

mural, mural, on the wall...

who is the fairest of them all?

obviously, it's not me...i'm the barrel in this presentation.

{this is my family contribution to the mural.}

just a sneak peak at the mural that is sitting in the shop, waiting to be admired by our ever so supportive patrons.

it is getting so close to open, we are just beside ourselves with excitement! our dream is going to finally become a reality. can you imagine?

"if you dream hard enough, and the sky is the limit....then, all things are possible."

-priscilla cerda

here is victor, coming into the vineyard in his hot air balloon...

the wizard will see you now}

and, here is our boy ian. this is my knight in shining armor!

our boy is always playing in the water. he loves to see the rippling of the water. we think he's going to be an engineer or a pilot.

and, here is my girl savannah. she is my beautiful princess!

she is going to be the best nurturer. my thoughts, she is going to be the veterinarian. she has a big heart, she loves animals, kids, and adventure. if she can overcome her fear for blood, this girl is going to be unstoppable!

that's my girl!

and now that my mom has seen the mural...

it's here for you all that are part of our network to preview.

this was a gift to my mom, from our family, because we knew how much she wanted this in our shop!

we love you mom!

this one is for you...

kid!

for information on the artist that painted this masterpiece

she too, was included in this celebration:

christi

951.283.7324

celebration....bitter, sweet!

well, we had our final inspection for fire and safety, and we passed! we are that much closer to opening up the doors! And, we had our final walk through for electrical...and we passed!

yaaaahho!

but...and the big fat hairy but is...the city has to install another electrical box.

so, that means...we permission to authorize edison to flip the switch...after the county makes it's final installation. apparently, the one that is already there, isn't enough. so know we have to ask all of our kind neighbors to shut off electricity for a few hours in order for the county to work on our store. ok, now that they are all in business minus us...how the heck do you tell your neighbors to shut'er down for a few hours because the wine store need power!

let's tell the beauty supply store, pura eyebrow threading, and the great wing wings...

{awesome btw}

yah! let's start problems now!

drama!
so, we're excited that we have passed... but we just have to wait on this last county step. it could be a couple of weeks...it could be another month. worst case, a couple of months, because they have to notify the tenants, the tenants have to notify their customers, etc., etc. but like i said, opening up your own business isn't easy. it's a hurry up and wait scenario. and, v was telling me that we could have been granted temporary electricity a long time ago. and, again, the county is like everyone said it was going to be...one answer one day, another answer a different day! so, don't think you're going to be the special one! nope. eeerrrrr! stop right there, please. so did we.

computer vinnie was in installing our computers. and our kind neighbors pura threading salon, was kind enough to allow us to pull power from them this week, in order to get our systems up and running! isn't that sweet! yah! for pura. once we open, we have some sweet facial packages that we are going to co-market to help each other out.

she has the finest threaders in the IE.

they are great!

clean up them brows girls and boys!

42 or bust?

20= selling beer and wine off premise; also allows minors in the shop as long as they are accompanied by an adult, but not in the tasting room

42= on premise; allows patrons to drink at the location.

we submitted for them in august 07. so here we are, putting our first opening order together to get inventory, and bam! we still have no 42 license. abc called and said everything is cleared for the 20, we just need to get the 42. huh? how you figure? the most important lic., the 42 and we still don't have it! nuts!

now abc { alcohol beverage control} says that the county needs to issue the 42, and the county says that they have nothing to do with the 42. so we put them abc and county on the phone together. andrew spoke to vicki and squared it all away. vicki said go to county and get the 42. then andrew called back and said, we don't deal with the 42, and by the way here is my supervisors name and number, scott arnold. so v decides he's going to go down to the county to make some changes in person...access was...denied!

{the man on a serious mission!}
talk to scott and said he doesn't know how to handle our situation, so if we can, maybe we should talk to adam rush, his supervisor. how do you get 2 people on the phone together, resolve the situation and then on the same day still get 2 different answers. so v, being that he was already at the county, he figures, i'll go in the lobby and talk to the receptionist to see if i can meet with adam rush. so the receptionist called adam's seceratary, she answered and said adam is busy today, if you want to speak to him, you have to call and make an appointment. so, in the same lobby, maybe 1 cubicle over v picked up the house phone to make an appointment with adam's secretary, not even 1 minute later and.......... poof!

she was away from her desk. gone! no where to be found. amazing. so, v left, called on and on, and finally leaves a message. mind you, don't you think that whole scenario of calling to make an appointment less than 1 minute after talking to someone live, sounds a little fishy? so, the next day he gets a hold of her again, finally. after speaking to her, the next available appointment was 8 days later. to many people in the kitchen--- county of riverside. streamline these positions, or send them all to training together, so that they all have the same answer to help out the community.

so, long story short, we will fill you in on all the details after our meeting on friday, the 25th. maybe someone will relay an important message that we need to open!

so, push your luck...

big bucks, no whammies!

all or nothing, baby!

extra spinkler heads, huh?

If it couldn't get any more confusing! so, the reason why we are reporting these crazy ups and downs regarding the business is to help anyone else out there that is thinking about opening up a small business. this chronicles a day in the life of our experiences and challenges. if you can walk in our shoes from moment to moment and know all that we have put into this, for a 50/50 shot at some success! know you are persistent and a huge risk taker, because seriously, we still, after all is said and done, can still have plenty more obstacles to overcome, even after we open our doors. so if i could help one person out there live a dream, and know that what they are going through, isn't any different from our experience, and that if they can continue to hang in there for a chance to fulfill a dream no matter what....then i have succeeded!

so, as i mentioned in the beginning, if it couldn't get any more confusing. the city comes out to do their fire and safety inspection, which by the way, is a process of granting us electricity to, again, open our doors! and....we don't pass. why? because....we don't have any extra sprinkler heads in storage, "just in case" one breaks in our store.

{cricket....cricket....cricket....!}

yup!..................crazy isn't it? ..................hmmm!...................yup!

that was the pivotal revelation the inspector had.

ok!..........so now, in our mind, we're thinking, what would be the purpose of having additional sprinkler heads if ...well crap....if one breaks, we have to call the county out to replace that darn thing anyway.

ahahahahahahah!

(notice, micheal j, in the background.....)

THIS IS THRILLER, THRILLER NIGHT!

YOUR FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE....

GET UP! GET UP!

wiz of the vine!

well our muralist is just finishing up the last touches of her art peice that is sitting in our tasting room. and can i just tell you, it is amazing! it has a piece of our family and it's trully an awesome piece of work. i can't wait for you all to see it. our friend, leonard had this idea to have victor flying in on a hot air balloon...and i thought, yah! just like my fav movie the wizard of oz! that's perfect! so, that's what our muralist is finishing up. i thought she did a great job of incorporating the kids, and their personalities. and just her vision of the mural was right inline with my idea. when we first met her and she came to the meeting with some of the same pictures i came to the meeting with, i knew she was sent to us on purpose. awesome!






and, guess what? i was told that tomorrow, we might see someone comming out from the county to check out our sprinkler system, call edison and grant us electricity!!!! this is just cuttn' it so close. next week, computers come in, we hope and cross our fingers that the walk through goes as planned...and get ignition! yahoo!







here come the whirlwinds!

countdown begins baby! something tells me we're not in kansas anymore?

also, just waiting for abc...alchol beverage control! there are some funky definitions when applying for a wine and beer license. it's a lil' confussing to me but as long as victor is understanding it...we're ok. we're now trying to get the county to approve wine by the glass. it's a seperate but combined issue. the county says they are not involved, however, abc says they are so...we shall soon see.






sounds like we're asking the wizard to take us home...but i don't think he's capable of allowing that. just yet.






and, hay! if our experience can help someone else out there start a business, we're all about helping out! that's why we put these chronicles out. right? good.


the wizard has granted us some furniture. we just put some of it in the store already. the electricians are comming in to instal the lights around the bar. and vuala!


yesterday was tax day and it was our tenative opening date...and unfortunetly we did not make the cut, but...look on the bright side...that just means more anticipation for the grand opening. huh? well, pleasure keepin' you all up to date.

click your heels, and repeat after me.

"winestyles is home...

winestyles is home!"

choi bella!

{pvc}

co-marketing ops in vegas!

hello y'all,
we're on our way home from vegas, and of course, we took the opportunity to talk to a wine bar owner at the new palazzo hotel. the name of this quaint little boutique is double helix. it was so fun to be able to chit chat with another owner and get some outside of the box ideas for our wineclub members. and of course, we are bringing those ideas with us to help in even more entertainment for our wine club members. we are so excited for all the events, and ideas we have lined up for our wine club members...it going to be a great 2008! are you ready?
as a side note, i figured i'd share some star highlights from our trip:

victor has recharged his batteries. this vacation couldn't have gone any better. we saw rick fox walkin' around the resort...

i had to give him a high five as we passed him! choi!

and of all times...we didn't bring our camera. shucks!



..and ryan seacrest along
with simon cowel from













american idol partying at

club blush inside the resort.

we had a great time in vegas!

and soon we will be back to reality...

our beautifully decorated wine bar.

i can'y wait for you all to see it!

thoughts of paso robles, ca

we just talked to calcareous vineyards today and are getting some dates locked in the books for this comming opening. i must say, i have fallen in love with their chardonnay. it really was just a nice pallette pleaser.

just wait until you go to paso robles, ca. the view of paso from calcareous winery is spectacular! make sure, when you go to pack a nice lunch (wine and cheese, of course!) and make time to picnic at the top of the hill. you will love it! I am not sure about the entertainment, but when we were up in paso, they had a live guitarist. it was really relaxing.


my second choice for the paso trip, well...it's actually victor's fav...summerwood winery. they had some great wines! very small vineyard in paso and they still want to stay relatively small. we still think that it's worth going there to taste the wines.

and last, both victor and my favorite was vihuela vineyard. great stuff commin' from paso. i can't wait for you all to come into the store and try these wines out, and let us know what you think.

and you have to promise to be honest. our success is dependant on your constructive critism.

help us out in making eastvale winestyles, the place to come in and experience wine tasting at it's best! and you don't have to leave out of town to have the actual experience.

nice!

i think i can, i think i can...

we are almost there. the construction worker have cleaned the place up and are ready for the county of riverside to come in, inspect, and grant us power!!! we need electricity! monday the tech-eees are comin' in to plug our computers in, and inventory is already makin' it's way into the store! well, our garage more like it!


yahoo!

we were scheduled to have a private party for one of my really good friends on sunday the 13th. however, do to out frusterating circumstances...we had to cancel that reservation. we were just getting ready to partner up with napa 29 to bring the most spectacular co-marketing event, that would open our doors with a bang!



private parties were going to go off without a hitch. but no!

so, because we have been stressing out...we have decided to...take a mini vacation, for our last hoorah! so if you don't hear from us in a couple of days... you know why?

ovuah! as the french say.
choi bella, in italy.

with {heart}

vpc

"open, open, open!"

Ok! The cash wrap is in, the bar is built! and it is all lookin' mighty nice. We are stiiiiilllll crossing our fingers for electricity...the county is continuing to postpone our location. I don't know why...but, if anyone out there has any connections, please make a call!

I feel like the girl from the old Mervyn's Commercial. This is the closest picture i could find to define the moment!

"open, open, open!"

anyway, this is a picture of the lighting that we're waiting for. Aren't they pretty? ours are going to be white. so elegant. a nice touch of class! you'll see.

and then, over the cash wrap, i picked these pendant lights...bling,bling!

"open, open, open."