Patsy liked the designs and agreed to display up to six pieces for up to twenty
days. ltems sold in her stores would generate a percentage of the sales for the decorators which left me a good percentage. That was great, but at that time l was still building the designs in the space that l rented from Adolph and, while that was a very good place, with good facilities, l wanted to have all of our operation located in San Francisco. l had had my eye on S.F. since before the advent of it's becoming the home of the Summer of Love. (year 1968).
We found a place in the 1900 block of Divisidero St, which was a six-plex building of seven-room flats. The street level was a 4'000 sq. ft. former garage
which we would use to build prototypes and later, after some months of re-building, finishing and replacing the swing-up garage door with 1/4" tinted
plate glass used for both the door and the windows, enclosing the showcases.
lt transformed the look of our front aspect. Adding the hundreds of board feet
of salvaged barn-board as interior finish. To this day, recycled barnboards can be seen in the interior works of leading make-over specialists.
Once we were in our flat, we realized that it needed a lot of work. ln a couple of
dozen places there were actual holes in the floor and walls that required a few
months to make right. Our seven rooms , once repaired, then needed paint, and lots of it. All of the rooms were very big and the walls twelve feet tall with
moldings (contrasting color) around all the doors and windows as well as in the
wall/ceiling corners. it's Victorian archetexture and two sunny shades of white
thruout , begged for many-colored carpeting. We located a few carpet-installation contractors and arranged for permission to raid their remnant bins.
We carpeted all the rooms (except the bathrooms) in the flat with cut-to-fit
pieces of commercial carpet (very heavy duty) of a couple of dozen compatible
colors. My three daughters aged 9,6 and5, at the time, loved to go collecting
carpet remnants with me. l would pick them up and put them in the bins, with
the carpet; they would search for the pieces that they knew we could use, free
of dirt or moisture and colors that the girls liked. Picking remnants with those
kids was my favorite job when we were carpeting the flat.
While we worked on the interior of the flat, there was no time to do anything
beyond thinking, so far as the large space at street level was concerned. Ditto
my furniture designs and their construction. Patsy sold one of the plywood and
canvass chairs and she liked the other two so much that l made them a gift to her. We intended to resume building furniture when we completed construction
in the street-level space. But when we finished the carpeting, it was so beautiful
and interesting that we wanted to do more of it, somehow.
Mike Warner had left Miller Power Transmission soon after l had made my second exit from there. he took an apartment on a very steep hill on Filbert St.,
which was not far from our place on Divisadero, so he often showed up to help.
When we were moving in (from San Jose and while there was so much work to do on the flat, he was there, with his sleeves rolled up.) Soon after that was
finished, Mike and l had a little talk. Remember, Mike is the guy who convinced
me to experience Cannabis about a year earlier. He said he'd been thinking
about going home for a while. He had been thinking about trying LSD. But he
was afraid of what it might do to him. While l hadn't taken it at that time, myself
at that time (mid-to-late 68) l was also thinking about taking it .l was not fearful,l was just waiting for the right time and place. Mike hadn't just been thinking about chicago; he had a plane ticket in his pocket as we spoke and l soon took him to the plane that fit it. l bet myself that it wouldn't be long before
l'd be picking him up at SFO. He phoned us a couple of weeks later and said his
Uncle Sal had hired him to be Finance Mgr at his uncle Sal's Cadillac/Oldsmobile
dealership, in Berwyn lll.
With the flat's interior finished, except for the construction of a few lofts and a few pieces of furniture, we could turn our attention to the street level.That first
day l opened up the garage space to let in some fresh air and sunlite, then l sat on the stairs below the entry to our flat and greeted passers by. l met quite a few of our neighbors, chief among them, a man,not much older than l, who
lived across Divisadero from us. His name was Don Burton. He was primarily an
electrician, but was conversant with most of the building trades. He would become a close friend of ours and a great help to our work, in many ways.
ln the days that followed, while l worked on getting the street level areas cleaned and furnished (counter-top, glass display cases,display shelves on walll
and all the finish wood being weathered barnboard thruout our share of the
garage space. One day, when we had been at 1914 Divisadero St for a few months, l took a few hours to visit Patsy at her work on Designer Row. l told
her that l just had not had time to work on furniture, at the moment with all
the stuff l had going right then. But l assured her that, when l got caught up
l intended to make some prototypes of designs which were already in my head.
Within the first couple 0f months of our stay on Divisadero St., in my search for a connection that could supply us with psychedelic ingestable substances. l first
told my new friend Don of my quest. Specifically, l was looking for a reliable source of Weed,Mushrooms, Cacti and LSD. l seek someone young, honest,and
connected to his world. An independant, self-employed businessman, willing to deliver purchases to my home. Don wondered if that would be enough to please
me. l told him that l thought it would. And it makes clear just what l want and what l won't tolerate. And l'm used to the service Patsy gives. That's over now though. She and her boyfriend are starting a new business and won't be able to be my connection any longer.
We had a lot of carpet remnants (or as one of my girls called them "remnettes")
But, after our flat was finished we had a lot of carpet left over.Most of it was in
pieces smaller than a square foot.
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