Page 314 - She's One Crazy Lady!

When Gary ca“
me a timetable of different companies coming in to fit new toilets, new
in to see the ‘new pink office’, he declared: “I hope you don’t leave for a long while. If you do I’ll have to open this up as a
lighting, new central heating, new electric points, new windows, new blinds, new furniture, new carpets and to paint the whole upstairs area – ‘pink’!!! Everyone was slightly dubious but I knew the shade chosen would work with the carpet, furniture etc. Even more fretful was ‘Chris’ – our friendly decorator who announced he hated ‘pink’!! (Chris had been introduced to us by Gary and had previously helped me decorate my flat so he came with strong recommendations and proved to be such a great person and a good friend of Crazy Hats, as did his wife, Maureen.) Chris almost needed reviving a few months later when we acquired the downstairs area – and it needed painting!! We chose magnolia – much to his relief!!
brothe”
When Gary came in to see the ‘new pink office’, he declared: “I hope you don’t leave for a long while. If you do I’ll have to open this up as a brothel!”
So how could we justify paying to have our office refurbished?
Through sponsorship and some very generous companies who gave excellent discounts!
We had approached T&K Windows in Wellingborough as the windows were in desperate need of replacing and after meetings with their Directors, they agreed to ‘adopt’ Crazy Hats and sponsored ALL the upstairs windows – designing, making and fitting!!! WOW!! Not content with that they organised events at their showrooms along with the donation of the windows the Company really did us proud. Avon, once again, also did us proud by donating £20,000 to cover the costs of carpets, blinds and new chairs. Our new kitchen was donated by a company called Waites who had moved in opposite us and fitted many kitchens under the Home Start scheme – they offered this lovely gesture as a peace-offering for they always had so many deliveries and huge lorries taking up space.
There we were then – a ‘new’ home! It looked beautiful and we were so proud. Everything went to plan and everyone loved the pink – it worked! Another surprise awaited us when Drew (AO Copy) made and donated some one-off, large black and white canvases using photographs taken of some of the Crazy Hats’ ‘characters’ to adorn our walls. It was a lovely place to be – for everybody, especially our volunteers who now had their ‘sweatshop space’ downstairs where they happily worked sorting all the merchandise out, wrapping raffle and tombola prizes and getting everything ready for our many events – all quite monotonous jobs but listening to all the chat and laughter they shared – they were happy!
Oh, yes! I mustn’t forget – we now had a neat and orderly ‘shop’ whereby orders could easily be made up for outlets and people doing events for us but also for visitors to purchase items.
l!”
need, together with all the furniture which they put into storage for the duration of the makeover – leaving Marilyn and I to work in the kitchen that was to be our office for a couple of weeks. We planned
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