THE BELTLINE BIKE SHOP

Our deadline for Porch Crawl RSVP’s has been extended until Friday! What are you waiting for? You know it’s going to be a blast. Here’s one more porch to persuade you (my own). Oh, and a few sneak peaks at the kids you’ll meet this weekend!

This basic scene is pretty much what you’ll see every evening and weekend afternoon at the O’Mara house. We love our porch. LOVE. We pretty much live out here in nice weather.

The porch is incredibly special to us because it’s where the bike shop started. It’s where we used to watch fights in the park across the street. It’s where we were when a sweet little girl asked for help on a homework project, which led to help fixing her bike, which led to a whole slough of bikes being earned by kids. It’s where 20+ kids used to gather on a Saturday as Tim fixed flats in the driveway and I chatted with other kids just hanging out. It is now where I sit and watch kids play, laugh, and can watch upwards of a dozen bikes enjoying the park on a cool summer evening, a perfect slice of childhood. Our porch is part of our story and I wouldn’t trade a mansion in the country for it any day of the week.

This weekend, a few kids and teens will also participate in the Porch Crawl. You’ll meet one of our teen gals that loves to sew, has a budding house-cleaning summer business, and is excelling in school, admidst tough, tough teenage pressures. You’ll meet another teen, a guy, that is one of the hardest workers I know, mowing lawns and helping with yard work all over the neighborhood as he attends school. He is a role model to our young boys that have so few. You’ll meet one of our kiddos that is thriving in a charter middle school this year, and has jumped two grade levels in reading since the beginning of the year. His self-confidence is soaring. And other sweet, special kids I adore, that make the shop a special place. You’ll meet them as they help neighbors this weekend host, guide groups around, and visit with you all.

 Remember, Beltline Bike Porch Crawl:
This Saturday! May 19th, 5-9pm
745 Catherine St SW, Atlanta
 $15/person!
Tell us you’re comin’ today!
 

Today I introduce you to a porch that will make you swoon and one of my favorite people in the whole world, Crystal. She is my southern garden and homemaking mentor. She and her husband Teague have a yard that is the envy of the entire neighborhood. And I just adore her. If this porch, and the wonderful nature of Crystal and Teague, don’t make you want to participate in the porch crawl, I don’t know what will! Prepare to fall in love.

Tell us about your porch and what you love about it: “For Teague and I, the porch and garden is where our home connects to the community and our neighbors.   We’re constantly in the front area so we interact with everyone walking on the sidewalk or riding bikes. When we bought the house six years ago, the entire front was obscured by bushes and vines. It was dark and uninviting and the paint on the house was drab and peeling. It’s taken a lot of work, but now the porch is bright and cheerful and the garden is an ever changing kaleidoscope of pinks, yellows and purples.”


What’s your favorite feature of the Porch? “The vintage metal furniture. All three pieces were found separately. I negotiated with a garbage collector in Villa Rica for the glider. We stripped, scraped and hand painted each one and I still can’t believe how well it all turned out.  In fact … with the exception of the swing and one chair everything on the porch is refinished or repurposed. It’s the one room of our 100 year old house that I consider (almost) finished.”

Why are you participating in the Porch Crawl?  “I promised Becky! Seriously though … Everyone remembers his or her first bike and the freedom that went along with it. The Beltline Bike Shop taps into that memory, opening a door between kids, teens, adults and seniors and helping us to find that ever elusive common ground. And when we work on community projects together … such as picking up litter or gardening in the park those connections get even stronger so that we are all truly neighbors.  Through the efforts of Tim, Becky and all the amazing volunteers and supporters of the shop, our little neighborhood of Adair Park is becoming an extraordinary place.”


Crystal was one of my first friends in the neighborhood, and one of the first friends of the bike shop. She and Teague are such an important part of the shop in that their presence in our neighborhood truly matters. It is common to see kids stopping in their front yard to say hello, look at Crystal’s flowers, or occasionally taste a fresh-picked veggie. They employ and encourage kids regularly, whether it’s helping with yard work, home renovation or walking their dog Scout, whom all the kids know. What does all that mean? Crystal and Teague are neighbors, in the truest essence of the word. They are the people that make our neighborhood strong and a great place for kids to grow up in.
I hope you come participate in the Porch Crawl and meet these wonderful friends of mine. They will be yours too! Reserve your tickets today, and then check out a few more photos that will make you swoon.
Handpainted vintage furniture

Beautiful ferns

Homemade cocktails are always closeby.

Scout the dog.

Second in our series on the hosts of the Beltline Bike Shop Porch Crawl is my brother-in-law Jeff. I like to joke that Jeff is our neighborhood’s most eligible bachelor, mainly because he is. I talked him into hosting the Porch Crawl because his home is huge and gorgeous and almost done. He’s also got a massive backyard (2/3′s of an acre with a 1500 square foot garden. It gets prettier every day. He agreed to host (if only because I agreed to send women to stage and cook and do everything! Alas, you will love seeing his home. (more…)

Today we start an extra special series. I’m so excited about it I can’t stand it. I want to introduce you to the “Porch Hosts” of this year’s Porch Crawl Fundraiser. The porch crawl, scheduled for May 19 from 5-9pm, will feature five porches and a visit to the bike shop. Here’s this year’s route: (more…)

We’re just a month away from our second annual spring fundraiser, the Beltline Bike Shop Porch Crawl! Will you be there?

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We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new app “Bike Shop”, a joint project between Matchstic, Hybrid Design, and Highgroove Studios.
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We are thrilled to announce the date of our second annual Porch Crawl Fundraiser!

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Today we were a part of a team building exercise at Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton LLP in Atlanta. They purchased 24 bikes and had teams of 2 work together to completely assemble a bike. The teams did great.

The Beltline Bike Shop and the South Atlanta Bike Shop worked together to supervise the event and make sure everything was assembled correctly. It was a blast! After the event was over, the shop was blessed with 12 NEW Bikes to use in our program.

Within a few hours of receiving the bikes our kids were taking them apart and rebuilding them to make sure they had enough grease on the bearings and all nuts and bolts were properly installed and tightened. One of our 9 year old boys was able to take apart 4 bikes and put them back together during our shop hours today. What a great day!

Summer is coming quickly and our bike supply is getting low. If you have an old bike in decent condition you would like to give a new life, please consider donating it to us. We are also looking for a few churches that would like to host a bike drive in their area. It’s a great way to serve 2 communities in the same day.