Brian Lipsin is busy at work readying his store for its grand reopening.

After being closed for seven months, Lipsin is ready to throw open the doors of the record store and receive customers for the first time in 2019 this coming Saturday.

Brian’s Record Option was closed unexpectedly in August 2018 after a flood damaged the store, located in the Hub are on Princess Street, and destroyed some of his inventory.

The cleanup and rebuild have been tedious, but the work is paying off — the store will be ready in time for Saturday.

The flood last year not only halted Lipsin’s business, it also catalyzed an outpouring of love and support from the Kingston community and beyond.

Benefit concerts, online crowdfunding campaigns, donations of records, and hundreds of messages of encouragement have gobsmacked Lipsin in the more than half a year his doors have been closed.

“People have been good all through this, not just August and September,” he said. “As I said to people, ‘How do I thank you guys? I don’t expect all this.’ Everyone says, ‘Open.’

“What a community. This is insane. This is special.”

Despite having been closed, Lipsin is in the shop most days — and most days, he gets multiple knocks at the door. He lets them in for a visit, or maybe to pick up an album they talked him into ordering for them.

“People have been so good, how can I say no? I can’t do that,” he said.

Lipsin isn’t sure how much money has been donated to him since the flood in August 2018, but he says it could be close to $20,000.

That money, along with some insurance money, has helped him rebuild.

“I’m still getting donations. It’s embarrassing. Most of that money has been spent. I didn’t get much insurance,” he said. “I said to myself ages ago, if there was money left over I’d donated it somewhere. We’ll see when it’s all finished and done.”

Lipsin opened Brian’s Record Option 38 years ago at the age of 29 and with $2,000 in his pocket.

“Now I’m 67, and I’m starting all over again.”

The flood damaged most of the store’s infrastructure. The inventory was taken off-site after the water damage to be sorted, and the interior was gutted. New flooring, shelving, lighting and a slightly different layout will greet customers.

The store made a reputation for itself over nearly four decades for its barely organized chaos — narrow aisles packed with inventory: records, CDs, cassettes, books and more stacked floor to ceiling in every available space, even the bathroom.

To regulars, the newly organized look may not be seen as improved.

“Some people are going to be disappointed because it looks too organized,” Lipsin admitted. “I didn’t realize what it was like before. Things just got out of hand, I guess.”

Navigating the new space will be easier for visitors — custom bins full of records are labelled with their contents, genres are well defined. And there’s even a door on the bathroom now.

True to Brian’s Record Option character, there will still be inventory in the bathroom — on custom shelves above the toilet and around the mirror.

“I’m still running out of room,” Lipsin lamented.

While eating his lunch on Saturday and chatting with the Whig-Standard, Lipsin is full of stories, as usual — or maybe more than usual, due to a lack of the daily interactions in the past seven months that he’s enjoyed for nearly 40 years.

He talks about musicians, celebrities, politicians, regulars and the children of old regulars, one-time drop-ins, cheapskates, bargain hunters, old friends and perhaps the odd foe.

“What keeps me here are the stories,” he said. “It’s people coming in. Sometimes they come in and things are not going well with them. Someone will come in and I’ll say, ‘You look like s—,’ and all of a sudden it comes pouring out of them like you’re in a bar, and for two hours you’re listening to their story.”

The people make the business for Lipsin, and that’s why he’s so excited to reopen on March 16.

“This is the part of the store that I’ve missed. I’ve missed the interactions with people. The money, OK, I’ve missed that. It’ll come back, but the interactions are so important,” he said.

The rebuild is strictly for the benefit of himself and his customers, as Lipsin has no plans to ever pass Brian’s Record Option over to a new owner.

“People say to me, ‘You are the store.’ That’s why I’ll never sell. When it’s time to go, the store will disappear as if it never happened before. It’ll be in people’s heads. That’s when the legend begins. They’ll say, ‘Yeah, there was this place here,’ and all the stories will be distorted. It’s too bad I won’t be alive to hear all that.”

But those days are well in the future. For now, Brian’s Record Option will continue to be the well-loved record store that keeps people coming back for an old-school music browsing experience in the era of easy online shopping.

“I can see myself being here in my 80s,” Lipsin said, grinning.

Brian’s Record Option will be open at 9 a.m. on Saturday, March 16.

mbalogh@postmedia.com