|
2006 until Today
 If you are following these pages we do not intend to confuse by dropping history from the mid-1980's until 2006. The honest truth is that from the point of adding wood siding and new windows in the 80's, nothing changed except the passage of time and weathering of the exterior. The biggest change was the end of the TV portion of the business when RCA decided that small dealers was not part of their business plan and Dad lost the line to the big box retailers.
Our store began as a dream in about 2006 when the structure Dad had purchased in 1959 needed some major repairs and he was considering closing up his radio shop. We proposed to him that we would take over the maintenance and improvement of the building if he would keep the shop open. We also discussed a way for us to purchase the structure at an unknown future date..
We always love a project so upgrading this over 100 year old building seemed like an interesting challenge. As we began making improvements we thought about all the possibilities of how to use the ground floor space when the time came for us to take over. "How about turning it into a Tea Room?" We had visited a few of them and thought that might be a great use of the building. "Perhaps we could make it a gallery for high end custom furniture and art pieces." Dan loves to build furniture so this would be a good place to offer them for sale. Or, "What if we have a small fix-it style repair shop?"
These are but a few thoughts we discussed and regardless of how the subject came up it always ended with the thought, "well that is in the future so we have plenty of time to decide." But during that 10 year period of time we spent many wonderful hours with Dad and he was able to keep his radio shop in operation right up to the end.
 Our work on the building began in 2006 with a new roof to replace one that was near the end of its life and then in 2007 we tackled the most aggressive project, a new facade. This meant removing all the wood siding along with the windows and front entrance door. After some changes to the framing we had a new door and windows installed. We also closed up the street entrance to the second floor for security as well as energy savings. Dad remained open during these changes and he was so pleased with the new look.
Dad passed away in July of 2016 and as we worked through the estate the use of the building began to take form. We both enjoy visiting small shops that feature home decor and unique merchandise that is not represented in big box retail stores. It just seemed natural that we'd open our own store and fill it with beautiful decorating pieces as well as other unique merchandise that would fit the Estherville area.
 Instead of gutting the ground floor and making it modern we decided to smooth out the rough edges, patch a few holes, and along with paint and a new floor the old space became a nice retail store sales floor. Nearly every display piece was constructed in Dan's shop using old lumber from the radio shop, and in some cases old shelving was modified, dressed up a bit, and painted to fit the theme of the store. We feel that the building, although radically different than the radio shop, still reflects the original design of this 1899 wood frame structure.
If you would like to learn more about our historic building we have provided links below.
| 