I know it’s been a painfully slow process, but I can now report we are very close to opening the doors on our new shop. I still have to do the official paperwork with the state, but the physical plant is coming along nicely.
We have, thus far, had the entry door replaced, electrical service updated with a new service entrance, cleaned out all sorts of debris and skeletonized remains of woodland critters that took shelter in the building over a number of years, built a 7×10 foot room dedicated to buffing and polishing (including a through the wall exhaust system), and added 19 new LED lighting fixtures to replace the ancient, 8 foot flourescent units that buzzed like angry bees. We have also started the process of adding appropriate insulation to the walls (R-19) and framing the interior walls and putting up plywood and sheetrock. We’re not done, but we plan on having a grand opening in early January ’26, regardless of progress on the interior.
One exciting project that’s now under contract – The Morton Building Company, the firm that built our building over 30 years ago will be coming out to replace 3 damaged exterior steel panels, and more important, fabricating and installing a 6 foot wide, 3 foot deep eyebrow from over the door – Something we really need to keep the rain off the door. Spring of 2026, we’ll be doing some concrete work so we’ll have a proper porch, but that’s not going to stop us from getting into operation.
In addition to the sewing machine shop, Liz will have her woodwind instrument repair facility up and running as well. The buffing room was Liz’s idea, and what a great idea it was! I’ve spent some time in there working on a couple of machines and it truly is awesome having a dedicated space to clean and polish parts – no buffing dirt all over the main shop!
The last upgrade that is necesary won’t happen until Spring ’26 as well, the installation of new air conditioning, but that should be relatively straight forward. In the meantime, I have some paperwork to complete so we can open the door!