We Are Open For Business!

We are so excited to announce that All Things New Again is open for business!

Our hours are Fridays and Saturdays from 10 am to 5 pm beginning this week.

We still have a lot of work to do before we are ready for our grand opening celebration so you will likely catch us up at the shop on other days of the week as well. If you see the van, come on in!

We reached a big milestone with our renovations last week. We completed the fireplace room! Now we have three beautiful new rooms loaded with beautiful new merchandise.

I can’t tell you how happy I am to be FINALLY finished with the renovations in the fireplace room. This was the most challenging room we have worked on so far this summer, but I am really pleased with the results.

The demolition phase in this room was extensive. We removed all of the 1970’s-era fake wood paneling, ripped up three layers of carpet and took apart the countertop we built for our cash/wrap area when Sawdust Specialties opened 15 years ago.

That was a lot of work–but it was just the beginning!

The paneling was attached directly to the wooden studs. When we pried it off, we didn’t have walls anymore. The look was too industrial for my taste! Dave spent several days hanging drywall and prepping the new walls before painting the entire room a pretty shade of light blue.

I also painted the fireplace black. (Yes, black!) I really like how it pops against the light blue, giving the room a much-needed update and providing a sleek backdrop to display product.

Once the painting was completed, we turned to the floors. We were lucky to discover the home’s original hardwood floor in the front room. However, the fireplace room was an extension added sometime after the original farmhouse was built. We uncovered three layers of carpet, including a Christmasy red and green plaid, but did not find any hardwood floor here. So we installed a new laminate floor instead in a style and color to match the other flooring throughout the shop.

We have been going a little crazy with repurposing wood pallets. We continued the theme in this room, prying apart slats from old pallets to create baseboards, molding and frames around all of the doors and windows.

Speaking of doors, I almost forgot the best part! While the walls were down to bare studs, Dave took the opportunity to extend the doorway by about a foot. Now we have plenty of space to move furniture into our new showroom.

Finally, we needed a new area for our cash register. I knew I wanted something different. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I would know it when I saw it.

Well, I saw “it” in a warehouse in Ohio.

Dave and I drove out there for a trade show earlier this summer. We arrived at this warehouse 15 minutes before closing. That was not nearly enough time to go through the entire warehouse, but we went inside anyway.

That was all the time I needed to buy this. It is the perfect size and shape for our new cash register counter–and is exactly what I was looking for!

Things are coming together for us in every aspect of opening All Things New Again. We are very grateful! We are also grateful for all of our friends and your good wishes for us as we begin this new adventure.

Thank you to everybody for reading our blog, liking the All Things New Again Facebook page, and stopping by to say hello while Dave and I are  working at the shop.

We are off to a great start and we can’t wait for you to see the new place!

~ Cathy