About Us
We got started in the business because we have both always been avid collectors and pack rats. We finally decided we were getting too crowded and needed to start selling some of our stuff. We started out by having a booth in a couple different antique shops, and also selling at flea markets, dealing primarily in furniture. We talked about someday having our own shop, mostly so we wouldn't have to move this heavy furniture around.
In 1996 we had the opportunity to rent the basement of the building in Shakopee, MN. Unfortunately neither of us could quit our full time employment at the time, so we were only open on Saturdays. It went well and we developed a good clientele of regular customers.
In 1999 we found this really great old building for sale in neighboring historic Carver, MN. It was built in 1868 and has the original wood floors. Dennis took early retirement so we could be open full time. We opened our doors for business on January 2, 2000, and met a lot of new friends and customers. Unfortunately with the downturn in the economy after the 9/11 terror attacks, Dennis had to return to work and we had to change our hours from 10-5 daily to 10:30-1:00 Mon thru Thurs, and 10-5 Fri thru Sun. Also due to the economic downturn, we weren't able to get financing for the balloon payment when it came due in 2003, and we ended up selling the building to an investor with the option to continue occupying the building as rental tenants.
In March of 2008, we shuffled some stuff around to make room in our building for Carver Country Flowers and Gifts, owned by Annette and Al Hentz. In the shuffle, we moved a lot of stuff to the back room, which was used previously for overflow and work space.
When our lease was up March 31, 2010, our landlord decided he didn't want to renew our lease, so we had to try to find new space to rent. We were very lucky and found this wonderful old building in Jordan. Unfortunately the space is only one-third of what we had in Carver, so we've had to downsize drastically. We ended up with a lot of stuff in storage units. We will miss all the friends we made in Carver, but we are excited about our new location and hope you'll like our new space also.
We try to make our shop a fun and affordable place to shop and visit, and we try to keep a large variety of merchandise in stock. Dennis works on old tube type radios, and also sells tubes for them. He and Lenny also still do furniture repair and refinishing in the workshop (we made sure we had room for the workshop). The two of them work very well together. Lenny is a man of many talents, including but not limited to, wood working, and making and repairing stringed musical instruments. I swear, there is nothing that man can't fix, or figure out how to make it work.