Music Folk Remodel 2003
|
After months of discussions and planning, we decided in March to give the store a major facelift. Our concept for the store was to emulate a 1920’s era Webster Groves home. We knew we had a tin ceiling in the west room that could be refurbished. We also knew that by adding a few fine touches along the way, we could accomplish the goal. We wanted to do as much of the work ourselves as possible, but knew we’d need help with some of the bigger items. We contracted with Michael Bohn of Traditional Stair and Woodworking to remodel the office and the western most room of the store, but we had a few things to do before we could begin. First, we had to rework a portion of our warehouse to accomodate the repair shop. Next, we had to remodel the old shop space to become our new office. Michael arrived in early April to begin remodeling the old shop space. In early May, we moved the office from the east room to the fresh, new space Michael reclaimed for us. For the following two weeks, Michael began preparations for the major project in the west room. In the meantime, we planned out our efforts in the east room. On May 16, we closed for 10 days to remodel the store. Here’s what happened next. |
|
 |
Somewhere early in the process, this gremlin was painted on one of our old windows. Thankfully, this was the only real gremlin we saw through the whole process.
By the way, no one took responsibility for the gremlin. Supernatural? You be the judge. |
 |
As Michael began to prepare for the big show, we closed off a small section of the store. The plywood wall at the back of the west room gave Michael extra space to see what was behind the paneling, under the carpet, and above the drop ceiling.
The time invested in this “exploratory surgery” saved us a ton of time once we started on May 16. Simply knowing how to remove the drop ceiling efficiently saved us a day of labor. |
 |
While Michael was working behind the scenes on the west side, the Music Folk staff was beginning to move on the east room. We contracted with Wilke Windows to replace the old single pane windows on the back of the store. Their work was very good and the noise these windows cut for us was a real boon. |
 |
For those of you who haven’t visited us, we’re in an old building. We’ve got real plaster walls and as we began the remodel we found that fact was one of our bigger challenges.
As you can see at left, we had to do a ton of patching where walls came down or the mortar had been compromised. This is from our old office space. |
 |
This is another shot of the office after we removed one of the walls. |
 |
When we started to tear down the other wall of the office, we were surprised to find some pretty unique construction methods. The studs in the wall to the left are about 36 inches apart. Look closely at the base of the wall. Yes, those are table legs supporting the horizontal 2 x 4! Coupling that with the 3 layers of masonite and 1 layer of drywall, this wall was difficult and extremely dusty upon removal. |
 |
A close up of the table legs. |
 |
At the top of the same wall, we found these peace signs painted on the INSIDE of the wall. Taking in the whole picture including peace signs and table legs, one of our employees, Michael Ludwig, suggested that this could be a long lost Jasper Johns installation! |
 |
Rich and Michael Bohn removing the last vestiges of the office walls. |
 |
From the front of the store, you can see the office walls are now gone. What a huge difference it was to have this natural light pouring into the sales floor! Taking down these walls gave us about 200 extra square feet and was an integral part of what we hoped to accomplish.
We completed this on May 15. T-minus one day to ignition. |
|
 |
Another shot of the west room after the tile had been removed from the ceiling. |
 |
Meanwhile in the east room, we were working too. We removed all of the instruments and stored them in our warehouse. We also moved our display cases to the middle of the room and began to remove the old guitar bay dividers. |
 |
Rich and Calvin begin plastering the blemishes. |
 |
This is how it looked early Saturday morning. |
 |
Another shot on the same morning. |
 |
Back in the west room, Chris and Tom Knecht remove the 2 x 4’s that were used to suspend the drop ceiling. This was more delicate work. Removing them with sharp force dented or bent the tin ceiling. They had to remove as much mass as possible first and then gently pry them from the ceiling. |
 |
All the supports are gone now. |
 |
A ceiling of many colors. |
 |
Flooring and waste had to be removed so that we could get ready for the carpet installation. |
 |
The west room as it looked on Tuesday, May 20. |
 |
At the front of the west room, Michael discovered considerable water damage. The area over the windows had to be re-framed and finished. |
 |
In the east room, a rare idle momemt. Rich and Tony talk over next steps. |
 |
We spent a tremendous amount of time plastering, sanding, priming, and painting walls that had gotten little attention over the last few years. A crew worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week in the east room during our remodeling. |
 |
Nancy Simmons priming over the old paint. |
 |
Jeff and Tony finish up the plaster in the east room. |
 |
Steve worked on the crew that installed the baseboards. |
 |
Tony installing some of the baseboards. |
 |
Don was responsible for laying all the phone lines and data cables. |
 |
On Thursday, May 22, the carpet installation began. It took all of Thursday and part of Friday to get both rooms carpeted. |
 |
Lindsey as Rosie the Riveter. |
 |
The last coat of paint went on the tin ceiling in the west room on Thursday while the east room was carpeted. |
 |
In one of the few glitches for the entire project, the electricians showed up on the same day that the carpet was to be installed in the west room. We spent the day moving furniture trying to accomodate each contractor’s needs. With a little extra effort, we lost only a few hours. |
 |
While the carpet was being laid, we couldn’t really be on the sales floor. We took the opportunity to spruce up the lesson room lobby. We cleaned, replaced ceiling tiles, painted the room, installed new baseboards and a chair rail, and re-upholstered several pieces of furniture.
We hope to carpet the downstairs and paint the lesson rooms before the Christmas season. Pictured at left, Lindsey and Charlie. |
 |
No, we didn’t store our instruments in a dumpster while we remodeled. There’s a joke here, but we’ll keep it to ourselves.
Pictured from left to right, Donna Ploof, Michael Bohn, Tom Arri, Don Ploof, and Charlie Halloran. |
 |
This is the real dumpster. We BARELY got all of the waste in this dumpster for the week. Thankfully, we had our regular 1 yard dumpster here as well that we were able to dump a few times during the project. |
 |
In order to hang instruments, strips of wood needed to be attached to the plaster and masonry walls. Planning the exact heights of each strip to maximize our display space was very important.
Pictured from left to right, Don, Andy, and Michael. |
 |
Michael expounds his pearls of wisdom to another unwilling crowd. |
 |
Before we began the remodel, many of customers implored us not to get rid of our old wooden cabinetry. No worries! They’re all back.
Carpet went down in the store on Thursday and Friday, May 26 and 27. Starting on Saturday, May 28, we began to put the store back together. One of our first moves was to flip the counter area across the room from where it was previously so we could open up the store to a better flow through. Then, we built around that. |
 |
At the back of the east room, we set up a media center. All of our books, instructional video, cassettes, and CDs are now in one place. |
 |
We also wanted to create a home for categories that previously were lost. One example is clothing. The bulletin board displays all of the t-shirts and hats we currently carry. Immediately to the right is a pegboard for many of our accessories. |
 |
Our counter area now includes our recorders… |
 |
and the flutes, pipes, and whistles. |
 |
In the old merchandising plan, mandolins were set up on two sides of a triangular display that was pretty tight to get around. The new set-up gives them a proper home. |
 |
Likewise for banjos — all the 5-string and 4-string banjos are in one place. |
 |
Mountain dulcimers were moved from the jam area into their own space. Now when we have jams, we can actually show mountain dulcimers too. |
 |
The old fiddle case was moved into the front windows in the west room. Along with the autoharp case, we’ve created a display window area facing the street. We hope to keep up a changing, informative, and entertaining window display soon. |
 |
Harps are gathered at the front of the west room near our percussion cases. |
 |
Of course, the piece de resistance is the west room display of guitars! With 12 foot ceilings and improved lighting, the room is impressive by itself. Add over 200 guitars and you’ve got a guitarist’s dream. |
 |
Another view of the wall o’ guitars. |
 |
Here’s how we look from the outside. We added new outside lighting last fall and repainted a large part of the exterior during our 10 day campaign too. |
| Needless to say, this was the biggest project we’ve ever undertaken. To say we’re pleased with the results is an understatement. In truth, about 95% of our project goals were accomplished in the remodel and resultant re-merchandising. We hope you find your next visit to Music Folk even more entertaining than before.
Before we end this mini-tour though, we’d like to thank a number of people. First, many thanks to Michael Bohn and his crew at Traditional Stair and Woodworking. Without Michael’s planning, foresight, advice, and sense of humor, we could not have made it through this job. Also, thanks to the entire Music Folk remodel crew, Rich Simmons, Joe Bigham, Jeff Griffy, Tony Estrada, Tom Arri, Lindsey Smith, Steve Meier, Charlie Halloran, Dan Corwin, Calvin Simmons, Nancy Simmons, and Donna Ploof. Your help and dedication to Music Folk is warmly remembered. Andy & Don Ploof |
|
