I finally returned to the store one week later and I took a few pictures of the progress on the new store. They really gutted the place!
All the inner walls have been stripped out and all that remains are the roof support pillars and the outer walls.
If you look at the top of the pillars, you can see some very old floral wallpaper, probably from when the building was a Home Hardware in the mid 1960’s-1972 era.
All the wiring has been ripped out. The building looks huge like this, but you can still see on the floor where the walls were. The space between the “walls” looks so small compared to what I knew it as.
And a letter from the Land Lord :
Hi Folks,
Just wanted to give you a quick update on progress in clean up and rebuilding
The clean up is 90% complete and building has essentially been stripped to the studs, including all interior walls and ceilings. The basement has been pumped out and cleaned. The inside of the building is dry and clear of all mud and debris and floors have been stripped down to the concrete. Final clean up including wash down and anti-microbial spray should be complete this week.
A structural engineer will be inspecting the building during the week and will give his report by the end of the week. Assuming he passes the building, the next steps are to draft plans, secure cost estimates and finalize schedule for rebuilding.
We have requested an electrical inspection for the apartment upstairs to reconnect the power. It will be some time however before we can reconnect the power in the main building due to the severity of the flooding.
This is as much as we have right now but we will continue to update you as the process unfolds.
Actually, Insurance denied my store because I had insuficcient coverage. However, the Canadian Government will step in where the Insurance companies are stepping out. They said that they would have an adjuster come out in 2 weeks from last Friday and look over my flood pictures.
In the meantime, I have to figure out what to do for an income.
I can see about getting into a Flea Market in Calgary, THE BIG CITY, until the doors open again at the downtown store, and/or, as well as, get my web site rebuilt and try online sales more, or see if another hobby shop can hire me temporarily, or even try working another job. The other possibility is to see if I can get a temporary permit to make the house into a business location until they reopen the building.
All I really want to do though is go down on Monday Morning to my store and open business as usual.
You see a lot of dodging from insurance companies. some places here had flood insurance and the buggers didn’t pay because the water came down a hill and ran fully through their place causing water damage only as opposed to “flooding” it by rising up into the house.
anyway good luck with your re-building whichever way it takes you
Monster Hobbies lives again…in a temporary location!
I just returned from the new Town Offices and they granted me permission to temporarily run Monster Hobbies from my basement until my new store location is open in October!
Now I have to bring all my store inventory into the basement and pack up my personal model kit collection - swapping the two out. This should be fun!
I will try to get it all ready for Wednesday Night.
Have you though on moving from high river to a place.like Virgin islands ?
I’m afraid they’d have to change the name after I set up residence there.
I got so many RPG’s, Comic Books, Hard cover Books, Magic Cards and other things from Treasure Chest Games in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada from Keith yesterday that the Monster Hobbies Rav-4 rear suspension was compressed to it’s fullest! This was his overstocked new and used item collection that he gave to me as a “Hobby Shop Care Package”. Made it hard to drive home.
Today Julie and I are going to start clearing the basement of my personal hobby items and begin converting it into our new basement store location. 600 sq feet of space, and I hear the Landlords are pretty good to deal with! Will try and get it up and running for an unofficial M-14 Draft Night this Wednesday…as well as have some other product up.
My store history is starting to sound like one of the original Universal Studio’s Monster Movies!
Remember that each time they made a sequel to any Frankenstein movie (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, Ghost, House…etc), the previous movie would have the monster destroyed in a Windmill fire…then in the sequel, we find out that the monster actually fell through the floorboards and into the basement where he was safe until the fire went out.
Next movie transition, the Monster is “killed” when the Frankenstein Castle explodes with the Monster and his Bride. In the Sequel, it turns out that the Monster survived the explosion and was living with Igor in the ruins of the castle, running at 1/2 his original strength.
The Monster Hobbies story is as follows…the store is born in a flea market using funds from my Grandmother’s Inheritance…moves to High River, Alberta in the Back Alley Location…moves into a more open location on 3rd Ave…lives through hard work and odd jobs in the recession…comes out of the recession and begins to thrive…gets destroyed in the flood…resurfaces in my house…awaits rebuilding in 3rd Ave location…tune in this October for the continuing saga as we retake possession!
Do your local authorities have plans to stop another flash flood affecting you all like this one has?
Abecedar
This flood was exceptional and hopefully I will never see another one like this in my lifetime.
That being said, I am hoping that the Alberta Government will step in and conduct a program to build proper sluceways and 70 foot high concrete berms along the riverway. Hopefully they can even reshape the river flow to miss the town entirely (The river use to go through town).
I just hope it all gets done because the town was suppose to address this problem back in 1957 and it didn't. However, back then the town never flooded this badly, so now that the authorities know just how crazy it can really be, I hope they compensate using the water volume of this flood as the new "Standard" in their flood prevention planing program.
The time frame for rebuilding Monster Hobbies is “guestimated” for sometime in October. Because of this, I applied to the Town of High River and asked if I could run the business from my home. They agreed up unto the point where I can reoccupy the building.
The town has also instigated a program where we can occupy some special “Mobile” buildings downtown until we get our original stores operating again. However, that will come into effect in September and I’m thinking that moving in to the little buildings for 1 month is going to be a lot of work for little gain.
However, the High River Farmer’s Market is allowing us to join them every Thursday to sell our items there. I just ordered all the GW Fantasy “Top Sellers” items, as well as their paints and glues. Next Thursday I will bring all my GW Fantasy stuff to the market and see if it will sell.
Currently, my parents, wife and myself are cleaning and sanitizing all of the store inventory and getting it ready to resell in my basement. We also have to pack up and remove my own hobby collection and replace it with the store items so that no one asks me to buy my own stuff.
My online business will be the next thing to take care of while I wait for the store to get rebuilt. It needs a serious updating as well as I have to find out what is missing or in a state of “repair” as I rescued some items from the mud, but the packaging is destroyed.
As for shipping product, I can do that at any time. My web site has “Buy it Now” style buttons that include shipping based on a package leaving Alberta and heading to Texas. If any more money is required for shipping, I will ask the customer to make the difference. If it cost less to ship, I will refund the difference.
There’s no real “Holding Pattern” on my business. Some wholesalers require that I need a Brick and Mortar store to operate while others are cutting me some slack due to the flood. As far as selling online, there shouldn’t be a problem otherwise.
Hope your lives are beginning to return to a state of normalcy.
Our contractor will be starting construction on the building around the beginning of October, with a completion date somewhere in the December/January timeframe. If there is something good to come out of all of this, it is that when we finish we will basically have a new building. We will keep you updated as we progress and please don’t hesitate to contact us should you have any questions.
As a temporary solution to the business rebuild project in High River, the town is setting up some “Sprung” buildings for us to move into. The first two months rent are free and then after that, we will pay a small percentage each month for rent until we are ready to move back into our original buildings. Here’s the current status :
Important information.
We have the list and unit numbers for those of you going in the Sprung units. If you are on the list for a Unit in the Sprung Portion please get your art work to Jeaiece.frick@sprung.com as soon as possible. Many of you have done that already so thanks to those of you who have completed that part.
Unit 1 �?" Cotton Wood Bridal and Austen Jewellery (Share Space)
Unit 2 �?" Off The Hook
Unit 3 - Tyrrell Clark
Unit 4 �?" Art & Soul
Unit 5 �?" Evanescence Gallery
Unit 6 - Eleven Liquors
Unit 7 - Truck Effects Show Room
Unit 8 �?" Monster Hobbies
Unit 9 �?" Walkers Western Wear
Unit 10 �?" Pixie Hollow
Unit 11 �?" Asiling Interiors
Unit 12 �?" Creative Accents and Pioneer Barber (Share Space)
When the transition from construction happens for the Sprung Units, we will be moving from the North to the South following the path set by the construction team. The move in for businesses is imminent! Construction has progressed at an exceptional rate. The paving crew is preparing to pave the pathway and we will be installing boardwalks into the sprung building. We still have a few legal and contract hurdles that affect a portion of the tenants that we are work through as rapidly as possible.
The two modular (ATCO) pieces of the Business Park east and west of the sprung building are on site and will be getting placed, blocked, and hooked to the grid.
The currently confirmed businesses in the West and East parts of our park are:
West on corner of 1 St. & 6 Ave.
· ML Tax Planning.
· Highwood printing.
East lot south of the Credit Union.
Tomorrow Financial.
Ovana Energy.
Several other businesses are working through the system and we will be working with them to find suitable space. The list of businesses we are helping changes daily.
I will be contacting you all in regards with more details on the transition phase and to get contracts in your hands for review as soon as I have them. I am available for questions by text email or phone and I will be in High River at various times through out the weekend.
Het, that’s great news. Two months rent-free is a steal of a deal, and it’s great that you don’t have to be in charge of upkeep and maintenance of the premises.
I am trying to think over the sprung store. I might just have the “Quick Sell” items at the Sprung, but then make the home into a gaming area. Open the Sprung 1/2 of the week and the home the other. Once I’m out of the Sprung and back into the full store, I’ll unite the two.
FNM would be better hosted at your home I’d guess, as would other games.
Have you thought of holding a family board games day/evening onc you’re back in your store? It’d be a good promotion of the store, and you could probably get some free local advertising out of it. It’d mean you’d need a good selection of board games (Carcassonne, Settlers, Ticket to Ride, etc) and I’m sure you could get some of the local gamers to help run tables. Plus having sme locals or store regulars run a Warhammer table and another MTG table and you’d be all set for it to run itself. Other than you own time, kicking in some product from the store for door prizes, etc will help get people in there. Store gift vouchers and games would make good prizes. Maybe have free ballots that ypu hand out as people come in for then to write their name on fo the draw or something. Local radio might mention this for free in their local events segment. A good 1-2 weeks of spreading the word via radio, news paper and some posters on school and mall bulletin boards and you’re likely to draw in some new customers. At any rate, you grand re-opening is the time to cash in on the publicity, and everyone loves a “good news” story. Heck, get some of the photos of your flooded place printed and framed and put them up or the event for people to see.
