A Family Affair

Often in the life of a family home, there comes a point where it outlives its usefulness, and the big question looms: What to do with it? In Merriam, Kansas, an Asian-influenced pink pagoda-style home built in 1918 was facing just such a crossroads. Its owners John and Carol Gochenour, had lived in it from 1979 to 1993, eventually leaving for more rural digs. They rented the building out for six years, but renting took a toll, and the house began to deteriorate. The Gochenours and their grown daughter Tami Vaubel knew that they had to answer the basic question of the building's fate.

Their answer was an unusual one. John had collected antiques for 30 years, and he had long dreamed of opening an antique store full of his treasures. Carol enjoyed decorating, and agreed that now was the time to fulfill John's dream … as long as she could sell new things in the store, too. For her part, Tami was interested in opening a garden center. And so it was decided. The three would work together and transform the pink pagoda into a multifaceted retail venue, to be called JC's Hidden Treasures ("J" for John and "C" for Carol).

However, turning a home into a store isn't an easy matter. The building was located in a residential area and thus was zoned for residential use only. The three began lobbying the city of Merriam for a commercial zoning in early 1998, and underwent a year of wrangling and navigating bureaucratic red tape before achieving their goal. "It was like pulling teeth," Tami said. The family even threatened to tear down the historic structure piece by piece, posting a sign explaining that the city was forcing them to do so, before the city finally relented and rezoned the building.

But that was not the hardest part of the process, by far. The house needed extensive work in order to become retail-ready, and John, Carol, and Tami would do all the renovation themselves. They started in December 1999, and worked for nine months, seven days a week, 12 to 16 hours a day. "Sometimes at the end of the night, we would sit and giggle at how, if we worked at any other job this hard and this long, we'd probably be sick or deceased," Tami recalled. "But somehow we always found the energy to give to our dream."

They set to work on several rooms on the main floor, and several in the basement. In many areas, they had to pull up old carpeting, pry out embedded staples, and then sand the floors and varnish them. They removed old wallpaper from many walls, replacing it with new wallpaper or fresh paint. The family also redid some of the ceilings, which had grown dingy over the years. They retextured the ceilings and replaced old ceiling fans with brass-and-glass light fixtures.

The three made clever use of the home's assets. To create display space for the store's abundant merchandise, they turned closets and kitchen cabinets into built-in display areas by removing the doors. They removed any existing shelves from the closets and added glass shelving, glass doors, and in one case interior track lighting. Voilà! Display cases with a homey touch.

There were also challenges specific to each room. City regulations required the family to add an entrance accessible to the disabled, which would lead into the master bedroom. During the construction of the new entryway, the antique wallpaper in the master bedroom was torn. Ever resourceful, John, Carol, and Tami used the wallpaper that had been removed from the doorway area to patch the damaged section. A converted closet in that room was used to display cut glass pieces, premium crystal, and antique glassware. Additional shelving was added above the doors and windows. An original claw-foot bathtub was moved into the bedroom to serve as a unique fixture for vignettes. The family also removed the French doors leading out of this room so that customers would be able to move easily from it into the living room.

The living room is dominated by an antique oak fireplace. John, Tami, and Carol replaced the old tiles surrounding it with black and floral-patterned tiles. According to Tami, the refurbished fireplace draws compliments from almost every customer. The residential feel of the living room is reinforced by the couch and wing chairs that are displayed there, complete with pillows, throws, footstools, and end tables bearing candles and lamps. The three also had to free the front door, which had been sealed off for nearly two decades. During all of this work, they had to take steps to protect the Italian painted light fixtures with antique glass globes that hang in the living room and dining room.

The dining room became the "command center" of JC's Hidden Treasures. It was there that the family installed the cash wrap. They removed a half wall that separated the dining room from the kitchen, and put in a brass cabinet to house some of the store's finer breakables. A baby grand piano was be added to this room after the store's opening to serve as a display fixture.

In the kitchen, in addition to redoing the cabinets, John, Tami, and Carol installed more shelving along one of the walls. They added an antique light fixture with glass teardrops, and hung a pot rack to display kitchenware.

"The basement would become the last section of the house to feel our wrath," Tami recalled. The rooms there were dedicated to displaying antiques. In an area that had once housed the building's cistern, the family installed shelves for John's collection of antique toy trucks, cars, and motorcycles. Another room was devoted to antique furniture, pictures, lamps, and the like. Since John had his room for the boys, Tami decided that there should also be a girls' room; so another room was filled with antique dolls and glass, porcelain, and ceramic figurines.

Their hard work completed, and the building transformed into a cozy, homey store filled with gifts and furnishings old and new, the family faced one more obstacle. A bridge near JC's Hidden Treasures had been closed for three years. With the main traffic artery that led over the bridge out of commission, the family worried that no one would be able to find their store. They had embarked on the construction in spite of this lingering concern. Fortunately, the repairs on the bridge were completed two weeks before the store's opening in May 2000.

Since the opening, Tami, Carol, and John have translated their long-held dream into a successful reality. According to Tami, traffic in the store has been so heavy just from passersby and word of mouth that they haven't had to do much advertising. "It's been incredible," she said. "We're thinking, 'Oh God, what's it going to be like when we advertise?'" JC's Hidden Treasures took in $250,000 during the eight months it was open in 2000. Not content to rest on their laurels, the family opened Tami's garden center in April 2001, complete with flower and vegetable plants; lawn furniture; wrought iron pieces; garden flags and windsocks; and antique water pumps, farm equipment, and milk cans.

The store has been a success not only financially, but personally. While working with family has its potential pitfalls, John, Carol, and Tami have discovered that they love it, and that the retail operation draws on each of their strengths. According to Tami, her mother is the skilled decorator, her father supplies the foresight and fixit skills, and she's "just a go-getter." Happy with the results of their long months of hard labor, the family is looking forward to the future. Said Tami, "I believe we have only just begun."