Not surprising. When we lived in Kent, OH, we shopped at a lot of the Amish furniture stores/makers. We bought our dining room and bedroom sets there, and a king sized quilt to go along with it. All very nice people. Interestingly, many had electric lights and power tools, and even a web site. I asked about this and they were very gracious, explaining that business is business and personal comfort is an entirely different thing. Even so, the store and shop (the owner gave me a tour) had their own generators. They were completely off-grid. A few other stores had gas lights (rather hot during the summers).
Well that sucks. ;~( So the dream part was the massaging seats, adaptive cruise control, and relatively good gas mileage. Hope your episode was a one time event.
7 Corners Ace was truly Mecca for the woodworker or tool junkie. Used to go up there to visit my daughter in grad school and would always make a stop at 7 Corners to browse and then go to the Italian Deli/Restaurant across the street to grab some lunch.
In the Chicago metro area, THE place to go and drool is Berland's House of Tools.
formatting link
Rather sign large inside that reads "If We Don't Have It, You Don't Need It!"
I'll have to admit though, looking at Hartville's website, they probably have Berland's beat.
Truly a shame that it closed. It was like walking back in time. I don't that I've ever seen so much NOS in one place. It was everywhere. What immediately struck me was the layout in what I believe was likely the original store (IIRC the whole thing took up several buildings).
I walked down aisles that had shelves maybe 10'-12' high and there was no sliding ladder nor room to roll one of those steps units like at the big box stores. Merchandise was stacked floor to ceiling with no obvious organization (at least in that area of the store). I'm a big guy (6'4" and 250+) and was feeling a bit claustrophobic.
Upstairs in that building (or perhaps it was the one immediately to the south) was their higher end stuff. Surveying equipment, and the more expensive stuff. That area at least had room to breath.
All in all it was quite a surprise to me as they were one of the first places I made mail order purchases of tools from, back when they ran ads in every issue of Fine Woodworking.
It's really a shame that those wood butchers who follow in our footsteps in coming years will be unlikely to experience stuff like this.
It was a great experience though. On my last trip there I found a large box containing 48 metal boxes about 4"x6"x"4", nicely painted. I think I bought them for about $25. Drilled narrow end for some cheap wood knobs and damn, those suckers hold a ton of hardware. ;)
That's the trouble with proprietorships--if they can't find a new proprietor they die. There was a place here that had any appliance part you wanted. Walked in there after dark last week to get a new inlet valve for the 40 year old Maytag and found that it was now a vape shop. Seems the owner died and there wasn't anybody else in the family willing to take over so they closed.
I have a friend that had a Mustang. Mid-teens I think, convertible. She was heading to Florida and was using a left lane entrance onto the highway. As she entered (top-down) she pulled alongside one of those flatbed trailers hauling a huge backhoe. There was a car in front of her, a car in back and no real shoulder to speak of. Suddenly the trailer started swaying and Bam! Bam! Bam! it hit her 3 times before she could speed up enough to get past it. She still doesn't know how she kept it on the road.
She eventually got to a place where there was enough shoulder to pull onto. Turns out that there was a trooper behind the truck that saw the whole thing. She watched as the trooper pulled the truck over about a 1/4 mile ahead. The driver claimed that he had no idea that he had hit anything.
The damage was extensive and she managed to talk the adjuster into totaling the vehicle. She said that the event had shaken her up so much that she'd never be able to drive the car again, especially with the top down. Seeing that huge backhoe looming over her head and swinging towards her scared the bejesus out of her. She never wanted to see the Mustang again.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.