The shop of dreams

In 2004 Imagination Corporation had been in operation for twelve years. With the success of Giggle Ridge, word was rapidly spreading and we were getting calls from folks who wanted similar facilities. We desperately needed some land for a real workshop, with room to grow in the future. We found the perfect small acreage in the tiny farming community of Yarrow, British Columbia (actually part of the larger city of Chilliwack) The property had an old farmhouse in which we would live until we could build a new one. Most importantly, it had plenty of room for the new shop. I quickly drew up the plans and showed them to Janis.

Janis took a quick look at the drawings and shook her head. I was at first disappointed but then surprised at her comments which followed. She told me to go back to the drawing board and make it bigger, make it better and make it the shop of my dreams. The new house would wait a little longer.

We opted for a poured concrete structure, using insulated concrete forms. This would make the new shop fireproof, energy efficient and most importantly soundproof. Inside and out, the studio and shop would be a showcase of our work. We finished the inside of the shop in September, 2004 and moved in. The outside would be finished the following year, after we did some more customer's work.

Dreaming even bigger

With Giggle Ridge Adventure Golf up and running successfully it was time to dream once more. We took serious runs at two adjacent properties with the idea of building a good sized mountain surrounded by a themed railroad and bumper boats. Hidden inside the mountain would be our house, studio and workshop. Along with these plans we considered renaming Imagination Corporation to Giggle Ridge Studios. Because we were busy much of the year on our own projects, the plan was to do only concept design for our clients from that point on. But, as with many of our previous plans in years gone by that dream was not to be.

We were disappointed but not for long. Instead we began dreaming in a new direction and with brand new ideas. The train would survive as a private railroad but everything else would change. But I'll save that tale for the next post. Stay tuned...

Lifetime opportunity

After five extremely busy years on the road building the projects at West Edmonton Mall and elsewhere, the time had finally come to do a project we had long dreamed of. That project was a small park of our own. It also meant permanently relocating from Chemainus on Vancouver Island to the mainland. We found the perfect land for lease in Cultus Lake, British Columbia. The window of opportunity was tight for we had only 100 construction days to finish the project in order to capture the critical summer season. We called back our best workers from years previous and managed to pull it off.

Giggle Ridge Adventure Golf was themed after a 1920's logging camp, typical of what would have been found in the area. The goals we set were many. We wanted a facility of our own but we also wanted to prove the feasibility of building a world class project on a small scale. IT WORKED!