In 2006, with the new shop up to full speed and the purchase of our CNC router, we could take on projects and achieve the quality we only dreamed of previously. We were commissioned to design and build the features for a new mini-golf in the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We built all of the signs and features in our shop and contracted the onsite work to a US company. I made several trips to supervise the onsite build and the installation of our pieces. It was a challenging project as the golf was on the third floor in the mall's center. The contractor set up a large crane and we lifted the prefabricated features into place during the night.
Riptide Adventure Golf
The first major project we got after moving off Vancouver Island and completing the new shop was back on Vancouver Island. Our new client had played on Giggle Ridge and wanted a similar course on their resort property in Parksville. We designed a mini-golf for the beautiful setting and over the next months built it for them. All of the major features were fabricated in the new shop and then transported to the island. This would be the last time we provided a turnkey golf rather than just the features. That meant we also hauled our travel trailer to the site so I could oversee the onsite construction. Members of our crew stayed in local hotels. Our client loved the result so much that we were invited back the following year to add a second eighteen-hole course to Riptide Lagoon and the third year to add some more signs and features for the bumper cars.
Build it and they will come.
After building Giggle Ridge Adventure Golf and relocating back to the Fraser Valley (after eighteen years on Vancouver Island) we found ourselves at a crossroads. For a time we seriously considered becoming a design studio only, leaving the construction of our projects to others. After much thought, I decided I couldn’t give up working with my hands as I enjoyed it so much. But if I was to continue building our complex projects I needed to do it much more efficiently. It was time to build the shop I had been dreaming of for the last twenty years. We purchased a small acreage in the tiny village of Yarrow with the intent of building a new house and shop.
I drew up plans for the shop and excitedly showed them to Janis. She studied them carefully and then shook her head no. I was devastated. After so many years of dreaming, I thought it was at last the right time. What she said next shocked me. Janis told me to rip up these plans and go back to my drawing board. She instructed me to instead plan the ultimate studio with a much bigger shop space attached. We would live in the tiny old farmhouse for now. The dream shop would come first and the new house would follow when the time was right which turned out to be ten years later.
The shop instantly changed the way we did business. Instead of fabricating everything on our customer’s worksites, out in the weather and far from home, we instead worked in the comfort of our own studio. No time was wasted setting up each morning and then tucking all the tools into the tool trailer each evening. Best of all I got to work in our own backyard and still do all that I loved. It was the best of all worlds. When we finished our work we would ship the completed pieces to our customers.
We were exactly where we wanted to be and we were confident the world would soon beat a path to our door.
