The past couple weeks have been super busy, as always, but especially since we have had a new shop going up, 4th of July, and we made a short 2-day trip to Arkansas this past weekend for the baptism of our niece.
For those who don’t know, my husband is a forklift mechanic by day and an automotive mechanic by night. He has training in automotive technology and has worked for many automotive repair shops but his dream is to one day own his own shop. We are slowing getting there! For the past 5 years, my dear hubby has done automotive work on the side and we are now getting to the point where there isn’t enough time in the day for him to work on vehicles and get them finished in a timely fashion for our customers. The wait time for vehicle repairs has increased to a week or more at this point because of the significant increase in business in the last year or so. We have been so fortunate to be getting so much more business but that also means we need to expand our shop.
My husband has been working out of the sorry little shed/garage that was here when we bought the property but it barely holds one car and at this point, it doesn’t even hold that with all the extra tools and equipment he has. We have always dreamed of building a larger garage/shop but in the past year, it turned into more of a necessity to better serve our customers.
So this year, we decided it was finally time to make Matties Auto Repair official and build a new shop!
It took many months to get the finances in order but work started on June 29. The concrete was supposed to be done and then the building up in a week or two but we have had a few setbacks that have extended that timeline. First, it rained for like 3 days straight around the 4th of July. So we had to wait until this week to continue work getting the form ready to pour concrete. Then, while digging the trenches, we discovered that the previous owner decided to bury tons of concrete, cables, metal, and all kinds of other random junk right where we are building the shop!
The building is going to be 30 x 50 feet which means it is about the same square footage as our home. Go big or go home, right?! We will be able to fit at least 4 vehicles at one time, including my hubby’s huge truck, and a lift! Plus, my husband will now be able to work in any sort of weather since he will have a covered shop. That means we will be able to get business in and out quicker, which in turn means he will be able to do automotive repair full-time hopefully within the year!
Inspectors come out tomorrow to make sure it looks good before the concrete is poured. Then, we are hoping for concrete to be done on Saturday, my husband’s birthday! Happy birthday to him! His new shop is totally his birthday present, haha! The building part is supposed to go up starting on Monday so I’m praying that it will finally be finished next week. I’m looking forward to cars being out of my yard and finished much more quickly and efficiently. That means we are getting closer to running our own business full-time, which will hopefully mean more revenue, a happier husband, and more bills paid off aka a happy wife (that may be the accountant in me speaking haha).
We were quoted upwards of 60k for a shop like this which is ridiculous, but were able to get it MUCH cheaper with a little extra work. I’m always about that budget and frugal living, can you tell?! If anyone is interested as to how we were able to do it more affordably, please let me know and I will be more than happy to write a blog post about it! It is definitely worth the investment, as it will do great things for our business and will add a ton of value to our home since everyone wants shops like this down here in South Texas.
Feel free to follow along with progress on the shop by following our Facebook page: Matties Auto Repair! If you are in the Houston area and need automotive work done, we are SUPER affordable and my husband is ASE certified! Even if you aren’t in the area, he does do consultations by phone or messaging, and FB likes always help!
