As many of you know, my husband has run his own automotive repair business as a side business for almost 10 years. This year he decided to leave the stress of his full-time job and open his automotive business full-time!
March 4 was the first day Matties Auto Repair opened for regular business hours. We are currently open all day long on weekdays and are available on Saturdays by appointment. If you would like more info or would like to support us from afar and continue to see updates, please feel free to “like” and follow our Facebook page and Instagram account.
So yes, basically he traded the stress of driving the 1.5 hours to and from work every day (among other things) with his previous job and instead we aka I am instead just a little stressed since we are now fully self-employed and never know what kind of business we will have each week. It has been worth it though since he is so much happier, can get more sleep, and is home to help with the kids and things around the house more.
We do trust that God will provide and He certainly has in the 6 weeks we have been open full-time so far! Every single week has been super busy, with some days turning into late nights working on vehicles to get them done for our customers. My husband was hoping he would have better hours running his own business but currently he is as busy as ever, which means I have also been busy (hence, why I’m slacking on blog posts, haha).
Not only do I “attempt” to take care of the kids (insert smiley emoji here) and the house while my husband is working, but I also create most of the invoices, pay the bills, and deal with the general business side of everything. Fortunately, I love these types of things and even have a degree in accounting because of it so it’s not really boring to me. Who knew work could actually be fun? But then again, I’m one of those weird people who loves math and anything to do with numbers, haha.
This year, we even decided last minute to be in the local Galveston County Fair & Rodeo parade. Entry was free and we wanted to get our name out there a little more in the community so it was a great chance for free advertising. We ended up throwing candy and handing out business cards with some of our family members! Of course, one of the main reasons we were in the parade though was so my husband could show off his big truck. What can I say? We live in Texas, big trucks are common around here and sometimes a necessity…you know, like when it floods during Harvey and people need to be rescued.
Yes, they have their own sets of tools to work on their vehicles. 
Galveston County Fair & Rodeo Parade
It also finally stopped raining and dried up enough a few weeks ago so we could get the new driveway material we have needed. After all, what use is a new shop if we can’t get through the mud hole to get vehicles in it? After laying down heavy duty driveway underlayment (thanks Amazon!) to help prevent potholes and the driveway material sinking into the ground, we laid down something called GS100. GS100 (calcium sulfate) is a crushed rock material that hardens almost as hard as concrete after it gets wet. This was recommended to us by some relatives who have seen it work great for roads in swamps and plants. It rained shortly after it was delivered and spread out and it hardened really well. We are super impressed how well it has been holding up and how little dust it creates compared to something like crushed concrete or limestone. An added bonus was that it was super cheap compared to other options and we got 34 tons! We still probably need another load but it is definitely an improvement over what we had before. Yay, no more mud holes!
Heavy Duty Underlayment material, similar to weed barrier, to help prevent potholes and to also prevent the GS 100 from sinking into the ground when it gets saturated in rainstorms. 
Watching Daddy work to get ready for the new shop driveway while they eat breakfast. 
Helping lay the underlayment. 
First load is delivered! 
First load. 
Done for now and already being put to use!
So that’s basically what’s been going on around here for the past month! Exciting things are happening and we are thankful we are able to run our own business and we owe that to our awesome customers! We also now have Matties Auto Repair shirts and hats available thanks to Image Your Way and we hope to offer other things soon such as bumper stickers and polo shirts. Ideas for other promotional products are always welcome! Up next for the shop as well is installing a professional lift which would definitely make jobs much easier. Stay tuned for additional updates!
