First of all I want to “Thank” all of you who understand that the issues we have at the WI store are out of our hands…As some of you know we are under major road construction at the shop and what happened on Friday August 26 is when they hooked up the sewer and water with the new road a couple of weeks earlier…they never really hooked our pipe up…they hooked an abandoned pipe up instead…so eventually after all our pipes we filled up it came up out of the upstairs toilet…so it damaged the carpet upstairs ran through the ceiling into the modern room, hallways, closets and kitchen in the lower level…Service Master spend almost a week with the labor day holiday cleaning and tearing the place up, drywall, sub flooring and carpeting…
…In my opinion…they were a little excessive but it’s there job to do the best cleanup possible…so the shop is squeaky clean now, all the remaining carpet has been sanitized even it it was to affected.
It wasn’t until Sept 1 that the City of Menasha took charge over the State’s contractor…tore up the new road and hooked up our pipes so we finally had water and facilities….Thank you to the Mayor Merkes of Menasha, Tim, Adam and the other guys who work for the City of Menasha… they did the work as fast as they could after finding out nothing was being done. I’m sure their still fighting over who’s fault it is…this is just my speculation on course..and how I perceived it…
Now after the holiday weekend new upstairs carpet is going in tomorrow after the guys have emptied the whole front part of the store so the new carpet can go under everything, which is a big chore there is lots of stuff in there!!! …we still have more work downstairs, the plasters have been in this week..now only the painting and flooring and moving lots of inventory but I’m not really worried about that as much…just need to get the upstairs ready…
SO…we are technically not open yet…but if customers stop in because they are not on social media we let them in to shop what we do have…but thankfully it has only been a few. In the beginning we had several customers basically “mad” at us because we were closed… Now I can understand that they were disappointed after driving 4 hours from out of state…but to get mad is not acceptable…we definitely did not want this to happen.
In the whole scheme of things with what is happening in Louisiana and other places in the world this is nothing…a minor event…but please know we are moving as fast as possible to get the store open and operating in its full capacity.
Our employees are now back in the store getting things ready for shipping so I’m sure Jess will be updating you on our block of the week shipments and if there is any delays…With all of this going on we may not be on top of phone calls, emails and such…so we again THANK you for your understanding and appreciate all of our customers near and far…
my best,
Lisa and the Amazing Staff of Primitive Gatherings
I am so sorry to hear about the issues you are having, Hopefully soon all will be like new,
I love visiting your shop, so sorry to hear of the mishap. Life happens. The new everything will be a blessing.
Wow Lisa and All – What a monumental task! I’m glad that the City of Menasha finally came to your aid and got things squared away for you. The store will be good as new after all is said and done. Hope things continue to go well for you. Looking forward to visiting again when you are done.
Oh Lisa ~ what a horrible ordeal to experience. But as always I am impressed by your attitude of “this is he problem, this is the solution to the problem, let’s fix the problem”. A good example for all of us. So sorry that you and your staff had to go through this.
Well said.
Lisa — ANYONE who has ever been thru a floode house or business would have great empathy and understanding of your situation there. The whole country will be happy to have your store up & running again! Thanks for the updates! Pics kinda tell the whole story, don’t they?? Keep smiling! It’s almost all in the past tense!
Gosh! What a mess. So sorry for all of the water problems. You guys are amazing and you are appreciated. Hope your day is awesome in spite of all the extra work.
I wish you all the luck, because this is horrible!
We love you christmas star, so keep up, we will wait ……….
Many greetings from france!
Love nell
Met vriendelijke groeten,
Nell Boersma
http://www.frankrijkvakantiehuishuren.nl
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nr-26/416767198439551
what a mess! so glad that you have been able to straightened out this mess and it sounds like almost a whole new shop now – I have never been to your shop but when I next visit my daughter in WI I would love to take the drive to see it. If I am coming from a distance though I always try to call a shop the day before to check and make sure the hours that I have are correct – no sense in getting mad at a shop if they are not open – people should check. Glad the town worked with you to get this fixed.
God bless you- what an ordeal! Shame on any quilters/customers who were not understanding of your calamity.
My thought and prayers are with you.
You have my empathy for sure. I have dealt with a foot of water in my basement and sewer backup on two separate occasions! You’re right, it’s nothing compared to other disasters people face everyday. Thank God for the Mayor getting the ball rolling. Everything will soon be as good as new! In the meantime, walk slow and drink lots of water (as my Grandma used to say)! In other words, stay calm, but have a drink after dinner!
Anybody who would think about complaining should help with clean up!! My best to you😊
Didn’t realize the massive scale of your flooding problem. Yikes, what a major pain!!
Thank goodness your mayor is a man of action. Hope it can all be resolved soon and you can get back to what you do so well!
Lisa, it’s Murphy’s Law. When it comes to construction it is doubly true. Best wishes on the repairs.
Unfortunately life happens. You all hang in there, I think most of us are selfless enough to stand behind you and your store those that don’t oh well. My family we have been through two hill slides, you can’t control what happens you just get through it the best you can.
Hopefully your shop will e up and running. Most of us understand it is just a few jerks.
I would only hope people would be more understanding. I would like to see how they would handle this . It just show that if you are 4 miles or 4 hours away always call first.
The people who got upset, should realize you and your staff always are helpful. If you wanted to close the shop you would of not had this happen and you would of put it out there that you were closed for remodeling. Sorry this all happened to you. Take care and keep smiling!😄
I understand the incontinence of road tripping somewhere only to find it closed, but they should be ashamed of their response to a situation you did not ask to be in and certainly cannot control. Chin up, don’t let a few bad apples spoil the pie!
Lisa, so sorry for your flood. Shame on selfish people. They should try walking ten feet in your shoes, not even a mile, and I bet they couldn’t do it. It will get better. Hard work always gets us through the tough times. THANK YOU for all that you do for us!!! You are a fantastic example of resilience.
So very sorry to learn the extent of the damage done to your shop. Wishing you all the best as your unscheduled redecorating is being completed. I have never made the trek across the lake to visit your shop in person, but love to spend time and my dollars in your traveling shop at quilt shows. Hoping once we retire to travel over to see you during one of visits to see our cousins. Continued success. Thank you!
I’m so sorry you had such trouble. Thanks to the Mayor, and everyone that helped in the cleanup. What a nasty job. Hopefully even the disappointed will now understand the inconvenience you were put through, and that you didn’t want to disappoint anyone,
Oh my goodness, it looks like an overwhelming situation to me. Thank goodness the city was more responsive than the state…no question in my mind who was at fault here. People who give you a hard time are just plain mean cranky self centered people who should just stick to mail order! And if one of those mean cranks is reading this…poo on you!
Oh my. What an inconvenience and lots of extra, very hard work and expense for you all. So sorry to hear some were cranky about it. Looks to me like you’ve worked at warp speed to get things back in order. You are all amazing!
Wow! What a pain but, as you said, it’s not the troubles like Louisiana or any mumber of places where there is total disaster. Keep up the good work of what you and your staff do – I appreciate it!
Sounds and looks like you are all doing a great job getting back to normal, it must have been such a shock. You are quite right about those people getting mad about finding the store closed. Let’s put things into perspective, well said. Best of luck with getting everything ready again.
I had an upstairs tenant in my building (over my store) get mad because we told him he had to leave for not paying the rent for months. His solution was to run the bathtub over at night, for hours, and smash our ac unit. I didn’t have near the damage you have, and thankfully it was only water! I can’t imagine the sewer backing up. gag 🙁
It sure shouldn’t have happened, and I hope you are compensated for all your expense and inconvenience . Some people are very self centered. You should have invited them to come in and help clean!
In a few months you will be able to look at the bright side, ( maybe a year in this case), you got a remodel. 🙂
I don’t mind the delay in the weekly’s at all, like I said on facebook it gave me a chance to catch up!
Thank you! So sorry you all have such a job and I love your mercandize and patterns!
I am so sorry for all the above. I’m under the impression that all is working out for you. I certainly hope so. I’m hoping your shop will take on a new and fresh look.
Hi Lisa and Nick
I am so sorry to hear about your recent shop problems
My thoughts and prayers are with you
I know how happy you are to have such a wonderful staff to help with putting all back into place
If I lived closer I would be so very happy to help also
Best of everything for you in the future
HUGS and LOVE
Carol Ann Brown Callawassie Island Okatie, South Carolina 29909 843-987-3641
On Wed, Sep 7, 2016 at 9:44 AM, Lisa Bongeans Weblog wrote:
> lisabongean posted: “First of all I want to “Thank” all of you who > understand that the issues we have at the WI store are out of our > hands…As some of you know we are under major road construction at the > shop and what happened on Friday August 26 is when they hooked up the s” >
Lisa, I was at your shop in July when the construction was going on. When we drove up and parked on the side street, we weren’t even sure you were open. But we walked in and your staff couldn’t have been nicer. I was visiting family in Menasha, but your shop was one of my primary destinations.
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