ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603060001
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
What they do in New River Valley kitchens, and sometimes in other rooms as well, is restore cabinets and other woodwork.
They advertise their business as an alternative to living with tacky cabinets, replacing them, or paying a hefty price for a complete refinishing.
"We don't refinish," said Melton, who worked at a Wytheville bank for 131/2 years before selling New York Life Insurance. "The difference between us and refinishers, we can do an 80 [percent] to 90 percent fix on cabinets ..."
They redo cabinets in most kitchens using a cleaning process, wood stain and special oil for less than $400, usually finish in less than a day, and even move the dishes themselves.
"There's no odor, no big mess, and you can use your cabinets the same day," Atwell said. And so far, she added, "we haven't broken anything" emptying the cabinets and putting the dishes back.
Atwell had planned to pursue a teaching certificate after earning her social studies degree, but a house fire left her with unexpected expenses. So she started her own business, cleaning apartments that are rented to Virginia Tech and Radford University students.
She left inquiries with real estate management companies in Blacksburg and Radford last July, and got calls almost immediately to start working. She cleaned more than 100 student apartments, reporting that only five were totally trashed and only one reached the point of "disgusting."
"Most of the time, it would surprise you. It's not bad," she said. "And a lot of the students would go through and clean their apartments really well." It was a good business while it lasted, but that was only through summer. "So I was looking for something that I could add on to that, that would go year-round."
As with cleaning student apartments, Atwell found a need and a way to fill it. She got together with a national company called Kitchen Tune-Up Wood Care Services, with more than 200 independently owned franchises in the United States and Canada, and took its training course last fall. Her franchise extends from Roanoke to Abingdon.
The first person she recruited to join her was her mother.
"The insurance was nice. I enjoyed it. I especially enjoy the people, and I hate to leave them," said Melton, who began phasing out her insurance work in January. "It was a new challenge, and an opportunity to own a business as opposed to working for someone else."
Melton is the sales and marketing manager, and usually will be the one answering when potential clients call Kitchen Tune-Up in Wytheville at 228-4056.
"She's going to be the main salesperson, so she'll still be able to work with people," said her daughter. They are 50-50 partners in the enterprise, but Melton jokes, "I'm really the boss because I'm older."
While kitchens are their bread and butter, they also are exploring refinishing work for such businesses as motels, bank lobbies, and churches.
They offer a line of custom-made kitchen doors, Atwell said, for people who just hate their cabinets.
They do free demonstrations to show how far they can improve a set of cabinets. In two homes, so far, the cabinets were so far gone that the cleaning, wood stain and the company's special oil just did not come up to their usual job, Atwell said.
But most times, they are satisfied with the results, and will even align hinges and drawer slides. "Wood is just like humans. You have moisture in your skin, and it leaves," Atwell said. "Especially at this time of year."
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PAUL DELLINGER/Staff. Lorri Atwell and Sherry Melton putby CNBfinishing touches on a
client's cabinets. color.