Emu Ridge Renovations

We were excited to announce that we officially reopened on Monday the 1st of June after nearly 10 weeks of closure due to COVID-19! During this time though we kept very busy with renovations in and around the shop. Thanks to Ella, Jess, Mel, Jude, Deb, Chantal, Andy, Tristan & Larry. They’ve all done a fabulous job setting up & restocking our new space.

See below videos of the progress of sanding and lacquering the floors:

The first reno that was started, was extending the video room to make it bigger for groups. We extended the room to the front of the shop where the old entrance was by the main car park. The space is now bigger and enclosed a bit more. See some before and after pictures below.

Left – Tristan & Larry beginning to close off the old entrance and where the wall will be placed on the left. Right – The wall put up to enclose the video room.

Left – Video room nearly complete from the outside. Right – Completed video room on the inside (Rosemary Photography).

The next reno was the major one! This was to sand and re-polish the ALL the floors in the shop, video room and dining area. We also decided to cut our main counter into half, that was in the middle of the shop and move it!
To start this we had to first move everything out of the shop and dining area. This was a big job to pack up all stock and make sure everything was covered so it wouldn’t get sand and dust on it.

All hands on deck packing away everything (left to right) – Mel, Jess & Ella, Deb & the grandchildren keeping an eye on everything.

Cutting and moving the main counter (left to right) – Getting ready to cut and move, counter cut, Tristan cleaning where it once was and in the background are the now 2 counters.

Next Larry & Andy sanded the ALL the floors, this was a huge job as they had to sand right back to the raw wood. Last time this was done was 18 years ago! The floor held up so well for so long because Larry has a special secret he uses on the floors… Larry uses car lacquer rather than your usual floor polish as it lasts a lot longer with lots of foot traffic. The sanding took about 1 week to complete.

Sanding the floors – Left is the first sand nearly done! Right is Larry on the sander, a very slow long process.

Sanding the floors – Left is Tristan on the sander and it is a very dusty job! Right is Andy sanding the edges, back breaking stuff!

After the floor had been sanded it was onto putting down the lacquer. Larry completed this over a couple of days and then we just had to wait a few before we started to move everything back in! We also did some touch ups of painting etc in the meantime. Moving everything back in was another big task but was very exciting to see the new shop come together.

Lacquering the floor – Left is Larry putting down the lacquer, not an easy job as it is thick stuff. Right is the dining area and we had to suspend the buggy from the rafters!

Panoramic shot of the shop from the front entrance with the floors all done! Very shiny!

Now look at the completed shop! It looks amazing and what a wonderful job our awesome Emu Ridge Team did, which we never would have been able to do without closing. So even though it was a shame to close there was a silver lining at the end.

Shop all complete, looking from the video room. (Rosemary Photography)

Dining and cafe area looking from the bar. (Rosemary Photography)

Product Displays (left to right) – Our Eucalyptus & natural range, KI produce area & new display for all the clothing. (Rosemary Photography)

Product Displays – Left are our Eucalyptus oil, natural range and other oils. Right is the KI produce area. (Rosemary Photography)

New display for all the clothing. (Rosemary Photography)

Featured image from Rosemary Photography, who came over to take some beautiful pictures of our newly renovated shop and the family. Rosemary is a family friend and takes beautiful pictures for a lot of occasions. Check out her Facebook page here.