Home decor shop relocates to Hastings | News
Retirement didn’t settle very well with Elsie Houdek and following two months, she moved to Hastings and opened a house decor shop named LC Gifts at 641 W. Next St.
Giving seasonal dwelling decor such as wall prints, floral sprays and centerpieces, she reported it’s a way to be involved in the neighborhood and get out of the household.
“I get to fulfill all kinds of individuals,” she mentioned. “It offers me some position to go to each early morning.”
While the downtown store opened in November 2019, Houdek brought a lot more than a decade of understanding jogging a equivalent company in Norfolk.
It started out as a side hustle for her comprehensive-time business occupation. She went to craft shows on the weekends, loading and unloading her provides for the function before carrying out it all yet again to return home.
“A large amount of items get damaged when you haul them from place to place,” she claimed.
In 1995, Houdek resolved to set her small business into a shop entrance in Norfolk.
Her partner, Robert, experienced a lung sickness that prevented him from going out in public as considerably since cigarette smoking was authorized indoors at the time and the smoke worsened his condition.
“I made the decision I’ll get him a shop and he can run that,” she claimed.
Houdek began building preparations for the storefront, but her partner ended up in the clinic about a thirty day period prior to the doors ended up set to open in November.
Robert’s health and fitness deteriorated and he died soon in advance of the opening.
Despite the grief at the decline of her spouse, Houdek ongoing with the shop’s opening.
She now experienced lined up the creating and located crafters willing to deliver products on consignment.
With only a thirty day period prior to Xmas, she understood the consigners wouldn’t have time to market their wares anyplace else if she pulled the plug.
Without her spouse to run the keep, she had to hire enable due to the fact she continue to experienced two other work opportunities at that position.
The store was open up about 12 years, Houdek explained, while she was primarily involved in the paperwork relatively than the working day-to-working day operations.
When she retired from her full-time function, she didn’t have any other ideas and her head went again to that enterprise.
Her daughter, Deb, lived in Hastings and advised she established up store in the downtown region in Hastings.
Decorating in a country chic style, Houdek opened LC Presents in November 2019, just as the pandemic commenced. She stated enterprise is setting up to get back again on observe now.
Houdek named the business LC Presents as a play on her 1st title but it stands for Loads of Decisions.
She attempts to come across a wide assortment of decor, clothes and other gifts to element in the retail outlet, mostly produced in or shipped from America.
“We give unique presents for clients,” she claimed.
