Last December, Pine Country Carpet and Cabinets on Highway 71 north was adding the finishing touches to an addition they'd constructed to demonstrate the components of housing decor.
The "homey" room was replete with a kitchen, fireplace and gathering table.
A Christmas tree was awaiting ornaments.
But the Dec. 1 four-hour power outage produced a bah humbug.
The fireplace insert, set at 68 degrees, overcompensated and without a fan it overheated, charring the fireplace and causing extensive smoke damage in the building.
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The airtight structure snuffed the fire, but the contents of the building were covered with soot.
"I walked in and broke into tears," said Jenny Eischens.
Eischens, who works as a home interior designer/consultant with her parents, Jim and Linda Becker, and her dad's construction partner, Rich Dahl, was devastated.
The elegant cabinetry was beyond repair. But the information in the files - house plans and records of works in progress - was salvageable, albeit blackened.
The hours she'd spent designing kitchens and cabinetry for clients had not been lost.
"It's something you never think will happen," said Eischens, who was pregnant with her second child at the time. "Coming back to find everything gone, glasses on the desk blackened...It's a terrible thing to go through."
The fire was discovered Friday; Monday they began the cleaning process, a mountain of singed cabinets appearing on the lawn.
"It took a couple of weeks to digest what had happened," she said. "Then it hit me. It set us back, but we can make it nicer."
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The time was right for an update.
Customers stepping into Pine Country will find the building hasn't changed, but the latest in cabinets and flooring now dazzle on the showroom floor.
The newest in granite countertops, a copper farm sink and rustic and painted woods entice customers.
The construction firm has been in business for nearly four decades. The cabinet shop opened in 1998 and when Jenny joined the staff five years ago, flooring was added to the inventory.
"We can work with an entire project," Jenny said of construction and remodeling. The cost of land is contributing to the rise in remodeling versus new home building, she noted.
"The fire delayed some projects. Some material was destroyed. But people have been great, tremendously understanding," Jenny said.
Pine Country Carpet and Cabinets is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. It's located two miles north of Park Rapids on Highway 71.
Phone is 237-2340.
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