The Furniture Professionals

04/18/2024

The guys are sooooo close to completion! They put the two pieces of the pulpit together to test the fit. And they fit together! Each piece is very heavy and moving the pieces takes all three of them. (I'm relegated to moving the cart they are on. And the camera, of course.) Here Dayan Mossberg, Bryan Conley and Jon Hake set the base on the inverted top to get alignment right and look for any problem areas.

04/05/2024

We've been working away on an amazing historical piece from Pella. It's the raised pulpit used by Pella founder Dominie (Pastor) Hendrik Pieter Scholte. Pella was founded in 1847 and I believe this was brought over with the group from the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands. It is in two pieces right now as Dayan Mossberg does structural repairs (lots of rotted wood) and carving the missing pieces and flowers. Jon Hake stripped the old paint and will redo the finish when the structural work is done. The pulpit is currently in two pieces, it stands more than 7 feet tall when two pieces are assembled.

12/14/2023

This was a fun project and a great example of our team and the different skills we have and the teamwork.
This wheelchair is roughly 80 – 90 years old and hadn’t been well kept. It came in intact but, as the saying goes, was held together by baling wire and chewing gum. It was then pretty easy to disassemble!
The chair no longer had a finish, the wood was dry and brittle and the metal parts were rusty. Jon power washed the piece, removing years of dirty and some of the rust. He sanded all the pieces and painted the metal parts. The chair soaked up a ton of sanding sealer — more than twice what the average piece would — then several layers of top coat.
My job was to replace all the ripped and brittle cane and spline.
Dayan an reassembled the chair and decided to replace the missing foot rest. He used an old table leaf that matched the approximate age of the chair.
We’re all very happy with the results.

11/23/2022

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
We will be CLOSED for Thanksgiving and through the weekend so that we may spend time with our family and friends. We will reopen at 8am Monday, Nov. 28.
Have a safe and happy holiday weekend.

07/08/2022

We're rolling along with refinish work! We appreciate the patience of those of you on our waiting list. Joe and Chad are working hard on each trunk, table, chair, door and other pieces. Here's a trunk, before and after. The owner wanted something with more visual interest than it had. The chest is oak, we removed the original raised panels and replaced them with walnut panels.

06/29/2022

05/27/2022

Enjoy the weekend safely!

03/23/2022

It’s not often 6 chairs come to use this way! A tip of the hat to the customer for this well organized jigsaw puzzle!

01/19/2022

Sadly, we lost one of our employees in December. Todd Bales, left, had worked in our Finish Shop for about 6 years. You probably never met him but if you had any finish work done, you've seen his work.
He was our stripper and prep guy in The Finish Shop, and by nature a kind of solitary guy. The job was messy, stinky and dusty, but he loved it. He was thrilled when we moved to our new building with more light, heat and its own bathroom!
In December Todd hadn't been feeling well. He went to the doctor and learned he had diabetes, which had affected his heart. He stopped by to see us two weeks before Christmas but the next week his health took a sudden turn and we lost him on December 18.
Todd was a Des Moines native, having attended Lincoln High School. He came from a large family, being survived by four brothers and a sister. He leaves five children.
We all miss Todd, he was a good man.

The pain of his absence is softened by the presence of two new members of our family. Shown in the second photo are Joe Ewig, left, and Chad Thompson (be sure to click on the photo to see Chad.) Chad came onboard about two months ago to fill Todd's position. Chad, also a Des Moines native, is our main prepper. Joe is actually returning to us after a short absence, also working in the Finish Shop. He is a native of Springfield, Mass. Both men will also handle a good share of our pick ups and deliveries.

01/07/2022

To Our Valued Customers,

As you know, the pandemic is causing all sorts of issues across the country and around the world. The country has been faced with rising costs on everything from cars to computer chips to the food we eat. Supply chain issues and labor shortages are two of the driving factors.

We’ve seen our costs go up, too. Lumber prices have risen more than 40% and are not expected to fall in 2022. Our cost for refinishing chemicals has risen by hundreds of dollars. Wood stains, finishing products, glues, screws, sandpaper, even the rags we use have been hit with price hikes.

We wanted to shield you from these increases as long as possible, but now we’re sorry to say that we simply must pass along some of these rising costs to you, our customers. The new rates go into effect on Tuesday, February 1, 2022.

We know that many of you a struggling with our current economy, so we have a bit of good news for you: If you call or come in before February 1, we will honor the 2021 prices (excluding strip and refinish work.)

We look forward to being of service to you in 2022 and beyond.

Dayan Mossberg, owner
The Furniture Professionals