Thinking inside the box.

Retirement is when someone detaches himself or herself from the workforce completely. Typically a person who retires begins to unwind and gets some well-deserved rest and time to pursue hobbies and interests; doing things that they want to do as opposed to doing things they need to do. It's not very often that someone who retires decides to start a new career, but take into consideration the knowledge and skills that a retiree has accumulated over the course of his or her life, and a new business venture can become a legacy.

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Elaine and Larry Westby were retired at one point. In retrospect, it could probably be referred to as a leave of absence or an extended vacation of sorts, but after owning and operating a business for many years, a break was in order.

"My wife and I owned the Miele appliance store on Circle Drive that we started and ran for 26 years. Then we had a customer come in and wanted to buy it. The time seemed right for that so we sold it and took a few years off."

It was by chance that the Westbys happened upon the garage renovation business. With the newly acquired time off, Larry soon put himself to work around the house, attacking various jobs and identifying areas that could use some work. The garage was one of the areas that needed attention.

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"My own garage had screws on the wall with ladders hanging and stuff laying everywhere and it wasn't very pleasant. What I did was pull out everything that had been accumulated, paint the walls and put in new cupboards to try to make it really nice, not Slide-Lok nice, but pretty close."

The work Larry was doing on the garage in their north-end Saskatoon home drew considerable attention from passersby who would be out enjoying the evening.

"I put in slat-wall, new cupboards, new flooring, beer keg cooler, refrigeration, a big-screen TV and people would come down the street going for a walk and they would look in and would say, 'Can we come in and see it?' And we would say, 'Sure, come on in, be our guest.' They would come in and look around and ask questions and one of the main questions was, 'Where can we get this done and how can we get this done?' So many asked that sort of thing that we thought; maybe there's something to this."

A period of time followed when the Westbys researched renovations that were being done to garages. There were a lot of companies on the Internet that offered a wide variety of products, but nothing seemed to fit, until they stumbled upon Slide-Lok. They liked the fact that Slide-Lok had the cupboards, floors and accessories all under one roof. They decided to go down to Arizona, where Slide-Lok originated, and were instantly comfortable with the operations and the people. The Westbys were treated like family and said to themselves "this is for us."

Larry Westby is a firm believer that the garage should be utilized as a functional room in the house. Slide-Lok garage solutions are ideal for transforming a garage into a recreation room of sorts where friends and family can gather and enjoy one another's company.

"People are often in the mindset that their house is getting too small, they should sell it and move to a bigger house. With a two-car garage there's 525 square-feet that we help them get back and make it the best money they ever spent."

Larry and Elaine Westby have worked hard throughout their lives to ensure customer satisfaction and a strong business model. A typical Slide-Lok quote for a garage would involve a representative going to a customer's house and taking measurements of walls, windows and doors while at the same time plotting out where electric outlets and light switches are situated. The information is then plugged into a computer to digitally duplicate the garage. With this digital mock-up, Slide-Lok is able to upload any type of flooring, cabinets and accessories to utilize the space and come up with an option that is ideal for the customer.

"They don't need to visualize anything because it comes to life right there in front of their eyes," exclaims Larry. "Then we give them a printout of the design and they analyze it for a couple days and think about it. Then they come back to see us or we go to see them and they say, 'We want to make some changes.' So we change the cabinets and try different options, or they want to try something with an altered price, whatever they want to do, we can do that. Then we situate those cabinets so that they can always add to the design and don't have to move the original ones."

Slide-Lok is a business that sells itself once potential customers see the finished product. The trend seems to be that once a garage has had a Slide-Lok makeover, people have "garage warming" parties and the topic of conversation is where can we get this done, how much does it cost and when can we get it done? Word of mouth is important in every industry and Larry attributes getting their name out to the wonderful business partners they've had with their previous work and with their new work. The motto of "treat others how you wish to be treated" is emphatically expressed by the Westbys and they hope that they have treated business partners as well as they've treated them. Some people they would like to acknowledge are: Legacy Homes, North Prairie Developments at Millar Landing, Miners Construction, Sarcan and Touchstone Developments.

Larry is gracious for his staff and the outstanding job that they have done and that they continue to do. With a typical garage renovation--including floors, cabinets and accessories--taking only an average of three days, his staff needs to be outstanding. With the Westbys, hard work is always rewarded.

"When I started, the first guy I hired was Cliff Thiemann, who sold his trucking business in 2007 and was in sales until he contacted us and came to work. He's been with us since Day 1 and has been such a great employee that we're making him the third owner of our company. Every garage he's done, we've never had anyone come back with a complaint or a need for touch ups."

So, is retirement in the future for the Westbys? Not any time soon. The enthusiasm and attention to detail that Larry shows is usually reserved for young people just entering the workforce, but it's obvious from the twinkle in his eyes that he's exactly where he wants to be and doing what he wants to be doing at this point in his life.

RELATED ARTICLE: WHAT IS SLIDE-LOK?

Slide-Lok started in Arizona over 30 years ago specializing in kitchen cabinets. They recognized that their customers would often take the old cabinets from the kitchen and use them in the garage. The problem with this was that they often didn't fit quite right and were not durable enough to handle the fluctuating temperatures and rugged jobs. This inspired them to make cabinets specifically for the garage.

The reason the company is called Slide-Lok is because of the patented dovetail design that allows the cabinets and cupboards to easily be assembled by sliding the individual pieces into place. The cabinets themselves are made of plywood instead of particleboard and are pre-fabricated and shipped in to each dealership so that they can be assembled and installed in a timely fashion.

Slide-Lok is more then just cabinets, they are garage solutions. One of the major aspects of garage solutions is flooring. Slide-Lok uses Poly-aspartic coating that gives a garage floor versatility and resilience to all elements. Their flooring solution has been installed in many commercial buildings and boasts industrial strength, one-day application, long lasting colour and gloss retention, weatherproof and waterproof, and unmatched impact, abrasion and stain resistance. Slide-Lok flooring also comes in a variety of textures and colours to suit the needs and aesthetics of any customer. Forklift and heavy machinery traffic is common on Slide-Lok floors and they will take the abuse of oils, gas and chemical spills. They are approved by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for food processing facilities and restaurants.

Storage solutions offered by Slide-Lok are unbelievable. From the simplest to very complex designs, a garage can be transformed to maximize space for any home. Custom slat-wall is also installed by their technicians with a plethora of accessories from tool hooks to baskets that can hold your typical garage items or recreation accessories. Overhead storage solutions, car lifts that can hold up to four snowmobiles, poly-aspartic coating on decks and stairs, and every accessory in between are just a glimpse of what they offer at Slide-Lok.

Slide-Lok of Saskatoon owns the rights to install in Saskatchewan and they also do jobs in Alberta and Manitoba.

Written by Nathan Hursh

Photo by Stuart Kasdorf Photography

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