...as told by Dani
In 2014 we paid $39,500 for a little worn out house on the edge of Lingle and converted the upstairs to a salon. We took on the project with very little construction experience...and very little money. Any funds we could invest went to "important" things like replacing windows, heating, flooring and a big lighted sign. Money was so tight I painted everything using odds and ends from other projects and small paint samples. I would mix together whatever I had until I got an acceptable color, then hope I'd have enough for one wall at a time. Every wall ended up a slightly different color...if I ran out of paint I'd just hang a picture over spots that it wouldn't cover. Our kids were 2 and 4 at the time so we had them in tow for the whole thing! It was definitely a family project!
The following year we needed housing due to a job change. We conveniently had a basement apartment in the downstairs of the little house-turned-salon. It was only 1 tiny bedroom and 1 bathroom but had a cute little kitchen and spacious mudroom and would work fine temporarily for our little family. We pared down all our belongings to just the necessities, put a few things in storage, and stored most of the kids' toys in the upper loft of our little building. We had no idea that "tiny living" was trendy! During that time, we bought property out of town and planned to build a home. We bit off just a little at a time, working after our day jobs and on weekends. Excavation, the well, adding electric lines, a garage and finally a house all were (nearly) completed in a little under 4 years. My husband Tyrel did the majority of it all, with help from his brother, Orrin.
In 2019 we moved out of the salon basement and into our new home! A few months later the world shut down and I found myself out of work for 5 weeks. I sulked for a few days, but then used the time off to clean out and spruce up the basement apartment of the salon so we could hopefully rent it out and make up for some of the lost income from the Covid shutdowns. In May 2020 we welcomed our first tenant and have been renting the space ever since.
During all this time another sad, old property caught my eye. Every time I would get the mail I looked over at a run-down old bar across the street that had sat empty for awhile. I would think "Someone needs to do something with that place!" I finally got tired of waiting on someone else to take action so in 2021 we bought and began to fix up the old bar on mainstreet. In December of that year we moved the salon to our new space.
Over the next few years we've steadily transitioned the salon to the mainstreet location all while converting the first little building back to housing. We tried our hand at AirBnb, (not a fit!) And successfully partnered with Fort Laramie National Historic Site to house their seasonal employees for several summers. Our first little building has housed several short-term tenants and now is serving as longer term housing. I continue to work in the flowerbeds...one of my favorite places to be! I've been able to recruit help from a little team of high school/middle school kids- including my own girls, which helps me keep up with everything.
What a whirlwind it's been! But we wouldn't trade it for anything! We are so blessed to be part of the sweet little Lingle community and can't imagine calling anywhere else "Home."
The Story of the OLD Salon: