Publish Date: 12/26/2006

Sindelir relaxes after three decades

By Tony Kindelspire
The Daily Times-Call

LONGMONT — After 34 years of filling area residents’ rooms with furniture, JoAnn Sindelir decided to call it quits in 2006.

Sindelir — whose husband, Leo, launched the business in 1972 in a small space on Main Street in the heart of downtown — decided this spring to close the business.

The store grew from humble beginnings to become the largest furniture store in Boulder County, pulling in customers from all over the region.

Sindelir announced in May that the business would close this summer, after most of its inventory had been sold off, and she contacted Pat and Mike Woodley to see if they would like to take over her 50,000-square-foot building at 1400 S. Main St.

“You know, it took a lot longer than we thought,” Sindelir said of shutting down the business. “Things went on for about two months.”

Sindelir said that since stepping away, she has been taking it easy, getting her financial affairs in order and taking care of an eye problem. But she’s also been exploring a few things she never had time to do before.

“I’ve joined a political lunch group for women,” she said. “They’ve been around for years.”

She also said she was asked to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, which opened its small retail outlet, the ReStore, in October. David Emerson, Habitat’s executive director, said Sindelir donated furniture for the ReStore after her store closed.

“We’re at 13,000 square feet, and it’s already packed,” thanks to donations like Sindelir’s, Emerson said.

Sindelir said she’s not sure yet what Habitat wants her to do, but “they figured that I’d know as much as anybody about furniture,” she said.

Aside from those activities, Sindelir has some bigger plans in the works. She intends to visit a son in Montana and a daughter in California, and she’s helping two of her grandchildren with their own start-up business.

And she has a group trip to England planned for May with some friends from high school.

“That’s what you call some old friends,” Sindelir said.

Tony Kindelspire can be reached at 303-684-5291, or by e-mail at tkindelspire@times-call.com.