About Us

I am often asked how I started my business or where the idea came from so I decided to tell my story. Thank you in advance for taking the time to get to know me; it’s quite a story! BLOCKSetc has been a work in progress since its inception in June 2005. I am originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania where I grew up surrounded by truly authentic farm houses nestled in idyllic Wyeth-esque landscapes. As a young girl I would dream of someday living in a farmhouse full of charm and character and raising a family. I LOVE history and anything that conjures a past, a story or has had a previous ‘life’; there is something mystical about the imaginative qualities of actual things. When I got a little older my father would take me ‘antiquing’ and I relished just being among old pieces as I would imagine the life they may have once had.

And there you have it; the birth story of the baby block! For weeks I researched lumber and wood working equipment, I revisited marketing chapters from old college textbooks, I read every article on the internet I could find about starting a business and I learned how to build an e-commerce website. When my 3rd child was born I resigned from my position at the college and became a “mom-trepeneur”. I started slow and small and my goal was to be able to spend my days with the kids but attempt to recover some of the loss we experienced when we went to a single income household. By day I was home with the kids living my farmhouse dream and having a blast raising them. I eventually had a fourth child, and as they grew so did my business.

There have been a lot of changes over the years, but I love how I can continue to evolve by tapping into my creativity. Since launching the business in June 2005 I have outgrown my first shop (a little red barn my husband built for me in the yard) and recently moved into a larger barn we built in the summer of 2017. Although the kids are now almost all teenagers, I am still managing construction projects and I can still be there for them as they need me.