Dow City is home to new woodworking business

**Molly, Cole, Claire, Kody and Chloe Meyer in front of their garage workshop in Dow City. The family business, Meyer Made, is located in the garage.**

Kody and Molly Meyer’s kids enjoyed hanging out around the secondhand picnic table in the family’s back yard – until weather and time made it unusable.

With the woodworking skills he learned from his father, Stan Meyer, Kody made a new picnic table.

“People liked it and wanted one, so we started making more and selling them,” Molly said.

With that decision, “Meyer Made” was born in the garage of their Dow City home.

Because the picnic tables were winners as products to sell, they decided to try their hands at making additional items.

“We do kids’ picnic tables, big picnic tables and we do custom orders, too,” she said. “Right now, we’re making a bench that somebody wanted to match their kitchen set.”

The Meyers also make wooden stovetop covers, Christmas trees that can be used to display Christmas cards, and child and adult sizes of Adirondack chairs; they are currently working on a full Adirondack patio set.

They both do the work with the skills they have.

“Kody’s dad was a contractor for a lot of years, so Kody kind of learned from working with him,” Molly said. “I took one year of shop in high school, so my skills are minimal. But I try.”

One of her favorite tasks is using a propane torch to give wood an aged look.

**A charcuterie board, holiday items and a full Adirondack patio set are among the many items produced by Meyer Made in Dow City.**

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Molly and Kody were married in 2015 and both work full-time jobs; he at The Andersons Denison Ethanol plant and she at Plains Area Mental Health.

The Meyers have a seven-year-old daughter, a three-year-old son, and an 18-month-old daughter.

“The kids are here right beside us, a lot of the times,” Molly said. “Our seven-year-old daughter loves to paint the things that don’t have to be meticulous. The kids love helping unload the wood from the trailer. It’s a family thing.”

Kody’s dad stops by when they need advice on a project.

Molly said the business, which they started in July, is still just a side gig, but they can no longer park in their garage.

“Not even close,” she said. “Right now, we’ve got a one-stall garage that has boards laid all throughout it that are stained and waiting to dry.”

The garage will have to do until Meyer Made has made enough money to pay for a real shop, Molly said.

“We’ve been making a little bit of money – and we keep ordering wood,” she said. “We pay for that first, and whatever we make after that, we keep.”

They’ve made enough so far to pay for a few household items, but another aspect of the business is just as important to the Meyers.

“We’re having fun with it,” Molly said. “People are buying our things and we’ve been pretty busy. Kody always said he’d love to not work a full-time job for somebody else. We’ll just kind of see where it takes us.”

They recently had a table of their products at the Dow City Fun Day craft show and have four more craft shows in mind between now and Christmas.

“We’re for sure doing Dow City Hometown Christmas,” she said.

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