Keene furniture store closed, co-owner eyes move to new location
Feb. 20—Find It Furniture and More closed its Emerald Street store late last year, with the retirement of its two septuagenarian owners.
Helena Coburn, 73, of Keene said she and fellow co-owner Sharon Hause closed the business in late November, after 13 years, because the work had become too strenuous for them.
"We're both in our 70s, and lifting the furniture was a little much," Coburn said Wednesday.
Find It Furniture and More opened on Park Avenue in Keene before moving to 162 Emerald St. about a year later, according to Coburn, who said she started as a part-time employee before becoming a co-owner more than 10 years ago.
She said Hause plans to remain involved with the Cottage Charm portion of the business, which offers repurposed, custom-made kitchen islands, tables, bureaus and cabinets.
In recent emails to The Sentinel, Hause said she hopes to reopen Cottage Charm later this year, when a COVID-19 vaccine is more readily available and it is "safer to operate." She said Feb. 8 that the operation, which she runs with her husband, Coburn said, was still considering options to reopen and had not yet finalized any plans.
Find It Furniture and More attributed its closure to the pandemic in a Dec. 14 Facebook post, explaining that "current events ... left no alternative." Hause did not elaborate on those specific conditions in her emails, but Coburn said it was also a convenient time for the duo to step away from the business.
"We really enjoyed it," she said. "We met a lot of people. It was really a lot of fun."
