Downtown merchant receives grants, loans for store renovation

Cheryl Hentz

Contributor

September 29, 2025

CHIPPEWA FALLS – Rebecca “Becky” Gudis said if someone had told her four years ago that the following year she would quit her job of more than a decade to buy a floral, gift and framing shop, she would have laughed at them.

If someone took it one step further, telling her she’d spend more than half a million dollars to renovate the building, she said she would have told them they were crazy.

Crazy or not, Gudis said those things actually happened – and there are times she still has to pinch herself to make sure she’s not dreaming.

From HR to florals

In 2022, while waiting for a flight home from spring break, Gudis said she saw on Facebook that the owner of a local floral shop she frequented was retiring and putting the business up for sale.

“I told my husband, ‘I think I’d be good at that – do you care if I call and talk to her?’” she said. “And he said, ‘No risk, no reward.’ The rest is history.”

Before she knew it, Gudis said she quit her job in human resources that she’d worked at for 13 years and bought the business from Vicki Nelson, who had owned it for 16 years.

Expanding the opportunity, she said she merged the floral and framing shops into a single business and rebranded it as Eevy Ivy Over Flowers, Framing & Gifts.

“Vicki was really good to me and taught me everything I needed to know,” she said. “I’d go in there when I’d have a day off or on the weekends to observe Vicki doing floral designs.”

Even after the sale was finalized, Gudis said Nelson spent about a month mentoring her in floral arrangement techniques.

“She finally said, ‘You’ve got this,’” she said. “After that, I kept practicing, took some classes and watched some videos on how to do arrangements,” she said.

Gudis said she also received hands-on guidance from Nelson to learn the art of framing.

“There’s been a big learning curve, and it seems like every day we get a bit better with everything we do, or we’re learning something new,” she said. “But, I absolutely love it, and feel I made the right decision.”

Undertaking a major renovation

During her first year of ownership, Gudis said she decided she would just focus on honing her skills, adjusting to owning a new business and growing the business in any way she could. 

But in late 2023 and early 2024, she said she started thinking about doing some small renovations and removing the asbestos in the building located at 314 N. Bridge St. in Chippewa Falls. 

“One of the ideas we had was to move my framing workshop upstairs,” she said. “We also planned to move the stairs to the back of the building.”

Gudis said the plan was to do a little at a time, as the budget allowed.

“But there was asbestos in the building, and to remove that alone was at least $20,000,” she said, adding that the procedure would exhaust her entire budget without being able to do any renovations at all.

Gudis said she contacted the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), asking if they had any money available for asbestos removal – to which she was told no.

However, she said, Ray French – the regional economic development director at the WEDC – asked if he could come to the property and take a look at the things she wanted to do once the asbestos was removed. 

Once there, Gudis said he asked her what more she wanted to do with the building if she had the money.

The extensive list she gave him, she said, included:

• Restore the brick on the building’s exterior
• Preserve the building’s original “1908 Music Block” logo on the exterior, ensuring it wouldn’t disintegrate over time
• Improve the overall footprint of the store for greater efficiencies
• New flooring
• Repair the walls
• Expose the beams
• Install more windows
• Improve and update the lighting
• Move the framing workshop upstairs and improve it
• Move the stairway to the back of the building
• Put a one-bedroom apartment upstairs to help pay the mortgage and loans
• Update the building’s aesthetics on the exterior

Gudis said French informed her that if she was willing to delay her renovations by about three months, he believed she was a good candidate for a $250,000 match loan where she would put up $250,000, and WEDC would do the same. 

Overwhelming as it seemed to be talking about that much money, Gudis said it was also a no-brainer.

In addition, Gudis said Security Financial Bank helped her coordinate with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago (FHLBank Chicago), which awarded Gudis a grant of $30,000 for the renovation and expansion of its storefront.

She said she also secured a $60,000 loan with 1% interest from the Regional Business Fund, Inc., and a 10-year, $10,000 small business loan at 0% interest from the City of Chippewa Falls. 

“It’s the first one of its kind that the city has done,” she said. “I’m the first person who’s ever applied for it.” 

Armed with nearly $600,000, Gudis said she was able to completely renovate and improve the entire building. 

“Everything but the front door of the building has been touched or changed,” she said.

Gudis said construction started in January and is about 99.9% finished, save for a few tiny things.  

“The funding is really interesting, because it took a lot of people and agencies being involved and a lot of collaboration to make it all work,” she said. “[But it all] allowed us to execute our vision for a complete renovation and ensured the building will last for years to come.”

Furthermore, Gudis said the renovation project improved the store’s customer experience.

“The new layout also provides opportunities for bigger projects because of the custom-built flower cooler that triples the size of the old cooler,” she said.

Gudis said she held an official grand reopening and ribbon-cutting ceremony late last month for the newly renovated building.

Among the 50 or so people in attendance, she said, were representatives from the local chamber of commerce, the city council and all the funding partners who helped make the project a reality.

“It felt very special to have all those people here who had helped us along the way,” she said.

Clearing a personal hurdle

Renovations, Gudis said, rarely go as planned, and for her, the challenges ran even deeper.

Amid the chaos of construction and the busy lead-up to Mother’s Day – one of the busiest times of year for florists – she said she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Gudis said she needed immediate surgery, followed by radiation treatments every weekday during the entire month of August.

Because Chippewa Falls no longer has a hospital, Gudis said she had to drive to Eau Claire every day for her treatments, then back to Chippewa Falls and to the shop to put in a full day. 

“They were so good to me [at the hospital there], getting me in first thing in the morning and working around my schedule,” she said. 

Gudis said it was, without a doubt, one of the most challenging times in her life.

“Going through that and being tired every day after treatments and still being here to run a business, and help support everyone else with what they have going on, was a challenge,” she said. 

But Gudis said there was a huge outpouring of support.

“Customers were there for me, also,” she said. “When I told people, for example, that framing wasn’t my priority just then, and I couldn’t get to it, everyone was great. They said they’d wait for me and to just take care of what I needed to for myself. I think that’s really cool about the City of Chippewa Falls and the community around it. They’re very kind-hearted and supportive.”

Gudis said her last treatment was Aug. 29, and she’ll get rescanned in November to make sure she’s cancer-free.

Quirky to sentimental, store has it all

From lighthearted and quirky to meaningful and sentimental, Gudis said Eevy Ivy offers a wide range of gifts to suit any occasion.

“We’ve grown the retail to where it is now a huge part of our business,” she said. “I think we’ve become known for having fun and unique gifts, or quirky gifts, or original gifts. And we’ve added a lot of regional gifts. People know they can come in here and find just the right thing for whoever they’re shopping for.”

On the floral side of the business, Gudis said Eevy Ivy can do anything from the very simple to the very intricate and highly detailed. 

And if the store doesn’t stock a particular item, she said, they can order it.

Of all the elements of the business, Gudis said the floral side aligns best with her personality.

“I’ve always been a creative person, but I also like customer service and doing special things and making things important for people,” she said. “We do a lot of memorial services, and I like to make things unique, interesting and special for them. We also do weddings and everyday flowers for special events. We are excited about each and every order we get. If it’s special to the customer, it’s important to us.”

Gudis said she calls the framing side of the business her “hidden gem.”

Despite doing no advertising, she said demand for framing often exceeds what she can keep up with – as she handles it all herself.

“I’m very grateful for it, especially at times when the rest of the business might have been a little slow – the framing part of it carried the weight of the business and supported it,” she said. “But now, all three legs of the stool are well established, and we’re super busy doing everything.”

Find out more about what  Eevy Ivy Over Flowers, Framing & Gifts has to offer at flowersandframing.com.