Meet Jeff Hahn and Trista Smith

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Hahn and Trista Smith.

Jeff and Trista, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We recently bought and settled into our first home together. The room we selected to serve as our home office did not have doors, which proved challenging when either of us worked from home. Instead of traditional doors, we opted for barn doors. We determined that we would install the doors ourselves, ordered the hardware, and then began searching for the doors themselves.

The problem? Our opening was taller and more narrow than standard sized doors. An exhaustive search revealed that custom doors were jaw-droppingly expensive. Jeff determined that he could make the doors, and while he had the ability and a robust supply of hand tools, he lacked a table saw, outflow table, router, planer, and the multitude of clamps that would be necessary to complete the project. Luckily, a friend who is a professional contractor agreed to let Jeff use his workshop to complete the barn doors. A week later, we had the exact doors we wanted – at 20% of the cost!

After finishing our doors, we kept finding more projects that would be better off done DIY, so we kept working and created two more amazing pieces:
* An outdoor entertainment server from Pottery Barn, too wide for our space, and custom-built by Jeff at 10% of the cost.
* An elegant headboard discovered on Pinterest, too expensive for our newlywed daughter and son-in-law, and custom-built by her at a third of the cost.

Besides economics, there is a certain amount of pride that comes with creating something unique. This got us thinking. We couldn’t be the only people that would want or need to create and build rather than buy something. We looked for something in Denver that might provide the space and tools where someone could bring in their own project but came up empty-handed. So, the idea for this business began to grow. And now you know how the desire for barn doors became My Own 2 Hands!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
While we have all of the same challenges as any start-up, we have struggled with one unique challenge. We are often met with quizzical looks when we tell people that our business is a Makerspace. The idea of Makerspaces is still fairly new. This is good and bad. Bad because we are constantly educating everyone – potential customers, bankers, insurance providers, Google . . . heck, even the UPS guy wanted to know what we do. But it’s good too because we are on the leading edge of something new here, we really get the chance to set the stage for what this business can be, and how we can best serve our customers and community. No pressure.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about My Own 2 Hands – what should we know?
We are DIY enablers. We remove the barriers that might prevent people from tackling a DIY project.
* No space or garage? We have 6,000 sq. ft., of the bright and welcoming workshop.
* No tools? We are fully stocked with just about any woodworking tool that someone may need.
* No know-how? We have mentors on site who are always available to help with any phase of a project. Everything from material planning and design, all the way to cut, construction and finishing.

We are working hard to simplify the message around how we can be of value to people. There are two ways people can use our space.
1. People can come to take any of our class offerings. Our classes range from fun projects like seen on Pinterest, all the way to skill-based classes where people can learn or hone woodworking skills.
2. People can use our space to work independently on their own DIY projects. Small or large, functional or esthetic, brand new or upcycle, there is no limit to what people can create.

Additionally:
* We serve professionals. Membership in our workshop is far less expensive than buying/renting a space, buying/maintaining tools, insurance, etc.
* We host small and large group events: social events, corporate events, scout troops, etc.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Absolutely!
* Our team of mentors and customer experience specialists. We had a vision for how we wanted to serve our customers, and they made that a reality.
* Our customers are our best advocates!
* Our families have pitched in all along the way – everything from paint before the grand opening to manning the shop.

Contact Info:

• Address: 250 E Dry Creek Rd. #203
  Littleton, CO 80122
  (our front door faces east toward South Grant Street)
• Website: https://mo2hands.com/
• Phone: 720-524-8008
• Email: info@mo2hands.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mo2hmakerspace/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mo2hands/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mo2hmakerspace

Suggest a story: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.