Millett Road Maker – the journey one year in

Wow – well over a year has passed since we opened the doors of the Millett Road Maker kitchen. And by doors, I mean, the sliding door to our family kitchen – because this is where Simon has been baking for the last year and a bit.

We didn’t have substantial funds to set up our operation, so we started small. We wanted to test, and wanted to see if there was space for a small-scale bakery in the communities in which we lived.

So we started in our kitchen, at home. Simon had the kitchen certified by the council, and away we went. One benchtop commercial oven quickly became two, a corner of the kitchen became occupied by a rumbling standalone spiral mixer, a grain mill pushed the kettle to the side, loaf tins multiplied and stacked under a wooden kitchen island plonked in the middle of it all, buckets of dry storage stacked high, and a trolley of trays rolls in and out of the kitchen each night.
Around all this Simon built another spreadsheet (once a finance man, always a spreadsheet addict) to map out the schedule that told the rest of us when the kitchen was available for family meal-prep, and an ever-present layer of white powder settled upon every surface in the house. 
And when I say ‘the rest of us’ – I mean myself and my poor parents, who are graciously co-habiting with us whilst they build their retirement home nearby. It’s been a juggle – as is the story with so many small family businesses.

One of my favourite pastimes these days is to wonder about the business surrounding the products I buy – are they juggling things like we are? Did they start similarly small, and grow? How did they grow? What decisions did they make? How did those decisions positively and negatively affect their family’s life, and general wellbeing? Did their spouse have to mute the tv each time the spiral mixer was turned on, the sound drowned out by the churn? Did their father-in-law wake each morning looking forward to tasting and testing the latest baguette on offer? Did the primary protagonist excuse him/herself from family dinner every night in order to roll the next day’s rolls?
Maybe that’s just us.
Six months into the bakery’s operations, Simon was looking for more space (as were the rest of the family!), as he’d already baked to the capacity of the kitchen and couldn’t make any more loaves for our orders without more space. We began making plans to turn the house garage into a bakery. The plan seemed pretty straightforward – build plaster walls into the garage, add plumbing for sinks and the right electricity connections, and ta-da – you’re close to a commercial kitchen. Pretty straightforward huh? Fast forward one year, and we’ve just got there.

First, there were the decisions about the space – what goes where? What’s going to be ergonomically beneficial? Do we put the handwashing sink there, or there? How big should the pantry be? How do we get a pallet of flour into the space?

Then, gaining council approval took more time, and more building regulation navigation, than expected (sigh – ever received one of those letters that details, over multiple pages, all the things the sender thinks is wrong with your idea?), and our budget constriction has meant that the majority of the work has been done by Simon (in the hours he used to sleep in), with the assistance of our very good and talented friends when they had time. Do you know that saying that it takes a village? We’re so thankful for our village – you’re the reason we’ve got a new space for Simon to grow into.

We’ve got an architect friend who looked over Simon’s plans and added commentary that would be expected in the industry – thank you, we know how many of your friends ask things of you – and we were so thankful for your input

Our electrics were done by the ever-friendly and smiling Warren from Watt’n’Earth Electrical. Based in Geelong, my mate Warren would drive up to us in Gisborne when he could spare the time and installed a pretty amazing array of lighting options, power connections in different spots, sensors, and more. If you ever need a sparky you can trust, who is talented, but always gives you the best option – Warren’s your man. Just don’t ask him about the Tigers – he’s a Richmond tragic, always has been – since before I met him at age 10.

The long hours were done by Gavin, a great friend of Simon’s parents – who travelled from the side of Mt Dandenong to be our right-hand builder – building a wall, door and windows into an old roller door entrance, framing up the walls, insulating, plastering, and more. We can’t thank you enough Gavin.

And Simon’s Dad was a painting giraffe – at 6’7, he needs no ladder and took days off work to come to help Simon out.

My uncle John travelled down from the coast of NSW and gave Simon another set of welding lessons to build the oven stands that our 3 new ovens will sit on.

So this is a garage-turned-bakery made by a small family business village. And Simon’s so excited that it is almost ready. We’re now making our way through the final council sign off and certification. He’s bought extra ovens, and stainless steel benchtops and sinks, there’s proper exhaust fans, great lighting and a pantry for all of Simon’s dry goods. Oh, he won’t know himself in there!

It took a lot longer than we wanted, but we’re there – with the support of our village.

Sarah