EPWORTH, Iowa – David Rauen said the success of his business is built on meticulous care and focus on detail.

Working in the furniture-restoration business for 40 years, Rauen said his work is rewarding in part because of its contribution to the history of local families. “Each job you do is special,” Rauen said.

Rauen spoke from the converted farm building north of Epworth that has served as the home of his business, The Wood Shed, since 1987. China cabinets, desks and dressers sit in various stages of restoration in The Wood Shed. Rauen, 67, said a family’s treasured furniture items often represent chapters in the family’s life story.

“Most of the furniture I work on is multi-generational,” he said. “(The furniture) is part of their story. It makes it very rewarding. That’s the beauty of the profession: I can help them keep (the furniture) and pass it on to the next generation.”

The farmstead housing Rauen’s business also represents multiple chapters of a multiple-generational family’s story.

“My great-grandparents came out here in 1882 from Germany,” Rauen said.

Among the artifacts covering the walls of Rauen’s workshop and office is a framed document commemorating the farm’s legacy — it received an Iowa Century Farm designation in 1982.

Rauen’s business also represents a personal legacy for him.

“I’ve always enjoyed woodworking,” he said.

Rauen keeps a small box he made in a Western Dubuque High School shop class in the early 1970s.

“I love what I do,” he said. “It’s been a great profession.”

Rauen began restoring furniture during a two-year stint in Georgia in the early 1980s.

“I spent a year and a half as a full-time student at Divine Word College in Epworth,” Rauen said. “(College) was very good, but my time was complete there and it was time to move on. A friend of mine and I moved down to Georgia, and I ended up staying for two years.”

Rauen looked for work and found it in the Peach State.

“I found a guy (in Georgia) who was doing furniture restoration,” Rauen said. “He showed me around. He said, ‘I don’t have a lot of money to pay you.’ I said, ‘I’m ready to go to work. You show me what to do, I’ll do it, and when (the customers) pay you, you can pay me.’”

The skills Rauen gained followed him back to Iowa. He returned to Dubuque County to be closer to family and the communities he knew. He also started a family in his native state.

“I moved back to Iowa in 1982 and met Joyce, my wife,” he said.

Furniture restoration continued in Iowa — first as an employee for a business owner who lived near Dubuque Regional Airport — then when Rauen launched The Wood Shed, initially in the Bernard area.

The Rauens moved back to the family farm in rural Epworth in 1987.

“I moved all of my tools from Bernard to the farm,” Rauen said. “I set up shop and I’ve been here ever since — five children and nine grandchildren later, here we are.”

Rauen said he worked hard to earn a living from furniture restoration.

“You have to work and keep at it,” he said. “We did some advertising, and word of mouth is important.”

Rauen has also worked in network marketing of various products.

“I could do it here. While I was woodworking I could talk on the phone and do different things,” he said. “A beauty of my business is that it is pretty flexible. I can take a day to go to a funeral, a wedding, or attend a school event. It’s a great business.”

If a piece of furniture has an element that is unsalvageable, Rauen will make a new element — such as a chair spindle.

“I have to keep thinking about pieces and what I need to do with them,” he said.

Paul and Carole Porter, of Dubuque, turned to Rauen and his expertise for the second time in a decade recently.

The couple had a set of six kitchen chairs that were in need of refurbishing after 20 years of use. When the Porters shopped for a new set of chairs, they found their options both more expensive than they preferred and larger in size than they needed.

“We don’t have a lot of room in (the kitchen),” Paul said. “Larger chairs just wouldn’t work.”

Rauen had restored an antique chair belonging to the couple 10 years ago, so the Porters were confident he could repair their kitchen chairs.

“Now, (the restored chairs) have never looked better,” Paul said.

Rauen said he isn’t thinking about retiring in the near future but would be open to teaching someone to enter the restoration business if they were interested.

“There is plenty of work out there,” Rauen said. “Everybody uses furniture, and they’re either breaking it or using it enough that it needs work.”