Business with Us from the Beginning
By Tex Appeal staff | Photos from Tex Appeal archives
We have so many great locally owned businesses in Central Texas to thank for supporting us this past decades since we first published in 2012. While this is far from a complete list of all our long-time friends, these, in no particular order, are just some of the ones that have steadily helped us grow over the last ten years.
Ellis Air Systems
Killeen & Temple
Ellis Air Systems has advertised with Tex Appeal from the very beginning. Ellis Air Systems, Inc., located in Killeen, is a family-owned and operated A/C repair company and has been servicing and installing air conditioners since 1988.
Fred Ellis founded the company, and each department is headed by an Ellis family member. Chief Financial Officer Mason Ellis takes care of the company money, Chief Operating Officer Preston Ellis makes sure daily business runs like it should, and Install Manager Scott Ellis supervises 75 installers who know their ways around HVAC systems.
“After graduating college in 2012, I knew exactly what I wanted to do,” Mason Ellis says. “I hope to continue to serve my community and give them years of old-fashioned, honest service — just like my dad has done since 1988.”
Ellis says the company has installed more R-410A A/C systems than any other contractor in the area. R-410A is a highly efficient, chlorine-free refrigerant that does not deplete the ozone layer. It goes inside an air conditioner or heat pump to cool the air before it gets released into a home. The refrigerant works by absorbing the heat and switching from a gas into a liquid. From there, the refrigerant goes outside, and the system’s fan cools it back into a gaseous state. The indoor fan cools the air even further and pushes that air into a home.
Ellis says the company installs all major brands, including, but not limited to: Rheem, Lennox, Carrier, Trane, American Standard, Amana, Goodman and Temp-Star.
Colonial Real Estate
Harker Heights
Wife, mother and small-business owner Tonya Autry is honest, diligent, has a witty sense of humor and is tough-as-nails — as evidenced by beating Stage IV breast cancer.
“I love business, I love working, I love being busy. That being said, I also learned from that lesson in life that you can’t take it with you,” Autry said about facing down cancer. “I learned that family is definitely more important.”
Autry is the vice president of Colonial Property Management, a family-owned property management company that takes care of people’s homes or investment properties when they cannot. She said the best part of her position is being able to work side-by-side with her entire family.
Her husband, Robert, is in charge of maintenance, her oldest son Cullen is the head inspector, and her youngest son Ethan is the assistant property manager, while also serving as a real estate agent. She has the toughest job of all. As vice president, Tonya has to play the role of the “bad guy” when tenants are not taking care of the property they’re renting.
“If it’s the hardest job in the building, it’s usually my job, and as a leader, that’s how it should be, at least in my opinion,” she says. “You have to be passionate about it and you have to love it to do it well or it will eat you alive.”
Autry says that renting a home out to strangers can be a scary situation, especially for a young couple who are leaving their home in the hopes it will still be in good condition when they return to the area.
“I really, truly find a lot of pride in those situations — caring for the home, making sure I do the job and then hand it back to them in the condition they can turn around and sell it,” Autry explained. “It’s terrifying when you take a beautiful 3-year-old house that you owe everything on, put a stranger in it and hope it’s going to be cared for in a way that you can sell it in a couple of years.”
Autry says she has learned quickly that she has to be able to handle any situation, no matter what a person throws at them.
“At the end of the day, you’re dealing with people and that doesn’t come with a recipe,” she added. “You have to be able to handle whomever you have in front of you. There are people you have to be firm with and there are people you have to handle with kid gloves.”
Precious Memories
Temple
Seleese Thompson can always tell you how many days are left until a major holiday. As the owner of Precious Memories Florist and Gift Shop, she is perpetually planning — always months in advance.
“I begin every day by checking the countdown app on my phone,” she says. “And I begin every meeting or presentation by announcing how many more days there are until Christmas.”
She admits that most people don’t want to be reminded of how much time is left until Dec.25, Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. “But,” she says, “it sure gets everyone thinking!”
She places orders for poinsettias in July. Now she’s already reserving the flowers she’ll need for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day in 2023. “I started developing ideas and placing orders over a year ago for this holiday season,” she says.
When customers walk into her shop, all they see are shimmering lights and holiday vignettes. But the stunning array of holiday trees and displays at Precious Memories isn’t just accidental. They are the result of thousands of hours of design, organization, and implementation.
“I’ve always thought of myself as an organized person. As a child I remember making lots of lists. And my mom has always been organized. I think it’s just in our DNA,” she says, pointing to her desk, which is neatly arranged with piles of paper.
Thompson depends on a core of 15 staff members to make it all happen. “Each special occasion involves a team effort. There’s never just one horse and one rider when it comes to preparing for events. So much of what we do here involves timing. My staff knows how it all works, and everyone pitches in to get things done.”
Thompson creates large-scale installations of holiday décor, including decorating for businesses, hospitals, banks and nursing centers — as well as for homeowners. She meets with clients months in advance to discuss ideas. “Sometimes we have free reign to design trees and décor, and sometimes companies and individuals have very specific ideas about how they want their space to look.”
She says that businesses typically request very traditional decorations, while homeowners often want to incorporate more colors, trends, and themes into their design.
Some holiday installations are kept very low key, with as little disruption as possible for the client. For example, when decorating Baylor Scott & White – Temple Medical Center, Thompson describes how she works with their security team and housekeeping department to ensure the experience is as non-intrusive as possible.
“We slip in with our teams, totes, and trees on Friday after hours and we work over the weekend. Every detail is finished by Monday morning.”
While some decorating jobs are completed with as little fanfare as possible, others are eagerly anticipated and are quite public.
“When we travel to nursing homes or senior living centers to decorate,” Thompson says, “We are their floor show! The day and time we’ll be arriving is actually posted on their weekly activity calendar. The residents come early and set up chairs so they can watch us ‘make it Christmas.’ And they have earned every right to sit back and watch someone else do the decorating.”
Thompson admits that the holiday season at Precious Memories is jam-packed. “It’s very physical work. I remind my staff to be sure and stay healthy during this time of year. I’m always reminding them, ‘Drink water! Get your flu shot!’”
She says she loves her work, and she can tell when it’s been a satisfying, productive day with her staff. “Everything is very visual when you transform an ordinary space into something extraordinary,” she confides. “There’s nothing quite like seeing the accomplishment of your hard work.”
When it comes to her own Christmas tree, Thompson enjoys decorating it herself. “I will buy new ribbon and poinsettias from year to year,” she says. “But I personally love my own sentimental ornaments and my collection of Santas.”
So, this holiday season, as you enter your bank or pass through a hospital lobby, admiring the sparkling lights and glimmering trees — a bit of holiday magic that seemed to suddenly appear out of nowhere — consider the time and energy — and the love — it took for those hard-working Central Texas elves to put it there.
And a tip of the Santa hat to Thompson and Precious Memories: the shop is the backdrop for Santa Claus on this issue’s cover. Those gorgeous trees in the back are great examples of the quality and care put into each design by the staff at Precious Memories.
Gallery Design Center
Temple
It started back in 1994 when someone came to Jesse and Brenda Esparza’s newly built Temple home to install blinds.
The Esparzas had trouble finding what they wanted locally so they ordered blinds from out of town.
“I always wanted to be my own boss,” Jesse says. “I knew I wanted to be in business for myself, but I didn’t really know exactly what kind of business until that day when the window blinds were installed. I thought, ‘I can do that and I can do it really well.’ I also realized that if I wanted something special for my home, I had to go outside of Bell County back then to get it. I thought about opening my own business that offered that big city level of quality, style, and service right here at home.”
And so, he did.
Jesse needed a partner, so he asked the person he knew and trusted best: his wife, Brenda. She was the natural choice for Jesse with her eye for design, as well as a professional business and financial acumen. In 1998, they opened The Blind and Shutter Gallery in what is now Neon Square on West Adams in Temple, where they served Bell County customers for 18 years, adding more products and services beyond window treatments over time until they reached a point at which they needed more space for everything they offered.
In 2016, the business moved east of Interstate 35 to 3103 S.W. H K Dodgen Loop and the Esparzas renamed their store Gallery Design Center. Jesse says the name was for continuity’s sake, keeping “gallery” in the name for brand recognition, but adding “design center” to reflect a wider variety of products and services beyond window treatments.
“One of the great things about Temple is that Wilsonart is right here in town, so we’ve never had to go far to provide great material for our customers’ kitchen and bath countertops,” Jesse says.
But the Esparzas offer more than just window treatments, countertops, and floor coverings. Part of the services offered by Gallery Design Center include interior design consultation.
“I have always loved art and that is where I draw my inspiration,” Brenda says. “My favorite design style is ‘Transitional’ which is a mix between traditional or classic and modern with clean lines.”
And not everything in the design needs to be new. “Chairs, couches, and ottomans can be repurposed by re-upholstering them in a new fabric,” Brenda says. “Wood furniture can be re-stained or painted to fit your style and design.”
While minimalism — a simplistic way of living with only minimal, but essential items — is all the rage right now in home design and some commercial design, Brenda cautions that it isn’t for everyone. Minimalist design eliminates all clutter and knick knacks, but it is important to include items that mean something to the homeowner to reflect their personality in the décor.
“Many people have different styles and in which a lot of them are not ready to give up all their ‘stuff.’ Also, at different stages of your life you find that certain things are less important than they once were,” Brenda says. What works for an empty nester might not work for a family with children still at home.
Along with the discussion of minimalist decorating comes that of decluttering. Brenda recommends starting with organizing what needs to be sorted through in a separate space and working room by room so that the job is not overwhelming.
“You can use baskets in the living room and bedrooms, bins in the pantry and bathrooms and plastic storage containers or boxes for seasonal items. Labels can also be helpful in identifying items at a quick glance. Having a dedicated place to organize and store your items can eliminate clutter,” Brenda says.
Brenda’s favorite design job was working with a client to completely remodel her outdated kitchen to her “dream kitchen.” She says each kitchen and bathroom remodel are unique to the client and their style, needs, and budget, and it is always exciting to start the next one.
