MIDDLESBORO -- Larry and Pam Mize were looking for a place to locate a second furniture store when they came to Middlesboro.

“We like the area. We like the people and being on the corner of Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky border,” said Larry Mize.

The couple had purchased property in the area about three years ago with the plan to build a second store in Bell County. The plans began to change, however, when the property at Village Square Mall became available.

“When a building opened up we looked at where the telecommunications was and thought it was too small. Then we looked at this store and the run down condition it was and we saw the potential it had. It was tremendous. In Harlan we are in a bowling alley. It doesn’t sound like a good place, but with the way bowling alleys are built, when you enter the front you are two-foot higher than the floor, so it gives you a wonderful view,” Larry Mize explained.

The Dream Furniture owner said he was also excited about the natural light coming into the Middlesboro store which helps show the true colors of the furniture. He added that the store was working out better than they had even imagined.

“We have a lot of friends here. It is a wonderful community and it is growing,” Larry Mize said of Middlesboro. “We want to be part of the community and we want the community to be part of our business."

“We want to make a living, and not a killing, added his wife Pam. "We want to see our children and grandchildren grow and we want other people to have too.”

“We want to treat people honest and fairly,” said Larry Mize.

Both Pam Mize and her daughter Heather Burkhart are interior decorators. Each have a different style and are at the store to assist customers in coordinating their furniture.

“Our business here is basically founded in our religion and love for other people and love for our community,” Larry Mize characterized Dream Furniture.

“We couldn’t do all this without our employees,” added his wife Pam.

The store is not complete as the Mizes would likae, so detailed work — such as refinishing the floor and installing a sound system — will continue.

According the Mizes people started coming in shopping even before the store was officially opened. When it did open to the public, they added, there were more than 300 people that came to visit the store and purchase all types of furniture.

Dream Furniture’s motto is Where You Buy the Best for Less. And in keeping with that motto, Middlesboro’s newest furniture store handles a wide variety of merchandise such as: Kincaid, Craftmaster Leather, Cat Napper, Lane, Ashley, Kathy Ireland, Hillsdale, Vaughan Bassett, Collezione Europa, Tempur-Pedic, Sealy, Kingsdown, Symbol, and many other brands from appliances and furniture to lamp and a host of other accessories and products.

The store is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and is located at 465 North 12th Street, Village Square Mall, behind McDonald’s. The phone number is 606-248-5755.

Photo: Dream Furniture, in the Village Square, in Middlesboro has a wide variety of name brands and prices to fit the family budget. Recently Vice President Heather Burkhart and store manager Jack Hensley trained employees how the sell and make family beds. Pictured left to right are Regina Southard, bookkeeper; William Walker, sales; Rhonda English, sales; Heather Burkhart, Vice President Dream Furniture and store manager Jack Hensley.