Jim and Kathy Day have spent the last three decades selling, repairing and installing appliances for the people of Loveland. Now, they have said goodbye, leaving behind a thank you to those who kept them going.

J. Day's Appliances and Mattresses has closed after operating in Loveland since 1994.

Jim Day, who owns the store with his wife Kathy Day, said the business started 30 years ago in a building along 14th Street Southwest with a partner who had purchased an appliance store at the time. Jim said his partner later handed the business over to him.

"I've been pretty self taught in this business," he said, later adding "Back then I had half a brain. I don't know now, but back then I could do just about anything."

The Days called the store near the old Schmidt's Bakery home for about 17 years as the company began to make a name for itself.

Kathy and Jim looked back fondly on the store, including memories of their children Nate Day and Genna Alvarez learning to inline skake in between the various appliances for sale.

"It was a great place to grow up," Nate Day said.

The store eventually moved to downtown Loveland in 2010, taking over the spot that once housed Harvey Penners' business, Penners Home Appliances, along East Seventh Street.

"We're going to try to fill a void in Loveland," Jim Day said at the time, according to a Reporter-Herald story from September of 2010. "We educate people much better than the big-box stores ... so they can buy what will work for them."

The Days were welcomed into downtown with open arms, Jim said as he stood in the now empty storefront.

"When we first opened that door there were people lined up to get in," he said. "I was just astonished."

"It was fun," Kathy Day added.

In their new store, the Day family continued to provide appliance and eventually mattress sales. Jim said that over the years, they have seen quite a few changes, including in the machines as technology became more advanced and in the customers who became more accustomed to getting rid of appliances rather than repairing them.

His and Kathy's kids worked alongside them in the store off and on for years, something Jim said he deeply enjoyed.

"I loved seeing them every day," he said. "They're both just phenomenal people."

Jim and Kathy, who have been married for more than four decades, added it wasn't too bad getting to work alongside each other, either.

"And we still like each other," Kathy Day said with a laugh.

"Neither one of us are bruised and bloody," Jim added.

But recently the pair decided that it was time to hang up the game up for a number of reasons, from difficulties when it comes to running a small business to the simple fact that they are just getting older.

Jim Day said he isn't sure what the plan is going forward -- adding "in order to have a plan, I'd have to think about it" - but Kathy Day said they will be moving out to a small town on the western edge of Nebraska; a place, Jim added, that is about three hours away from Loveland.

"I'm not going any farther than that from my kids," he said, later adding "We're going to ride off into the sunset, or the snow storm depending upon where we are."

Nate Day said the fact that his parents kept the store going for 30 years is not something many business owners can say.

"They worked their butts off and they were honest, and that's what people appreciate around here is honesty and not being scandalous or anything like that," he said.

As they prepare to say goodbye, Jim and Kathy expressed their appreciation for the customers who have kept the business going for the last three decades, with Jim saying he believes he truly had the best customers.

"We had customers that built a relationship and it was more of a personal relationship too," he said. "Our customers are phenomenal."

"Dear friends," Kathy Day added. "They've been dear friends."