Knowing how to fix things comes from a career built on experience for Jim Powers, owner of Jim's Used Furniture in Cedar Park. At the resale shop, customers can find a selection of unique refurbished pieces, sell their unwanted furniture or bring it in to be painted a new color, Powers said. Before painting or re-staining begins, Powers looks for needed improvements such as drawer function and overall stability, he said. "I fix whatever needs fixing," he said. "If they want to sell it, or if they want me to paint it and I see something wrong with it, then I'll do some repairs." Powers focuses on wood furniture and not pieces that are upholstered, although he does occasionally recover chair seats, he said. "My best sellers are chests of drawers, dressers and night stands," he said, adding that taller night stands which complement today's thicker mattresses do better than the shorter ones. Buffets, sideboards and sofa tables also sell well, he said. Pieces painted black, white or in some cases, turquoise, tend to be the most popular among his customers. The shop does not carry couches, love seats, coffee and end tables, or very large pieces such as china cabinets and bunk beds. However, Powers will buy furniture made by any manufacturer as long as the piece is in reasonable shape, he said. As a child, Powers first began working with tools alongside his parents, who ran a small crop-duster airstrip in Arizona, he said. He remembers helping his mother repair the fabric wings of the planes that frequented the airstrip in those days. He also helped taxi and refuel the planes and learned to do engine repairs when he was 10 or 12 years old, he said. As a Boeing employee in the 1960s, Powers worked on the Apollo space program. He helped assemble the launch-vehicle in its first stage of production in New Orleans, then went to Florida to become a rocket launch technician. "I was very fortunate. I got to be on [Apollo] 4 through 11," he said. Of all the launches he attended, Powers said the most exciting one was Apollo 11, which landed the first man on the moon in 1969. "It was a very proud moment for all of us," he said. Powers shifted his focus to furniture about 25 years ago, he said. He was a contractor for Homeless Furniture when it was located at the front of the Cedar Park Plaza shopping center where his own store now operates. Many of Powers' customers, including John Miri of Cedar Park, know him because of his work at Homeless Furniture, which later became Lifestyles Furniture. "When he's done with [a piece of furniture], it's like new. He doesn't let a piece go out of here that's not as perfect as you can make it," Miri said. When Lifestyles Furniture closed, Powers decided to keep the business going and in 2011 began selling furniture out of the space they had used as a warehouse and workshop. Jim's Used Furniture is located in a row of buildings behind the Jardin Corona restaurant and can be hard to find, Powers said. He directs customers to drive through the opening between the restaurant and Cedar Park Florist. "You'll see my sign. I'm the first warehouse behind the restaurant," he said. Jim's Used Furniture, 600 S. Bell Blvd., Ste. 201, Cedar Park, 512-331-4455, www.jimsusedfurniture.com, Hours: Mon.–Sat. 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Sun. noon–5 p.m., Wed. closed