WILTON – Transforming a run-down former farm stand into a modern showroom for carpets and flooring can be a bit overwhelming.

But that is what Jim and Chris Devine, owners of Devine Flooring, decided to do last fall when they purchased the former Bursey’s Market on Route 101 in Wilton. The building had been vacant for some time and was beginning to show the effects.

“It was a major remodeling job,” Jim Devine said. “It was still set up as a market. We found the treasure underneath.” .

The Devines are celebrating 10 years in business, and recently decided it was a good time to move. The flooring store was previously on Route 13 in Milford, across the street from Chappell Tractor.

“We were leasing,” Jim Devine said. “We knew it wasn’t the greatest time in the economy, but we had been looking around for a couple of years. We wanted an investment, looking toward retirement. We had looked at several places around Milford, but we always came back to this spot.”

“I think it sat empty so long because of all the work involved in making it into something else,” he said. “They were trying to sell it as a market.”

Added Chris Devine: “We just fell in love with it.”

Bursey’s began as a small seasonal farm stand many years ago and developed into a year-round produce store, much of it organic.

The stand was gradually enlarged and, since it sits on a hillside, is on several levels.

The Bursey family sold the business several years ago, but the new owners were caught in the failing economy and the spread of organic produce into supermarkets and did not succeed.

“We loved Bursey’s,” Chris Devine said. “We used to drive out here often.”

“We wanted to keep the same feeling,” Jim Devine said. “Keep the hominess they had.”

The Devines bought the old farm stand in October, remodeled until Christmas and opened Jan. 11. They’re hosting a grand opening celebration March 19 and 20.

Jim Devine did much of the remodeling work himself.

“Jim lost 25 pounds in two months,” said Chris Devine, laughing.

And then there was the dead tree at the corner of the building that Jim Devine took down, not realizing that it was wrapped in poison ivy. The result was a severe infection.

“It’s been a long process,” Chris Devine said, “but it came out really well.”

To find the treasure underneath a run-down building, the Devines polished the wood beams to their natural pine color and installed new show widows in the front to add lighting. The couple also had to move out freezers, coolers, produce bins and shelving. Many of those appliances are now in neighboring businesses.

The end result is a post-and-beam interior with cathedral ceilings. The several levels of the store feature the various sorts of flooring on sale. There is a grand showroom on the street level with lower levels for carpeting and other materials.

While Jim Devine did the remodeling, it was Chris Devine who did the redesigning.

“It was fun to do the whole thing,” she said.

The traffic on Route 101 is not the only thing that attracted the Devines to the old building.

“This is a famous landmark. We just say, ‘It’s the old Bursey’s,’ and everyone knows where we are,” Jim Devine said. “Besides that, we won’t lose our customer base in Milford and Brookline. We’re opening up the western market, out toward Peterborough.”

Devine Flooring, which opened in 2000, sells carpeting, tiles, laminates and area and braided rugs. Chris Devine does the sales, ordering and bookkeeping, while Jim Devine does field work and installation.

The couple has three employees, plus subcontractors.

“We’re growing in the smallest little steps,” Jim Devine said. “It’s family; it’s small. We want to grow without compromising quality.”

Eventually, the couple plans to add a barn-like warehouse in the back – a building in keeping with the rural area. They also plan extensive landscaping in the spring. “

Still, there’s just one thing missing: The Devines haven’t been able to pin down the signature black and white cow figures that decorated the lawn and roof of Bursey’s.

“People ask us where the cows are,” Jim said. “We never found them. We’d like to put them back.”