“You take a deep breath and you build.”

That is Luann Baker-Johnson’s mantra since discovering early Sunday morning that her construction storage container had been broken into and almost all of the tools inside had been stolen.

A construction crew had been working on what will eventually be a hot-glass studio, on the old Motorways trucking site at Keish and Front streets.

Baker-Johnson told the Star this morning how she had believed her storage container was the “Fort Knox” of storage containers.

The crew had been organized with the tools, having placed them all in baskets and boxes in the container – making it an easy job to take them out and away.

The door to the container had been broken, and all of the tools had been taken.

The only exceptions were two saws, which she suspects were left because the culprit would have had an already-full vehicle.

She estimates the cost of the stolen tools to be about $6,000.

The hot-glass studio project has had its share of hurdles to overcome since the property was purchased in 2013.

Remediation work had to be done to get the soil at a point where building could start.

Baker-Johnson and her husband, Mel Johnson, went to city council for help earlier this year, when they needed a wider water valve for the line going into their building – a problem they’re still working to fix.

The future Lumel Studios has been a dream of the couple’s for a while now – but it has not been quashed by thieves.

With the help of local contractor and friend Randy Weibe, the crew has replacement tools from a different construction site of his.

Weibe decided to join the couple on the project as their contractor.

The “Lumel crew,” as Baker-Johnson calls it, consists of artists and glassblowers who are helping build the studio.

“It’s a joint project, which is not normal,” she laughs.

Baker-Johnson said several people have contacted her and her daughter offering to donate tools to the cause.

As for whether the tool thievery will stall the project’s completion date, Baker-Johnson is holding her head up.

She said it won’t be ready by October anymore, but they are shooting to be finished before the Christmas holidays.

She looks at the event positively, asking herself how she might be able to get people who might commit similar crimes in the future on her glass-blowing bench, learning something more productive.

“I might meet this person or people in the future, and we are going to have a long conversation,” she laughs.

But until then, the tools will be replaced and the construction of the studio will push on.

“We are not letting anything stand in our way,” she said.

“This is a wonderful project and it will be built.”