The Ground Floor: Escape!

As of Oct. 26, 2016, sisters Kari Hessing and Casie Douglas were stay-at-home moms with no plans to become business owners.

But then Hessing went on a date night with her husband and everything changed.

Tired of their typical routine of dinner and a movie, the couple decided to drive up to Cedar Falls for the evening to visit an escape room there.

For the uninitiated, an escape room is live-action adventure game in which players must solve a series of puzzles to 'escape' from a room before time expires.

By the time Hessing and her husband dropped off the children with a sitter and made the drive from Cedar Rapids to Cedar Falls, they had time only to visit the escape room and not enough time to grab a bite to eat.

'We loved it so much,' Hessing said of her first escape room experience. 'I told my husband that we needed one nearby.'

The next day, Hessing went over to her sister's house to propose that they open their own Cedar Rapids-based escape room together.

'I never even thought about owning a business,' Douglas said. 'She came to me with this crazy idea and I was like, 'Are you serious? Who are we to do this?''

But Hessing, who said she is the persistent one in the family, soon convinced her sister. They signed a lease on a space just one month later and spent the next two months setting up their new business.

They opened Break Out on Jan. 20.

Break Out offers three separate escape-room experiences built around different themes:

- 'Taken' requires participants to solve the mystery of a woman's disappearance using clues found in her office.

- 'Prisoner of War' involves players trying to break out of captivity by solving puzzles found in a cell.

- 'Child's Play' is the creepiest of the three rooms, according to the sisters. Players must solve a missing-children mystery while confined to a dark room filled with scary props.

'We wanted a room for thrill seekers and haunted house lovers,' Hessing explained. 'We tried to aim for different audiences. All kinds of people will like all of the rooms.'

Hessing and Douglas developed the room themes and puzzles themselves, starting with a list of ideas Hessing put together.

'She's an incredible writer,' Douglas said of her sibling. 'This was totally up her alley.'

With several more ideas in development and space for up to five rooms at their current location, Hessing and Douglas plan to introduce new themes to keep things fresh. For example, they would like to add a room just for kids that would be suitable for children's birthday parties. They also intend to offer corporate team-building and other large group events.

Douglas said that while the new business is a complete change from her old life as a stay-at-home mom, she's glad her sister talked her into it.

'She gave me the courage to do something crazy and brave, and I'm shocked that we've come this far.'

l Do you know of a new business less than a year old that would be ideal for a 'Ground Floor' feature? Contact michaelchevy.castranova@thegazette.com

At a Glance

- Owners: Kari Hessing and Casie Douglas

- Business: Break Out

- Address: 3423 Mount Vernon Rd. SE, Cedar Rapids

- Telephone: (319) 826-1820

- Website: www.crbreakout.com

- Facebook: www.facebook.com/crbreakout