For owner Brad Billings it’s been a rollercoaster of emotions and a tough four years since he received a call from a friend who worked nearby that a building was ablaze in Grenville St North.

“I was notified by a friend who … was worried it may have been our business,” Mr Billings recalled.

“I came racing in from home and got to the bottom of the street to find out it was closed off. I parked and walked around the corner and was probably within 100ft of the front of the shop and it was ablaze.”

Firefighters from Ballarat and Geelong battled the blaze for hours on February 6, 2014, but it wasn’t until the next day that Mr Billings came face to face with the crumbled, charred mess the fire left behind.

The Plaster Fun House was a Ballarat institution that had been operating from Grenville St for more than 20 years, but the public outpouring of dismay at the destruction buoyed Mr Billings and within three weeks the business reopened at a temporary site in Delacombe.

It later found what Mr Billings thought would be a long-term home in Hummfray St, but in October it was forced to close and Mr Billings had to again re-evaluate the future of the business.

He has reinvented it somewhat, but the future is still unclear as Mr Billings searches for the right premises so he can resume manufacturing.

During the Christmas holidays the Plaster Fun House ran pop-up shops at five shopping centres across Ballarat and Melbourne, and the business continues to offer an e-commerce website and support its franchisees.

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Mr Billings is importing the products he once manufactured himself, but that cannot continue.

“We have two shipping containers we operate out of and a portion of a large shed, but no area for manufacturing at the stage.

“The problem is finding a suitable premises, but that really does need to be within the next three to six months or we’ll totally run out of stock.”

The Grenville St North site where the heritage building housing Plaster Fun House once stood remains vacant. Colliers International managing director David Wright said the land had been sold to a local investor who plans to purpose-build an office when tenants are secured.