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Merit's "Mahogany" Milton Lam, Architect

    If you are looking to remodel your kitchen and are interested in “green” products, Merit’s Metropolitan door series are worth checking out.

They start with recycled substrate material and laminate it with a variety of engineered woods. Engineered woods are made from fast growing Poplar and Obeche trees, grown on plantations. They cut, laminate and dye the wood in a variety of patterns to simulate the look of more expensive woods such as Mahogany, Walnut,and Wenge, to name just a few.

For contemporary kitchens, these are beautiful, with straight consistant grains…….and they didn’t need to cut down the old Oak tree!

The quality and care of the environment from which Crystal Cabinets are made was evident when I went back for Crystals’ plant tour and seminar earlier this summer.  Their factory is spotless and the material waste very minimal, making it one of the ‘greenist’ companies around;  I was very impressed!

What really stands out in my mind from that trip is the personal story of Crystal.  Jeff and Linda Hammer are the owners of Crystal which was started  by Jeff’s father in 1947, when Jeff was just a baby.  It remains a family business to this day,  over 60 years later;  many of the employees have been there for decades.

From the minute we arrived, it was no surprise that we too, were treated as family.  Our Northwest group of dealers included others from our immediate area, as well as some from Alaska and Colorado totaling between 20-30 people.  Despite our generous size, we were all invited to the home of Jeff and Linda for a true Mid-Western style feast-  cooked by none other than Linda herself!  Below are photos from our memorable gathering.

Completing beautiful kitchens for our customers is very much a team effort, although much of the effort is done behind the scenes from a very talented and dedicated group of people.  The level of care that goes into each and every order often goes unrecognized, but I for one want to say “thank you” for helping us continue to look good!

If you’d like to share your beautiful Crystal project with us, please visit our Facebook page and post your photos- we’ll make sure Crystal sees them as well!

Happy hour before dinner.

Barbie Bond and Jim Gatewood

Trina Norstuen and Jim Gatewood dishing up with fellow dealers!

Fabulous food; fabulous company (pun intended)!

Richard Sundene (Crystal Rep.) at the head of the table.

getting the plumbing hooked up

    For the past 4 years, I have been traveling to New Orleans to help in the rebuilding of homes after the destruction left by Katrina in 2005.

    This April 16th, myself and ten other professionals from the design field, will head down to work on our 4th house. We will install kitchen cabinets, counter tops, floor tile, trim and paint….the finishing touches that help a family  finally move back home.

   As of  August 2010, there are still 20,000 people waiting for their “Road Home” money from the Government. Most all of the rebuilding that is happening in New Orleans is through volunteer groups, such as ours.

   Please check out our blog   http://seakatrun.tumblr.com/  to view our past projects, as well as client stories and photos. This year we will work on Barb and Kim’s house; a mother and daughter who were scammed out of their “Road Home” money by a contractor.

    If you would like to donate to our projects, you can contact me for more information at barbieb@ikcooks.com . 100% of donations goes to buying supplies.

     Barbie has been creating art in some form or another all of her life. After receiving a BA in Fine Arts, she began her career as a display artist, but soon launched her own commercial art business. Many of her buying trips were to Mexico, where she sucessfully sourced and imported unique finds, home to Seattle.

An avid traveler and adventure seeker, Barbie has established personal relationships with people all over the world. She has had the opportunity to experience some unique cultures, as much in the food, as well as the people. She soon made the connection of  food, family, art and home, and landed at International Kitchens in 1999 to start her career in Kitchen design.

   Barbie pulls from her diverse background and extensive travels to help design interesting and funtional spaces. She loves pulling all of the elements of design- space planning,colors and textures together, to help create a personal reflection for each of her clients.

   Always wanting to contribute to society, Barbie started a volunteer group of professionals from the building industry in 2006. Each spring, this group pools their time and talents to fly to New Orleans to help re-build from the devastation Katrina left in 2005, and of course, kitchens are their specialty.