Get together in Indianapolis at Delta Faucets Headquarters
6 August 2010
“With a Little Help from My Friends”
Mine is a life that has gone in many directions, but the avenues that most distressed me were those that took me down the various corridors of an existence in the world of corporate business. I have a brother who did well in it and know of many others who swear by the success of their careers, but it was always to me a dog-eat-dog world. It’s long behind me now, and since then I have been privileged to enter into two worlds that are quite the opposite of my previous experiences. The first is woodworking, and the second is blogging.
I was privileged to learn my woodworking at Palomar College, where I regularly rubbed shoulders with people only too willing to share all they knew with me. Later, I joined a professional cabinetmakers’ guild and found the same to be true. The other thing that I have found particularly exciting is the world of blogging and interior designers, and it is this that enables me to write today’s blog.
Next week Joe Dusel (he’s the Business Manager for CFT411) and I will be making a trip to Indianapolis to learn all there is to know about Delta Faucets. It’s a trip that is a direct result of Cheryl Kees Clendenon who owns and operates In Detail Kitchens and Baths in Pensacola, Florida. I “met” Cheryl on the Internet at the end of January through a comment I made on her wonderful blog site. A few weeks later she went to New York with 18 other interior designer/bloggers, and before she left she wrote a blog like this one. My first thought was, “how do I get such a trip?” and my second was that, if I ever did go on such a trip, that I would want to take the time to do this.
Well, as it turned out Cheryl introduced me to Charlie Kondek, the Director of New Media Relations at MS&L, who is putting together a trip to Indianapolis to learn all about Delta faucets. What I like about all of this, though, is that from the outside looking in, it would seem that interior decorating would be a bunch of dog-eat-dog type personalities, but what I have found is that they are much like my fellow woodworkers. The Beatles had it right, you know. We get by with a little help from our friends. And when you see what your friends are willing to do for you from time to time, you do get a little high, just on the sheer exuberance of it all.
It’s an exciting opportunity for all of the attendees to learn something about Delta faucets, but also to get a chance to know each other and network a bit. It’s a new world to Joe and I in a lot of respects, so all of the people on this list are unknown to us, although that said, my impression of what I have already seen in the emails that have been flying back and forth since Charlie sent out the itinerary is that we’re really just a bunch of friends who haven’t met yet. So, with that as prologue, I would like to introduce my fellow attendees.
First up is Alice Liao who is the Executive Editor at K&BB Magazine. I must say, and I do say, that I got quite a bit of inspiration for my blogs from that source in the beginning months of CFT411. Alice also writes her own blogs for the Designer’s Corner at K&BB Collective. Coincidentally enough, her August 4th blog is on faucets! But it’s proof positive, I think, that the whole idea of faucet design is becoming, more and more, an important consideration, both for those in manufacturing and for those who use the products. I couldn’t help noticing, too, that Alice wrote a wonderful blog on the Brew Master draft system, a built-in beer dispenser from Elmira Stove Works. Alice definitely strikes me as someone who has her priorities straight!
Alyssa Haggerty has a blog site titled “Persephone Irene Design,” which has a subtitle I tend to identify with: “I’m just a small fish swimming in a sea of new kitchen and bath products. Navigate with me, will you?” It is very much the feeling I had when Joe and I started this blog site in February, 2008. There’s a lot of stuff out there, and the fear is that you’re going to do all this writing and never really have much to show for it. Alyssa is a Kitchen & Bath Design student at the BAC taking a course in Universal Design, who is sharing both the things she learns and the insights she develops as she swims through the boundless sea.
Kitchen and Bath News bills themselves as the leading business, design and product resource for the kitchen and bath trade. But more and more these days, ecological considerations are becoming increasing important to this world we live in. In fact, I just posted a blog on a company that is making furniture from reclaimed teak. Andrea Girolamo writes on sustainable design ideas, eco-friendly products and green solutions at Kitchen & Bath Sustainable. It’s a wide-ranging blog that includes such things as information on reclaimed wood from bowling alley lanes, which, to me, was not all that unusual, as I have a woodworking friend who made a wonderful work bench from a reclaimed bowling alley. However, she also had a blog on a Spanish tile maker who has actually created tile that support a variety of drip-irrigated plants on the side of the building!
Jonathan Sweet is from HousingZone.com, which was recently purchased by MB Media. They published “Professional Builder,” “Custom Builder” and “Professional Remodeler,” which were always cutting-edge magazines devoted to the construction trade, serving: architects, engineers, contractors, remodelers, and single-family home builders in a wide range of residential and commercial markets. The new ownership pledges to be “fast, nimble, open, and committed to the success of this market.”
Kim Fauth is from One Project Closer, which is one of the more intriguing blog sites I’ve seen. On their site they say, “Anyone who’s owned a home for more than a few years knows that the list of house and community projects never ends. But that doesn’t stop us from tackling them, because every project moves us One Project Closer to the perfect home, or community, or life.” We’ve had our home for twenty years now, and I have to say that these people definitely have the right on what’s involved in home ownership. I do as much of the work as I can, and it seems to me that by the time I finish repairing one end, the other falls apart! What I find particularly interesting about this blog site, though, is that they have put together a number of “How-To-Do Its” that look like they really would enable me to tackle more than I do.
Kim Sweet is the Editor-in-Chief of Kitchens.com, which is a one-stop-does-all resource for anyone looking to remodel a kitchen. It’s the kind of place where you sit there for hours, just going from one page to the next. I’m telling you, if these people didn’t cover it, it doesn’t matter! The other thing I like is that they are forever pushing the envelope, telling people not just where kitchens have been, but where they are going. They recently put together a fascinating design project. They paired four designers with four iconic personalities in order to design dream kitchens for the personalities. Cheryl Kees Clendenon was one of the chosen designers, and she created a wonderful kitchen design for Miriam Kamin who has a blog site called Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda, which is a blog about family life. I’m telling you, bloggers are everywhere these days; they’re everywhere! The final kitchen design was glorious, and I say that even though it was never built; it was just a concept. But, oh man, what a concept!
Kit Stansley is from DIY Diva, which is one of the more fun blog sites I believe I have ever read. It revolves around a woman who suffers from what seems to be a rather unnatural attraction for her drill. I kid you not. This is what she says about it: “You see this drill? Do. Not. Touch. This. Drill. Should the worst happen and I cut off a finger and bleed to death in my garage, bury me with this drill.” I just read what she had to say on drywall, and for all the fun she had with it, it was also very informative. It is very difficult to write a How-To that actually makes sense for someone who has never done a particular job before. I was lucky enough to learn drywall from a contractor friend who stood beside me and showed me how to do such things as hold the drywall knife just so. In the absence of that kind of guidance, though, I think I could have done quite nicely with her instructions.
Mike Miazga is from Supply House Times, which covers all the latest in the Plumbing industry, along with tools, concepts, kitchens, baths, industry trends, and pending legislation. I just spent some time learning about proposed new restrictions on shower heads, which is the sort of thing that ends up having an enormous impact on the plumbing industry and all those who are affected by it. Today’s “must have” item may be next year’s “forbidden by law.” Mike is the senior editor for Supply House Times sister publications “Plumbing & Mechanical” and “PM Engineer.” All in all, Supply House Times is an absolutely mind-boggling array of information, not to mention full coverage on the latest tools. In fact their Events Photo Gallery features content from DeWalt’s 12-volt drill launch. That’s a picture of Mike demonstrating the drill-lucky for him it didn’t belong to DIY Diva!
Shelly Leer is a lady who has considerably more energy than I do! She wears all kinds of hats these days. Shelly blogs for Curbly, which is a Web community for people who share pictures of their home, find design ideas, and get expert home-improvement advice from people like Shelly. She’s been taking apart and rebuilding furniture for more than 15 years and, in addition to her many writing gigs, is on the faculty at The Indianapolis Art Center and independently teaches classes and workshops in sewing, upholstery, creating and design. The other item in Shelly’s many gigs that I found interesting was the periodic projects she does for Apartment Therapy, which is a blog site that takes as its mission, “Helping people make their homes more beautiful, organized and healthy by connecting them to a wealth of resources, ideas and community online.” Typically, that sort of advice is dispensed only to home owners, but Apartment Therapy, as their name would indicate, is there for those who rent a home they would like to make beautiful. They also have broken themselves into six major regions of the country, which is a wonderful idea for this sort of thing. Sound advice for a Chicago apartment may not be particularly useful in Los Angles, but having two linked sites, as Apartment Therapy does, handles that problem quite nicely. It’s a most intriguing site, and even though I own a home, I still found myself spending quite a bit of time on their website.
Tim Carter is a guy who’s actually worn a tool belt and done the kind of work he gives advice about on his website Ask the Builder. He started rehabilitating houses for resale and one thing led to another, as is pretty much the case for every general contractor I know. They don’t really go into it with the idea of learning everything there is to know about home construction, but their curiosity, skills, workplace needs, and courage to attempt the unknown ends up making them considerably more knowledgeable then the rest of us. In 1993, Tim was selected as one of the top 50 remodelers in the United States by “Remodeling Magazine,” which led him into a new career. Lots and lots of homeowners get taken by builders and remodelers, often because the people doing the work don’t know how to do it correctly! Man, I wish this guy had been around at a couple of junctures in the long saga of home repairs I’ve had done by the considerably less than competent. More and more, I would just rather do it myself. And because I am far from alone in that sentiment, Tim was able to launch Ask the Builder on October 2, 1993. It’s a column that still runs in newspapers each month, and now Tim has a website that is doing quite nicely.
Tim Layton is The Remodeling Guy. He was a professional remodeling contractor for over twenty years, but is anxious to let us know that he’s not an old geezer, having become a remodeling contractor at age 19. Actually, as a bona fide Old Geezer, I tend to think of 39-year-olds as young pups! But I digress. Actually, that’s the definition of age, you know. If you can get out of a chair without your knees sounding like popcorn (I can’t!), you’re still young. But I’m digressing again. Actually, Tim makes a lot of sense on his website, and I spent a lot of time on it just now. It’s not hard to understand why he’s been as successful with it as he has.
Charles and Hudson is an independent resource for do-it-yourself enthusiasts seeking the latest in home improvement tips and techniques as well as the finest tools and hottest news in the home building industry. It was established in 2005 by Timothy Dahl who is the site’s editor. Timothy first learned at his father’s knee, as do many of us, I suspect. As a six-year-old I would spend the entire day “helping Daddy,” which at that age really just consisted of fetching an occasional tool, but I was so fascinated with the Old Man’s carpentry projects that I would sit for hours just for the opportunity to “help him.” 
I really wish he could have seen what I did in my yard, but he passed several years before we bought this house. Katy Ryan, Timothy’s Assistant Editor, will also be in Indianapolis. Katy definitely has the chops for her position. She graduated with a degree in magazine journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and has worked full-time for the Kansas City Star and later as a regional magazine editor. And she’s just published a book! I think it’s worth noting, too, that Timothy went from a small by-the-seat-of-his-pants venture to a staff of eleven in about five years, which is a success story Joe and I frankly hope to emulate!
Lauren Hunter is the Products Editor at Remodeling Magazine, which is a mind-boggling assignment for a magazine that just rips the cover off of things. If there’s a product that can be used for remodeling that Remodeling Magazine has NOT written about, it probably hasn’t been invented yet! It truly is a whole cornucopia of products, tools, methods, and advice. Looking at her body of work (OK, glancing at it; she has produced a TON of material!), you almost get the feeling that she got the job by going to a remote location and activating a tape machine that said something like, “Your mission, should you decide to accept it, will involve traveling to industry trade shows nationwide, writing opinion blogs, and researching and reporting on every significant trend and product in the remodeling industry. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds.” I’m telling you, it’s a hell of an assignment and a lot of work has obviously gone into it. Lauren writes on a wide range of subjects and is one who clearly knows her stuff, which can be, when it is done correctly, pretty devastating. To cite just a single example, I was very impressed with the blog she wrote on “Why We Need More Weatherization Assistance,” in which she took on reporter Katie Couric and House Minority Leader John Boehner. What I found myself liking was the strength of the argument, the research done on it, and the personalization of the argument itself. More and more these days, people just grab a microphone and start shouting. Lauren does her homework.
All in all, it’s a heady group, and Joe and I are delighted to be included in it. We are very much looking forward to meeting everyone in Indianapolis and learning about other products from the makers of the Delta Pilar Kitchen Faucet at the top of this blog that so excited me when I wrote about it last September.
Joseph
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8 Responses to “Get together in Indianapolis at Delta Faucets Headquarters”
August 6th, 2010 at 9:32 AM
Hi Joseph,
Great post and write-up on a really interesting group of folks! I’m looking forward to meeting you and the rest next week in person. “Young pup”, you say? It’s been awhile since I’ve been associated with that term, but you’ll get no argument from me.
Tim
August 6th, 2010 at 9:41 AM
Have fun and learn a lot in Indianapolis Joe; the Delta folks are great people!
August 6th, 2010 at 10:05 AM
Thanks for the introductions Joseph. It is going to be a very interesting trip, and a great bunch of people to be there with.
Joe
August 6th, 2010 at 10:45 AM
Everything is relative, Tim. At my age, just damned near everyone I know is a young pup!
August 6th, 2010 at 5:13 PM
Thanks Joe for the kind words! And you know as I have said, iit is a definite pay it forward thing in this crazy business! I have Paul Anater to thank for many introductions ( kitchen and residential design)! The Delta people really are awesome!you wil be energized and amazed at what you learn! I am jealous! And some of those folks you mentioned are people I would love to meet! Kim Sweet and Alice Liao are fantastic and you will really enjoy their company! Have fun aand keep us posted on your travels! Say hey to charlie for me! He is a first class guy!! Cheryl
August 9th, 2010 at 10:10 AM
Joe, I guarantee you will have a blast! The folks at Delta and their marketing team are fantastic. It will be inspiring, man am I kind of jealous (but in a good way!) I am delighted to see manufacturers like this reaching out to the design community.
Plus the bonus is meeting like minded individuals form all over who share our love for this crazy, fabulous business we are in called remodeling and design. Love it all!
Cheers,
Laurie
August 9th, 2010 at 3:18 PM
Thank you for the good wishes, Laurie and Cheryl. You have both been very generous with your time, and it is very much appreciated. I look forward to the day when we can either return the favor or pay it forward. Because in the end, that’s what it’s all about.
August 10th, 2010 at 12:02 PM
[...] Hopefully, by the time you read this, I’ll have safely made it to Indianapolis for a bloggers’ visit with the good people at Delta Faucet Co. For a comprehensive rundown of who will be there, check out Cabinet Furniture Trends Information’s blog post. [...]