When my team asked if I would write a history of the company for our new website, I was surprised to find that I would need to get so personal, in order to define why our business is what it is today. God Bless any person who reads the whole history! It is recorded in modules so that you could pick the dates you are interested in.
I was born March of 1958 in Jacinto City, Texas (later absorbed by the city of Houston) and spent my early years living all over the southern United States, from Houston to Oxnard, California to Marietta, Georgia, a brief stay in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, back to California, then to DeQueen, Arkansas, back to Houston, then to San Diego, graduating from Bonita Vista High. Attending a new school nearly every year, I was afraid of change, but soon became accustomed to it. My dad was a wanderer, and so was his dad, a carpenter by trade.
Through the years I have been accused of having ADHD, being TOO honest, never standing still and changing for the sake of change. Maybe the folks that accused me of those things were right, but I like to think of it this way: I have a lot of energy! I am intelligent and creative. When something isn’t working, I like to fix it. If something can be better, I want to make it better! I believe that Change is Always Happening! I prefer to be in front of change and be a part of the direction it takes!
I applied this life experience and energy to building Kitchen Bath & Home and you can see the progression by clicking on any of these sections:
1974 – 1984
Gitty-up, Go!
In 1974 as a high school junior in San Diego, I started my career as a carpenter’s apprentice in a “work-study” program for kids with good grades and an interest in construction. My dad’s mantra to “do it right or not at all” served me very well. I learned through hands-on experience most phases of the residential remodeling business in the first ten years.
In 1979 when the economy took a down-turn in the San Diego area, and with the encouragement of my family, I moved to Houston where the economy was booming. Thank God for Texas! I worked primarily in the Bellaire, Braeswood, and River Oaks parts of town doing some commercial construction and lots of residential remodeling and repairs, including antique restorations. It took no time at all to realize that I DID NOT like commercial construction! I enjoyed the residential side of the business and found myself drawn to interior finish work. I became an excellent sheet rocker and painter, tile setter and trim carpenter.
In 1983 I found myself on a quest to improve the quality of my personal life. I turned to a program called The Life Training (now called More to Life) and found a purpose for living that exceeded my wildest expectations! I learned about the transformational power of keeping your word, of proclaiming your intentions, and of clearing yourself of unproductive thoughts or patterns. I learned about the freedom that comes when you own “your stuff”, recommit and move forward, making new and better choices. My life has been forever changed by what I learned from those folks. I use those teachings every single day of my life, all day long.
In 1984 I moved to Dallas as a part of the Life Training Team bringing my newfound freedom with me and wanting it for others! With the support of a loving Dallas family, Herb Scott, an Episcopal Priest, his wife Sue and son John Scott*, I found a safe place to live while I practiced my new life skills. Working with The Life Training was volunteer work, so I made my living by performing residential remodeling and repairs, mostly in the Lake Highlands, Richardson and Garland areas. This work led me first, to my precious wife Sharon, and then to the work I wanted to do next…cabinet making!
*Herb, Sue and John have all passed away. I am forever grateful for the opportunity they gave me to get well in my mind and spirit.
1984 – 1992
Expanding My Skills
From 1985 to 1990 I had the amazing experience working for one company that built fixtures & décor items for convenience stores and grocery stores and then another company that built trade show exhibits & custom laminated furniture. Both companies made cabinets that were European in style (also known as frameless or 32mm cabinets). It was the most fun I could imagine. Until this point, I had never felt so creative and accomplished.
By 1991 I was so sure of my skills that I opened my own cabinet shop and called it Metric Concepts, building fixtures for Royal Optical and cabinets for multi-family properties all over the metro-plex. I was completely unaware that there was a financial crisis going on around me. I did not have enough funding to sustain the business, so I worked hard to sell frameless cabinets in residential settings. This was a great idea, but too modern for the Dallas area at the time. With a low sales volume, I took on remodeling projects, as J2 & Crew.
1992 brought a double blow: Royal Optical went out of business and Home Depot was selling cabinets for what my materials alone were costing. I WAS OUT OF THE CABINET MAKING BUSINESS! My passion for it was not extinguished however, just delayed until further notice …
1992 – 1999
Renovations Redefined
In late 1992 there was a six-month period between closing the cabinet shop (Metric Concepts) and starting my remodeling career again where I thought, if you can’t beat them, join them. I went to work for The Home Depot as a designer in the Kitchen & Bath department. I soon found, it was much too difficult for me to watch and impossible for me to participate in a business that was more about getting money out of the client’s wallet than getting the work done that the client had already paid for. I decided to take my work ethic back in hand and return to remodeling in mid-1993 as Renovations Redefined, with the intention of operating my company with the utmost integrity and putting the client first.
1993 to 1996 is somewhat of a blur…since it was my belief that success comes when you do a job better than anyone else around you, I set out to do just that and to keep my clients informed and involved in the process. The quality of my work, and the way I treated my clients, made it possible to grow from those referrals alone.
In late 1997 through 1998 I was referred to a company that did installations for The Home Depot. They asked me to take on occasional installations when they were short-handed. Figuring that this was a way I could help Home Depot do a better job for their clients, I was inspired. Soon I was being asked to work nearly full time with them and had to split my time and energy between those installations and my own remodels. It was a time of growth because I had to learn to delegate and manage more people. Soon I had learned the entire operations of the installation company and when the owners decided to relocate to Louisiana, they asked if Renovations Redefined would like to take over their Home Depot installation business. The answer was YES!
1999 – 2006
“The Big Box Stores” & More
1999 was the year that Renovations Redefined began working for 13 Home Depot Stores as their exclusive installer. This is also the year that I met Greg Shankle of Buckeye Cabinets who was the installer chosen by Home Depot to install all displays in their new stores in an 8-State region. We were introduced by a district manager who thought we would all benefit from working together. Greg & I partnered-up almost immediately with him running the new store installations and me running the local installations.
From 1999 until 2006 our Home Depot business was 50% of our total income. Remodeling & cabinet sales made up the other 50%. Greg installed 30 plus new stores each year and we grew to install for 43 local Home Depot stores over the next 6 years, accumulating over 10,000 completed kitchen and bath installations.
In 2001 we began installing for 10 Lowe’s Stores, The Great Indoors and 2 Expo stores, but these were short lived. These stores were so out of control of their processes that we decided to let their business go, in order to keep our reputation for doing good work intact.
2002 came along and so did Todd Yount, a sales rep for Custom Wood Products of St. Mary’s, Kansas, a top-of-the-line custom cabinet making firm. It took Todd two years to convince us to buy and sell CWP Cabinets, but once I started buying, I could not stop! They remain the best cabinet line I have ever worked with! 16 years later, they are the ONLY cabinet line we work with.
2006 was the year that we decided to sell the Big Box portion of our business. Greg stayed with the company who purchased the business to give them a chance of success and I continued to remodel and sell cabinets through Renovations Redefined.
2006-2010
Growing, Growing, Gone!
Leading up to that 2006 sale of the Home Depot installation business, we had 6 people in the office, 30 in the field. It was way too much excitement. After the sale, we were at half of the staff and short on work. Having sold 50% of the income producing part of the business, I needed to fill the financial void and my love for cabinets came “front and center”!
In 2007 there was a local kitchen & bath showroom at Preston Center for sale, called Premier Kitchens & Baths. The owners wanted out and we struck what I thought was a very fair deal! The next year was full growth and change and little did I know, upcoming disaster!
2008 is here! Having updated the showroom (spending way too much money), we were ready to roll, and steadily ramped up our sales through the summer. Then one afternoon in August, the phones literally stopped ringing! We went from $1,865,000.00 (give or take) in business a year for the last 6 years to zero for the rest of that year and only $123,000.00 the next…
The second big financial downturn in my career and up until that moment, I had no idea what that meant! I was devastated in almost every way, especially financially. I had to file bankruptcy. I was ashamed, broke, and mad at God! It was His fault after all, right?
20010-2020
What is Up with Those Circles?
It is now 2009 and I spent this year (and half of the next) finishing up the jobs we had in process. Now it was just me & my tools again, from the back of my 2000 Lexus RX300. I spent the first several weeks being mad at God, asking how could He let this happen to me? I wanted to give up! I kept telling people, “I’m going to quit this *&$#@! business that has been so unfair to me!”
Asking forgiveness from my clients for the time it was taking to finish up the projects was a part of my daily experience. I could not afford to hire help. I was ashamed, tired, hurt and confused, but thankfully, still healthy enough to get the jobs done. Occasionally, I had to call on a friend (or ask the client) to help when I could not physically handle something alone.
It wasn’t all bad…a local client asked if I would remodel their home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming! There was no way I could turn that down! I had to figure out how to run my business in Dallas while taking on this new project! With the wisest counsel, my wife suggested that I call on someone to help who “brought me joy”. Todd Yount (the CWP Rep.) was the first person who entered my mind! I did not know him well but decided to trust my intuition. I reached out to him on a Saturday morning, asking him to leave with me on Monday morning. He took a break from his then employer and we were off! What an adventure it was! I’ll write about that someday. There are many great and funny stories from that trip!
As a result of that trip, Todd Yount became my close friend. After listening once again to me ranting on and on about having to start over and wanting to quit, he said “You can’t quit! There must be something you love about this business. What else would you do anyway? It is all you’ve ever done.” That made me think about what I DID love about the business:
- The relationships with the clients.
- The puzzle of making something old new again
- The pride you feel when it is complete and gorgeous
I reflected less angrily on what I DID NOT love about the business:
- The way the industry had become overrun with “gypsies, tramps and thieves” running amuck, doing more damage than good!
- The way there was no trust between the contractor and the homeowner due to the lack of transparency about pricing
- The way that (as a contractor) if you told the truth and priced a job based on what needed to be done on the project, you would lose the bid to someone who would not disclose all this information and would charge the client later for changes that really should have been quoted in the beginning.
- The constant conflict while the project was being worked on because of the lack of clear communication, good plans & schedules
- The list goes on and it was longer than the list of what I did like!
I started asking HOW these things could be changed and asked God for forgiveness for my lack of faith and asked for His help, …“Lord, please tell me how to rebuild my business in a way that makes it Simple, Truthful and Peaceful.”
I heard God’s answer (actually)! I did not like His answer. He said, “I’ve already told you how to do that” … Now I was mad again!
I spent a few more weeks looking for how in the world God had told me to build such a business. Frustration was building…one day while talking to God again, I demanded in desperation, “Show me, dammit!”
Immediately, I got this image:
I remember thinking, what does a milking stool have to do with business? But I was excited! I had something to work with! I work well with images, so I began to draw what I had seen and then drew it like a floor plan. Here’s what I drew next:
Suddenly, I realized this was a symbol of the Holy Trinity, aspects of God that make up the Whole, and now I understood the answer I got to my first prayer. I started to draw the circles over and over until I came to this image:
Then, I started to see the aspects of what a healthy business could look like. I then asked, “Why isn’t every business Simple, Truthful and Peaceful?” I didn’t hear any voices that time, but I did realize that in every company I had worked for, where the jobs overlapped, the people who worked those departments were AGAINST each other, not FOR each other! If I wanted the next version of my company to BE ALL THAT, then I must choose people who were truly FOR each other! WOW, what would be possible if that were true?
My mind exploded with new ideas, processes, procedures, and our mission statement. I realized that this approach could potentially be industry changing! These ideas of how one could make remodeling Simple, Truthful and Peaceful is possible (even though you are tearing up someone’s home and putting it back together again)!
It wasn’t until 2018 that I learned the image I had drawn is called a Venn diagram! Now remember, I did not take time for college and was too busy to read much, so I feel completely blessed to have been given such a vision! I use the image to solve just about every problem I have in business, great and small! I decided it would make a fine LOGO.
As 2010 came to an end, I was integrating what could be done with this information. I noticed that a good number of calls coming in were from homeowners that had experienced a fire, flood, or serious termite damage. As we talked about the costs, the comments turned to the fact that insurance would not pay the full amount of the repairs, leaving the clients to figure out how to pay for the work in an economy that was still broken.
This is when I first began to break down and reveal the hard costs (builder’s pricing) for the materials they needed. Next, I taught the client how to do the work and checked in multiple times a day to assure that things were done right, and we were on track. I charged for this service by the hour. Of course, we hired licensed trades for the work that required it. The insurance money covered these costs and often the homeowner was able to do more than they expected, with what they had to work with. Better yet, we all had a blast!
With an experience of what was possible, it was time to implement these lessons the following year! I was ready to rebuild my team again and this time, I would do it without incurring debt or I would not do it at all! I wanted to be ready for this financial crisis cycle that seemed to happen every 8-10 years…
2021 & Beyond
Kitchen, Bath and Home!
This part of the story is yet to be determined…
Through the years, I worried that I had picked the wrong vocation, that I would never “make it”, that I would work hard and just be disappointed in the end. Mostly, I worried that I wasn’t up to the challenge. I had thousands of worries, as we all do.
Four Truths Be Told,
#1 I wasn’t up for it! I never could be until I asked for God’s help and the help of the amazing people around me, many of whom I did not mention in this story. If you are one of them, please call me. I’ll tell you all about what you contributed to my life.
#2 I am doing the work that God put me here to do and I have a tremendous amount of gratitude for the peace that brings!
#3 The other worries were unfounded and a big waste of time and energy. They most likely slowed down the entire process! Try not to spend your time worrying!
#4 My dad told me a few months before he died that I was the richest man he knew. The things he sighted were:
- You have so many people that love you and support you
- You get to live with and work with such caring, serving, and trustworthy people
- You get to experience the gratitude and joy of your clients every day
I have a company that I am proud of. I am proud that we remain debt free and most proud that we do what we say we will, when we say:
We Facilitate the Finest Remodels Available in a Practical & Peaceful Manner,
While Demonstrating the Highest Level of Respect for Everyone Involved!
Dreams for the Future:
- We never stop improving
- Kitchen, Bath & Home becomes an employee-owned company
- We take our mission and vision into the future and transform this industry into one that can be trusted by the people that need its services!