hi and welcome again to seoul scape living well with i am the host and a rarity and we'll talk about beauty in the home function and the twenty first century and of course connect you with our local resources right here in mercer county and today i am going to welcome role in major from and ok woodworking welcome are all and we're so happy to have you here and i just want to start off with you know you are a master cabinet maker but you're also a contractor and of course you know what you bring into the construction industry is your cracksman ship and your if and that's as i would call it  because you are a fine cabinet maker can you tell me a little bit about the difference between you know a carpenter and a cabinet maker as a cabinet maker or you know we're dealing more with the cabinet and of it and starting with a cabin that through my background came from my father mark have been making your up in austria and he taught me when i started working with him and we've progressed towards the corporate end of it as well but coming from a cabinet maker's background where fit and finish is much more important then generally speaking on the carpenter level right and so that's what that's why i love working with you roland because you understand the finishes and when we get to those pieces of a design element that's when you can tell the difference between you know a fair contractor and expert and you of course is an expert so tell me a little bit about your father though tell me about how he started his business and what we we came to united states in the one nine hundred seventy three and his first job was working for a small cabinet shop but you know he just he came in with a family of four of us and six hundred dollars in his pocket wow came off and i don't remember and i dreamed that's all he had and he came we came on a friday and he got a job over the weekend and started working on monday with this with this gentleman but  never had enough work for him as my dad obviously needed to work and so he worked for other people throughout the time but then eventually when his dream was always at his own company and when the when the gentlemen was going to retire he offered the business that my father and my father jumped on the chance and he had it for about a year before he invited me into it so i grew up around it and he invited me into it and that was in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine hundred eighty nine is that when head yeah yeah or it's gonna drive in my early twenty's then your early twenty's ok that's great so you you learn from the best you know and i would imagine that when your dad came to this country he wanted to start his own business because he wanted the freedom the freedom of growing his his own vision and his own dream for the business what is his legacy and how does your legacy change the business a little bit well my father was more of a  cabinet maker in the sense of that you know he was training europe which is a lot different than here i mean it's it's four years of schooling and then you get a degree in it you know when i have that hanging up that's something i'm proud of that have i fantastic because in this country you can call yourself a carpenter just by practicing with someone else more or less and you don't even need to do the apprentice in part you just kind of need to wake up one day and carter and believe me i've seen you see that ha yeah but he but his background was more in that he worked for companies where he was giving a project to build and didn't matter what it was you could build i approach it more in the design and  where you know i feel i can build whatever you want me to build but i also i like the design i like to create it as well and when i started with him that's where i kind of came in that's when we got more into  you came in because you expanded what he started you know you had a bigger vision for and k woodworking right he gave me a good background and a good backbone they weren't way ssion and wonderful foundation apparently excellent  best what was his father's name george we've got to say that out to george and i think that's fantastic i love the fact that you come from such history because that shows your expertise as well when it's in the family  my father was a contractor he was not a cabinet maker but i was always an all when he would build something out of two by fours or you know plywood or satisfaction to that there is and so it was in that little seed that he planted i became interested in design because i was just like oh i could create something or i could you know build something i don't physically build it but i can imagine it and then i could hire you to build it and it's hard for a lot of people to imagine and i think that's the most difficult part and it's kind of how i got the to the design end of it too because on the custom end there's nothing that i can show you because it's not there you know it's not there you have it and now it's it's here's where they say so i had a hard time finding people who could you know some people think using software i've heard say stifles design i think the opposite you know because in the old days when i used to have to draw things by hand i would think twice about going out on the limb because i'd be you know i like the kind of like if i got a girl that's all over again well now it's it's a little bit easier once the initial part is on on on in the program it's easier to make changes or allows me to to be more imaginative with my design so i look at the on the opposite right i like playing with it i use a different program for interior design but i love the fact that i could start playing things around very easily on the computer and sometimes it happens by chance and then if i quit i'll try this i'm like wait a minute or the ease of the computer and these programs it does make our process much easier so so wonderful for that so tell me about the family business in the past eight years what  taken it to to what level where we've progressed and grown a lot more into the contracting and of things in that we used to more provide the chemical end of it and then give advice on how to do different things but over the years we've progressed where we do a lot of the contracting ourselves because we are very particular yes and details orientated yes and that's because of the cabinet maker background right you know i'll never forget i was bills and it builds from there and then and it affects other things if that one sixteenth is on a wall that you can put tile on and that tiles got a sixteenth grout line that one sixteenth worming and do yeah so and that's where again because of the cabinet maker in me those details you think it all the way through right right so it is so i understand that you specialize then in kitchen renovation and bathrooms renovations i know we're working on a few bathrooms and some yeltsin's ourselves and and i have to tell you it's such a pleasure to work with someone like yourself because as an interior designer you know i can come up with a with an idea but i don't know how it's going to be implemented and so many times when i work with different contractors i may say oh this is what i want and they go off and do what they interpret it to be and it's not always the same so the communication between a cabinet or an expert like yourself  a designer is so important because i do feel that you know i can come to you with a new design and you instead of saying no that's a bad idea of going off and doing something that's not right you will discuss the details with me and say hey what about if we do it this way or you know we're going to have a problem but we talk and we mastermind about the design before we start the project well that's the end of course during the project because things always change because they do and they do progress because sometimes there are ideas and as you know you get into the minutia of it and that didn't quite work the way we're now and then you have to be able to think on your feet and plan a but at the end of the day it's my job to create your vision in the client's vision not mine and again that's where you know that's where the communication is so right or very important very important and and that's what makes the difference you know because if something doesn't work that i've designed it is about getting together to say wait a minute that's not going to work let's rethink this and that's important that communication but you know one of the other problems i see with kitchen renovations right now and i noticed this and it  really concerned me is that a lot of cabinets are manufactured in china and brought here into the usa in pieces and then then then put together here in the usa and they're allowed to call it u s a made but they're not usa made they're made in china so you know tell us about your cabinets and what are we looking for when we look at fin it falls apart and it's not going to save you that much money that's a misconception right a lot of people ali doesn't have to be a great lot of money i used to be a dealer for cabinet lines in the only reason main reason i'm not is because i found that by the time i found a line that was of good quality it would cost more not to say that there aren't lines right but at the same time because of the guess i'll keep going that's a cabinet maker and of me there's a pride i put into what i do and if i'm going to put my name on it i have to feel comfortable that my name's on it i always tell my clients it's it's not your kitchen it's my kitchen you know it'll be yours one day but right now it's my a kitchen it's always go be and so what what would you what tips can you tell our viewers what to look for when they look for cabinets kitchen cabinets well you know you you want to look at the quality of the finish and you know how like really you know if it doesn't feel solid it's not going to be solid you want to make sure everything runs smooth like don't let somebody in in a showroom tell you well that's just the display well you know that's their best foot forward you know it's not just that it's the law so you want to make sure and then make sure that you know just like in anything you're not going to go to the cheapest doctor right you're going to find somebody is going to find someone who good at what they do right talk to your friends you know if it's someone that you've never heard from before or this guy just happens to be the lowest price you know what about price it's not it's not you know this is your life you know i mean  live your life but i mean you're going to be joining this house every day well when we talk about kitchen renovation we always say it is the heart of the home right so it is the heart of the home and it's so important that the kitchen functions right functions beautifully so can you tell us a little bit more when you customize the kitchen how it functions with all these beautiful new features that are available i also know from from experience with you that we get more square footage because we've customized right we don't have to use fillers and scribes and things to make up space but we do have to make them to sew doors clear handles and things like that but not just because we can't get that size correct if a cabin easy a certain size it needs to be a certain size and at the same  cabin doesn't need to be any larger than it needs then you know if i'm doing a trash can and i can fit that trash can into a cabinet fourteen and a half there's no reason to make an eighteen inch cabinet that's three and a half inches i can put in something else something else and three and a half year three  you're all of a sudden you've picked up a lot of space in your cabin so the function of it is really important the most important than most it doesn't matter how good your kitchen looks and is and i say this all the time if it doesn't function right you're going to hate it no matter how good it looks right because you're always going to say yeah it looks nice but i hate this i hate this i bump life my my my arm on this every time they hit the door here all the time you're going to hate it it's got to function function first i can always plug in whatever you want make it look like whatever you want when we're done that's why i want it in a first meeting with the client i generally don't discuss much about color and all that like when a when you go to a car buy a car you don't say well look of her red car no you're going to find a car that you like the has the features that you want that's going to function the way you want function and then you get the rebel yell and we get involved with all the little details in the car that's what we want to get involved in when we do our dig picture first right and in home nearly all down into all these little details i know we're working on a condo renovation right now you and i and they had the sink in the corner and the first thing we talked about when we were talking about redesigning this kitchen is we had to move that sink because no matter if she had beautiful cabinets and all brand new appliances but if her sink was still in the corner she would still feel that it didn't function well specially and that's i mean who wants to do the dishes in the corner if you're in trouble  doesn't feel good right it's all about the energy in the house as well we love to talk about the energy so you know other any hardware that we should know about today like tracks with a kitchen cabinets  any soft closures that we should know about or any additional the soft clothes is definitely a big feature that right and that everyone's looking for though it's not always the right thing location there are times when you don't want to use a soft closed or really there are other tracks that might be better suited for because soft was door cracked or limited amount of weight that they can hold doesn't matter what they tell you every single drawer track on the market will hold between seventy five one hundred pounds there's that's i n the air there are a few heavy duty ones ok but with a side mandatory track they can go up to five hundred pounds right if you have a heavy duty installation they may not be the right thing they generally are but that's where hiring someone who knows about the hardware end of it which i sell to the cabinet maker i know i don't come from the background of what a cabinet line does i go down to the details of the wood the drawer track the hinge and what's what's available and so if i have a big pot and paint drawer that i'm going to put a lot of you know my mixers and all of that it may not have to have a soft closure it may not best to not have a soft closure because of the weight factor possibly depending on you know and that's again an expert looking at the step particular interest situation right yes it may not be the right thing there's a good chance it might be but an expert can tell you if it is or it isn't right so there's a lot of new innovative products out there appliances i know we install the hands free shower kitchen faucets is there anything that you can tell our viewers about that you find out there on the market that's very innovative today one of the things that i think that we've been incorporating not on the cabinet and the but is to do more with the lighting and automating of the lighting yes because that's very important i think back to the function it's function a lighting creates mood there's different types of lighting in a kitchen and how to control that lighting and be able to control it with your phone being able to control it when you're not home so it looks like your home you know those are all things that go into that you know and being knowing about those kind of things you know makes it a lot easier function in your kitchen we don't think about all those things right and that's when the  contractor in you comes in because it's not just about the cabinet making but it's about the finishing of the entire room with the lighting and the control and the function everything but what i love most about you and what i tell my clients when we're talking about kitchen design is the custom color i mean you know people think that picking colors is really easy so they'll go to a cabinet and they'll pick up a cabinet and then they go to a floor and and they start to put the finishes together and it just doesn't work because the colors really don't work and you want to talk to me a little bit about custom color and what what you're capable of doing where we can pretty much match whatever you need to match match anything for us paint colors go you know whatever manufacture paint out there if you think of just one paint manufacturer particular and you look at how many colors are not once watch right any color in there we can match and if the color is not on there we can go in between we work with labs that can bring produce those colors for staining we can tweak stains here and there to get you the color that you want right because it makes a lot of difference when you're trying to match colors of the cabinets versus the granite you know yeah it's you know and right now the trend is gray right and white gray and white kitchens but you know whether your health is color yet white while the pure white is is hard to take i find so the fact that we can tweak that white to make it sort of a gray white or a warm white or a blue white really makes a difference so customizing cabinetry to me is the best feature of all because i'm working with someone right now and we picked out this beautiful floor that's going in and i had showed her a door sample for your office and she says all of this floor this door samples not going to match the floor and i said oh no worries will customize the color of the door cabinet  know so she was like you could do that that's fantastic so you know it's really i think that's again the finishing touches that we can really maximize the color story of the kitchen and not just make it  gray and not just make it the standard white but really tweak the gray a little bit so that it could be more topi a little bit warmer and the cabinets again if we're going with the white it could be a warm why not such a cool white because sometimes i feel like i'm in  lab when i work into some conditions that are such a pure light they're all it's a little sterile yeah so that to warm it up a little bit makes a big difference and so custom coloring is huge as far as why i love you so much so how can they jersey we travel all over we've been from manhattan down every case maryland but most of our work is the princeton west windsor that area our website m k woodworking dot net are all happy yes they are they are and we've known each other for how many years now maybe fifteen years at least so it's been many years and again that's that's the important thing is that you can you know have that continuous you know like and trust factor with your contractor most of my clients call me back over and over again when it went but when most clients when they call me once they once they get me to do something i generally end up doing the whole house yeah well by the time we end up doing it all yeah i can do what they need to do you can do everything with no compromise yeah you know once once they know that you can do the job that you can do the job well they keep calling you back i'm on second generations you know i have their kids now calling me here you know so you know it's you know twenty years twenty eight years and bit more states me when i get in there and they're there and i'm like you can have kids when i did you yeah and they're in college now you know we did a year or so but i always say you know we've just gotten better and better and better like fine wine direct so so roland what i'd like to ask you know my my guest is the same question because i know what makes me happy in my home what makes you happy in your home and it can't be your family because i know you have a wife a beautiful wife and a daughter and it can't be a big screen t v so that that eliminates everything right now so what do you home makes you happy no it is just no no no it's mine you know i put a lot of work and effort into it and being able to walk in and knowing that i created it yeah you know that it's there because of my father yeah regularly that all goes back to that's what home is all about because i believe that soul scape living is really about creating a home that connects you to your ancestors and to your soul and to what's important to you so i do think i thank you so much for if you were hurrying on this show and for having a conversation with us about how important it is to create a beautiful home and how important it is to hire the right contractor cabinet maker and someone like yourself who's a nice looking guy and a clean looking guy in this industry it's not always that easy to find you know home you know and so to find a contractor that gets that because i know a lot of times when i hire different contractors for smaller jobs i go in there and clean up after them because you know it's like they forget the have every day every day going house fire you have to be right i know the three bathrooms that we're renovating right now the biggest compliment that we get is that they don't even know that you're there because at the end of the day you've cleaned everything up you've taken everything off and the rest of the house doesn't show should know that we run there were gone and they could very well roll in major from m k woodworking dot net and that thank you so much for being with us today and so scaped living and i so enjoy working with you and hope to continue our careers together and anyone who's looking for a good contractor please look up for a look up role in majors from m k woodworking