Brent Starck, owner of Drift Studio, moved to Asheville from Madison, WI with his wife and four boys. Along with his family, he also brought a vast amount of creativity and experience with him. He specializes in inventing fantastic modularized furniture out of custom printed plywood using a CNC router. You won't regret a visit to his site. Expect to see some of his work in a Wishbone Tiny Home soon!

Jason Brownlee and partner Will Evert own French Broad Boat Works. These guys hand craft world class drift boats right here in Asheville. Jason and I talk shop and fatherhood. His perspective and insight have been a huge help to Wishbone Tiny Homes. We thank him for his friendship and input. If you haven't seen one of their boats, check out the site. They are going to be offering tours down the French Broad soon!

Kristen Salvatore, leader of Asheville Tiny House Association. Kristen started this meetup in July of 2012 and has since attracted close to 400 members. Her enthusiasm for the movement is infectious. We thank her for donating her time and resources to ATHA, which has enriched the local tiny house community greatly. Join the meetup if you haven't already! 

Will Rice of Henco Reprographics.  Many of you probably know Will as an Asheville native and all around great guy. Will and I took Cabinet and Furniture Making at Asheville High with the legendary Paul Kendrick, so I have known him for a long time. As owner of Henco Reprographics, Will plays a key part in the local business community by providing high quality blue prints - as well as any kind of print for that matter. Here he is with our recently branded pop-up tent. The work is high quality and done in a professional manner. Go see Will for any printing needs, he'll hook it up.

Josh LittleJohn of Green Opportunities. I met Josh at Warren Wilson College. Our paths have crossed again as of late through a shared interest in energy efficiency, sustainability, and renewable energy. As a lead trainer for Green Opportunities, Josh shares his valuable skills with the community so that others can benefit from the ways of green building. We look forward to an ongoing partnership with Josh and Green Opportunities as Wishbone Tiny Homes forges onward.

Mike and Bryan of Camping World of Asheville. These guys were a great resource on our current build. By applying their expertise in RV plumbing to our tiny house, we were able to provide a great onboard water delivery and holding system for the future owner. Extremely professional and well-equipped for the job, we recommend these guys for any help you might need with your tiny house. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more episodes!

Stephen Bellich, owner of Top Notch Tree Care. Stephen and his father Steve have always been friends of Wishbone. Stephen stays very busy as a top-notch arborist. If you need any tree work of any sort, he is your guy.  He has the know-how, the equipment, and the crew to get it done. Here he is helping us move a Wishbone Tiny Home.

Mike Murphy, co founder of Online Marketing and Consulting and ProctorFree. Mike has been a great friend and resource to Wishbone Tiny Homes by providing website consultation and moral support. He and his partner, Velvet Nelson, have made strides in their own entrepreneurial careers and set a great example for other new businesses to follow. If you have questions about getting an online platform going for your project, I encourage you to reach out to Mike. He is super professional and knowledgeable.

Matt and Megan of Materia Designs. Matt is pictured here comparing matching Land's End gear with my dad. He and his wife Megan create amazing repurposed interior collections, custom furniture, and offer design services in upstate NY. I grew up with both of them and can say they have one of the best combinations of creative vision and work ethic I know. Wishbone can't wait to collaborate with them in the near future...Stay tuned on that front. Cheers, thanks for reading.

Wishbone Tiny Homes enjoys establishing and maintaining healthy and prosperous relationships with local businesses.  Even more so, we savor the interactions with the individuals who make up those local businesses.  This is a post in an ongoing series that will highlight some of the people who we consider vital to our mission of building tiny homes for the next generation home buyer.  You will probably see some familiar faces, so we hope you enjoy and add comments as you see fit.

The gentleman on the left is Ken Woody of United Saw & Tool Co.  Woodworkers know him in town as the best blade-sharpener around.  My dad has been going to him for the last 16 years.  He's been in business for a long time and reminds us about the essence of American small business.  The gentleman on the right deserves his own blog series.  I didn't catch his name, but he managed to fit in about 3 war stories from his days in the wood shop... missing fingers, the productivity of the crazy old planer he was trying to sell us, and other fantastic stuff.  I love the whole experience of going into Ken's shop and can't wait till our blades get dull again so we can go back.

Bob Dylewski of Bronco Construction.  Besides running a successful construction company, Bob has a warehouse full of reclaimed wood. He and his staff are the definition of professional and manage a mind-blowing collection of various types of reclaimed wood.  We recommend taking a trip out to Bob's warehouse (near the airport) to find your next reclaimed material.

Jack Baker of American Cable and Rigging is pictured here.  We have discussed our experience with him in another blog post that my dad wrote, but we thought it wouldn't hurt to mention him again in this context. Although his typical clients are writing much bigger checks than us, he went out of his way to make us feel important.  We got a full tour of the facility and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I know I speak for both my dad and me when I say that we are looking for more opportunities to add cable and/or rigging to our tiny homes so we can get back there. 
Stay tuned for the next episode of Friends of Wishbone, where you or someone you know might show up!

Wishbone Tiny Homes enjoys establishing and maintaining healthy and prosperous relationships with local businesses.  Even more so, we savor the interactions with the individuals who make up those local businesses.  This is the first post in an ongoing series that will highlight some of the people who we consider vital to our mission of building tiny homes for the next generation home buyer.  You will probably see some familiar faces, so we hope you enjoy and add comments as you see fit.

The lovely Lindsey Menendez, at HomeTrust Bank.  She helped us open our business account and was very supportive of our concept.  She mentioned her mom's obsession with tiny homes and the fact that she loves to can (my wife's favorite activity).  We look forward to working with her more and recommend her if you are looking to open an account with a local bank.  

Steve Bellich.  Landlord, contractor, electrician, metal worker, wood worker, tool collector, and owner of Electrical Systems of Asheville.  Here we are helping him work on an old bucket truck he just got a good deal on.  He knows deals.  Steve has been available for valuable advice, scaffolding, a brake for bending metal, screws, wood, and various other oddities that you can't believe he owns.  We thank him for all of this.

Jennifer Woodruff, Build It Naturally.  Anyone who has met Jennifer knows that her smile in this picture pretty much sums her up.  Her heart is in the right place.  She has pointed us in the right direction more than a few times.  We thank the Woodruffs and the staff at Build It Naturally for their commitment to the green building community.  We look forward to working with them in the future.

That's it for this week.  Stay tuned for more episodes of "Friends of Wishbone".  Thanks for reading!

I’m often inspired by the business ethic of our suppliers. We needed a source for tension cable provide rack bracing in our current tiny home build. An architect friend referred me to American Cable and Rigging, a local outfit that supplies the construction and logging industries with rigging solutions. Teal and I drove down to their shop and we noticed a couple of things right off the bat.

1. Almost all of the employees had the same last name.  They're a family run business and that fact alone is reassuring.  You can not fake the kind of pride that comes about when your family's reputation rides on how you represent the business.
2. It was made very clear very early on that they were interested in what we were doing and wanted our business.  In my custom door business I was often frustrated by suppliers who thought themselves too big to concern themselves with my relatively small order.  Nothing guarantees my loyalty like being regarded as a real customer.

I was checking out some photos of their operation on the office wall when Jack Baker, founder and patriarch, found me and introduced himself.  He gave me a rundown on the company and assured me that they take the time to do quality work and will not compromise on that idea.  If you can't wait for an order to be done right you're out of luck.  Coming from someone else this could have seemed like shameless self promotion, but honestly, I did not detect a disingenuous bone anywhere in Jack's vicinity.  He asked if I'd like a tour of the shop and I pulled Teal away from his discussion with Jack's son, Richard Baker, because I knew neither of us would want to miss out on that opportunity.

We left with our $75 order in hand, feeling like we were the best thing to happen to American Cable that day and wanting to find additional ways to use their services.

We are always looking for ways to improve the way we run our company at Wishbone.  We owe Jack and American Cable a thanks for a reminder of how good customer service can improve the quality of doing business in the world.