SNEC NKBA

CKD Training by Marsha Fried

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 13:00:00 +0000

SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND CHAPTER COMPLETES CKD TRAINING by Marsha Fried, V.P. Professional Development

For nine weeks this summer the chapter held a CKD training course at Viking Kitchens in North Haven. Of the twenty seven who signed up, 19 participants persevered and had the opportunity to receive an overview of the new guideline books on which the September CKD exam will be based. This is the first exam to be given using the new guidelines. Each segment was taught by one of our gifted chapter CKDs.They were:

Stephanie Martin and Brian Bailey Residential Construction

Bruno Pasqualucci Kitchen and Bath Systems

Alice Hayes Kitchen Planning

Lorey Cavanaugh Kitchen and Bath Business Management

Donna Carubba Bath Planning

Kyong Agapiou Design Principles

Debbie Blumencranz Kitchen and Bath Products

Kelly Stewart Kitchen and Bath Business Management

Vinnie Guarino Kitchen and Bath Drawing

The teachers were well prepared and some had handouts and used power point presentations. I would like to thank Viking Kitchens for hosting the training in their spacious and well equipped facility. A very special thank you to the “faculty” who gave their time in preparing and teaching the courses. We wish all of the “students” who are taking the exam in September the very best of luck and look forward to congratulating them later this fall.

GREEN!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:08:00 +0000

In case you have not noticed, GREEN is GREEN (Spelled $). More and more people are joining in the march to be and live with more thought to how our actions effect the world around us. As Designers, we are in a unique position to positively influence decisions that are made today, that will effect the impact on the environment well into the future.

Case in point, if you encourage your clients to recycle and make it easy for them to do so, they are more apt to recycle that wine bottle that contained that awesome Brunello they enjoyed last night ( My mouth is watering just thinking about it.)
instead of tossing it in the dump.

Even more exciting is the idea that all the work that went into the development of LEED standards is being inegrated into standards for Residential construction.

You can make money suggesting green alternatives and designing with sustainablity in mind. Instead of following how our clients have done things in the past, we can suggest better alternatives for the future. I would further suggest that we are CALLED to do so. I also think the tide has turned to the point that our clients even expect us to do so.

So, how do we learn more? Easy. As professionals, there are many resources available.

1. Our suppliers are all getting on the band waggon. Most Cabinet companies keep a keen eye on VOC emmisions from their finishes. They want to be as green as possible as they dont want their employees exposed to nasty chemicals. They are a great resource and will tell you the truth about how they are becomming more green. ( if they are not, I would question their future.

2. Join your local Green Building council. In Connecticut it is the Connecticut Green Building Council. They can be contacted at http://www.ctgbc.org/index.htm

3. Join the US Green Building Council. They can be reached at http://www.usgbc.org/

4. Take time to attent GREEN BUILD the international conference and expo on November 7-9 2007 in Chicago. for More information visit www.GREENBUILDEXPO.ORG.

If you need more information, please drop me some comments here or email me at RM@CM-InteriorDesign.com

Richard Allan Marti Jr.

RSS What is it?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:55:00 +0000

What is RSS and Why Should You Know?

When it comes to technology, even I get frustrated trying to keep up with everything. Sometimes, It seems like I’d rather go back to a pencil and paper! But this tool really is a time saver.

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. “Ok, so really what does that mean?” you ask.

The answer is awesome, and I know you will like it. RSS means:

· Less Spam in my inbox

· Content I think is important and I control delivered directly to me ( Like a newspaper I design for myself)

· I save time. Now I don’t need to visit my favorite websites, they tell me the information that has changed.

“That sounds good, but do I have to learn one more thing?”

Nope. It is very simple.

Websites, blogs and pod casts that are enabled with this technology basically broadcast either a short version of updates or the entire update. So, instead of having to go to each and every one of your favorite websites to check if there is new information, they will send it to you but, only if you want them too. I love that control. Now I don’t have them send me emails, I subscribe to their feed (and only the feeds I want) and they send it to me.

“OK, so they send it to me, how do I read it?” That is easy too, but there are some options.

If you have the latest Outlook version and you use Outlook, then your feed can be read there. If you are like me and use internet mail, then you will need some software call a “feed reader.” There are many and usually free. Some will copy the content to your computer, some leave the content online. There are benefits to both. The former allows you to read the content when you are not online. I.e., if you travel a lot, you can read the content while on a plane, train, automobile, or on the beach ( I hope you don’t take you computer to the beach to work!)

The later requires you to have an internet connection that is available when you want to read. I prefer this option as there is rarely a place I travel where I can not get online. I also have the option of saving content to my computer if I choose.

The end result is that I get notified when the websites I value are updated. I end up with great content that is relevant to me and I get to choose to read it or not. If content from a site becomes irrelevant to me, I delete the feed. In essence, I create my own online newspaper with exactly the content I want (including the cartoons!)

I hope you try it out.

Oh… some links to aggregators ( or readers)

www.newsgator.com – Online reader (aggregator) This is the one I use. Newsgator also has a version for use with outlook.

http://www.reader.google.com Use Google's web-based feed reader to keep up with blogs and news.

http://feeds.reddit.com/ Another Web based reader

http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/ A reader for Macs

There are many more just Google “RSS READER” and you can take your pick.

Richard Allan Marti Jr
Curcio Marti Interior Design

National Kitchen & Bath Website

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 01:21:00 +0000

NKBA Website Info
For those of you who don't know, The National Kitchen and Bath Association website is back in (almost) full operation. As I hope most of you do know, www.NKBA.org was hacked and most of the information was lost or corrupted. The entire site had to be rebuilt. It was a monumental task that has been going on all spring and summer. Just last Friday some of the member tools were reinstated, and some of the old functionality is still up in the air.Particularly the free web page listing.

One important items for all of our Southern New England Members was the free web page. This is very important and I will explain why. Web sites are ranked by search engines like Google based on the importance of the links INTO the sites. When a national site like NKBA.ORG links to a site like www.SNEKithchenbath.org or www.cm-interiordesign.com it helps your company's site rank higher in the search engines.

What does this mean for us and our members? Well, if the national site does not correctly link to your site, then other sites can rank higher. ( and we want all our members sites to rank higher than non members... right?)

There is another reason that this is important. Some members don't have web sites. This is a vehicle to get them at least some exposure on the web. Some of them may even expect it, as it was offered before.

So, I spoke to national today and the solution is this. We all need to go to www.NKBA.org and log in. We should all check our profiles and make sure the information is correct. If not, please make the corrections online, or click the contact link, or call national to be sure the contact information is correct. I would also encourage you all to impress upon them how much you liked the "Free Member Pages" as this will help you control the information posted on the national site. If you need to make a change you would be able to log in and do it yourself and make changes on the fly.

If you have any questions or problems, please contact me here http://ramartijr.blogspot.com , or at RM@CM-InteriorDesign.com.

Best Wishes,

GETTING PUBLISHED by Alice Hayes

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:35:00 +0000

GETTING PUBLISHED by Alice Hayes

The best way I have found to get published is to enter the NKBA Design Contest. Even when I haven’t won, I have been invited to have my work published by editors who look at all the entries for material, which might interest them. I also have had an entry in the SubZero Design Contest, which did win, published several times in the Sub Zero publication “Great American Kitchens.”

Otherwise, it is worth sending scouting shots to editors of such publications as “This Old House”, and the special kitchen editions of Woman’s Day, House Beautiful, and Distinctive Kitchen Solutions. Local magazines such as “Connecticut Cottages and Gardens”, “Westport Magazine”, “Westchester Magazine”, “Greenwich Magazine”, etc. are also good outlets for your work.

Our trade Publications, “Kitchen and Bath Design News” and “Kitchen and Bath Business” are always looking for material to publish.

There are also specialty books looking for work, such as French Country Kitchens, published by Gibbs Smith.

Any of these publications generally prefer photographs ready to publish, but on occasion will send out their own photographers.

The Web is a great resource for more detailed information about the publications mentioned above.

Green Design Series Issue 2

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:30:00 +0000

Take care of two evils at once! I know that I am a tech geek who also knows, I am not alone. I am on my 24th computer over the last 2o years and close to that many cell phones.If all that plastic and heavy metal was ending up in a dump instead of being reused and recycled I would hate to think of the waste. Add mine to yours and multiply that by a few hundred million and we have a real mess to clean up. The actual numbers are mind blowing. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that over 5.5 Billion pounds of electronics were tossed out in 2005. ( This number includes TV's, Stereos, Phones and computers.)This is only half the story. Identity theft is something that is on many peoples minds. When you throw out that Hard Drive with all your personal information on it, or your cell phone with all your numbers stored, it is a pretty tempting and valuable asset to identity theives. I hope you don' t actually beleive that deleting that information provides any protection. It does not.So, what can we do with this electronic stuff? Ill give you the juicy ideas first. You can actually make some cash back on those old cell phones stuck in your junk drawer ( and free up the space as well!) Visit www.greenphone.com and you can get paid for that little piece of plastic. Also for every phone sold the company will plant a tree. Nice and green.Just so I don't forget to pass along the other info, those nasty cell phone batteries are full of nasty chemicals hence the notice on them, "Please dispose of Properly." BUT, what is "Properly" how do we get rid of them? Many people don't know that the store or site that sold you those electronic pieces must take them back to be recycled.Computer monitors, the older ones as us middle agers will remember were called CRT's which stood for Cathode ray tube (I am starting to feel old enough to be recycled myself!) This older technology was also used in Televisions and the tubes used lead which can be reclaimed and recycled instead of poluting our ground and ground water. There are companies that can refurbish and resell computers and Televisions or recycle the components. Some of these electronic items are donated to schools or sold. A good resource for this is http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/recycle/ecycling/donate.htm. The EPA site has links for donation possibilities. You may even get a tax deduction.There are also companies like Creative Recycling who serve small to large businesses is asset tracking and can provide services to completely destroy data and insure the safety of your precious information. Another way to reuse old components is Recycles.org. This is a posting site where you can list the equipment you would like to dispose of and readers of the site can connect with you to pick it up. In Connecticut the website is: http://www.recycles.org/states/Connecticut/ I have to caution you that you will be responsible for cleaning your data off the hard drives.As I was writing this article I learned that Connecticut Govenor Jodi Rell signed a Manditory Electronics Recycling Law.WWW.Environmentalleader.com for those of you who want to take your participation to a new level.Richard Allan Marti Jr.
Labels: Green Design Series

Green Design News

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 19:50:00 +0000

You can join the Green revolution!

How, and How can we help? By stimulating converstions between designers while facilitating the flow of information back and forth. To start, we must ask the quesiton, "what is Green Design?" The answer is one of being thoughtful and raising more questions. The answer is a change of mindset and toolset. Through this series of articles we hope to illuminate the mindset and stimulate discussions and thoughts about how to leave a smaller footprint on this earth. We at the same time want to help develope a new toolset that designers and suppliers can use to carry out fanstically beautiful as well as highly functional green designs. The mindset will be one that encourages new questions and new answers, the toolset will include resources for learning about green design, it will include material sources and where to find materials, it will include resources on how to dispose of old materials so that they complete their useful lifecycle.

For those of you hardcore designers that are ready to jump right in, there is a Green + Design Conference and Expo on October 1 and 2nd in Atlanta, Georgia at the Hyatt. You can click the link for more information.

For the rest of us who want to explore this great project a little at a time, please join me for this and future article and discussions

Through this series of articles we will include resources that you can use today to talk to your client about Green Design and where to find answers when they ask questions, and they will ask some tough questions.

Most of the basic questions are well, basic and that is a great place to start. Most people have heard the phrase, "Reduce, reuse, and recycle." After that, the questions becomes, "well, how does that apply to design?" In our case it is even more specific, how does this apply to kitchen design?

Lets take a closer look at reduce. It can mean a lot of things. The first that comes to mind is packaging. (Probably because I hate purchasing veggetables in the grocery store packed in plastic. We take one of natures most beautifully naturally packaged foods and wrap it in something that is made from crude oil.) So, do our cabinets come packaged in plastic and cardboard that ends up in the landfill? Or do they come blanket wrapped? Another question would be do they come from a local source who builds with local materials or are tehy produced in China or Mexico with lumber that is harvested in rainforests and shipped across oceans using tons of oil to get there only to be worked on in factories that use a ton of energy, and then shipped back across the ocean to a dock and across the country in a semi. You get the idea. Buy locally, or as locally as you can to reduce transportation costs. Speak to your supplier about packaging materials so they are easy to unpackage and be sure the packaging can be reused. ( how about asking them to pick up the cardboard boxes to reuse. It can save them money and reduce your landed costs.

Before we get off the topic of reuse, there is one more consideration I think is worthy of thinking about, product design. Some of us design the actual products ( as opposed to designing the kitchen, we design the cabinet construction. ) Here too we need to think about the idea of not over designing. We can design very high quality products using less material.

Re-Use. This one is easy in our market ( Connecticut and New York.) we have wonderful charity companies that will come to a clients home and remove the old cabinetry, appliances and countertops. They sell them for re-use in other projects or use them for Habitat homes, etc, and the best part is that our clients get a prety nice tax deduction for their donation. This system also saves demolition cost too. Two of the companies in our area are Restore ( a Habitat for Humanity program) and Green Demolition.

Recycle- It is better to recycle than to throw items in our landfills. One obvious reason is as global warming increases and carbon in our atmoshere increases, we are using more and more trees to produce paper. Recycling paper is so easy to do there is little reason not to. Another great resource for finding recycling places for all kinds of materials is the Northeast Recycling Council.

Today we took a look at some very basic ideas on the design and implementation side of executing a design. The same principals apply to the way our clients will use their new kitchens.

We are called as appostles to talk to them about these ideas as well as suggesting that they too may want to buy food with less packaging and to plan for recycling ( I am amazed in out area how many people pay 5 cents per soda can, bottle and beer can and still just dump them on the side of the road or in the garbage.) To plan to install a water filter instead of buying bottled water ( it probably comes from a better water source anyway.) I have to admit, I have purchased a LOT of Poland Springs bottles - When I really think about having that water pumped to a truck, driven to a bottling plant, shipped to the warehouse then the store, then driven to my home and placed in the refrigerator...WOW that is a lot of energy. Yes, it is convient, no? Is it really easier than taking a glass out of my cabinet and filling it from my Water filter?

As the popularity of the Green design has taken flight, the profitability has also risen. A win/win for everyone including designer, producers, installers, clients and most importantly, our children and the future of our planet.

Please stay come back often for even more ideas or better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed, or ATOM feed and these ideas will be delivered right to you're desktop.

Richard Allan Marti Jr.

Couture Kitchens on CNBC's High Net Worth

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:16:00 +0000

Rarely do I reccomend television or raidio programs outside of Public Radio, Animal Planet, CNN or anything that public broadcasting puts out, but I have been turned on to a program hosted by by Tyler Mathisen titled, "High Net Worth."

The program , "provides avenues for viewers to extend their wealth and get the most out of the assets they have. Simply, there is no other program like this on television. This is a program that speaks to the ultra-affluent. Mathisen and his guests celebrate the very best life has to offer, from exclusive golf resorts and elite boutique hotels to incredible real estate and choice art. Mathisen reports the very latest news on investing trends and opportunities as well as news on taxes, trusts and estates." ( CNBC WEBSITE)

This Sunday, August 12, 2007 at 8:00 PM, Tyler presents a program on Couture Kitchens. This program comes highly recommended by Susan Drake (www.ross-drakedesign.com), our hard working chapter rep and her financial consultant.

If you can, please check out the program. It promises to be full of very juicy information that will help up explode our business and better serve our affluent clientel.

Dedication Ceremony 75 Town Hill, Danbury, CT

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:14:00 +0000

75 Town Hill

Danbury,CT

by Richard Allan Marti Jr.

It was my pleasure to meet Pamela and Enroy Anderson, the proud new homeowners of 75 Town Hill in Danbury, CT. This was the Housatonic Habitat for Humanity home that our chapter (Southern New England Chapter- National Kitchen and Bath Association )worked so hard on. The completed home is pictured on the left.

The Project was a unique and pioneer project for Habitat for Humanity. Habitat homes are normally brand new dwellings build on raw land. This project was a renovation of an existing property that Herbert Fenton bequested to Housatonic Habitat for Humanity in his will.

Many chapter members donated their time and talents to the project and worked hands on by designing the kitchen and bathrooms, scraping, painting, insulating, installing sheetrock, taping, instaling tile, cabinetry, moldings, countertops etc. The efforts of the chapter, the other volunteers, donors and Housatonic Habitat for Humanity (HHFH) certainly paid off. This property that was once run down is now a beautiful and high quality home that stands out proudly in it's Danbury, Connecticut neighborhood.

The renovation project proceeded under the direction of Kieran O'Brien and his team of volunteers from many companies .

The Kitchen cabinetry was designed and supplied by The Kitchen Company . The Cabinetry is from Medallion Cabinetry, and Elkay Co ans is light maple.The kitchen countertops are solid surface Cambria. The material was donated by Cambria USA.

Cambria is a natural stone surface that is elegant and practical. The fabrication and installation of the countertops was donated by Connecticut Solid Surfaces. The kitchen floor is Ceramic tile and the materials for the floor were donated by Ferazzoli Imports of New England. The Appliances include a 36" DCS gas range, a 36" Refrigerator, a microwave hood that vents to the outside and a 24" Dishwasher, all of which were donated by Delia Inc.

The SNEC-NKBA also donated the Design, Plumbing fixtures and tile materials for both bathrooms in this now full and loved home. The tile and setting materials were donated by Tile America.

The plumbing fixtures were donated by Torrington Supply in Danbury and Waterbury, Ct.

Other Photographs at the Dedication Ceremony-

Website Updates http://www.snekitchenbath.org+

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 17:01:00 +0000

Great News!

We are able to update our Southern New England Chapter National Kitchen and Bath Website. Bettyanne is still working hard to get the newsletters out, but at least we can post it now when it is ready!

I updated the chapter officer/Contact page, set up a chapter calendar, and updated the front or home page with information about the Habitat for Humanity project.

I will be working on setting up some " Co-Authoring" tools so that content areas of our website can be easily updated by the people who are writing.

If you have any questions or comments, please post them here or email me at:Richard@Richard-Allan-Marti.com

Chapter Officer Training April 7th - 9th 2006

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 10:35:00 +0000

What and inspiration!

I have returned from the NKBA chapter officer training meeting energized and enthused form the development of deeper relationships with the chapter officers, the new knowledge learned from the leadership training and excited about the value that was and will be created by sharing our experiences with the membership.

Friday night we explored the NKBA website. It is full of tools for just about all our members.

Saturday Jeff Cufaude from Idea Architects delivered to us a presentation on leadership development packed with information on how to maximize efforts through the effective use of technology.

Sunday morning we worked on further developing our chapters strategic plan.

I hope that the other attendees will offer some comments on their thoughts on the meeting.

I will try to post some other information including some website links that Jess suggested to us.

All the best,

Richard

Chapter Meeting 4-12-2006

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 09:34:00 +0000

SpeakerRichard Blumenthal

New potential members at the meeting:

Beverly Lyga is a Design Consultant with The Home Depot in Bristol Connecticut. She enjoyed the meeting and is looking forward to Joining and attending the next meeting in May. Beverly told me that she would like to "grow and learn" in her career and is looking forward to taking classes with the NKBA

Two others potential new members from TR Building and Remodeling, llc in Redding, Connecticut are Tod Drury adn Rick Krug. They are concentrating their business model on Kitchen and Bath Remodeling and are looking forward to meeting people to partner with. They are located at 20 Pocahontas Road, Redding, CT 06896

If there was anyone else that I missed, please let me know.

4/12/2006
News Update on the Habitat Project

WOW! Things are really happening on the Town Hill Property in Danbury. I visited the project on Tuesday afternoon and got the field dimensions (that we could get.) The project is in the framing stage now and for those who know, remodeling framing is a lot more "creative" than new construction. I'll post some photos from our next visit to the site.

We had our NKBA Chapter meeting last night in Waterbury at the Mattatuck Museum. It was a fun event with a few new potential members. At the meeting we solicited volunteers and donations for the Town Hill Project. The response was awesome.

Labor: Dick Gedney suggested that we (as a chapter) install the cabinetry that The Kitchen Co. is donating. He and I discussed that we will each bring tools. I checked with Kieran O'Brien, and he confirmed that the space ( Kitchen) will be ready for installation by us on June 9th. We will need to arrange for delivery prior to that date. By arranging this, we are assured that there will be work at the project that most of us are familiar with. Dick and I will visit the site prior to June 9th to mark out the layout and check site conditions.

I collected names and contact information of a bunch of people willing to volunteer on the 9th and 10th. I will compile that list and distribute it. There is a Volunteer form complete with instructions that we need to fill out as an organization. Ill post it and forward it to you all for comment.

Other Items Pledged:
Countertops- Robert Kwasnicki said that Cambria can supply material and he is going to see if one of his fabricators can fabricate and install. We should check with Gail Bolling on the cabient color and door style for coordination of finishes.

Lisa Dicenzo from Delia suggested that she can get some of the appliances- We will still need to get a ref. somewhere.

Holly Winslow is working on tile. We still have two bathrooms to work on where we will need floor tile, wall tile etc.

Ill update the material area of the project site to keep it up to date.

Main Page

noreply@blogger.com (Richard Allan Marti Jr) — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 00:29:00 +0000

Welcome!

I am glad you visited here. There are links to the right to find other notes and information. If you have any questions, just post a comment and Ill try to get you an answer.

All the best,

Richard