Surface Blog

Welcome to Surface, a blog by Carlisle Wide Plank Floors. Join us in discussion about hardwood flooring wood grains & styles, home decor, green building products, trends and more.

Stephanie Urquhart

Posted by Stephanie Urquhart

Hi, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Stephanie Urquhart of Carlisle Wide Plank Floors. I have been a proud member of the Carlisle Family in our Sales Support Team for over 6 years. I love working here and I can honestly say the part of my job that makes it the most fun for me is definitely my daily interactions with our customers. I love the thought of talking and corresponding with someone from the very first time they call in and then developing a lasting personal relationship/friendship with them as we get to know each other over time. This aspect of my job is truly what puts the "winds of passion" in my sails!

To top it off, I also feel lucky to have another important perk, which is to be surrounded by such wonderful people! When I'm here, the people that are around me, don't feel much like co-workers at all, in fact they seem more like close friends or an extension of my family.

In my upcoming blog entries, I plan on sharing stories with you about my relationships with our customers and how they affect me, as well as my journey as an employee.

Well, for now I'll let you go! I look forward to sharing some fun stories with you soon.

Take care,

Steph

Posted on January 9, 2008 at 01:22 PM in (0) Comments
Rick Menard

Posted by Rick Menard

Hi all, My name is Rick, and I am an account manager for Carlisle Wide Plank Floors. I have been here for many years and I will be helping with discussions ranging from quality of wood, installation, radiant heat, concrete slabs, builders time tables, customer service, and anything else you want to talk about. Installing and finishing my own floors, and many of my family and friends' floors also, gives me a great appreciation for the trades, as well as the do-it-yourselfer. I have been a woodworker since 1980, building furniture for family and friends. One of my favorite tv shows is New Yankee Workshop, and I had the pleasure of visiting their studio and watching an episode being taped. Having lunch with Norm Abram and Russ Morash was a thrill I will never forget. I love wood, anything to do with wood, including antique woodworking tools from the 30's to the 50's. I have built a DN ice boat, a sail powered vehicle that skates across ice, one of the hardest woodworking projects I have taken on.

My passions now include, (beside my wife and two seven-year-olds), building a 31' Ford Model A Streetrod, hiking and snowshoeing the New Hampshire woods, wildlife photography, and many other outdoor activities including coaching little league baseball, hunting and fishing. I have started a photo collection of very unique trees I come across in the woods with the goal of making a coffee table book some day. Working here at Carlisle gives me the chance to work one-on-one with customers, fulfilling my need for helping out people and interacting with some amazing flooring projects. One of the biggest kicks I get is seeing photos of homes people have remodeled or built, using wide plank flooring.

I look forward to hearing from everyone,

Rick Menard

Posted on January 9, 2008 at 01:21 PM in (10) Comments
Jen Fox

Posted by Jen Fox

Hi! My name is Jen Fox and I work as Sales Support at Carlisle Wide Plank Floors. I have been here for 10 months and I am very happy to be a part of the Carlisle family! I will be touching base every once in a while to let you know how things are going on my own flooring project, as I am installing our Old Growth Heart Pine and Old Growth Eastern White Pine in my new home. As soon as we are ready for the floors in our building schedule, I will be on hand to help install them myself and I am very excited!!

I have attached a photo of myself with my two year old Black Lab, Montana; as he will be living with me in my new home and naturally distressing my Pine wide plank floors. As a side note, I am allergic to animals BIG TIME. One of the reasons I will be able to keep Montana and my two cats in my new home is because I am installing all wide plank flooring and no carpet. This will reduce my allergy load tremendously because it will be so easy to clean the floors simply by sweeping and damp mopping with small amount of vinegar and water. I am happy to be able to do this for my allergies and essentially, to do my part to help the environment, as this flooring will last for generations and has not been artificially crafted into something that will take decades to deteriorate in a landfill once it has worn out its welcome in my home...

That's all for now - I will definitely tell more stories soon!

Kindly,

Jennifer L. Fox

Posted on January 9, 2008 at 01:18 PM in (0) Comments
Lindsay Barczuk

Posted by Lindsay Barczuk

Hey, I'm Lindsay Barczuk. I have been working for Carlisle for 3 years now out of the Denver office. I was originally hired as an Office Manager and spent most of my time keeping operations, IT, and other processes running smoothly. During the first few years, I learned a lot about wood and our practices. When I had some extra time, I offered my services and got involved with other aspects of the company, like sales and marketing.

About two years ago, I suggested to Don and Kerry Carlisle that we consider looking into the Green Building industry to see how our products might fit into the big picture. At the time, I knew we were already a green company based on how we had been doing business for 40 years - but I wanted to know more and see how we could improve. I think I'll spend a lot of time talking about the innate greenness of Carlisle and our products. From procurement to manufacturing and installation, we've thought of most everything and will stand 100% behind our practices. I look forward to sharing more of the specifics on this.

On a personal level, I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA and moved out to CO about 10 years ago to attend the University of Colorado. While in school, I traveled internationally as much as I could justify - including a term on Semester at Sea traveling through Europe, Russia, and the Middle East. Upon graduation, I moved from Boulder to Denver and started working for an international company offering Geographical Information System (GIS) services. I wanted a little more out of my profession, but wasn't sure what that was. So, I enrolled in graduate school for an International MBA at the University of Denver. This experience facilitated even more travel, specifically to Scandinavia and Africa. Towards the end of it all, I realized that culture was my passion: I love food, music, art, and understanding the unique traditions to a particular region or population.

On a beautiful Colorado day, I enjoy taking my 140 lb. Bullmastiff/Rottweiler mix, Ruby, for a long walk to the farmers market. My goals here are to 1) wear her out because we all know that a tired dog is a well-behaved dog; and 2) pick out new ingredients to inspire a never-before attempted meal. On a broader level, the latter is my outlook on life... I enjoy being put into new situations, evaluating all the surroundings, and figuring what I can do to make the most of it.

I look forward to participating in this project and hope I am able to offer some valuable insight into how we work and what matters most at Carlisle Wide Plank Floors.

Posted on January 9, 2008 at 01:14 PM in (0) Comments
Sharon Bondie

Posted by Sharon Bondie

Hi, my name is Sharon Bondie and I am an account manager for Carlisle Wide Plank Floors located in our Southeastern region. I came to Carlisle Wide Plank Floors a few years ago from one of the largest home improvement chains in the world. It is a wonderful to be part of the Carlisle family. I feel like I am surrounded by family all day. They say that laughing is the mystery cure for all illnesses. Well if this is true then we are all really healthy in our Carlisle family.

We have a fun group here in the southeast as you see in the attached picture. The pink pig is a Christmas tradition that has been around Atlanta for about 30 years. People bring their kids every year to ride at Christmas. We thought it would be fun to put a picture of all of us in our Carlisle newsletter (yes, we even have our own newsletter) so we went as a group and took a picture after our ride.

I love to spend time with family and friends. Much of my free time is spent on decorating friends' and family's homes. They call me "the Queen of Returns". I actually leave tags on things for unlimited time frames so that I can get a feel for the flow of the décor. I can give you a run down of the return policy in most stores!!!! Many know me by name!!!! Oh well, if it fits wear it and if not return it except for a Carlisle Floor. This is something that will be with your home for hundreds of years. It is made to outlast us and carry on to be with our loved ones for years to come.

I think that it is truly a blessing to be able to have a Carlisle floor. Not only because of the beauty but because there is so much love and pride that goes into each one of our floors. There is nothing more satisfying than sharing my passion for our floors everyday with all of you out there.

There really is nothing more important than the surface that we live on with the people that we love. That is the message that I will share with people while blogging!!!

Posted on January 9, 2008 at 10:39 AM in (1) Comments