Hands-on work
Evan Rham says he could never hold a job where he was stuck sitting behind a desk.
A job building that desk – now that’s a different story.
Evan recently started his own business, Rham Custom Cabinets, and has a workshop located in the west end of the Samsara Cues building.
He specializes in building and installing custom cabinets, furniture and countertops.
When Rham graduated from Rugby High School in 2000 he found himself bouncing around a while before he knew what he wanted to do for a career.
That route eventually led him to Bismarck State College’s carpentry program in 2003. Once there, Evan knew he had found just what he was looking for. In fact, he stayed an extra four years as an instructor.
As a student, Evan was on a building crew that constructed a house as part of a class. As an instructor he supervised that building crew from start to finish. He also spent his summers building houses alongside another carpentry instructor. It’s through these experiences that he discovered just what he wanted to specialize in.
“Through building those houses, I found out that building cabinets was the part I enjoyed most,” he said. “And I knew there was a demand for it.”
There is quite a demand for Evan’s work, putting him about three or four months behind in getting to requests from customers. He’s done work for customers locally as well as around the state – as far as Belfield, South Heart and Devils Lake.
Evan’s most recent job is a full kitchen redo for a customer in Belfield. He meets with the customer, measures out the job, sketches out his plans and then gets busy in his workshop. He also has a computer program that will render a 3-D image of the layout plans so a customer can see their custom cabinets before Evan even begins his first cut of the wood.
“A big kitchen redo probably takes me three weeks to a month to complete from a sitting piece of wood to a complete job,” Evan explained. “I’m so far behind right now I’d like to hire someone to do things like sanding and staining so I could keep building.”
It’s in the building that Evan finds the most satisfaction. He spends countless hours on jobs making sure everything is pretty much perfect.
He hesitates to call himself a perfectionist, but nothing leaves his shop until it meets his high standards.
After going over the wood with an electric sander, he admits to using a flashlight to scrutinize each piece in order to detect even the slightest problem. That’s when he spends extra time hand sanding to get things just right. He definitely takes pride in his work, and it shows.
“I enjoy working with my hands,” he said. “I work for a long time on some of these pieces. I want them to look good and the customer to be happy.”
For job quotes or information on custom cabinets, furniture and laminate countertops, Evan can be reached on his cell phone at 527-0893 or stop out at his workshop in the Samsara Cues building on 1st Street (use the west entrance).