Das Haus - Aug./Sept.

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HOME & LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

CABIN FEVER

Hays family makes home in Colorado-style cabin along Big Creek

AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2012

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features 8 Cabin Fever

At home IN hays

Expansive cabin is perfect hideaway for Hays family

6

A Drop a Day

Rain barrels allow residents to conserve water during hot summer 14

Organization Innovation

Closet, kitchen gurus’ business taking slow climb to top

DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.net

AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2012 • 3

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2/21/2012 3:28:39 PM

A drop a day

rain barrels provide a way to conserve water

T

For Hays resident Irvin Dreher, he practice of collecting rain water in barrels is two rain barrels provide water for growing in popularity throughout the Hays area. a drop a DAY his flower bed and garden. He’s Since 2009, more than 3,700 rain barrels ofBy DAWNE LEIKER been using the barfered by Kansas State University rels for the last three Research and Extension have been years and has found even small rains provide providing an eco-friendly alternative adequate water for his needs. for watering landscapes. That doesn’t “When we had .14 to .15 (of rain), it filled include the number of barrels bought commercially or homemade by resithose barrels up coming off the roof,” he said.

“I can water a lot of flowers with a barrel-full.” dents.

Irvin Dreher, Hays The rain barrels help stretch the The quantity of water collected through one rain barrel can be substantial. With a onelimited annual precipitation of the High Plains. Although it can occur infrequently, rainfall that inch rain, a roof of only 88 square feet can fill a 55-gallon rain barrel. A typical roof of 1,200 to 2,000 square feet comes down hard and fast, running off landscaping and can collect 750 to 1,250 gallons of water during each into tributaries, can be conserved. one-inch rainfall.

For the city of Hays, that uncollected run-off ends up Approximately 30 rain barrels are available for purin Big Creek, after gathering oil, grease, lawn fertilizers, pet waste and basically any bacteria in its path. chase from the K-State Research and Extension Office. At a cost of $15 for a 55-gallon barrel, the barrels are sold “Collecting (rainwater) allows you to conserve the waready to install. ter and use it on your landscape at a later time when you To inquire about availability of rain barrels, call Minson need it, instead of paying for water,” said Stacie Minson, Big Creek and Middle Smoky Hill River watershed specialat (785) 769-3297. Forms for purchasing a rain barrel are available at www.mykansaswatershed.com/rainbarrel. ist.

6 • AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2012

“I can water a lot of flowers with a barrel-full.”

DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.net

Tucked away in the woods sits a country cabin that looks like it belongs anywhere but on the edge of Hays. Yet, one local family has made its home in this cabin, in the woods that surround it and along the creek on which it lies.

Cabin fever 8 • AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2012

DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.net

I

t could make a great scene for a modernday Laura Ingalls Wilder book.

Kind of a cross between “Little House in the Big story by Woods” and “On the Banks Diane Gasper-O’Brien of Plum Creek,” two of the photography by first four books from the Raymond Hillegas award-winning Little House series.

Dr. John and Becky Pokorny’s house is anything but little, but it still is barely noticeable from the road, tucked away among the large trees on the banks of Big Creek just outside Hays, near the intersection of 27th Street and U.S. Highway 183 Bypass.

It’s exactly what Becky said she was looking for when the couple ran across the property for sale in 2001.

The couple had lived in Hays for eight years, moving from Cincinnati, where John had completed his three-year residency and was ready to pursue his career as an eye doctor.

“You’ve got to get a job somewhere,” John, who grew up 30 minutes from Hays, said of choosing Hays as a place to live and work. “I was familiar with Dr. (Harry) Watts, and (Dr. Eugene) Siler had just retired. I knew the area and knew the practice.”

DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.net

At home IN hays

AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2012 • 9

“And,” added Becky, a physical therapist, “the schools were much better than Cincinnati and we wanted to live in a family-friendly place.”

They found that in Hays, where they bought a traditional ranch-style home when they came to their native Kansas in 1993.

John grew up as an only child on the edge of La Crosse. Becky, a self-proclaimed “Air Force brat,” had three siblings. And although her family traveled the country “we always came back to Carbondale,” a town of about 1,300 residents 25 miles south of Topeka.

“I missed trees, being from eastern Kansas,” said Becky, who noticed a “For Sale” sign by the side of the road one day when she was driving by.

The Pokornys, with two small children, ages 7 and 5 at the time, decided to check out the 5,000-square-foot residence.

“We walked in, and it was like, ‘Oh, this looks like a cabin in Colorado,’ ” Becky said.

“When we walked in this front door, that sold us,” John added.

So young Ryan and Jill Pokorny were able to invite friends out to their sprawling country home on the 10 • AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2012

“We walked in, and it was like, ‘Oh, this looks like a cabin in Colorado.’ ” Becky Pokorny

edge of town, with plenty of room to run around.

“We had Girl Scout campouts, Boy Scout meetings,” Becky said, “birthday parties. Lots of fun, good memories.”

Numerous trees line the property — ranging from Austrian pines

and cedar and blue spruce to native elm and cottonwood and fruit trees galore.

Geese, ducks and chickens make themselves at home around the property, along with a couple of cats and three more that make their home indoors.

DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.net

Off a wooden deck in the back of the house is a large double-decker tree house Becky and her dad built between two 100-plus year-old cottonwoods.

Across the creek is more land on the 8-acre property, complete with native buffalo grass — and more trees.

There were so many trees in the area the Pokornys decided to have it checked by the U.S. Forestry Service, which they learned considers their farm a forested area.

“There’s a plentiful supply out there,” John said, adding he doesn’t have far to look for feeding their three fireplaces. “Our first eight years here, we didn’t even burn any standing trees. We used what we picked up around the place.”

Even while inside their home, the Pokornys have a feel for the outdoors with a view from the abundance of windows around the house.

“Everywhere you go (in the house), there’s a view to the outside,” Becky said.

The house is furnished with numerous family heirlooms, including a roll top desk of John’s great grandfather Charles Pokorny, a pharmacist in La Crosse.

That cabin-in-the-Rockies feeling is everywhere, from the knotty pine wooden floors to the custom-made natural oak table that seats 10, from the spacious kitchen area to a breakfast nook just off the great room.

The great room, with a massive native stone fireplace, beckons visitors to come on in and sit for a while on one of the extra-long couches or large chairs.

Multiple large windows give a full view of the outdoors.

“I told my husband when we moved (to Hays) that I loved him dearly but I needed the green,” Becky said. “Our house in town, we had two (flower) gardens, one in the front yard and one in the backyard.”

“But,” she said, “this is better ... much, much better.”

AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2012 • 11

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organization innovation Craftsmen hard at work providing kitchen, closet solutions for homeowners

a knee and drawer organization features.

“We like everything to have its home,” Rupke said.

“We pride ourselves on functionality,” Seib said.

The Kitchen and Closet Solution provides not only “A lot of people don’t realize how much space cabinetry, but ways to organize what goes in them. they can get in their closet if it’s done properly,” The business recently opened a new Rupke said. showroom and office at 2717 Canal BouleThe new showroom also will have room organization INNOVATION vard, Ste. G. to display the Cambria quartz counter“We’re going to have a lot of stuff people By JUDY SHERARD tops, bath cabinetry and closet organizhaven’t seen before,” said Dustin Rupke, ers, along with samples of knobs, pulls, who owns the business along with Brent Seib. laminate, doors, and finish colors, and vignettes that That includes a cabinet that opens at the touch of can roll out for home shows.

14 • AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2012

DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.net

The pair started business as Smoky Hill Woodcrafters, selling shelves and other items at craft fairs.

“Brent and I just started building crafts as a way to make extra income,” he said.

“One thing led to another, and eventually we got asked to do some cabinet work.”

Rupke quit his job at a mobile home manufacturing plant in 2003 and went into business full-time. The work started with remodeling jobs, then building cabinetry in new construction followed by commercial jobs. It’s now a combination of the three.

“We’re a well-kept secret.

It’s a slow way to grow, but it’s the right way,” Rupke said.

That’s beginning to change as the business was named Kansas Emerging Business of the Year in 2011.

Working with Ron Newman and the Kansas Business Development Center at Fort Hays State University, they received a $7,500 grant. That included a process called innovation engineering with mentor Doug Hall. Hall suggested they change their name to better describe what they do.

In addition to the showroom, they have a 4,000-square-foot manufacturing facility for cabinet making.

Seib oversees that operation and the four employees who work there.

However, each design starts in the office with Rupke and his wife, Sheila, also a digital designer.

“Every cabinet that (Brent) builds, I’ve already built on the computer,” Rupke said. “It eliminates a lot of errors and frustration.”

AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2012 • 15

“We’re a well-kept secret. It’s a slow way to grow, but it’s the right way.”

Dustin Rupke

Kitchen SuiteS

785-625-3278 1-800-248-3270 1224 E. 27th Hays, KS

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