Home show March 12-13 at convention center

FOR THE SECOND YEAR, LEGO CONTESTS ARE A PART OF THE SANTA FE HOME SHOW. Designed to attract young families, the contests are held during both show days, Saturday, March 12, and Sunday, March 13. The Lego events are co-sponsored by Del Norte Credit Union, Genoveva Chavez Community Center, and MeowWolf. There will be four contest sessions each day, two for ages 5-8 and two for kids aged 9-12. Prizes for the kids include skating parties at the Chavez center, tickets to the grand opening of House of Eternal Return by the MeowWolf arts collective, and cash prices from DNCU.

The Home Show at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201West Marcy Avenue, features nearly 100 booths and about 65 vendors. One is the Herrera family, owners of H and S Craftsmen and Counter Intelligence. “We’ll have four booths, a walk-through booth scenario,” said Eluid Herrera, whose businesses won best booth at the show two years ago. “I’ll have cabinet faces, countertop samples, tables, and cabinet samples. We’ll be having a call to action for builders and homeowners, offering discounts in cabinetry and countertops.”

The Herreras have been in business since 1952, beginning with José Eluid Herrera, Sr. building houses. “I’ve been making cabinets since I was a teenager,” said Eluid, his son, “and all of my kids work for me. I like to say they all have sawdust in their blood.”

The office for the two businesses has been at Pacheco Park for three years. The family’s shop in Española has been making cabinets from oak, alder, cherry, and walnut since 1959. “Our custom shop is open for people to see,” he said. “They’re always busy over there.”

H&S/CounterIntelligence keeps busy with both remodels and new homes— currently at a 60:40 ratio. Five of the houses on the 2015 Haciendas— A Parade of Homes tour featured their countertops and cabinets. They’re already signed up on three for this year’s mid-August home tour.

“We do all our own installations. My son, Jonathan, runs that crew. And my son, Andrew, does the cabinetry design and sales and he also has built and installed cabinets.”

Asked about the most popular countertops, Herrera said about twothirds of their clients want one of the manufactured-quartz products Caesarstone, Silestone, DuPont Zodiaq, or Cambria. “They have a great range of colors and are really hard to tell from granite. Most of what we do is the quartz, but we also do stone, wood, laminate, and NeoLith [a new, sintered porcelain material].”

COURTESY SFAHBA Concentrating on Legos