When does history start?

What we know for sure is that Jeff Arvin and Craig Aument started our company in 1990. Jeff had drifted away from a teaching career and had spent several years learning timber framing back in Michigan. Craig was a self-employed carpenter in the California Sierra. How two such disparate souls met and ended up in Bellingham, Washington is another story!

What we also know is that the ride has been great! We’ve work in beautiful places with wonderful people. There is too much to tell in this space, so here are a few numbers that help describe us:

• Founded in 1990 with 1 computer
• 300+ projects—all kinds; lost count a few years ago
• Our work is in over 20 states plus Canada and Japan
• 20–30 projects per year; size varies widely
• More than 150 people have worked at Cascade joinery since the beginning
• 256* board feet in our smallest frame (a dog house); 81,000 board feet in our largest
• Nearly 1,000,000 times we’ve sparked up against the fun barrier while building great houses!!!

*a board foot is the way wood geeks measure volume: One board foot is 1” thick x 1' wide x 1' long