The Restoration Living Team
We are a company of hands-on craftsmen skilled at and familiar with all the aspects of our diverse work, from building restoration to the many crafts we have mastered.
We are not specialized managers or middlemen who pass the work on to the “real” craftsmen in other companies or countries, though we do draw other skilled craftsmen and women into our projects.
Here are some of our team members:
Joe Quiñones
Joe is our lead craftsman who has the skills to wear just about any hat. You have probably seen him on many episodes of Restoration Road where he is turning the remnants of Industrial America into practical works of art like light fixtures and furniture. A skilled artist in many media, Joe can be reached on Instagram: VintageCopper.
Bryan Borman
A man of many diverse talents, his latest venture for us is at our new pizza restaurant. in Waco called “Crust and Cream.” When in Waco at the Silos, come on out and meet Bryan. He will either be stoking the wood-fired brick oven, tossing dough in the air or cranking fresh ice cream on the water-powered mill.
Jake Tindell
Jake, a Waco native, directs our Texas home builds, bringing to each project the knowledge of modern building methods it takes to make a beautiful house.
Steve Swift
What can we say about a man who for over forty years has carefully dismantled more historic buildings than any person . . . ever? Steve hails from one of the most historic valleys in America and knows the history and building techniques of every kind of historic house, barn, mill and outbuilding. In his spare time Steve fly fishes and collects antique hay trolleys made in New York.
Wade Spanhake
Wade Spanhake, the newest member of our team, hails from the historic Catskills Mountains above the Hudson River Valley of New York, home of Rip Van Winkle. But unlike Old Rip who legend says fell asleep in the mountains for twenty years, Wade is all enthusiasm and energy, and never met a stone project he didn’t turn into a work of art.
Jason Johnson
Jason is a new member of our team who is already beginning to wear a lot of hats. You may remember him from the brick making scene in the Augustus Peck House in Season 1 of Restoration Road.
Sherry Kuehl
Sherry is like the corporate trunnel to our team. She may be behind the scenes, but she helps to hold it all together.
Kevin Durkin
Kevin Durkin grew up in New York and New Jersey, where he studied firsthand the construction and archaeology of historic American buildings. After his university studies, he returned to his love of history and worked as an historical archaeologist on some of America’s earliest domestic and industrial sites, including eighteenth and nineteenth century homesteads and mills.
In addition to having founded a number of businesses, ranging from furniture making to artisan cheese making to relocation and restoration of historic and timber frame buildings, Kevin lectures at a number of universities and to professional organizations, and has written for diverse publications. His building restoration work has appeared in numerous publications, and he is now in production for the TV series, Restoration Road, for the new Magnolia channel. His company’s individual craftsmen have won many awards for their craftsmanship, and their handcrafted furniture remains part of the permanent collection of the White House.