Two-tone cabinets, quartz counters in style for kitchen remodels
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 months, 3 weeks AGO
A quartz countertop is nonporous, durable and easy to maintain.
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Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | October 24, 2025 1:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — The kitchen is the heart of your home, so naturally you want it set up to suit you. Matt Adame, owner of RD Construction, a Moses Lake-based contractor specializing in kitchens, said the current trend in cabinets is two-tone.
“In (a house) we just built, they went with white Shaker uppers and black Shaker on the bottom,” Adame said. “And then in another house, they did white panel uppers and dark gray flat acrylic on the bases as well.”
The dual-style trend popped up about a year and a half ago, Adame said. Wood cabinets are cycling back into vogue as well, he said.
“In the early 2000s, (oak cabinets) were in style,” he said. “Then they went to cherry wood, then white. And now I feel like it’s going back to oak.”
Quartz countertops are popular, Adame said. Quartz is tough, nonporous and easy to maintain, according to the home maintenance site Angi’s List, and costs about the same as granite, which Adame said is also a popular choice.
“We try to steer people away from marble,” Adame said. “It’s heavy and really fragile.”
Adame recommends staying away from painted cabinets.
“It’s not going to last at all,” Adame said. “If you have a professional do it, they have to use an expensive paint where it doesn’t want to chip easily. By the time you sand and paint them, you might as well just get new cabinets (as) pay for the labor on that.”
Sinks are another thing to be careful about, Adame said. He recommends going with an undermount sink rather than the cheaper drop-in kind where construction crews must seal the lip to the counter.
“I always recommend just spending the extra couple of hundred to make your kitchen pop a little bit more,” he said.
If you’re going to bring in a professional, have an idea in mind of what you want before you call, Adame suggested.
“(Customers should) be clear what they want at the beginning instead of being undecided about what they want or how they want their layout,” he said.
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”