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Woodmark is virtually alone among residential builders in Houston having had many years of broad-level residential construction experience, yet whose business today is solely renovating kitchens and baths.  Since 1975 the company has built starter homes, large luxury custom homes, and all size remodeling projects, in some of the finest neighborhoods of Houston, Austin and Dallas.  The benefit to you of this experience is that we can easily “read” the unique characteristics of your Houston home and then can apply this knowledge in the construction of your kitchen or bath—in an intelligent and efficient manner. A custom built kitchen or bath in Houston that you will love and enjoy each day.

Woodmark for many years has worked with Texas ’ finest interior designers and architects throughout the Greater Houston area.  These Houston professionals included both Deans of the architecture schools at Rice and the University of Houston .  Through them and others it has built many notable projects in Texas ’s finest neighborhoods.  Among them:

• A dramatic $100,000 kitchen in Houston ’s River Oaks was part of a $500,000 renovation to a 1930’s American Colonial style home purchased by an orthopedic surgeon and his socialite wife.  The renovated Houston home was included on the Kappa Christmas Home Tour.

• A Houston River Oaks kitchen plus additional remodeling was completed for the lead lawyer in Pennzoil’s successful two billion dollar suit against Texaco and who also was an assisting lawyer in Bush vrs. Gore in the 2000 election.

• An early kitchen remodeling job in 1986 was completed in Dallas ’s elite Preston Hollow, now the neighborhood of our most recent ex-President, George W. Bush.
  

• A residential style building was built for The Women’s Institute of Houston which had been founded in 1951 to provide continuing adult education.  Woodmark built their uniquely designed 4300 sq. ft. classroom facility near Houston ’s River Oaks.  The unique design by  Adams Architects allowed every room to be provided with a pleasing view of a lush central courtyard.  The project was published in the Houston Chronicle, River Oaks Magazine and the Houston Business Journal.
  

• Aptly named Jaral, a large custom home was built for a nationally prominent criminal defense attorney and his artist wife.  This 6000 square foot Houston residence was one of seven projects in Texas in 1994 to receive a design award from the Texas Society of Architects.  The award was presented to Taft Architects and the project was published in Texas Architect magazine.  Jones Hall in Houston was one of the other winners that year.  One unsuccessful competitor on this project later built the home of President George H. W. Bush.  In 2001 Jaral was on the Houston Rice Design Alliance Home Tour.

• In a Memorial area home of recent vintage a kitchen was renovated for a retired couple which among other things included a large new island. The husband was a retired former member of the Board of Directors of one of America ’s largest oil companies headquartered in Houston .

• And many others.
  
  
  
  

Woodmark Kitchen and Bath, Inc. was founded in Houston by Vern Wuensche.  Vern was born in the tiny farming community of McDade in central Texas .  His father who had a second grade education worked as a handyman carpenter all his life.  He first worked for Camp Swift near Bastrop , Texas , during World War II and later for nearby Elgin Butler Brick Company for many years.  His mother was a farm girl and later a homemaker who was employed at Travis State School working in the laundry.  She completed the eighth grade.

    Vern completed McDade Elementary in a class of five and then graduated from Elgin High School in 1963. In the fall he entered The University of Texas in Austin obtaining a BBA in accounting in 1967, and an MBA in management in 1968, graduating first in his class.

Following graduation—after a stint with the United States Army Reserve—he worked first as an auditor for Arthur Andersen & Co. and then as a tax consultant for Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co. Both in Houston .  Later he was employed with a series of smaller Houston companies first as a cost accountant for a bag manufacturer, then as assistant controller for an oilfield company, and finally as local controller for several national residential homebuilders. He received his CPA certificate in 1975.

Together with his brother he founded Woodmark Homes, Inc. in May of 1975 with $6,000.00, few contacts and little chance to obtain any additional capital. The company built one home in the Houston subdivision of Jersey Village and then built a single model home in Oakwood Glen in northwest Houston having an option to buy ten lots.  Its competitors consisted of one large local homebuilder plus nationally known Weyerhauser Corporation.  Woodmark survived, and three years later after building over 100 homes in that Houston subdivision, the company purchased its competitors lots as they left the subdivision.  

Following the downturn in the Houston and in the national economy in 1979, Woodmark spent the next 15 years remodeling existing homes in River Oaks, Memorial, and Northwest Houston and then later building numerous large custom homes and remodeling projects including kitchens all across greater Houston. 

In Houston in 1994, Woodmark began focusing totally on building high quality kitchens and baths from design to completion.  Today Woodmark Kitchen & Bath, Inc. has a twenty-year history of renovating kitchens and baths in Houston, primarily West Houston ' s River Oaks and Memorial areas.  Most but not all of its work comes from referrals or previously satisfied customers.  It has had experience in building almost five hundred kitchens face-to-face one-on-one with its customers.  They have ALL been pleased. 

Vern is also a former marathoner, a member of the arts and design community, and a Christian who is serious about his faith. He has been active in Missouri Synod Lutheran churches and has attended them regularly all his life. In one church he served as Treasurer and in another he served as an Elder for twenty years. He has lived in the Memorial area of Houston for forty-five years
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