You have to listen more than you talk. As you heard above, I love to talk. Anyway, back to my story. I became frustrated with the ridiculous sink design choices I had to offer my kitchen remodel clients. Double bowl sinks did not make sense to me, neither did single bowl sinks with the drain smack in the middle. The story is a bit more involved, but I will spare you the details. In short, I decided I could design a better sink!
You see, I came into this business with a different mind set than most sink manufacturers. I was a kitchen designer, not a sink maker nor a marketing specialist. After over 20 years of constant learning, several sink design patents, and a great deal of hereditary hair loss, I am still in love with what I do.
I owe my talents to my family. I come from a multi talented extended family. My father, Lee Rachiele, is a retired clinical psychologist and business owner and was a child prodigy concert pianist. My mother, Rosalinda (Tucci) Rachiele, is a gourmet cook with a keen eye for design. She was a professional clothing designer and worked for the Singer corporation for a while. My uncle Frank Tucci was a well known architect in New York. My Uncle Stanley Tucci is a beloved retired art school teacher from Katonah, N.Y. Stanley's wife, Joan Tucci wrote a best selling Italian cookbook; Cucina & Famiglia. Their son is the actor, Stanley Tucci. My grandfather, Stanley Tucci Sr., came to the US at the age of 13, by himself with only $13. He was a granite stone cutter as a child and young adult and as an adult owned Stanley and Son's Memorials in Peekskill, NY. He designed and made granite monuments. I inherited his "Stonecutters Eye". I can look at a picture on the wall at any distance and tell if if is off level by as little as 1/8". No need for a level here! As you can see, talent was generously gifted throughout our family and I am a very thankful I was one of the beneficiaries.
I became an entrepreneur early in my life. While in college, in Pittsburgh, I was driving by a cemetery and noticed a large pond with what appeared to be hundreds of goldfish in it. I drove into the cemetery and was standing by the pond when the grounds-keeper came over to say hello. I asked him how all of the goldfish found their way into the pond. He shook his head in dismay and said the darn kids get sick of them at home and dump them here. I inquired if it would be okay if I took some. He said, "Take them all - they are a nuisance". I promptly went to the store, purchased some garbage bags, a large net and a loaf of bread and returned. The grounds-keeper was so enthralled by what I was doing that he actually helped. I ended up with well over 200 large goldfish - which I promptly sold to the local aquarium shops. I then noticed that the plants that were sold at the aquarium shops were the exact type that was growing in the pond. I returned a week later to the cemetery and found the grounds-keeper. I inquired about the plants. He laughed and said, "You really want to pick the weeds out of the pond?" I said "Sure!" I filled several garbage bags full of the "weeds", took them home, cleaned them and wrapped them into small bunches and tied them together with rubber bands. I sold each bunch for 49 cents - I had hundreds of sprigs and sold out quickly. There were enough plants at the cemetery for several trips over several months. The main plant life in the pond was lily pads and flowers. They were truly beautiful and were being choked out by these "weeds".
One last find... I noticed an area on the side of the road where the hillside had been blasted to make room for the road had some interesting looking rocks. I stopped to inspect them and found that they were green shale. They would look terrific in an aquarium. I loaded up my car with as many rocks as the car would hold and went around selling them (for months) to the local aquarium shops. They would actually put in orders for the rock delivery! So, those were my first ventures into entrepreneurial capitalism and I had a ball!
Blog Update October 22, 2022
Oh my goodness! I totally forgot we had a blog page because we have been so busy. There sure is quite a bit of news to share. Back in December of 2021, we purchased a Fiber Laser that replaced a turret punch. These machines cut the raw material into the shapes required to make custom sinks. The laser has saved us, and our customers, thousands of dollars due to the very small amount of scrap metal we have since the purchase and the lack of "after prep" work required after the cutting. We have been blessed with two wonderful years since COVID started. At least a third of our customers have been repeat customers and almost all of the balance have been referred to us by past customers. I believe we came up with the very popular Paragon™ workstation sink and the Harmony™ dual user sink designs during this hiatus from writing in our blog. As you might notice by some of the photos below, humans are not the only ones enjoying our sinks!Blog Update September 5, 2020
Luxury Home Builders should be ashamed of themselves... at least most of them. Click here to read about the dirty secret they have been keeping from you... before you invest.Blog Update May 9, 2020
Well, the Corona Virus hit and it hit hard everywhere. Thankfully, we have been considered an essential business and have worked through this pandemic. Just a few days ago we were awarded a dealership status for Invisacook. This is a virtually invisible cooktop that allows you to cook on your countertop with no visible cooktop. They make one, two and four burner sets. Consider a single burner on the island so you can face your family while making eggs in the morning. The single and double burner run on standard 110 outlets, so you can even set one up on a cart and take it out on the pool deck. You might consider putting one permanently in the counter of your outdoor kitchen. Every inch of counter space is valuable in the outdoor kitchen! We hope you are all doing well through this pandemic. Stay safe.Blog Update March 21, 2020
We are in the middle of the Corona Virus scare. So many friends and family members are out of work and most are confined to their homes. We are a very small company, and thankfully, all is well with our employees. We are continuing our work as normal until, and if, small businesses like ours are asked to shut down. As of today, I do not see that happening. That being said, every day has some shocking news. We are weathering the storm better than most and we are very thankful to be able to continue paying employees so they don't have to worry about their finances. There is little more to say at this point other than we all remain optimistic.Blog Update December 29, 2019
What you likely do not know about your Dishwasher!
No kidding, I found out this little known fact the hard way. I have a fairly new dishwasher and all of a sudden, water was leaking out from the front bottom of the dishwasher. I called my good friend, a plumber, and he chuckled. I asked "What is so funny?" He said "Did you load the dishwasher?" I said "Yes". He said "Did you load a large plate facing front toward the door?" I inquired, "How the heck did you know that?" He said dishwashers have bottom racks designed to keep dishes sideways. He told me to open the door to notice there is a rubber gasket on the left, top and right, but NO gasket on the bottom. I quickly looked, and to my surprise, both of our dishwashers have NO gasket on the bottom. Whatttt???? How did I get to my age without knowing that? Well, virtually everyone else I mentioned this to was unaware too! So, a word to the wise. Never face a large plate facing the dishwasher door. Not a good way to end or start the year!Blog Update September 2-6, 2019
Well, we are bracing ourselves for Hurricane Dorian. It looks like it will hit Florida tomorrow. If predictions are accurate, we should be in a tropical storm area instead of hurricane force winds. That being said, let me get on to the topic of the day. "Kitchen Design" All too often, we rely on professional kitchen designers without giving much thought to the process. As a former professional kitchen designer, I have a few things you should consider in the early stages of the process. If your designer is not asking the following questions, be wary. 1. Who does the cooking and who does the clean up? 2. Who is right handed and who is left handed? 3. How tall are the users? 4. Do you prepare meals daily? 5. What type of meals... vegan, mostly meat? 6. Do you entertain frequently and if so, how many guests? These are basic questions that must be asked by the designer. If they are not asked, the designer is basically designing a kitchen for him or herself in your home. How rude! The most important task you have when remodeling or building a kitchen from scratch is to select the right Kitchen Designer. Once you have interviewed several designers, make the best choice for your personality and confidence level. You will be on your way to a well designed kitchen. Keep in mind, when designing your kitchen, all Rachiele™sinks should allow for a double roll-out trash mechanism in your sink base. Not all sink based are made the same, so check with your kitchen designer. Another thing to consider... Almost all of our sinks are custom made. Virtually all of them are designed so they will fit in the same size cabinet as the sink. So, a 36" Rachiele sink will fit in a 36" kitchen sink base cabinet.
