A focus on family
East Sonora cabinetry and door company reflects on 50 years in business
Family ties and community support are the reasons Van’s Cabinets & Doors in Sonora is celebrating 50 years in business, weathering the economic downturn in 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic over the past few years.
“We treat everyone like family,” David Guzman said.
Guzman, of Tuolumne, is the sole owner and president of Van’s Cabinets & Doors and has worked for the company since 1985. The business specializes in custom woodworking, cabinets, entry and exterior doors, millworks and associated hardware.
The future of Van’s is in the hands of the “new generation,” including Andrew Jessee, of Sonora, and Jesse Stevens, of Crystal Falls, according to Guzman.
Jessee, who manages the door shop and assists Guzman with customers and sales, has worked for the company for 12 years. He is the grandson of Marion Van Veldhuizen aka “Van,” who started the original cabinet shop in Ripon in 1962 and later moved the shop to Sonora in 1971.
Stevens, who is a cabinet designer, oversees the cabinet shop, from sales to design to delivery and has worked for the business since 2001.
Mary Bautista, who has worked for the shop for nine years, is the book keeper and hardware saleswoman.
“I love to come to work every day. Everybody takes care of everybody else. I have a great boss, it’s a team and it feels like family,” she said.
The rest of the crew includes longtime cabinet shop employee Michael Cobb, with over 30 years of experience in the trade.
“My superpower is turning trees into treasure,” Cobb said enthusiastically. “I love
my job! It’s like a family. I get to play with man toys and get paid for it.”
Cobb said he learned about how to gauge a good business from his father.
“He always said, ‘It’s not the steak, it’s the sizzle. This place has sizzle,’ ” he said grinning from ear to ear while working in the cabinet shop.
David Sheldon, who has worked for the company for two years, is Cobb’s partner-in-crime in the cabinet end of the business.
The camaraderie is evident as they pose for a picture together in front of a set of cabinets that they worked on, describing each cubby hole and door as they take turns talking.
Chris Kruger, who has a welcoming smile and a warmth to him, is the door shop foreman and has been with Van’s for five years.
David Stump, who has worked for the company for four years, is also a door man and delivers doors for the business.
The newest member of the team is Sonora High School student Jack Morey. With the company for just two months, Morey, 17, who was on “blow the leaves everywhere duty” with a leaf blower attached to his back like a backpack, smiled as he went about his task.
History of Van’s
In 1971 Jessee’s grandfather moved what was then just a cabinet shop — the doors would come later — to Sonora nine years after he started the business in Ripon.
Jessee has fond memories of working with his grandfather, known simply as “Van,” in his home woodworking shop when he was 10-years-old.
Using oak wood, he and his grandfather made two decorative candlestick holders that were approximately 18 inches tall. Both were gifts. One went to his parents and the other to his grandmother.
His grandfather also let him make a much smaller birthday cake candle holder that Jessee said Van was impressed with, due to the amount of detail he was able to get onto such a small piece of wood.
Van retired in 1982 and sold the cabinet business to David Fickel. Later on, Van would be instrumental in getting his grandson the job with Fickel and Guzman
Guzman, who moved to the Sonora area with his family in 1976, when his father Joe Borges opened up a door shop, a business he operated out of a barn in Soulsbyville, remembers Van.
“My dad would be somewhere delivering a door and Van would be there delivering cabinets,” Guzman recalled.
At 14, Guzman worked in his dad’s shop for $1.25 an hour and was hooked.
“I am a door man,” Guzman said.
Fickel, who was a contractor and bought the shop from Van in 1982, introduced doors into the business in 1985.
“From there, the business just kept growing,” Guzman said.
Guzman worked fulltime for Fickel before the two became business partners in 2000.
Fickel’s domain was the cabinet shop, which Ron Loewen managed, while Guzman managed the door shop.
On an icy April morning in 2011, Loewen passed away on his way to work. Stevens, who had worked in the cabinet shop for seven years at that point, became shop manager.
“Ron Loewen was a big mentor to me. He taught me the trade,” Stevens said of the cabinet business.
Following Fickel’s death in 2018 from cancer Guzman became president and sole proprietor of the door and cabinet business.
Fickel’s name is mentioned several times during interviews with different employees. Even Guzman’s business cards, which list him as a co-owner, are a reminder and a nod to the man who is clearly missed.
“When Dave Fickel passed away, I wasn’t sure what to do with the cabinets. I am a door man,” Guzman said. “Jesse (Stevens) got thrown into it and figured it out.”
Stevens, who took over Loewen’s role when he died once again picked up the slack left by Fickel’s passing and ran the cabinet shop.
Staying in business
For Guzman the most meaningful project the company has ever worked on was for Black Oak Casino Resort in Tuolumne as the fivestory hotel was being built following the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009.
“We went without
paychecks for two years,” Guzman explained. “We almost didn’t make it.”
Guzman credits the Tuolumne Band of MeWuk Indians, who own and operate the casino and hotel, with saving their cabinet and door business by reaching out to local sub-contractors and local suppliers in an effort to really boost the economy in the county.
The tribe purchased all of the doors and cabinets for the hotel project from Guzman’s company, he said.
Stevens said he’s grateful for the 153 vanities and kiosks, as well as the kitchenettes for hotel suites, that he was able to do for the casino’s hotel project.
”That allowed us to get back up on our feet and move forward,” Guzman said.
Van’s built the hotel cabinetry out of red oak wood in the lobby where you check into your room.
Additionally, the company supplied all of the commercial metal exterior doors, red oak interior doors and all of the commercial locks for the exterior and interior doors, as well as the Saflok RFID card locks for the guest rooms.
It wasn’t just the casino that came to the financial rescue of business. Kari Guzman, David Guzman’s wife of 23 years and mother of their four children, is also credited with helping keep Van’s afloat with her paycheck.
“My wife was very supportive through the 2008 economic downturn,” he said. “Without her we wouldn’t have made it.”
Utilizing the Work Sharing Program through the California Employment Development Department was also key, according to David Guzman, who also credits Fickel, his former business partner.
“We always kept our bills and personal expenses low. Cash as we go. David Fickel described the 2008 downturn as ‘the lights got
turned off,’ ” David Guzman said. “We learned a lot through the recession, just trying to keep our employees going.”
Today, the company specializes in custom woodworking, cabinets, entry and exterior doors, millworks, and all associated hardware. Van’s works with homeowners, business owners, architects and designers, to create custom pieces.
Van’s did restoration work on the old windows of the Columbia School House at Columbia State Historic Park.
Other notable projects the cabinet and door specialists have completed include work for Rush Creek Lodge in Groveland, Chicken Ranch Casino in Jamestown and cabins in Eagle Meadows on Highway 108 east of Strawberry.
Family first and slowing down
The family-like environment that David Guzman has created for his employees even includes a daycare area, complete with a wood-burning stove.
David Guzman is a family man and understands that sometimes you need to bring your child to work.
Monday was one of those days for Stevens, who regularly took a break every couple of minutes to check on Beau, his 5-month-old son with girlfriend Brittany Mantzouranis.
Jessee, like many of his coworkers, is also a family man and married to Bridget. The couple have two children, a boy and a girl, so he too understands the need for such a place at work.
Family is a priority for David Guzman so being there to see his grandchildren grow up and spending more time with his wife and children is more important as he gets closer to “slowing down.” He never uses the word retirement.
“Back in the day I used to work six or seven days
a week,” he said.
With a gaggle of grandchildren and a passion for camping and dirt bike riding, David Guzman wants to make sure he slows down and enjoys life before it is too late, so he has a plan in place to “pull back” — not retire — over the next six years.
“I will have less daily responsibilities over time,” he explained.
On his bucket list is the state of Maine. He wants to go to the furthest spot east that he can and enjoy the beautiful scenery while camping and riding dirt bikes with his family.
“I want to leave for Maine with no plan, no
time table, no time to come back,” he said.
Dealing with loss has been part of David Guzman’s life at Van’s Cabinets & Doors, not surprising for any business around for 50 years, but he is making sure that the future of his company is secure for the next generation after he retires.
“Basically, my passion is for my employees. They are family,” he said. “I want to make sure they will be alright. I want them to succeed when I am gone.”