Howard Chermak, founder of award-winning Chermak Construction, is a much-loved and respected leader in the local remodeling industry. In this exclusive podcast recorded live at our September Remodelers Council Dinner, Howard provides us with his incredible insight and discusses the ways to evaluate the overall health of your business.

By Allison Butcher, Master Builders Association, The Lens News

Over the past 18 months, five King County cities have adopted a building moratorium, temporarily putting the brakes on new home construction.

While a moratorium is legal, it does not mean it is good policy. At a time when demand for housing is far outpacing housing supply, which drives up both home prices and rents and makes housing less attainable, building moratoria certainly are not good for housing. They also are not good for our economy or the families and workers looking for a home closer to job centers. Furthermore, they potentially could run counter to our region's transportation investments that contemplate the need for more transit-oriented development in certain areas.

Home is where life happens. It’s where we spend time with the people we care about, pursue the things we love, and create memories along the way. The spaces in our homes help make those moments possible. 

At MBAKS, we believe everyone deserves a place to call home. More homes mean more people have the chance to make these moments  happen. That idea inspired MBAKS’s new TV commercial, Room for What Matters, which started airing in June 2026.

The commercial highlights three distinct spaces in homes transformed by the people who use them in unique and unexpected ways: a family room reimagined as the ultimate game-night gathering place, a living room turned into a dog-training playground, and a walk-in closet converted into a home recording studio. 

The homes featured in the commercial are located in MBAKS member Greencity Homes’ Isla Community, a collection of three-bedroom cottage-style townhomes in Kirkland. These homes provided the perfect canvas to bring our vision to life, and we are grateful to the Greencity team for their partnership and collaboration throughout the project.

The spot concludes with a look toward the future, featuring new homes under construction and the promise of more rooms—and more stories—to come. For this final scene, we partnered with MBAKS member Olsen Anderson and highlighted one of their residential projects in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood.

We hope this commercial serves as a reminder that homes are about more than four walls and a roof. We invite you to watch it here, and to see how it all came together, check out the below behind-the-scenes production video.