The love of all things nature and the great outdoors was rooted deep in Kim Harbaugh as a young boy in Boy Scouts; camping, fishing, hunting, and exploring the woods. “The outdoors has always been an important part of my life, and since marriage and children, I’ve made it a part of their lives as well.” says Kim.  The love of nature and giving back to Mother Nature in a form of a tree sparked, which eventually led to being known as a tree farm due to the amount of trees planted. The Harbaugh family and their four daughters reminisce of many memories planting trees as a family and now the next generation, Kim & Karen's grandkids get to part-take in the tree planting fun. To give back to Mother Nature in a form of a tree gives back to not only wildlife but to us for generations to come. To date we have officially lost count of all of the trees planted but after adding another 3,000 to the count this last fall we are approximately at 50,000 trees. Just like nature gives us a breath of fresh air our home should inspire us to welcome us back for a place of refreshment and so the two combine.

 

What started as a high schooler on a tall ladder painting houses led to carpenter building houses to building furniture and cabinets in 1979. The desire of starting his own business with Karen boomed and Harbaugh Wood Specialties was born in 1982.  For the next 20 years every kitchen was designed, crafted, constructed, and installed by Kim and Karen. This became a family affair with the help of their four daughters to sand and stain the work (as one of his daughter’s writing this I wanted to make sure we get credit too ;-).  As life grew busy and employees grew hard Kim and Karen decided to work with an Iowa company, Bertch, out of Waterloo. Bertch brought opportunities, growth, and every possibility readily available at their fingertips.  

 

In addition to cabinets, 2017 Kim turned to a lathe and took his love to create to another level with puzzle boxes, kaleidoscopes, bowls, and platters. This portion of the business is called Beyond the Bark, where their creativity, design, and skills have been sharpened even more. Getting back to the true beauty of Mother Nature and what it can be produced both in a cabinet and specialty item. 2019 brought a lot of excitement with daughter, Apryl and her husband, Ron, moving back to Iowa to join the team. Ron & Apryl's love for real estate and bringing a home back to life started right after their wedding vows with the purchase of a short sale where the projects began. Little did they realize they would transform Ron's home in Iowa City he had in college, a foreclosure in San Antonio, TX (we thought would be the largest) to then move to Alabama to renovate a home on the mountain to then realize Iowa, family, & a new business venture awaited to then gut and rebuild their house into a home all while having five children! Needless to say, we love an adventure! With the latest renovation we decided if we needed it our customers would as well and have expanded our services to cabinet hardware, showers and glass doors, window treatments, interior doors, and fireplaces.

 

The combination of getting back to their roots in Iowa and being a generational Iowa family our name changed and Native Iowa has been born. With open and grateful hearts, we welcome you to something that has been a dream of ours! With a lot of determination, enthusiasm, and a giant leap of faith we have started something great and look forward to sharing it with you! We believe you will fall in love with what Native Iowa has to offer you as much as we have! Thank you for taking the time to check out Native Iowa and reading a little bit about our story!

 

Bless you and your home, 

Apryl Mortenson w/Native Iowa