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Zach & Ken HarrisonSing the Southside’s

Praises Page 4

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Photo Credit: Radley Muller

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Messiah Delights this December...14

December 2017

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Zach’s storyHow Zach came to be a part of his

dad’s business starts with his own foray into the arts.

It wasn’t until his third year at the Uni-versity of Washington that Zach finally settled upon an area of study.

Ken remembers the call, thinking, “Please don’t let it be theater.”

Well, dad, that’s exactly what it was. Zach had caught the theater bug, and

with his dad’s zeal for showmanship, it’s not surprising that his son excelled in the theater arts. In fact, he was accepted to the University of California San Diego’s master’s program, which only accepts eight students each year.

It was during his residency at the La Jolla Playhouse during his studies that Zach met his future wife, Kelly. She was a dresser for the production he was act-ing in. Kelly is also a talented singer and comedian boasts her hubby.

They both found their way to New York after that, although initially separately.

“New York has a crazy way of bringing people together,” Zach says.

Then, a couple of years ago as both were establishing careers in the Big Apple, the two visited Bellingham so Zach could serve as best man in a friend’s wedding. They arrived during a glorious Bellingham summer, and Zach and Kelly were inspired to make the move.

“We were always saving our money to come back to the West Coast,” says Zach.

Since then, the two have celebrated their own marriage, in September of this year.

After moving to Bellingham, Kelly got a job with Tollhouse Energy and Zach got a job as an adjunct professor at Western Washington University teaching acting.

Teaching wasn’t a full-time gig, and that’s when he decided to join his dad in the real estate business.

When he called the sales manager for Coldwell Banker BAIN to say he was in-terested to coming to work with his dad, her reply was, “It’s about time!”

A dynamic duoKen and Zach enjoy helping clients re-

locating from big cities – they’ve worked with people from New York, L.A., New Zealand and Singapore – because they’ve relocated as well.

“We get it,” Ken says.Zach also has the perspective of grow-

ing up here, since the age of 9 – often spending time in the mountains trying to keep up with his dad, an avid hiker.

“He’s a mountain goat,” Zach says. “I grew up chasing him around the hills.”

Ken hasn’t given up on his mountain goat ways as he’s aged. He leads the Boomers Hiking Club each week, trekking the hills from lower B.C. to Snohomish County. Hikes average eight to 12 miles, and the club currently has members aged 18 to 75.

Ken didn’t fully give up music, either. He got involved with the Whatcom Sym-phony Orchestra, serving on its board for 10 years. Upon occasion, he is asked to compose a piece or conduct the orchestra. These opportunities, he says, are “a thrill that I never pass up.”

by Hilary Parker

Like father, like son.Last year Zach Harrison teamed up

with his dad Ken selling real estate. That in itself isn’t too unusual, but it’s hardly where the similarities between these two begin or end.

Both worked in the entertainment industry before coming to real estate and both can’t say enough about loving life on the Southside.

“Fairhaven is just a blast,” raves Ken, who lives on 14th Street.

“Chuckanut is magical,” rhapsodizes Zach, who resides on Forest Street.

And their passion isn’t some sort of feigned real estate agent enthusiasm. Ken, having moved to Edgemoor after a lifetime in the Los Angeles area, and Zach moving back to Bellingham after time on both coasts, the Southside is exactly where they want to be.

Ken’s storyWhen asked how he settled in Belling-

ham after a 23-year career in Hollywood, Ken’s standard reply is, “I kept driving north until the brake lights disappeared.”

But how he got on that freeway in the first place is a fascinating story.

Ken attended Valley Junior College in North Hollywood, planning to study medical illustration, but the intensive math it required made the degree much less appealing.

Instead, “I hung out in the music de-partment more than I expected.”

The detail-oriented traits Ken thought he would take into medical illustration turned out to be a boon in music nota-tion, and he became a copyist at age 19. A copyist extracts the music from a com-poser’s score and creates separate parts for each musician using an ink pen and paper. “Old school,” notes Ken. Today,

it’s done on a computer. He then moved on to become an orches-

trator – the person who takes the com-poser’s main “sketch” of the melody and chords and fleshes it out for a full orchestra.

Ken’s big break came when he was asked to orchestrate a tune to make it “big and western” for a new TV show.

That show?Dallas.Ken worked on other well-known shows,

including Fantasy Island, MacGyver and Melrose Place as well as some made-for-TV movies and motion pictures on the big screen. He is a composer in his own right as well as a producer and conductor.

While working on MacGyver, flying north to work on location in Vancouver, B.C., he took notice of Bellingham. He and his wife Kathy had been consider-ing a move, and Kathy had grown up in Centralia, so Western Washington seemed like a good fit.

He had just been offered to work on Melrose Place, Ken recalls, when they were preparing to move north. It was 1992. He started commuting to L.A. for the on-set work, and creating the music from Bellingham. It was only after he had a few episodes under his belt that he announced what he’d done.

“It was kind of a scary thing to do. Hol-lywood doesn’t like changes,” says Ken, explaining he might have gotten the boot if he had told them what he was planning ahead of time.

He created Hollywood North Music, his studio in Bellingham, to continue working remotely, but eventually he knew it was time to bow out of the business.

Knowing how much Ken had bonded with their new home, Kathy suggested, “You should sell Bellingham.”

And with Ken’s usual passion, he dived into obtaining his real estate license and launched his business in 2002.

Using the technical know-how he gained from music production, Ken was an early adopter of video in promoting Bellingham and the Southside on his “Bellingham WOW” website. His own photography graces the website as well – it’s just another place where his creative nature shines.

At first, he was hesitant to mention anything about his Hollywood career, but he eventually learned that people were interested. From there, he introduced ads where he appears holding a conductor’s baton, which is his trademark today.

Resident FeatuRe

Ken & Zach Harrison Sing the Southside’s Praises

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The Harrisons are also community partners with WSO. A percentage of their home sales from WSO patrons goes to the organization.

Arts and community are important to Zach, too. Looking to eventually com-bine the two, he and Kelly would love to write and produce a comedic show here in town, drawing from the talented actors who live here.

As it turns out, theater and real estate have a lot of commonalities, Zach says.

What it really comes down to is reading the “audience” and communicating the story, whether it’s a play or the charm of a specific neighborhood or home.

“We have a really good fix on the South Hill and how it’s different from Edgemoor or Chuckanut Mountain,” Ken adds. Showcasing those differences helps their clients find the right place to call home.

It’s not just the Craftsman on South Hill or the modern manor overlooking Chuckanut that the Harrisons can point

out, it’s about sharing their connections in the community. Buying a home re-quires a team of experts from inspectors and appraisers to lenders and title com-panies. The Harrisons have assembled that team.

It’s also about the amenities they them-selves enjoy living on the Southside.

Zach and Kelly have been enjoying the new “beer and dog” culture popping up at local breweries and pubs with their English lab Bowie.

Ken and Kathy are frequent visitors to Mambo Italiano. “We should have a brass plaque,” he quips.

Just like so many others, Ken says they have found their piece of paradise, and it’s their pleasure to welcome new neigh-bors into the Southside community.

“This Southside just works for us – it works for a lot of people.”

To learn more about Ken and Zach visit their website at www.Bellingham-Wow.com. SL

by Jonathan O’brien

Creating that perfect look and feel for your home for the holidays is easy

and reasonably priced when you know some of the tricks of accessorizing like a professional.

Walk into a home beautifully lit with warm candlelight and adorned with fes-tive greenery and you feel transported to a special, sophisticated place.

It’s easy to get this fabulous look with-out spending all of your money. Grab some white and gold pillar candles and put them everywhere. Don’t feel as you have to com-mit to the ubiquitous holiday red, especially when white and gold appeals to everyone. The white and gold creates that beautiful sophistication in your home.

You can surround those pillars with gorgeous fruit and great greenery right

from your yard. Put candles all across your dining room table, on the fireplace and even in the bathrooms, carrying that warmth and serenity throughout your house.

Sprinkle some Epsom salts into your candle holder and watch the light from the candle dance off the salts turning it into a sparkling snow. And you can add more of that beautiful snow look by tak-ing some spray snow and a stencil and

creating a snowy landscape on your candle holder.

Ready to create a festive look for your framed pictures? You can do that easily without having to buy new frames! Grab some museum putty from a local craft store or online, along with some foil wrapping paper. Using the museum putty in the four corners of the picture frame, you can place a fitted piece of wrapping paper that has been cut to size for the frame. When the season is

over, you simply have to remove the paper, returning your frame to its original state.

Take the elegance and beauty of your din-ing room table up another notch by placing a sprig of holly in your napkin ring with a linen napkin. Buying linen napkins in bulk can help save a little money.

May your holiday home be warm and inviting. SL

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