Home ideas greet crowd [Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.]

(Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, KY) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) March 10--It wasn't hard to find the Murphy's Appliance & Electronics booth Saturday at the Home Builders Association of Owensboro's Home and Garden Show. All people had to do was follow their noses.

Next to the Sportscenter stage, Murphy's manager, Keith Sheriff, was doing what he's done for years at the annual spring show -- baking dozen after dozen of wonderfully smelling chocolate chip cookies.

"We go through 80 pounds of cookie dough," Sheriff said as he pulled yet another cookie sheet of the brown delights from a convection oven and slipped them onto a pan. "It's a tradition. We've been cooking here for 12 or 14 years." Sheriff joked that he never wanted to see another chocolate chip cookie again "until the day after tomorrow." There was no lack of interest in Sheriff's treats -- a steady stream of people wanted a sample, or two or three.

"It gives us something to do while we're here," Sheriff said, "and it does bring in a lot of people." Ideally, some of the visitors to Sheriff's booth took an interest in the fancy appliances he had on display. Of course, that was the desire of all the scores of exhibitors that packed the Sportscenter floor. The variety of products and services on display was deep and wide, everything from doors, windows, tubs and cabinets to cookware, pest control, insulation, landscaping and bricks, and that's just a sampling. The Owensboro Metropolitan Planning Commission has a booth providing information about the agency's planning, zoning and code enforcement services. Several nonprofit, charitable organizations offered information about themselves.

Richard Stallings, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Owensboro, the organization that puts the event on every year, said 65 exhibitors filled the booths this year, making for a tight fit for a building with much less floor space than the show usually has. The show's home was the Executive Inn Rivermont exhibition hall until it was demolished a few years ago. Since then, the show has bounced around a bit.

"We're thankful to be here this year," Stallings said. "We're squeezed into every little corner. Next year, we move to the new convention center." Attendance Friday night and Saturday was strong, Stallings said. One more day of the show remains. The doors open Sunday at noon for four more hours.

Brad and Rachel Bell, owners of Grounds Guys Landscape Management of Owensboro didn't mind the cozy venue. "It's been awesome," Rachel Bell said. "After the UK game, it's been a great crowd. It's a little tight. There's a lot of information to be had, even though it's tight." "People are starting to ring the phone off the hook," Brad Bell said. "Things are beginning to green up." Deanna Ward brought her three children, Brook, 12, Autumn, 11, and David, 10, to the show. "We wanted to look around and see what was available," she said. "Autumn likes to garden. We got some seeds. I like the home automation stuff very much." Steve Vied, 691-7297, svied@messenger-inquirer.com ___ (c)2013 the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.) Visit the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.) at www.messenger-inquirer.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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