We Sponsored the Mercer Island Farmers Market. Come Find the Booth!

Hey. We were at the Mercer Island Farmers Market on September 6th, and we had a booth, because Baklinski Home Improvement is a proud sponsor of the farmers market this year, 2026.

If you pictured a contractor booth as a folding table, a stack of business cards, and one person trying to look casual next to a jar of honey, you are not far off. We did not bring a skid steer. We did not bring a dumpster. We brought ourselves, a little pride, and a very sincere hello to anyone who stopped by on the 6th.

That is the whole plot. The rest is why it matters, and why a kid who grew up on a farm in Eastern Ontario was standing on Mercer Island, WA, grinning like he just won the pie contest.

A farm kid, a long way from Eastern Ontario

I grew up on a farm in Eastern Ontario. Not the postcard kind, where everyone wears clean boots and the chickens pose on cue. The real kind. Early mornings. Weather that does not negotiate. Work that shows up whether you feel poetic about it or not.

On a farm you learn a simple truth fast. The place you live either gets better because someone tends it, or it slowly gets worse because nobody did. A gate sags. A window leaks. A room that used to feel easy starts to feel like a chore. Nobody writes a song about that. Everybody lives with it.

I am a big believer in this type of work. Farmers markets, local growers, people who get up and make something real, then stand behind it in public. That is the same muscle we use in Mercer Island home improvement. Show up. Do the thing properly. Leave the place better than you found it. I am so happy, and honestly proud, of our company for sponsoring this great event.

Proud is not a marketing word here. Proud is the feeling you get when the name on the booth matches the name on the truck, and both of them belong to a place you actually live.

Why a Mercer Island home improvement company sponsors a farmers market

People ask, in the polite Mercer Island way, why a home improvement company would sponsor a Sunday market. Fair question. We are not selling peaches. We are not, despite a few hopeful looks, the booth with the cinnamon rolls.

Here is the unfancy answer. The Mercer Island Farmers Market is one of those rare hours when the island slows down on purpose. Neighbors. Kids. Dogs with opinions. Bags that start empty and end heroic. It is the opposite of scrolling past your own house and thinking, someday.

We sponsor it because we believe in this kind of work, and because a market only stays a market if people in the community decide it is worth keeping. Music, kids, the ordinary miracle of a street that turns into a town square for a few hours: that takes sponsors. In 2026, Baklinski Home Improvement is one of them. A proud farmers market sponsor. September 6th was our day with a booth. Handshake included. Tractor, regrettably, left at home.

There is a second reason, and it is the one on our tagline. Improve your home, improve your life. A good Sunday does that in a small way. So does a house that finally works the way you wish it did. We are invested in the real changes, the ones you feel on a Tuesday morning, not just the ones that photograph well. Sponsoring the market is us saying the life part out loud.

What the booth was like

September 6th was our spin at the market. One Sunday, one booth, a lot of hello. If you stopped by, thank you. If you missed us, no drama. It was a one-time visit this season, and a good one.

You did not need a project. You did not need a speech. You did not need to pretend you had been meaning to call. If you wanted to talk about the house, we did. If you wanted to talk about tomatoes, we could do that too. I grew up on a farm. I have opinions about tomatoes. Some of them are even useful.

What you got, if you found us, was a face, not a form. Mercer Island, WA is a small island with a long memory. People remember who showed up. We would rather be the company you met between the flowers and the bread than the company you only met in a search result at 11 p.m.

If the house has been tapping you on the shoulder, you can still mention it. The squeak. The room that never quite became the room. The project you keep moving to next season, as if seasons take requests. The market was never going to turn into an estimate factory. We listened, pointed people the right direction, and sent them back to the good stuff. Peaches wait for no one.

The market, in plain directions

The 2026 Mercer Island Farmers Market runs Sundays, from May 31 through October 11, at 7700 SE 32nd Street, Mercer Island, WA 98040. Hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free parking sits at Mercer Island Town Center, and the Mercer Island Link light rail station makes it an easy stop if you are coming from off the island.

Our booth was a one-day thing, September 6th. The market itself is the weekly habit, and it is worth a visit for the produce, the neighbors, and the hour the island decides to slow down. We had a great time doing it once. We hope we get to do more of this kind of thing someday.

Improve your home. Improve your life. Same sentence, on purpose.

We say it because we mean it. Improve your home. Improve your life. A house is not a hobby for most people on this island. It is the backdrop of school mornings, late dinners, the quiet hour you finally get, and the guests you actually wanted to invite. When the house fights you, life gets smaller. When it helps you, life gets a little more room.

That is the job. Not a performance. A change you can live in. Sponsoring the Mercer Island Farmers Market is the same idea, pointed at the town instead of a single kitchen. Keep the good local things going. Stand behind them in public. Show up when you said you would.

I am happy we got to do it in 2026. Eastern Ontario taught me what tending looks like. Mercer Island is where we practice it.

Glad we got to say hello

So. If you caught us on September 6th, thank you for coming by. If you did not, the market is still a good Sunday either way. Our part this year was that one booth, and we are glad we did it.

Tell us what you cooked that night, if you stopped to talk. Tell us what the house has been asking for, whenever you are ready. Or just know we were glad to wave. We sponsored this great event because we believe in it, and September 6th was how we said thank you in person. One Sunday. Hopefully not the last time we get to show up for something like it.

Improve your home. Improve your life. We were the ones by the booth that day, happy to help with the first half, and genuinely glad anyone showed up for the second.