From steel railings to maple chairs, everything that goes through the doors at JPL Habitability is lovingly crafted, topnotch quality and, well, shipshape.

And no wonder. Owner Jerry LeTexier got his start in the business by working as a Navy subcontractor. He still does lots of shipboard work, including furniture for the USS Ingraham, currently in dry dock at Todd Shipyard.

“We do everything from offices to messes to bookshelves to the captain’s quarters, where they entertain dignitaries,” says LeTexier, 39. “And everything we do (on ships) is made out of metal. We have to make it look like furniture, so that’s a real challenge.”

LeTexier recently helped the USS Abraham Lincoln land the coveted NAY award, given by the Navy for the best food-services division on a large ship. The ship’s officers gave LeTexier’s design and ingenuity a lot of the credit.

“We upgraded the salad bars and increased the functionality of the mess, then gave it an aesthetic twist,” says LeTexier. “We tried to make it look more decorative than like an industrial chow line.”

Back in 1992 when LeTexier launched his metalworking business, he worked exclusively for the Navy. He is somewhat apologetic for the name JPL Habitability, a mouthful of a moniker that was intended to appeal to the military. And so it did. But times changed, and so did the fortunes of the defense industry.

“The Navy went through a downsizing, and I was working two jobs for awhile,” LeTexier recalls. “When the work’s not there, you’ve got to go somewhere else.”

That meant delving into the private sector four years ago and adding a woodworking shop to his metalworking operations. LeTexier discovered a number of benefits to offering wood products.

“Being able to incorporate wood, we could make our products more affordable,” he says. “Wood is a lot easier to work with. On the decorative metals, a lot of time goes into them.”

But the stainless-steel look is undergoing a revival these days in upper-end homes. LeTexier loves to combine metal and wood, producing items with unique eye appeal.

Current clients include Lockheed Martin, who awarded him a blanket three-year purchase order at Bangor; the Kitsap Community Federal Credit Union, which just acquired the old Mailboxes Etcetera next door and wants to combine the two spaces, and the Reijnen Co., an upper-end builder of homes that sell for an average $1.5 million. LeTexier’s work on one of their Bainbridge Island projects includes crafting decorative metal balcony rails, blackened stainless steel shelving, and oil-rubbed bronze accents for shelving and doors.

“The house we’re building now has a lot of specialty metals that take some artistry,” says Jeff Strockbine, project manager for Reijnen. LeTexier’s experience with the Navy, and a visit to his metal shop to look at his products, convinced Reijnen to give JPL the contract.

LeTexier also recently finished building all the furniture and crafting the inside walls for the new WestSound Bank in Bremerton.

All this for a man who meant to go into the healthcare field. But before he finished college, he did an apprenticeship with Bendix at a NASA tracking station in Bermuda. A man who ran a metalworking shop liked LeTexier’s work and offered him a job.

“The more I got into design and fabrication, the more I found out it was fun,” he recalls. “I still enjoy it. Every day someone comes in with something new that’s a challenge.”

LeTexier likes to incorporate new technology into his shop, and has a computer-assisted design system that helps clients visualize their projects.

“We’re able to actually give you a 3-D picture of what the room will look like when it’s finished,” says LeTexier.

In his free time, LeTexier, who lives in Bremerton with his wife, Kellie, and their two daughters, coaches a Tracyton Girls Softball League team. Another project is building furniture to donate to Harrison Hospital.

Mushrooming in less than a decade from a one-man operation to a 7-digit-a-year company with 10 full-time employees is a feat any entrepreneur would envy. LeTexier is still amazed at his success.

“Ten years ago, I never would have thought it would grow like this. It’s more than I could have hoped for,” he says. “That is the sum of a lot of years and a lot of hard work. But I’m not so much proud of the gross sales for last year as the number of repeat customers. There’s the real value, in knowing you did a good job.”

LeTexier has done virtually no advertising, except for the phone book and a few public-service announcements on radio. But word of mouth has done the trick. Last year brought record-breaking business, and a brief slowdown in January and February actually came as a relief. Since March, says LeTexier, “it’s off to the races again.”

LeTexier gives his employees a lot of the credit for his accomplishments.
“I’ve got a great crew,” he says. “A business is only as good as the people who walk in and out of the door. I can design all day, but they’re the ones who make me successful.”

And there’s one other factor:

“I do this because I like it. When you’re doing what you like, the numbers don’t really matter. We try to go the extra mile for people, and it’s showing by the walk-in traffic and the way the phone is ringing off the hook.”.