Hal and Ruth Kempe.

Hal and Ruth Kempe have been married for three years and in business together for the past two years, running their interior design and decorating business Howe Enterprising! The couple last month opened a showroom for their business on Bermuda House Lane in Hamilton. They live with Ruth's two sons Nick, 13, and Ben 11.

RUTH: Hal and I met in 1986 at a party thrown by a mutual friend and I had agreed that the venue would be my house. The friend who was throwing the party came up with the idea that we should remove all the things that people normally rely on at parties to have a good time, to see if we could all have a good time. When people arrived they had to wear a brown paper bag over their head, and they were handed a soda. Each person would be part of a couple in history, but they would have to find their partner without being able to see.

It was very different, but that's where I met Hall officially for the first time. I had told him I was planning to move, and he said that if I needed any help moving to call him. I called, and he helped me move.

From the moment I met him. Hal has always been very straight-forward, very sincere and warm. We lived together from 1986 to 1990, when he took me to England, to Stonehenge, and proposed. He had the same ring his grandfather had given to his grandmother. Anything Hal does is always well thought out. We have identical values and ideals, and the most important thing to both of us is family. Hal's parents and really the whole family have bee so supportive.

Ironically, both of us are from traditional families with formal values. We're both the third child of families of four, and we're both the most independent in our families.

We're both obstinate, but we can resolve issues by compromising. I'd a very serious thinker . . . I tend to take life far too seriously and Hal is a so great, he's laid back, and he's helped me believe in myself and not take myself too seriously.

We worked on a few fundraising projects together where I was doing the decorating. It was his sister who said that we worked well together, that we should go into business together.

We respect each other a lot, and we respect each other's talents and ability to come up with ideas. We run the business very much in tandem.

HAL: Before we got into business together, we had been working in separate jobs, but we had worked on certain things together. We had heard about the pros and cons of running a family business. When we started out, wee were running ti out of our home which meant that we couldn't really get away from it at the end of the day. It was a big decision for both of us, but we decided to make a go if it.

I knew Ruth's talent and taste, and I knew it wouldn't be any problem for us.

It snowballed from there. We're both very pleaded with the way the business had picked up, but if you do something nice and people like it, then they tell other people. Ruth's a perfectionist -- the showroom is a perfect example.

Even our wedding -- everything she did had a lot of class and style and great taste.

With work, Ruth decides how things are going to be done and I do them. I do the painting and installations for her. She's got definite ideas about how she like things done. But I show her where I think problems or difficulties are going to arise.

We've worked every weekend since Christmas. We've heard that to get a business off the ground it takes about five years. But being that we've worked so many nights and weekends I figure it must have eliminated a few years. I don't know how we've been able to do it plus keeping a household going and raising two boys at the same time. Nick and Ben have been great, so supportive, and they've helped out a lot. I really don't know how we've been able to do it, plus keeping household going and raising two boys at the same time. Nick and Ben have been great, so supportive, and they've helped out a lot. I really don't know how Ruth does its. She doesn't go to bed until 1 a.n. or 2 a.m. Her work is more paper-intensive and she's very organised.

I think you have to be thick-skinned had have great sense of humour -- we're able to bound our frustration off each other and then laugh, the two of us really work together.

Ruth and Hall: "We run the business very much in tandem.'' RG MAGAZINE JUNE 1993