By SUSAN PARK

Pacific Northwest Paint and Tile owner Jim Ivey began life in Memphis in 1951. The son of a decorated Navy Chief, it wasn't long before Ivey's family traveled their way to Seattle. His family moved here in 1961 when his dad was stationed at Sand Point.

They moved to Wallingford where his first job was delivering the Post-Intelligencer from a metal rickshaw his father brought back from Japan.

In the mid '60s, Ivey's father became president of the Wallingford Boys' Club where he initiated the pancake breakfast fund-raisers, candy drives, car washes, and "anything to bring money into the Boys' Club," says Ivey.

In 1966, Ivey began high school at Blanchet. The next year, he transferred back to public school and attended Lincoln. A year later, his family moved to Maple Leaf where they bought a friend's home. Since Roosevelt was just down the street, Ivey walked down the street and enrolled. A few days later, he was told to go to Nathan Hale instead since he lived just outside of the district. This disappointed him since almost all of his friends would go to Roosevelt. Within four short years, Ivey attended nearly every high school in North Seattle.

Just out of high school, Ivey began working at Dutch Boy Paint and NL industries in West Seattle. For seven years, he worked at Norpak, the supply base for the Alaska Pipeline as a member of the International Longshore Warehouseman's Union on Pier 91. "It was a great job," says Ivey.

After the line was built, the job ended. So Ivey found his way to Boeing where he worked as a logistics manager, "getting things from here to there," says Ivey. While working at his "real job," Ivey began to dabble in laying tile. In 1994, he took early retirement from Boeing to begin his own business. "I went from 80K a year to 5K a year," says Ivey.

The decision cost him his first marriage. However, a longtime friend who he had met while living in Maple Leaf, Broadview native Beverly Lattin, would soon become his new wife. Lattin graduated from Ingraham in 1969.

At that time, Ivey added painting to his tile business. He began to buy paint from Bruce Bender at Preservative Paints in Renton but soon became a supplier himself. Bender and Ivey had known each other for years, playing softball together in tavern Leagues.

Bender had been in the paint business for much of his life. After graduating from Sammamish High School in 1968, he worked for the Sears paint department. In 1985, after a long sales career, Bender began to work for Preservative Paints where he became a store manager. Everything was great until the company was bought up by Kelly Moore in California. Virtually overnight, Bender says company rules changed from "take care of the customer and don't steal from the company," to five thick books of procedures.

Ivey told Bender of his dream to move his business out of his house and open his own store. To Bender, the idea was too good to turn down. Ivey made Bender vice president of the company.

Ivey moved his paint and tile business into a commercial space at 12528 Lake City Way in the summer of 1998.

Bender says 80% of his business is professional contractors, much like Ivey. Ivey still dabbles in painting when he isn't manning the store.