My name is Ralph Varn and I was born in Brooklyn, New York a son of Swedish immigrants. My mother's family moved here just in time for the great depression. My father came by himself in the 1936 and served in World War II. My grandfather was a builder; he worked for twenty years in the building trades in Sweden and then in the carpenters union in New York City for another twenty years. So I am certainly following in his footsteps. I have lived in Ithaca for thirty three years, I've worked in the building and apartment business all that time, was married here in 1986 and have a beautiful eighteen-year-old daughter. I have all the experience needed to work with municipalities to secure building permits and build homes to the new building codes.

I have built over one hundred homes and have designed most of those homes. I've designed and build several apartment complex's and have managed apartments.