Built by Craftsmen

In Boise we are lucky to have a professional class of contractors available for new home construction. Having been a New Home Builder in Boise for 18 years, I have a strong relationship with the best of these professionals.  It is a pleasure to work with these craftsmen when building your home.

When I say craftsman, I am talking about contractors that do the work themselves, alongside their apprentices, taking pride in quality work every time.  Their skill and experience translates into a better built home with a high level of detail.  It is better than the house in the next neighborhood across the street.

Joe, our drywall craftsman has perfected his own original hand finish; it is not a style you will find in a production home.  Mike the framer is 60 years young and still carries a tool bag on every job, though he avoids the heavy lifting. He inspects every timber and stud before using it. Though his work gets covered over and you don’t see the extra care and skilled technique, it all translates into a superior home.  Ed, our electrician uses more wire than is typical; he needs it for the straight and organized ways he runs the lines. The difference can’t be seen but it is sure helpful that the wires are organized in a way that can be easily  understood when you make upgrades and changes.  These are just some of the examples of the craftsmen and the difference they make for me as a Boise Home Builder. Using craftsmen, I have at least ten years experience with, and some as much as 18 years of partnership, make it easy to provide a home you can enjoy, take pride in, and know will be a lasting value.

Boise, Boise, yes Boise

I ran into my daughter’s friend Tori the other night. It was good to see her. Only a couple months ago I said good bye to her as she packed for the move back to her native Montana.  The move didn’t last; she has come back to Boise, a place she is comfortable to call home. She said she didn’t how much she had liked Boise, and she was excited to be back.  Boise is a special place; all kinds of people, both those native and those who have relocated, find it easy to call home.

Both my son, Kellen, and my daughter, Katie left Boise and went off to the cool big coastal city for college.  Shelly and I were both sure that Boise would only be a place to visit as they made their way in the world.  We were wrong; each has moved back to the Boise Valley, starting up their homes and independent lives.  Boise is a draw, I am not sure how to describe it; it is beautiful, but there are more stunning places; the downtown is cool, but not very large; the shopping and dining is convient and practical, but not unique; the entertainment is as complete and varied as anywhere, but  small in scale. We do have the best in recreation options.  If you leave California out of the conversation, Boise’s weather is the country’s best.  We have with Boise State Football the best team in the nation.  It is when you package all that Boise has to offer, and combine it with an intimacy created by size, remoteness, and then mix in a people who have a passion for life and the place; you come up with a special area to call home.  The Boise sense of place and home keeps drawing people back and new people to try it out.  My children and their friends have shown that to be so. 

If Boise is not home yet, don’t be afraid to try it out. Boise is a great place where everyone can feel at home.  For those us who already know Boise as home, we are very lucky.

Home for the way you live…and will live.

Homes are much more than a financial investment.  Their presence in a neighborhood; the ability to personalize the interior and exterior; the memories created by events rooted in the home; these make the home an emotional investment.  These investments are what I take to heart in my designs.

I have designed a new home series especially for Boise called the Modern Collection.  The goal is to create floor plans that are suitable for your current life style, with adaptability built in so as to accommodate the changes in life. Each plan includes a large central living space with a three point living arrangement, the kitchen facing the family room, (think restaurant display kitchen), and a large dining space to the side and part of the kitchen, (the space I like to call the café part of the kitchen).   Then I take the bedrooms and split them up around the house as private spaces.  Always, at least one bedroom is designed with built-in flexibility for a variety of purposes; traditional bedroom, den, dining room, home office, workout room, and the like.  I have included a third bathroom, so that a second private suite is an option. To cap it off, they have wider hallways and doors, lever style handles, single level living, and the garage is three cars wide.

There you have it, a home big enough to embrace a growing or changing family. The spaces do not have to be left unused as the family evolves. There is comfortable room for adult guests, long or short term.  The features and layout were done with sensitivity to users if mobility becomes a concern.  The intention is to provide you with a home that can accommodate your life changes, so those investments in your home both emotional and financial don’t have to be traded away when your housing needs change.

Family Tradition

December is a month for all kinds of memories.  In early December we reflected upon the attack on Pearl Harbor.  That event was tragic, yet it had a profound positive effect upon my family and the home building tradition that I carry on.

In 1941, my Grandmother, Kelly, had a home building business, called “Home of the Month”.  She had just finished a new home in Burbank, CA. and on that fateful Sunday in December 1941 she was holding a open house.  She met a great prospect; a family relocating from the Midwest. The father had taken a job with a small Burbank airplane manufacturer, Lockheed.  The one issue was that the man needed to borrow the down payment; he lacked cash, not unusual then or now. From the payphone Grandmother got a hold of Grandpa to ask his opinion. Grandpa, a Professor of Economics, explained that Pearl Harbor had just been attacked and we would soon be at war. No one was going to be interested in buying homes, so she better get the prospect in contract before she got stuck with the house.

As they prepared for the sacrifices to come, they took a moment to celebrate with champagne their good luck in getting the sale.  Through the years as they shared this story they would laugh at their huge mistake.   Lockheed hired thousands of workers from around the country to build aircraft for the war, and area housing became in short supply. The small profit from that quick sale could have been many times greater if they had only waited a few months. Instead, they helped the war effort by getting a valuable worker and his family settled in a new home. 

For three generations, it has been much more than just a business for my family.  It is about helping people and neighbors create a new place to call home.