Born and raised in a small town in Canada called Russell Manitoba, I always enjoyed being around homes during construction. Inspired by a childhood friend, we would ride our bikes to construction sites around town. His family owned the local concrete and home building businesses. Paying careful attention to the building process, I knew that home construction would become part of my life, I just didn't know how yet.
Also inspired by my industrial arts teacher, Mr. Bill Wright, I attended Bemidji State University in Minnesota to become an Industrial Arts teacher. In addition to academic classes I was taught both beginner and advanced classes in electricity and electronics, automotive, hydraulics and pneumatics, woodworking, residential construction, graphics, synthetics (plastics), drafting, welding, machining, foundry and small business. I'm very grateful to Bemidji State University for giving me such a great education!
I owe so much gratitude to my dad for passing so much knowledge and experience on to me. He was a diesel mechanic for most of his life. So many things that he taught me I still use today!
I taught industrial arts in Manitoba for the next fourteen years and during that time I made several trips to the twin cities to visit my college buddies. On one of those trips I met my future wife, Donna. We did the long distance relationship for awhile before we married in a small, but beautiful church in the farmlands of Wisconsin where her grandmother attended church every Sunday!
We moved to Colorado in 1999 where I taught engineering technology for nineteen years at the Career Development Center in Longmont. I taught the basics of Solidworks, Mastercam and machining. The machine shop was equipped with both manual and CNC machines. During that time I began designing custom homes for extra income and soon it became very lucrative. And this is how I fit into the residential home business. Just one trade of many trades needed to bring a custom home to completion!
It's been seven years since retiring from teaching and now I dedicate all of my time designing custom homes.