Bob and Ruthy knew exactly what they wanted to do when they were offered an early retirement from their engineering and marketing careers with a national communications company. The same thing they had been doing for the last 28 years on the side - building beautiful custom homes. And so, Bob Davis and Associates began building high-end post and beam and Lindal Cedar Homes® in 1990 in Southern Maryland. Over the years, the firm transitioned to doing more traditional homes. Today, Bob, the company's President and CEO, spends a lot of time in the field doing quality checks. Ruthy acts as Vice-President and Treasurer and handles marketing. Together, they build 12 homes a year, in a wide price range, beginning at $325,000 and going as high as $11/2 million.

" We stick frame everything," Bob comments, "except for the roof trusses. And we use as much engineered material as we can - LVLs, floor joists, and that sort of thing."

2778-33A-01, the Comstock

Six years ago, Bob and Ruthy had the opportunity to purchase an old family farm and ventured into developing. They turned the land into two subdivisions, named after the original farm's family - Parrans Grant 1, which yielded 16 lots, and Parrans Choice, divided into nine lots.

"One of the things that made our neighborhoods fly was our use of Design Basics' designs," Ruthy remarks. "We purchased framed 81/2 x 11 renderings of each of the homes we were offering and hung them in our design center. We also put a couple of Design Basics' 4-foot by 6-foot yard signs up so people could see what types of homes we would be offering.

"The builders in neighboring subdivisions were doing nothing but colonials," Ruthy continues. "Bob and I call them '5, 4 and a door execu-boxes.' We'd been attracted to hip roofs when we visited friends in Texas and decided we wanted to adopt that style. So when we came home, we did some research and found Design Basics. We started offering unique 1-story plans with hip roofs. They really helped set us apart."

"We built Design Basics' Comstock (#2778-33A-01) as our model and entered it the Maryland-National Capital Building Industry

A view of the kitchen from2778-33A-01

Association Southern Maryland Parade of Homes in 2000," Bob recalls.

"It won the Best Single-Family Model Home and it has been a very popular home among our empty nesters. We've built it five times over the last three years.

"Another 1-story with lots of style is the Hawkesbury (#2206-33A-01). It presented itself beautifully and our buyers were delighted. We've also built the Harper (#24125-33A-01). With less square footage and a gable roof, it's been a popular choice for couples on more limited budgets."

"Although 1-stories were the most popular type of homes in our subdivisions," Ruthy adds, "we also built the Pinnacle (#3284-33A-01) a couple of times and the Whitfield (#24138-33A-01). With its semi-attached garage and long porch, the Whitfield looked like a big, sprawling house."

A view of the dining room from 2778-33A-01

When asked about their greatest challenge, both responded: "Acquiring land."

"Available land is disappearing very quickly in our area," Bob explains. "From now on, we will probably be doing less subdivisions and more spot lot type of building. And much of that will involve tear-downs. On waterfront property, people are typically purchasing lots at a price of $400,000 - $800,000 and tearing the houses down in order to put new houses up. Inland, lots that were $60,000 - $70,000 three or four years ago are now well over $100,000 - $150,000."

"In addition to tear-downs, another way we plan to deal with the land shortage is by remodeling," Ruthy adds. "We just opened a remodeling division that targets baby boomers. Remodeling has become incredibly popular. People are updating their homes more frequently and more extensively than ever before."

"Baby boomers are also our primary target in home building," Bob reflects. "This group comes with its own challenges. Many of them have built two or three times before...so they know what they want. They are very demanding, relative to quality. Even though many of them are down-sizing to less square footage, they don't want to skimp on finishes and amenities. Thankfully, we've been able to satisfy their demands. Over the last 13 or 14 years, we have had virtually no unhappy customers.

"Because our market is aging, we make provisions for accessibility as well," Bob continues. "In addition to doing mostly 1-story or 11/2-story homes with main level masters, we incorporate extra wide halls and doors whenever we can. We're even starting to install some elevators for the folks with 2-story homes."

When asked about their claim to fame, Ruthy replies, "We're known for our interior finishing details - including beautiful built-ins, wider trim, corner blocks and plinth blocks on all of the door frames. Over and over, people are referred to us by satisfied customers who told them, 'They're expensive, but they're good.'"