86 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {home & design} pieces fit is really easy for me,” he says. For this line of work, it’s imperative. “We had a client that just wanted to buy their own refrigerator … but then they bought one that didn’t match the shop drawings of the kitchen so cabinets would hit it,” Dave grimaces. “You have to buy a fridge that fits in the space that it was designed for.” Unlike his work, Dave’s personal journey hasn’t been seamless. After reading Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Dave was gripped by a haunting question posed by the book: What if you’ve lived your whole life wrong? In Dave’s case, it would take a demolition rather than a remodel to turn it around. Life came crashing in like a wrecking ball when a divorce meant not only the end of Dave’s first marriage, but also the scrapping of the 17-year-long general engineering business the couple had shared. Resolved not to return to general engineering, a career that left him deeply unhappy, Dave found himself back at the drawing board. He decided to form a new foundation—one driven by passion and centered around a philosophy of authenticity, transparency and dedication. The goal is “staying true to what you want to do and being honest with yourself about what’s real and what’s not,” Dave reflects. These days, he always pauses to reflect on his motives and ask, “Am I doing this for money? Am I doing this for ego? Am I doing this for glamour? Why am I really doing this?” Dave writes about this journey in his book The Imperative Habit, detailing the seven habits that changed his life. As for the career path pivot, construction felt like a natural fit. Dave studied construction management at Cal Poly. Even as a kid, he had the builder gene, wiling away the hours with Lincoln Logs, Legos and branch forts in the backyard. “My friend and I would open up a can of beans in the little PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: BLUESKY MEDIA
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