Craig and Laurie Davis have been waiting for 30 years to move back to Bend and build their dream home. And while the city of Bend has changed a lot in 30 years, their love for the area, the people, and the recreation have not.
Laurie, who was born and raised in Bend along with her sister and brother, met Craig soon after he moved to Bend after graduating from University of Oregon School of Architecture in 1983. Craig’s first job out of architecture school was with Huston Barber Architects in Bend, OR. Laurie was working in the fitness industry and as a hair stylist when they met. The economy in Bend, at the time, was not able to support the large architectural firm that Craig had wanted to work at. In 1986 they relocated to Portland and Craig began working for GBD Architects, a mid-sized firm of about 30 people.
Craig had a long and successful career with GBD, moving quickly from their first Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) position to Principal Partner in less than 10 years. Receiving that promotion was one of the most exciting and one of the scariest moments in Craig’s career. He went form specializing in tenant improvement projects (remodeling or adding on to commercial space), to managing the construction on the Liberty Center in Portland, a 16 floor 300,000 square foot office building with a 600 car parking lot and approximately 150,000 square foot tenant improvement for Liberty Northwest Insurance Company.
Craig continued his work with large office buildings and completed 4 high-rise and 5 mid-rise buildings over the next 20 years. Craig enjoyed working with large corporations creating work environments for their employees. However, it was his final project with GBD Architects, Hassalo on Eighth, that was his most exciting and interesting project. Hassalo on Eighth includes 657 housing units in 3 buildings. In addition to receiving quadruple Platinum LEED certification, the eco-friendly neighborhood was the recipient of many other awards and recognitions, which you can read about here. Hassalo on Eighth has many sustainable features, including the Natural Organic Recycling Machine (NORM). With NORM, every drop of water from sinks, toilets, showers and laundry is collected, cleaned and reused or disposed of without using the cities overloaded sewer system. NORM uses innovative treatment technologies to process/clean the wastewater, which goes back into the community system to irrigate the landscape and flush toilets. You can read about Hassalo on Eighth’s sustainable features here.
Craig is currently consulting for GBD Architects on the second-phase of Hassalo on Eighth; a 4 block super block residential project that will start with 2 (one 8 story and one 21 story) buildings and 600+ units. Future development will include mixed use in the Eastside community
Laurie’s time in Portland was also filled with interesting careers and time spent supporting the family. After moving to Portland Laurie became a flight attendant with Horizon Air. She worked for Horizon Air for 10 years as a flight attendant and as a trainer in their flight attendant training program. After their first child, Mitchell, who was born in 1993, Laurie had enough seniority to fly a limited schedule that worked well for the family. When Craig was promoted to Director and their second child, Garret, was born, Laurie chose to leave the airline industry and placed her focus on supporting the needs of their busy family.
Spend 5 minutes with Laurie and you quickly realize she is a motivated, intelligent and energetic woman! Shortly after quitting her job with the airlines she began volunteering at her church and as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA). In 2000, when both kids were in grade school, Laurie opened a women’s fitness center – Ya Ya Fitness for women. Laurie has always enjoyed working in the fitness industry and feels passionate about helping women reach their health and fitness goals.
Both Craig and Laurie have enjoyed unwinding and un-plugging in Los Barilles, Mexico at their vacation home purchased with friends in 2000. The home has been through some hurricanes and remodels, but continues to be a place where they relax and recharge. They also both knew that Bend was the place they would retire and were waiting for the right opportunity to present itself. In 2008 they began the purchase of their property in Tumalo. Though Laurie wishes they had neighbors, they both love the feeling of being close to bend, but with the peace and quiet of Tumalo.
When the time finally arrived to begin the process of designing and building their dream retirement retreat Craig already had a design in mind. Visionary Homes helped the Davis’ find a designer that could bring that conceptual design to reality. In 2015 they began working with Rick Wright, of Wright Design Studios to do the final design and construction documents.
Craig completed a conceptual design that places a 3 bedroom 2 and ½ bath house over a 5 car garage to gain the height necessary for mountain views. The lot is on a hillside up against a now lined irrigation canal, so the 5 garage/shop bays on the ground floor complete the majority of the ground floor. The living space and 2 more parking bays on top of it capture beautiful views of the cascade mountains. As if 7 garage bays are not enough, they will install a hydraulic lift, creating even more storage!
Another important feature for Craig and Laurie was having a connection to the outdoors. They have created just that with the indoor living area connected closely to the covered outdoor living area. Both fireplaces at the interior and exterior deck will have a re-purposed shuffle board table (from GBD) as the mantle.
As evidenced by the need for 7 garage bays plus the hydraulic lift, the Davis’ enjoy all the recreation that Bend and Central Oregon have to offer including; snowmobiling, fishing, white water rafting, downhill skiing, golfing, road biking, mountain biking and hiking. Since retiring to Bend, Craig has lost over 40 lbs, which he attributes to a goal he made at retirement to do something active every day, and with all of his interests that has been easy to accomplish!
Laurie and Craig have two adult children, both living and attending school in Portland Oregon, where they still have their family home.
Laurie and Craig were introduced to Visionary homes through Laurie’s brother, Carl Welander PC, who is Visionary Homes accountant. Laurie’s brother, Carl, knew that Craig would want to work with someone with the engineering and commercial background that Rick and Visionary Homes had to offer. The project is unique, complicated, and involves major excavation, concrete, and structural work which Rick is very experienced and comfortable with having worked on complicated commercial and public projects in excess of $20million dollars in value. During the design process, the preliminary design was found to be over budget and Rick worked with Craig and the designer, Rick Wright, to reduce the size of the home and refine the structural systems to simplify the build (though it is still very complicated) and reduce the cost estimate by 25%, getting it into the price range they were comfortable moving forward with.
Visionary Homes is proud to partner with Laurie and Craig Davis in the design and construction of their ultimate active retirement destination.