TRAVISBEAUCHENE, STUDIOTHREEBEAUcarpenter homes: is KEYcustomization where

With a name like Jason Carpenter, the owner of Carpenter Homes seemed destined to be a builder. But building isn’t just in his name — it’s in his blood. “My dad was a union carpenter. We did projects growing up and I kind of fell into it when I moved to Fargo,” explains Carpenter.

Carpenter put his experience to work when he came to North Dakota from Plummer, Minnesota, just east of Red Lake Falls, in his early 20s. He started a framing business in 2001, expanded into renovation work and worked on projects ranging from light commercial work to home remodeling as he refined his skills and built up a client base.

He established Carpenter Homes in 2004, after realizing that custom home building was a perfect opportunity to merge his talents and his passion for design. His wife Callie brought her interior design talents to the business in 2006. Now they run a thriving boutique building business, creating lovingly designed homes perfectly customized to their customers’ tastes and the homes’ surroundings.

“We try to make each home unique to each buyer,” says Carpenter. “We do everything in-house with our own design team. We draw out our own plans, interior design, color selections — everything to try to make the house unique to their taste.”

A typical Carpenter Homes client has a strong point of view and has given more than a little thought to their wish list. “We’re typically building for the second- or third-time homeowner where people have been through the track style build or maybe have a budget that’s higher than an entry-level build,” explains Carpenter, adding that his clients typically have a minimum budget of $400,000. “We work with a lot of people who come with their plans already and they’re designing the house they want.”

Astaff of three (including Carpenter, a project manager and an in-house drafter/designer) makes up the Carpenter Homes team. They work together to bring customers’ visions to life during every step of the design process — from creating the plans, to trim carpentry, to choosing finishing touches and interior design elements. And because his business operates with as little overhead as possible and every element of the design process is kept in-house, Carpenter is able to allocate more of the budget to the high-quality upgrades that he and his discerning customers appreciate.

“Pricing includes upgraded features, textures, ceiling heights,” he explains, adding that Carpenter Homes goes above and beyond the industry building standard because he wants his guests to enjoy superior craftsmanship, even if they can’t necessarily see the upgrades. Carpenter says his goal is to be “a little ahead of the curve and ahead of the standards” on all of his homes.

For example, all of Carpenter’s homes include radon venting, which pulls radon, a naturally occurring gas found in rocks, soil and well water, out of the home as an added safety measure. Radon venting goes a step beyond the current industry standard, but “we do it anyway because it should be done,” he says. “We add rebar in the basement floors of all of our houses to improve the overall structure of the house.”

For all the structural and safety upgrades that Carpenter offers, there are plenty of eye-popping design elements and that make Carpenter Homes unique. Carpenter really does design specifically for the lots his customers choose, allowing him to craft beautiful views and maximize natural light. As a result, the typical Carpenter Home is flooded with natural light and seamlessly integrated into its neighborhood and natural surroundings. Sometimes the surroundings even influence the style of the building, the way that a pocket park, ponds, meadows and nearby fields gave a home in south Fargo’s Rocking Horse Farm development a modern farmhouse twist.

Many of the elements in the Rocking Horse Farm home are also found in Carpenter’s other designs. His homes feature clean-lined interiors in mostly neutral tones, gracious family gathering places accented with cozy fireplaces, sparkling dining room chandeliers and rich textures like warm wood floors, dramatic, recessed ceilings in deep, soothing tones and opalescent tiles that shimmer in the light with the soft iridescence of a seashell. Carpenter gravitates toward open floor plans and classic touches with a modern twist, which offer versatility and convenience to his customers.

And he has a soft spot for rich, soothing white, which shows off his light-drenched interiors particularly well. “I love white millwork, just because it’s timeless,” he says. “So we traditionally do a lot more white millwork than stained. It provides a clean, classic look.”

Carpenter knows a few things about building homes for discerning customers, many of which also juggle careers and busy families. He and his wife are raising three kids while they run their business. The Carpenter family includes six-yearold big sister Brynn, a rambunctious three-yearold boy named Bodie and a calm and watchful baby named Blake, who joined her brother and sister just nine months ago.

The ever-changing demands of family life inform some of the less flashy, but most useful design elements in Carpenter Homes’ floor plans, including main floor laundry rooms, efficiently designed walk-in pantries, and smart, stylish storage options. (Carpenter has also been known to throw in a kids’ nook under the stairs for an extra dash of whimsy.)

In addition to collaborating on clients’ homes (“We do it together. It’s fun.”) and brainstorming ideas while consuming a constant stream of design-related literature and television (“The wheels are always turning.”), the couple is also building a home for their growing family. The Carpenters have always lived in homes of their own design (this will be house number six), which gives them a unique opportunity to test and refine their product as their lives and family change.

Design can really make a huge impact in your daily life,” says Callie Carpenter. “If you design a house, you’ve got to get it right or it just does not work with your life.”

The new family home will be located on a pretty river lot in Horace, far from the hustle and bustle of the city, with a big yard and plenty of room for the kids and the family dog to roam. It will also feature one of Carpenter’s most distinctive design features, an element that makes his exteriors quietly stand out from the crowd — and occasionally stand a bit taller than the other houses in the neighborhood.

“I’ve got a thing for big roofs,” he says with a laugh. “I love doing steeper pitches and more architectural designs than a lot of other people.” But he emphasizes, if a client doesn’t like that look, he can adjust. “We’ll do whatever people want us to do,” he says. Customization is key.

Carpenter Homes values quality over quantity, both in terms of the products they use and the number and type of homes they build. Carpenter doesn’t focus on spec homes and rarely repeats a design. Instead, he starts every project with a clean slate, focusing on what his customers want and customizing for each client and their needs. He guides a collaborative, creative design process in order to create a home that interacts harmoniously with its natural surroundings and integrates seamlessly into its owners’ lives.

“The best part of the job is seeing the plan from design to finished product. I’ve always loved that,” says Carpenter. “Taking something from a thought or a picture and converting it to an actual property — that’s fun. You get to see the entire project play out. And seeing people enjoying their home is number one. When somebody walks into their house and they’re proud of what we’ve teamed up to build, it’s a rewarding part of my job.”