Build&Bloom
Spring 2021
I
16
Build&Bloom
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A PASSION FOR BUILDING, COMMUNITY By Samuel Sutton Standard-Radio Post reporter Chris Kaiser Builder has been working on local homes and businesses since 2008, but the Fredericksburg native has been molding his skills for longer than that. The fourth-generation home builder remembers working in his father’s cabinet shop and homebuilding firm when he was just a kid. “I played in that cabinet shop and I made trinkets and things and sold those at Oktoberfest,” Kaiser said. He went on to college afterward and studied as an English major for a few years, but said he wasn’t really into school. During his junior year, when he was only taking Tuesday and Thursday classes, his passion for building repurposed when working on a home that he later turned into a B&B. “I guess I got the bug and I really hit a home run with that house,” he said. “It got a little harder after that first one, but I always liked what my dad did and it stuck.” The builder worked for his father’s firm for a while after leaving college and continued working on other speculative houses and B&Bs on the side. “I ended up working for my dad mostly through about 2008 and then amicably split and opened this,” he said.
Chris Kaiser, of Chris Kaiser Builder, is a fourthgeneration home builder and Fredericksburg native. He’s recently been able to use his craftsman skills for the benefit of others in the community. – Standard-Radio Post/Samuel Sutton
HELPING OTHERS Since beginning his own firm, he’s lost count of how many projects he’s worked on, but said it’s been a lot. More recently, he’s also been able to use his building abilities for the benefit of others. In March of 2020, when a vehicle damaged storefronts and pillars on Main Street, his business and several other builders helped build metal poles to hold up a balcony. In March of 2021, he and other builders pitched in to build bunks for local fire crews.
