David E Smith

David E. Smith is a ’boutique’ contractor/​builder who builds high quality individual homes. We first found out about him through our realtor, though we’ve since learned that Dave has homes on the Eugene Tour of Homes every year as well. When we went to make an offer on our first house, we arrived at our realtor’s office only to hear that it had been sold that morning. Not wanting to disappoint us, our realtor said: «You know what, there’s this house that’s not on the market yet, but we’ll be working with the builder to sell it soon. Why don’t we go take a look?». Little did we know then that we’d be making an offer the same day after all!
As soon as we saw the home David Smith built we were sold. Well structured, high quality building materials, a brilliant lay-​out with a really well designed media room, and a gorgeous master bathroom with a huge double walk-​in shower and a garden tub. His design decisions were perfect for us, using walnut for all the wood finish, including a very cool looking, lit-​up wooden grid above the living room. High ceilings throughout the house, and sky lights to brighten up the space. We found out that Dave, like us, loves Art Deco, and you can absolutely see the Art Deco elements in the fixtures and design of the house, as well as the small details.
Having lived in the home for 6 years now, we are still incredibly happy with the house. Everything was built to last. His houses are expensive for the size, but that investment pays off both in terms of the appearance of the home and the low maintenance of having a house built with high quality materials. The only thing we were a little less happy with was the execution of the audio/​video/​internet wiring, but that’s the fault of Diversified Electronics, not the builder (and the guy in question no longer works for Diversified).
The value of his homes seems to hold up well too. We bought ours at the very height of the housing market, when prices were extremely high, and we paid quite a lot. However, when David Smith sold his own house (the only one identical to ours, and just a few blocks away) at the very low point of the market during the housing crash, he got nearly as much for his house as we paid for ours new, despite all the other homes around here having plummeted in value, so that speaks very well for the resale value of his homes!
We would definitely buy a home from David Smith again, or have one built to our specifications.