Now that we had a design, we needed someone with a good crew to help me build it.

Did a lot of asking around and we kept hearing a name being mentioned – “Esquivel Chavez”. So I did some more inquiring until someone finally texted me his phone number. We would meet a few days later and after showing him the property, my plans the chemistry seemed right.

I then toured a couple of home building projects he had completed recently and felt both reflected a very good level of craftsmanship. So we began negotiating.

Because I was planning to be so involved with the construction and it’s overall management, I decided to make an agreement on weekly contracting costs where I would be responsible to acquire and place all the required materials onsite, and Chava and his crew would be a contract labor team.

I did so to help guarantee the overall quality of the key building materials used (and I did) as well as to ensure that I stayed on budget. (I didn’t). Mr. Chavez seemed okay with the arrangement, we shook hands and he told me that his friends called him “Chava”.

I figured that Jack Smith – author of the best selling book “God and Mr. Gomez” – had his Mr. Gomez and now I had my “Chava”.

So our new place now had its own “maestro” to lead the crew on this new “obra”.