Origin Stories
They say fortune favors the bold. In my case, fortune favored the boldly ignorant. I was 21 and had just dropped out of my economics bachelor's degree program after two years, with a semester left to complete my degree. So, I returned home to my parents a failure with a large chip on my shoulder and an inflated opinion of myself (I know, mind-boggling, considering the circumstances). I knew one thing — I couldn’t stay there long. My parent's disappointment was a tangible thing — did I imagine hearing “failure to launch” every time I walked in on their conversations? Probably… but nay, probably not. Fortunately, ignorance is a valuable tool in scenarios such as these. I informed my parents that, although I enjoyed my stay, I would be buying a house for myself and my girlfriend and we would be moving out within the next few months. Only as a father now can I truly appreciate my parent's patience in the fact that they didn’t immediately laugh me out of the room. At the time, I had started a business as a personal trainer and was barely getting by as it was. No money to my name, and a questionable skillset at best. It was time to call in some favors…
Your friendly neighborhood personal trainer.
We had a family friend, Tim, who owned a successful construction business in Maryland specializing in home remodels and renovations. I, myself, had never been particularly skilled at construction of any kind and was mostly delegated the esteemed position of “flashlight holder” when helping my dad with projects around the house growing up. I did like the idea of wearing a tool belt every day — and imagined myself looking pretty damn good while swinging a hammer. Perfect fit. I called Tim and asked if he would be willing to take me on as an apprentice. I imagine he looked at my resume of exactly no experience whatsoever and was so suitably impressed he couldn’t wait to take me on. Yeah… let’s go with that. Bottom line, God bless Tim — he said yes.
Now there are times in life where, as Mathew McConaughey once said (or in fact, wrote a whole book about), life gives you green lights. Tim wanted a change of pace for the winter and had applied to a temporary position in the Congressional Wood Crafting Shop. As an afterthought, he urged me to apply for the position as well. Now, let me take a detour to explain this position to you, dear reader, and you can appreciate the position that I so blindly stumbled into (and would later claim, it was my “grindset” that gained me this opportunity… yikes):
Every 2 years, new members of Congress are voted in. During this period of time, all of the congressmen and women who were voted out have to vacate their offices or move on to better, more prestigious office spaces. That left a ton of remodeling to be done to prepare the spaces for the newly minted members of Congress. To help with this huge increase in labor, the Architect of the Capitol (the organization in charge of all maintenance of the United States Capitol interior and grounds) hires temporary workers to assist with the turnover. There are walls to demolish and rebuild, custom walnut doors to remove and relocate, cabinets and shelves to build, trim to install, thousands of shelves and pictures, animal heads, TVs, and whiteboards to be hung — a huge laundry list of tasks to accomplish to welcome the new members — and only a few months to do it in. So, a job posting goes out, and hundreds of skilled applicants in the DMV area get a chance to work for a trade shop in the Congressional Offices of the United States of America — an amazingly cool and rare opportunity. Personally, I barely even looked at the job posting — I just needed a job, STAT, so that I could live up to my ridiculous promise to my parents that I would soon be buying a house. Like I said… boldly ignorant. And look, I’m rolling my eyes with you too.
My first tool cart build for pushing my tools around the House Office Buildings.
Long story short — out of a huge list of applicants (and truthfully, only thanks to Tim’s decades of experience) Tim and I got the job as temporary workers for the Architect of the Capitol Congressional House Office Building Wood crafting Shop. I was very fortunate, and they decided to keep me on as a permanent government employee after the congressional moves were over. I did my best to take full advantage of the opportunity I had been given, and did my best to soak up all the information I could from the veteran wood workers and carpenters in the shop. I spent the next 7 years spending nearly all my free time learning the craft of carpentry by renovating my first house (which I was able to buy and move into with my girlfriend, Savana (now wife)— much to my parents and my own surprise), and then another, and then another. Although I swapped my job as a Congressional woodcrafter after four years for a job in the Air Force, I learned so much, and will always be grateful for the most important lesson it taught me: I LOVE carpentry. Very few things bring me as much satisfaction as a hard days work, trips back and forth to the miter saw, and a job well done. After nearly a decade of learning and improving my craft, I started this company: Verity Custom Home Solutions.
Shameless bathroom selfie sent to wife, circa 2018.
Now, why am I telling you this long rambling story? I want you to know that myself and my team members are dedicated to the pursuit of perfecting our craft of carpentry to the best of our abilities. I have daydreamed about this business since the first time I ripped a board on a table saw — and now, 10,000 hours later, I’m making it happen, and I’m doing it with two of my closest friends. I want you to know, we take pride in our work, and our relationships that we build with our clients. We are grateful for the opportunity to showcase our skillsets, and to craft inspiring rooms and spaces. So, thanks for reading, and stay tuned!
Yours Truly,
Dallas
