Being twin’s with Mark, our childhood story was similar.  Sports, sports, and more sports from as soon as I could walk through college, while also finding time to tinker and get ourselves into trouble with what Mark and I made.  Things like tree branch bow and arrows to potato cannons and golf ball launchers gave me my interest in building and engineering.  After high school I spent a year studying Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, then transferred to the United States Naval Academy where I graduated in 2015 with a B.S. in General Engineering and a commission into the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps.

Being in the Navy, it requires lots of moving across the U.S. and never knowing how long you’re going to call one place home.  I started my early years in the Navy as a construction manager in Corpus Christi, TX.  There I bought my first house and started my garage woodshop taking on home renovation furniture projects.  At this stage, I was woodworking for my personal projects and for close friends but hadn’t yet decided to pursue it as a business.  I soon had to move from Texas and was assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion ONE in Gulfport, MS as the Officer in Charge Detachment Gabon where I went on my first deployment with the Seabees to western Africa.  After returning from deployment I was assigned as Company Commander, where I was responsible for expeditionary camp construction and maintenance.  While living in Mississippi, I started the garage woodshop again and started to expand my repertoire of projects into custom shadow boxes, retirement gifts, and more home furniture projects.  Unfortunately, but also fortunately, I was selected for what I considered my dream job and relocated to San Diego, CA where I deployed with SEAL Team SEVEN as their Combat Engineer.  During these three tours of duty, I spent countless hours studying and eventually earned my Professional Engineer registration in Civil Engineering, Construction focus in the state of Texas. Currently living in San Diego, I was again reassigned to the Public Works Department at Naval Base San Diego.  Since returning from my last deployment, I was able to re-open the garage woodshop and eventually joined the Vetere Custom Woodworks team with my two brothers.  My first priority in the new garage was designing and building my own custom CNC (Computer Numeric Controlled) router.  I wasn’t happy with the precision of my hobbyist CNC kit I had purchased years before, so I took matters into my own hands, jumped on SolidWorks, dusted off my CAD textbooks (aka watched lots of YouTube How To’s) and began designing, eventually coming to a design that met my three main criteria; it had to be stable, rigid, and precise.  I bring this love for design and going beyond what’s available off the shelf to every custom project I get asked to do.  Looking beyond what’s possible to bring a client’s vision to life is what custom woodworking is all about.  I can’t wait to work with you, share stories, and build you something incredible.

In my free time I enjoy hunting, growing vegetables, cooking, home renovation projects, and spending time with my soon to be wife, Ali.