A Conversation With ... Tony Brewer

We started Cornerstone Cottages in the fall of 2000. Prior to that, I worked in the aerospace industry, and I grew up as a kid working in construction. I had been out of construction for almost 25 years. We build in the south Springfield-north Nixa areas, primarily. We build four to eight houses a year – midrange to upper-end homes. This year, we’re building in the upper $300,000 to lower $400,000 range, but last year we averaged $500,000 on our homes. We’ve probably built the majority of our homes in Rivercut the past four years. I have two full-time (employees) and one part-time employee. We subcontract most of the work. This past year, we implemented an Internet-based project management system that we use to manage our jobs. (Buyers) can log on to our system and track the schedule and make their selections online for what they want to put in the home.

Do you do remodeling as well as new-home construction?

We have done one small remodeling job for a client in Rivercut. We have been asked to do several remodeling jobs, mostly by our former customers, but we haven’t really jumped into that too big yet. If new construction continues to slow down, we probably will look at doing more of those. (New construction) has definitely slowed down from last year.

When people remodel, it’s often because they want something different. As a home builder, how do you help ensure clients get what they want in the beginning?

A lot of people don’t know exactly what they want, and they come to me maybe because they’ve seen one of my spec houses and they liked it, or they liked certain features about it, or they come to me by word-of-mouth because I built their friend’s house or whatever. It’s usually a process to work with them and an architect or a draftsperson to draw up the house that they have in mind. Very few people walk in the door with a set of plans. And even if they do walk in the door with a set of plans, if they haven’t considered their lot, sometimes they have to change the plan to fit the lot. The design-build process is pretty much what we do. Every house that we build is different, and we try to make it a point that we don’t build the same house twice.

What sorts of things are homeowners asking for these days?

Everybody seems to like a very open floor plan, which I think has been very popular for several years now. Many of the homes that we build have a lot of stone inside the house, rustic beams. A lot of hardwoods and tile, and faux finishes on the wall.

In what ways are you involved with the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield?

I’ve been a member for several years. This year, I’m serving on the green building committee. A home that I built to raise money for New Covenant Academy was in the 2006 Parade of Homes.

Why did you leave aeronautics for home building?

I worked for Lockheed-Martin, which is out of Fort Worth, Texas. That was my first job out of college. I graduated from Central Missouri State University with an aviation technology degree. That job required me to move a lot. Out of the 18 years I was with them, we lived nine years overseas – five years in the Middle East out of that nine. I grew up not too far from Springfield, in Alton. We wanted to move back to this area and settle down as a family, and there’s no aerospace industry here. Homebuilding … was something I knew I could do. All the experience from the aerospace industry, the eye for detail required easily translates over to homebuilding. It was a matter of wanting to move to this area. We love the Ozarks.

Tell us about your family.

My wife, Penny, and I have been married 20 years. We have two kids, Justin, 18, and Courtney, 15. Penny is a Realtor for Murney Associates.

Interview by Features Editor Maria Hoover. You can e-mail her with suggestions for future installments of this feature at mhoover@sbj.net.