Idaho native home builder for almost 30 years.
By Emily Fonnesbeck
Photography by Jeremy Erickson
When you’re looking to build a house, you probably look at many different options. Rod Blackstead, the president of Blackstead Building Co. Inc. isn’t interested in building houses; he and his team want to build you a home.
Rod, an Idaho native, started his career after graduating from Boise State University with a degree in marketing and real estate. Working on job sites doing electrical work through college, and having always been interested in hands-on work, he gravitated towards building and construction. Shortly after college, Rod worked as a home appraiser, giving him insight into the market and the common desires of the buyer, and decided to start his own company. Rod started building modest, quality homes, finishing around 40 in the first year. Although he could ensure a home was built in a timely manner, he made sure that the work was sturdy, never veering away from his vision of a well-built home.
From there, Blackstead Building has been steadily working for almost 30 years. Rod has had different projects throughout those years, but for the most part has built high quality 1,800 to about 3,000 square foot homes. In Eagle, you can find Blackstead homes in the River’s Bend community as well as Spurwing Estates. So what sets Blackstead apart from the rest? Plenty.
Blackstead has been an innovative part of the building community, always looking to stay current with the demands of the housing market and changing technology. All of the homes built by Blackstead Building Co. Inc. are Energy Star certified and rated, with a third-party inspection on each one. This means that the efficiency of the home isn’t just “code”, but uses the best resources to create a home that saves the owner money and leaves the smallest footprint for the environment. Many added “extras” for other homes are standard for Blackstead, including drain systems and sealed concrete to ensure there is little chance of water damage to the house.
Years back, when Rod was starting out, he built a sales office into the garage of his personal home before this was really being done in Idaho. There, the home buyer could come and talk personally with Rod to get exactly what they were looking for, selecting personalized aspects of their home. Now, Blackstead has an office with interactive graphic imagery as well as tangible samples for the buyer to select in their home.
“I build houses like I’d want them for myself,” says Rod. The starting point for a Blackstead home is such that the “upgrades” like granite counter tops, tile, and hardwood floor, aren’t upgrades, but standard. Rod and his associates have studied the common wants of the home-buyer, incorporating them into the homes they set out to build. The result is a well-priced designer home with exceptional quality and efficiency.
Many of the buyers that have purchased homes built by Blackstead Building are out of state, and Blackstead makes sure that they know exactly what is going on with their home during the entire building process. Jeremy Erickson, the Marketing and Sales Director, takes daily pictures of progress, uploading them for the buyer to view and, if necessary, make changes. Blackstead Building takes pride in an interactive, thorough website, with virtual tours and photos of the model homes.
Rod himself visits the construction sites every day, and to ensure quality, consistency, and integrity, has been using some of the same subcontractors for many years. Looking back at what he has built, Rod smiles when he says, “We have a good team of good people…and we’re still having fun after almost thirty years.”
