From a very young age, I was inspired by my parents' hard work raising our middle class, Azorean-born family. I have worked with my father from my childhood years, up until adulthood: from small kids’ projects, to framing commercial walls and mudding them to perfection, to demoing concrete walls and rebuilding them with CMU blocks or brick. I have also worked alongside my mother, who has helped me keep dollar signs aligned. The love for construction is deeply rooted in my blood (as deep as my love for donuts and chocolate!).

 

I started in the construction industry at the age of 15. I landed my first job working for a general contractor, who worked within Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. With no construction trading skills, it's my strong work ethic and love for carpentry that contributed to my early success. Each day, as a laborer, I picked up my tools, swept floors, cleaned job sites, and asked questions- I wanted to keep learning! I was strongly motivated to learn more and enlarge my skill set, and I still am to this day. In this ever-evolving industry, we are never done learning!

 

A year later, I earned respect from many of my colleagues and superiors. While still in high school, and maintaining a 4.0 GPA, I put in the work necessary to succeed and deepen my carpentry and managerial knowledge. My hard work paid off! By the age of 19, I could call myself a plasterer, painter, floor guy, and carpenter. I was the guy who was always working hard, putting in work where it was needed the most. The first guy in, and the last guy out every single day.

While working full time, I graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, and went on to study Construction Management at Wentworth Institute of Technology. I completed my Co-op project with my company, which earned me a promotion to a project management role. As a project manager, I received and signed off on deliveries, supervised work, coordinated with subcontractors, attended meetings, and planned projects. All while still performing all the hands-on work I had been doing since day 1.

 

In October 2011, while still attending college, I made the decision to build my own construction company, while still working full-time. For my 2nd Wentworth Co-op, I became the first student to perform his Co-op self-employed. This led the school to create its current self-employed co-op program! I began to run my own company, advertising and bidding on home and commercial projects. I proudly grew my company from the ground up that year.

 

From there, I graduated from Wentworth Institute of technology (Bachelor of Science) in 2012, with an amazing head start, and with my own company still growing. D&R Construction was born from hard work and my love for construction. To this day, there is nothing else I would rather do than helping people build and improve their homes. I pride myself on how amazing we, myself and my team, can be as a contractor. But above all else, I am always a person first. My pride for how I was raised will always match my pride for what we can do. 

 

- Eric