Helping people build safer homes in Lake Tahoe

Housesmiths now offering BMP design

For 15 years Jim Nelson, owner of Housesmiths has been remodeling homes in Lake Tahoe using an old technique of creating native wood beam structures. Now he’s expanding his business to include Best Management Practices design. Nelson answered a few questions about his business for the Bonanza.

What new services are you offering?Besides our residential remodeling we now include BMP design for TRPA. We offer site evaluations and BMP design and implementations. Nelson is a certified evaluator who works with TRPA to create an approved site plan for residential properties.

How did Housesmiths begin?Housesmiths was established in Iowa 18 years ago as a classic timber framing business. We built homesusing the very old technique of creating native wood beam structures similar to the barn raising projects undertaken by the Amish. My family and I moved to the North Lake Tahoe area 15 years ago and have been building this remodeling business incorporating a lot of the big timber and log designs.

What kind of background do you have?Jim Nelson has been in the remodeling business for 29 years and has experience in every phase of the business from design ideas, breaking ground all the way through the very important finishing touches. Jim’s specialty is wood beam and log work, and expert quality finish trim work. Having been in this business for many years he has developed a keen sense of design ranging from materials to be used, layout, color for finishes, and most importantly communicating ideas to his clients.

Why did you decide to add this new service?We added the BMP design service because of the backlog of properties that need to be brought to compliance with land management practices that best protect the clarity of Lake Tahoe. Since we see and work on so many homes, it seems natural to help provide this service. Our home maintenance program has arisen since we get a lot of calls from existing clients to maintain their homes. We started to gear up this service to meet the demand and would like to see this program grow in the future.

What future plans do you have?Our future plans center around our BMP design and implementation program and expanding the home repair and maintenance business.

Anything you would like to add?The only thing I could add would be our appreciation for the beautiful place where we live.We are proud to serve the people who own the properties up here.It seems we have never met anyone we couldn't work with and have enjoyed working with the many families that have a more beautiful place to live because of Housesmiths.Contact Housesmiths at (775) 831-2462