
DATE: Sunday, September 14, 1997            TAG: 9709130097

SECTION: HOME & GARDEN           PAGE: G1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JEANNE MOONEY, SPECIAL TO HOME AND GARDEN 

                                            LENGTH:  134 lines

YOUNG PARTNERS BUILD SHOW HOME WITH OLD-FASHIONED WORKMANSHIP

IF TODAY IS SUNDAY, then D.J. Walters is in London or Frankfurt, just-landed and suffering jet lag, awaiting his next shift as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines. His business partner, Edward A. Camp, is in Chesapeake, building a home for Homearama '97.

If it's Monday, Walters is jetting back to Norfolk by way of Cincinatti, ready to trade his beverage cart and uniform for a cellular phone and construction duds.

Camp is at Goose Creek Estates, a new subdivision off Jolliff Road in Chesapeake, juggling the pressures that a 2-year-old firm confronts in the bigs of home building and showcasing in South Hampton Roads.

Tuesdays through Fridays, Camp and Walters are in the same time zone working together as 21st Century Builders. They frame, they tile, they put in doors and windows. They lead a small army of subcontractors and sweat the details.

On Saturdays, they go their separate ways again. Walters kisses his children goodbye and shuttles off to Europe, passing his homebound wife, Susan, who also is a Delta flight attendant, somewhere in the skies between Virginia and Ohio.

Camp, too, smooches so long to his family and treks to Goose Creek.

Some day, Camp and Walters hope to make a living building homes, even take home a salary. For now, though, they work non-stop and rely on their wives and families to help make ends meet. And they plow anything resembling a profit back into the biz so they can secure another loan and build another home.

This is life for the new kids on the block, the two builders who are looking for their big break at Homearama '97.

What's at stake? ``Our whole reputation,'' says Walters, who, like Camp, is 36. ``Eighty thousand people are going to be scrutinizing our work. That's scary in itself - to have 80,000 people walk through your house.''

Says Camp: ``There's definitely pressure. . . . We're out here with the big guys.''

Ah, but what are friends for if not to stand a little heat together? And Camp and Walters have been friends forever. They went to Lynnhaven Junior High together in Virginia Beach. They ran track together at First Colonial High. And they framed houses together in the Kingston section of the city as their ``cool'' summer job.

``Here we are on our cool summer job still,'' Walters says. ``We just moved up a couple of notches.''

Walters and Camp also went to Ferrum College together. Sometime in those years, Walters noticed that his sister, Vikki, was sending care packages to Camp. Now she's Mrs. Camp and keeps 21st Century Builder's books when she gets home from her day job.

The circle of loyalty doesn't stop with family. Walters and Camp hired as subcontractors people whom they knew in school, or in past jobs, or who started out when they did. For instance, their plumber went to the same schools as Camp. Their roofing and siding guy used to drive D.J. and Ed to junior high dances and was a former boss of Ed's. And at least one of their suppliers remembers them as one of his first customers.

``They've paid so much attention to us,'' Camp says of the subcontractors. ``They put in an extra effort to make us look good.''

Some Homearama '97 builders, such as William T. Wingfield and Jack Jackson III, have participated in many of the Tidewater Builders Association's showcases since they were first held in 1982.

Others have developed whole neighborhoods.

Not Camp and Walters. This is their big debut. They've worked years in the trades for other builders, but as 21st Century Builders, they count three homes in their portfolio. One is sold, one is for sale and one is almost finished. All are in Olde Mill Creek, Suffolk.

``We don't like to say how many houses we've built,'' Walters says, because the answer draws questions such as, ``And you're in Homearama?''

You betcha. With moxie. On Lot 26, the one with the trees. In the Timesaver Home, the one that The Virginian-Pilot readers suggested be equipped with fuss-free furnishings like no-wax floors and low-maintenance landscaping.

The carom of events that got the duo to Homearama may have started back when Walters' dad asked Emil A. Viola if Viola could give the aspiring builders some tips on how to launch a business.

Viola is president of Galberry Corp., a Chesapeake-based firm that has developed Davids Mill and Jolliff Woods in Chesapeake, in addition to Olde Mill Creek and Goose Creek Estates. The elder Walters writes insurance policies for Viola.

Viola not only advised Camp and Walters, but also sold them some lots in Olde Mill Creek for speculative building.

``They've kind of carried the ball since then,'' Viola says. ``Their work has always been good. They're very particular about what they do.''

And, Viola says, when 21st Century Builders was invited to build at Homearama '97, he encouraged them to participate. It's good exposure, Viola told Camp and Walters. Try and get a loan, he advised.

``If you've got the ability, why not?'' Viola asks. ``If you've got the loan, why not?''

So they got the loan. And they are building a Homearama home. For Viola's sister-in-law, Mary Ann Viola of Mary Ann Viola Real Estate Inc. If Viola sells her current abode in Jolliff Woods by Oct. 1, she'll move to The Timesaver Home. If not, she'll help Camp and Walters sell it to someone else. The asking price is $275,000.

Still, Mary Ann Viola has taken Camp and Walters under her wing. That's her way. To help those she can, she says. She has no doubts about the quality of their workmanship. She calls it ``substantial.''

``I don't think they cut any corners,'' Viola says of Camp and Walters. They've got that old-fashioned concept that they're going to deliver to the customer what they'd like to receive themselves, she says.

Being a young company doesn't hurt Camp and Walters either, she says. ``They don't play the heavy'' and tell her what she can or cannot have in her home, she says. ``They're considerate.''

Ed and Jane Dearborn, and their 2-year-old son, Brandon, are fans of Camp's and Walter's, too. They own the first and only home 21st Century Builders has built and sold to date. It's a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home in Olde Mill Creek. It has vinyl siding, a tiled, two-story entry, a front and back stairway, large bedrooms and walk-in closets. It also has a jetted tub in the master bath, a two-car garage and nearly 2,800 square feet of living space. The Dearborns paid in the low $160,000s for the home. It's not tract housing, they assure.

``You're a little leery about buying someone's first product,'' says Ed Dearborn. But Camp and Walters used upgraded materials, he says, and built the home as if it were to be their own. And when something went wrong - Dearborn remembers a few nails popping up - Camp and Walters fixed the problem quickly, he says.

``If I had to do it all over again, I certainly would,'' Dearborn says of his purchase.

His wife, Jane, offers this to any doubters: ``Tell them to come see my house. It's a quality house.''

Camp and Walters say their Homearama home is a quality work, too. But they welcome you to see for yourself. Isn't it about time? ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

GARY C. KNAPP

D.J. Walters left, and Ed Camp, partners in 21st century Builders...

Photo

GARY C. KNAPP

D.J. Walters of 21st Century Builders uses an air gun to nail a

piece of trim in a bedroom closet of the Timesaver Home. The house

will have separate ``his'' and ``her'' closets in the master

bedroom.