At the young age of 17 I hopped off the train in Calgary with the clothes on my  back, a grade 10 education, grade 8 violin, grade 6 piano and a grade 6 music theory.

My first job was Christmas help at the airport for the post office. I always had woodworking in my blood as my grandfather was a master. That early part of 1975 I put together enough tools and built my first coffee table and end tables just from looking at how someone else did it. I sold my first work of these rustic tables.

Next job was with my uncle Jack O’Neil who was the director of the Alberta Heart Foundation. I canvassed for Heart month that February. Jill and Trish, I wish I could thank you for taking me under your wing at work and making sure I didn’t go hungry.

The next step was phoning the first landscaping company in the phone book and getting a job on the sod farm north of High River, now known as Chinook Sod Farms. I have to thank Jim and Merle Ramsfield for the many things I learned, from my drivers license to welding, running the irrigation and so much more. They actually still own it today.

After 9 years or so I moved on to a cabinet shop in High River owned by a friend, Glen Korecki, who became my mentor. Glen I can’t thank you enough for kicking me out the door to Longview where I had lived till 1980. With borrowed tools and instruction manuals, this was the beginning of DC Contracting.

There was no fear installing a cedar door in Tommy Bews log house and custom building two large trophy cases for all his trophies. Nor for Gale Gallup’s clear cedar benches in the sauna and for Warren and Betty Zimmerman in Bert Sheppard’s new home at the River Bend Ranch. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I do everything with quality workmanship, transparency and a one year warranty on all my work.

Dave Carney