Custom Homes with a Sustainable Blueprint

The Salamander Company

You can tell a lot about the craftsmanship by how solid the house feels. You can also tell a lot about the craftsmanship by how well the paddle navigates the white water. Whether it is a custom-built home

or a handcrafted wooden paddle, Patrick O’Brien has mastered both.

With the obvious Irish moniker, no one will be

surprised to learn O’Brien was not born and raised

in Taos. However, he has made the area his home since 1995, after

REfiNING HIS CABINETMAKING, woodworking, and home renovation skills in Detroit.

The Salamander Company was formed in 1998 and O’Brien, alongside his late

stepfather, specialized in building high-quality Straw Bale, Pumice-Crete, Adobe and Frame homes. With the combination of skill sets, high levels of honesty and unwavering integrity, The Salamander Company built a reputation one customer, and one home, at a time.

“We pride ourselves on building beautiful custom homes that go beyond being aesthetically

pleasing,” O’Brien said, “we use sustainable building materials and mainstream

products. By using regionally-sourced products

and materials, we are less intrusive to the planet, and that is important to all of us.”

There is a clear connection with nature between O’Brien’s work

ethic and his play ethic. The white-water enthusiast is also the owner of Salamander Paddles where he designs custom wood reinforced whitewater canoe

paddles. O’Brien loves the water and working with wood, “so why not do both?” he reckoned.

Indeed, a prospective home buyer wanting to

cross reference quality and precision may want to take a look at the care he puts into

his hand-crafted paddles while the prospective paddle

buyer may want do the same with O’Brien’s customized homes. The unique

combination of products may not go over well in

every part of the country, particularly in areas not so

DEfiNED BY THE WONDER OF nature, but in Taos, it’s a

SEAMLESS fiT.

“There is a continuity to feeling at home in your residence and feeling at home on the water. I think we can all agree that the notion of feeling at home is IMPORTANT,” OffERED O’BRIEN. In the more than two

decades of being in business, The Salamander Company has expanded to include

custom cabinetry, trim and mosaic tile work — touches

that make a house a home. More recently, they have

partnered with Smart Water Systems to design and install catchment systems. “The decision to work with Smart Water Systems was about

being more attuned to and respectful of our natural resources.”

The COVID pandemic brought a myriad

of challenges to the construction trade. Despite a bounty of work projects available, the industry is faced with erratic and unpredictable elements including material costs,

supply chain challenges, a limited work force, potential virus exposure and delays in licensing and permitting

steps. “My colleagues in THE SUBCONTRACTOR fiELDS;

electrical, plumbing and HEATING; CONCRETE AND

EXCAVATION; AND STUCCO, are all facing the same challenges,” O’Brien said. “A project work calendar is

not what it looked like three years ago,” he added.

Abiding by COVID precautionary guidelines is

essential to both employee and community safety, and something O’Brien takes seriously. The Salamander Company has continued to provide employees with TIME Off FOR THEMSELVES and their families. “As a business owner, I am committed to building and

supporting a strong team. HAVING SOME flEXIBILITY IN individual work schedules

to account for child and family needs is important. This year, I took the added

steps to include a paid-timeOff POLICY, PAID HOLIDAYS and a 401k program,” concluded O’Brien, further demonstrating the commitment he has to his employees which results in everyone’s success.

The Salamander Company, LLC

PO Box 905, Taos, NM 87571 575-741-0602