It's been 30 years since Kent first started on the path to his Builder's Licence in the Clarence Valley. Back in those days the Grafton TAFE Campus held a full time course for Carpentry and Joinery over 2 years. Kent undertook his Certificate 2 in 1994 and Certificate 3 in 1995.
During this time the group built two new homes, valuable lessons were learnt in the hands-on course, that are still important to this day.
For Kent, having moved to Australia from Norway in his early 20's, attending TAFE in Grafton was an initiation by fire into Australian Culture. After two years with some of Grafton's finest young blokes, any hint of a Norwegian accent was well & truly taken care of.
Prior to his move to Australia Kent had grown up on the tools. With his Father and Grandfather both being Builder's, he had been onsite from an early age, learning and soaking up the strong Norwegian values of hard but honest work, which remains with Kent to this day.
Moving on from TAFE and Kent then completed his time with local Maclean Builder Graeme Dobbin. Graeme being an 'old school' Builder was a great mentor and he liked to tackle the 'tough' jobs - the steep hillsides of Maclean have a number of Dobbin Built homes.
Graeme's crew did it all, which gave Kent a wide range of experience, which he has carried through to his own team today.
And after 30 years Kent's moto remains that no-one on the team is above sweeping the floors or insulating a roof. Not even Kent.