Hi, I'm Chris
Husband to Brooke. Dad to Ridge, Canon, and Rowan.
Builder of quality and craftsmanship across North Georgia.
Owner
Chris Russell
Goldendoodle · Redhawk Mascot
Reed
As long as I can remember, building has been my path. It started at four years old, riding around with my dad while he built houses — listening to the job calls come in, watching the progress from one day to the next. I took on the job of broom pusher for him, sweeping out houses between trades. My family has always been a line of do-it-yourself people, so learning to work with my hands was just part of growing up. You can't wash it off.
I worked for a home builder through college and after. When the economy came apart in 2008, I moved into the business world for a while — and I'm glad I did, because that's where I learned how to run a project and manage people. Then I came back to construction through commercial glazing and remodeling, and I never left again.
My story began on the bench seat
of my dad's truck.
While I was building my parents their personal home, my fire for building custom homes was relit — and that's what started Redhawk. I hand-drove the nails to build my own house years before that. I've swept these floors, framed these walls, and stood in the mud at final grade. There isn't a part of this I've asked someone else to do for me first.
I was a project manager before I was a general contractor. That's not a line, it's the whole reason your job runs the way it does. I estimate a house down to the detail, build the schedule before we break ground, and keep it on a costing sheet I actually maintain. At the bottom of that sheet is a verse — the plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. My dad's advice was don't ever burn a bridge, and keep every phone number. I've kept both.
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might."
Ecclesiastes 9:10
Until my parents' house relit the fire.
To build custom homes with honesty, precision, and care – homes that become a family's legacy – and to give the glory for what's built back to God.
My Mission
I hold myself to a level of excellence in all things. I will not sacrifice my family or excellence. If one of those slides, I'm building too many houses.
"Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." – Psalm 127:4-5
That verse is the reason I think about houses the way I do. A home is where one generation tells the next one what matters. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. – Psalm 78:4
Brooke and I have been married fifteen years. She teaches at a school here in Dahlonega, and she is the steadiest person I know.
Our boys are Ridge, Canon, and Rowan. Most of our life happens outside — the batting cage out back, bows in the yard, four-wheelers in the field, and a garden Brooke and I keep together. I coach the Jr. Indians. We're Braves people and UGA people, and there's usually a game on somewhere in the house.
We're members at The Torch, our church here in Dahlonega, where I volunteer. I've been a hunter and an outdoorsman my whole life, and I'm teaching my boys the same way I was taught — how to be still, how to pay attention, how to take care of a piece of land. That's the same thing I'm doing when I build you a house.
Everything I Build
I build for these people.
