In the winter of 1956, William E. - Bill - Bullock began working for Charlebois Construction owned and operated by Henry - Hank - Charlebois of Orchard Lake, Michigan. Charlebois Construction was a framing contractor supplying rough framing to several general contractors in the area. Bill framed by day with Hank and took on trim carpentry jobs and built and installed cabinets on nights and weekends. At that time William B. - Billy - Bullock was three years old. He could be found sitting on the infloor heating register on the cold Michigan mornings holding his Cocker spaniel puppy Skampy while dad and Hank ate breakfast before work.
In the spring of 1965 Hank and Bill formed C & B Construction. Hank continued the framing contractor end of the business while Bill became a general contractor, building homes from the ground up through completion. Billy was now in junior high school and worked occasionally with Hank or "Bill Senior" - weekends and summer vacation.
Billy, now in high school, finally became Bill as he participated in football, basketball and baseball. He met a fantastic girl his junior year and was soon engaged to Laurie Smith - yes that was her real name. Bill Jr. continued to work more and more during the summers that followed - mostly with Hank on a framing crew. He attended the University of Michigan during Laurie's senior year in high school. They were then married on June 25, 1971. Bill Jr. continued his studies at U. of M. that fall until one day he felt that he was spinning his wheels. He came home to Laurie and together they decided that college was no longer in the plan. The next day he reported to work as a full-time carpenter.
Bill Sr. continued to build houses from the ground up while Bill Jr. continued to work with the framing crews. In 1972 Hank and Bill Sr. decided that they needed something new. Hank bought into a new RV. park that was near Epcot Center in Florida. Bill Sr. decided to relocate to the southwest. He had always wanted to move west but his wife, Beverly wanted someplace with less snow than Michigan and Arizona became their destination. Bill Sr., Beverly, Bill Jr. and Laurie moved to Cottonwood in early 1973. At this point I need to note that Flagstaff received 235 inches of snow that winter and over 100 inches in March. In Cottonwood we could see lots of it but were not actually "in it" - so Beverly was pleased.
The remainder of 1973 found both Bullock families building their own new homes in Verde Village. Bill and Beverly made several trips to Michigan to sell their home and properties there and resolve the unfinished business that resulted from the end of C & B Construction in Michigan. Bill Jr. found miscellaneous carpentry jobs - re-roofing the Catholic Church in Cottonwood, framing several houses in Camp Verde and so on. He took his contractor's exams while still just twenty years old in June of that year. Shortly after his twenty first birthday he was rewarded with his contractor's license from the ✓, Arizona Registrar of Contractors. He was possibly the youngest licensed contractor in the state.
In late December of 1973 Bill Sr. was finally able to make the permanent move to Arizona. In January of 1974 C & B Custom Homes, Inc. was formed. Bill wanted to keep the C & B name for business references going forward. Unfortunately, there was a C & B Construction elsewhere in the state and C & B Custom Homes was as close as we could come. Bill and Bill built some 175 homes over the following ten years. Bill Sr. retired at the end of 1983. Since that time C & B has been solely owned and operated by Bill and Laurie Bullock.
In the late 1990's several larger commercial projects prompted Bill and Laurie to shift to the dba - doing business as - C & B Construction. C & B built three local banks, Verde Baptist Church, Phelps & Sons Manufacturing Plant, Manzanita Medical Plaza, Oxendale Chrysler, Dodge & Ram and the local V.A. Clinic among many other commercial buildings. The Kingman V.A. Clinic was the first LEED Silver building in Arizona. C & B also has done over fifteen million dollars’ worth of work for Verde Valley Medical Center and completely remodeled the Sedona Medical Center including two high density radiation facilities.
As of the end of 2017 C & B Construction is responsible for roughly 650 homes and 100 commercial projects in Arizona. Bill and Laurie Bullock were involved in the building of Silver Springs subdivision, Tierra Verde Estates and Grey Fox Ridge. They have been awarded the Indoor airPLUS Leadership Award from the EPA four years running – the only company
in America to do so! All their homes are Energy Star Five Star Plus certified and as of early 2017 all but one has earned the Zero Energy Ready Horne label from the Department of Energy.
The new beginning is now upon C & B. Chris Spannagel has "put the 'C' back in C & B". Chris and his wife Rachel are the new owners of C & B Construction. Chris and Rachel exhibit the same values, desire for superior quality and attention to detail that has made C & B so successful for decades. We could not be prouder as we pass the torch to the next generation.