in the beginning

"In the year of 1963, Arnold Rassi and I were out of work, and decided to build a spec house while looking for another job. We got lucky and the house sold before we had it done. So we built another, and another, and another. In 1965, Arn and I formed a partnership calling ourselves Schieler & Rassi Builders. The rest is history.

"In 1967, we formed a corporation known as the Schieler & Rassi Quality Builders, Inc. It was our philosophy from the beginning to build and be known as Quality Builders guided by Christian principles. We were reasonably successful and managed to keep busy making about six bucks per hour and a couple hundred bucks profit on a house and on rare occasions $500.00.

"In 1970. Arn & I became dealers in the prefabricated wall business. In those days, anything prefabricated was considered cheap and greatly frowned upon by our peers, especially in the Morton area. We did most of our work in Morton. However, this type of construction seemed to make a lot of sense to improve quality and save labor. Over the next ten years we became one of the top dealers.

"In the early, '80’s Arn & I erected a 50’X90’ building and started prefabricating our own wall panels. This system allowed us to increase production and sales and all our custom homes were delivered to the jobsite and erected with our own crews. The 80’s also had its bumps. High interest rates slowed home building dramatically. To keep busy, we were fortunate enough to build a number of churches, banks, libraries and a community center to name a few.

"However, our true passion was in the design and construction of new homes. In the mid 80’s my partner of twenty-two years decided to retire. We had a great working, and personal relationship.

"Meanwhile, while all this was going on I was blessed with three sons: Brian, Rich & Ted (BRT), who have been by my side from their youth to this day. I was also blessed with one daughter Kathy, “Daddy’s little girl” She is very precious to me.

"After Arn’s retirement, BRT became owners with me in the company. I had much pleasure observing these young men as they grew into manhood learning and developing skills in the trade and maintaining the original philosophy of building quality homes and embracing family values.

"As we passed from the eighties into the nineties, I was again blessed with the coming of the third generation, twelve wonderful grandchildren plus two grandchildren who joined our family through marriage.

"As we moved into the nineties we were still in search for new and better ways to provide affordable housing. Although the modular concept is not new, it was new to our market area, and again was viewed by our peers as cheap mobile homes and double-wides. But to us, the modular concept made a lot of practical sense. To prove our commitment to quality affordable housing, we built a home center with three furnished models and a staff consisting of four fulltime salesmen. In five years, we have built over four hundred quality homes in the surrounding area. We have established our own set and finish crews, concrete crew and have established our own plumbing and electrical departments. This volume has brought tremendous growth to our company.

"Brian, Rich and Ted all with unique talents, have joined together to make the company what it is today. All the success the company has enjoyed is to their credit. But the real hero of the Schieler Family is my dear wife, who kept the home fire burning all those years, a faithful wife and a great and generous mother and grandma. None of us could have made it without her. As I made this trip down memory lane, I thought it can’t get, any better than this, but I soon learn it can with the birth of my great-grandson. The lump in my throat just gets bigger and bigger.

"So what about Bob Schieler? Now forty years later after spending thousands of hours on the old drawing board, designing and drawing hundreds of plans, I have finally been replaced by the computer. I say this with no regrets, I have had a great time and I believe I can truly say the Lord has been my helper. Now the old drawing board is standing in the corner of my office loaded with plans and stuff I don’t know what to do with. But like an old friend it seems to just stand there ready to be of service. Maybe one of these days I will clean it off and we will do one more sketch together, and call it a day. Better yet, we’ll call it Homeway.

"The ball is now in Brian, Rich and Ted's court. It’s a brand new day."

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