Every dayHe showed up — early mornings, late nights, weekends
Matt hauled aggregates. Whatever the job was, he showed up. He paid off that truck in 12 months. Then he took on more work. Concrete jobs. Small excavation projects. Each one finished on time, on budget, and without excuses.
The work was steady, but it was all on Matt’s shoulders. Every call, every bid, every hour behind the wheel or in the dirt. He was building a reputation job by job — but one person can only stretch so far.
One day
Todd, Matt’s godfather, was diagnosed with leukemia. He’d spent decades at a large construction company, but when the diagnosis came, priorities shifted. He left that company and came to work alongside Matt. Todd brought years of experience managing large-scale jobs, coordinating trades, and keeping projects on track. What had been a one-truck operation started to look like a real contracting company.
Because of that
The crew grew. Matt hired carefully — five employees who show up, do the work right, and treat homeowners the way they’d want to be treated. The fleet expanded too: excavators, skid steers, trucks, and trailers. Enough equipment to handle a project from demo to finished surface without calling in outside subs.
A homeowner called about a $5,000 driveway replacement. Matt’s crew tore out the old concrete, graded the base, poured the new driveway — and the homeowner asked, “Can you do the retaining wall too? And the drainage?” That $5,000 job became a $60,000 project. Not because Matt upsold anything. Because the crew could handle every trade, and the homeowner trusted them enough to keep going.
That’s the model. One crew. Every phase. No finger-pointing between subcontractors, no scheduling headaches, no surprises.
Until finally
Today, Baxter’s General Contracting is a full-service GC based in Hillsboro, Oregon. Concrete, excavation, asphalt, driveways, retaining walls, sewer and septic, aggregate delivery, structural work, and project management. Five employees. A fleet of heavy equipment. A 5.0 out of 5.0 rating with zero complaints. Licensed, bonded, and insured — Oregon CCB #232847.
Matt still answers the phone. He still walks every jobsite. And the crew still works the way they did on that first dump truck job — show up early, do it right, and leave it better than you found it.
