Olympia native Mike Auderer, owner of Olympia Construction, came to his successful building and remodeling career via fast motorcycles and big machinery.
“I moved to L.A. and raced motorcycles for about three years,” Auderer says. “And then I went into the military.” Stationed in San Diego as a rescue swimmer, Auderer did two tours of the Gulf in 1989 and 1990.
Auderer moved back to Olympia and opened a motorcycle shop in 1991, which he operated for more than a decade.
“I built race engines and bikes for people. I really enjoyed that, because it was so technical,” Auderer says. He also worked for a couple of professional teams during that time, building engines and working as a crew chief.
But to further his career, Auderer would have had to move down to California permanently, where many of the big factory teams are based. “So I decided to get out of that,” he says.
Auderer enjoyed big machinery, so he bought a small excavator and rented larger machines to clear lots for people.
“Lo and behold, I eventually started building,” he says with a laugh. Olympia Construction opened for business in 2004.
Auderer built homes as a general contractor for several years, but found he didn’t enjoy the “cookie cutter” part of that process. “It’s just putting puzzle pieces together,” he says. “Do the dig out, do a foundation, do the walls, do the roof…”
So he moved his company’s focus to remodeling, which brought more variety and some exciting challenges – exactly what Auderer was looking for. “You never know what you’re opening up,” he says with a laugh.
Auderer works directly with the homeowners himself, and also has a designer, Diane Gassman, whom he brings in on many projects.
“On some jobs, clients like the reassurance of a designer. If people are spending $60,000 on a master suite remodel, they want that,” he says.
Gassman is a certified kitchen and bath designer with 29 years of experience here in the Pacific Northwest.
“She’s not what I call a ‘color picker,’” Auderer says of the breadth of Gassman’s skills. “It’s much deeper than that.”
Whether or not Auderer brings Gassman in on a particular project, he always spends time with clients to really get to know their lifestyle.
“If you’re a kayaker and a backpacker and you bike, you need an entry into your home that’s conducive to mud,” Auderer says. “On the last project we did, they were both retired and enjoy wine, so we built a wine cellar.”
Auderer, a gregarious, straight-talking guy, forms lasting relationships with his clients. One client – for whom Auderer gutted and remodeled a condo on West Bay Drive to ADA standards for accessible design and installed an elevator – calls once a month just to chat and say, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’
On a recent coffee stop at Bayview Thriftway, Auderer ran into the homeowner of a major remodel his company did in 2010. “She hugged me and asked if I had time to sit and talk and catch up,” Auderer says.
Auderer visits a home site several times during the design and planning stage, to truly learn all about the space. “I go out when it’s sunny, I go out when it’s rainy,” he says. “You get the feel for the whole picture of the home or the condo.”
He uses a cache of trusted subcontractors for specific jobs and has a core group of employees that work for him. Clients also see Auderer on site every day.
No job is too small – or too big – for Olympia Construction.
“I just replaced some siding that caught fire at a rental,” Auderer explains. “It was a $500 dollar job.”
And the company won four awards at the Olympia Master Builders’ Tour of Homes in 2010 for a remodeling project on Cooper Point Road that cost well over $500,000.
Small or large, Auderer and his team are dedicated to quality work with attention to detail.
“My job is to build what they want. I’ve always made the joke: If you want your house hot pink, I’ll paint it hot pink,” Auderer says, starting to laugh. “I’m sure your neighbors won’t appreciate it, but that’s what you’re paying for.”
“I think I’ve got the reputation – or at least I hope I do – where people just trust me,” says Auderer. “And it sounds so cliché, but it’s great making people happy.”
Olympia Construction received numerous accolades for projects in 2010 and 2011 from the Olympia Master Builders’ Tour of Homes, including awards for best master suite, best floor plan, and best of show in the people’s choice category and best kitchen and best remodel in the judge’s category.
Visit Olympia Construction’s website and Facebook page to learn more about the company and to keep up with what Auderer is doing.
Olympia Construction
2103 Harrison Ave. NW 2-654
Olympia WA 98502
360.451.3191
