This Tualatin builder has learned to think inside the box

A classical feng shui class changed developer Jerry Reeves’ approach to his business

By Nick Peterson

The Times, Nov 26, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

Jon House / Times Newspapers

Developer Jerry Reeves settles back into the prototype of his Chi Sleeper — one of his new line of Chi products.

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When the economy started going south and the housing market tanked, Tualatin builder Jerry Reeves had a lot of time on his hands – so he headed south himself.

“I went down to San Francisco, to the Golden Gate School of Feng Shui, and I learned classical feng shui,” Reeves said.

Reeves, 57, a licensed structural engineer, developer, and real estate broker, has been building high-end homes in the Portland area for nearly 40 years. But he says he has always been interested in learning new things, and feng shui – the Chinese philosophy of arranging work and living spaces to promote comfort, peace and balance in a person’s life – fit in perfectly with the way he has always approached building.

“In San Francisco I studied classical feng shui through about nine months of curriculum. I got my certification in that and, along the way, got a holistic practioners license,” Reeves said.

His training got him to thinking – and his thinking led him in a whole new direction. In his words, he reinvented himself and his company.

“I thought, ‘What is the new builder going to look like?’” Reeves said. “I have always liked to build natural homes, so all of the stuff I had been learning – Chinese medicine and understanding essential oils and all the rest of that stuff – fed into the way I had actually been building forever.”

The result was a new line of what he calls Chi Builders – “The world’s first whole body optimizing system.”

First – the dog house

He started out pretty basic. He came up with a new concept for sleeping quarters – for dogs.

“I began thinking about things to help with health, and what was missing in our society,” Reeves said. “And I came up with the dog sleepers.” And he built one for his dog, Max.

The shape of the dog sleeping structure, which Reeves calls the “Dogua,” is octagonal (“sacred” geometrical proportions, says Reeves; a shape that “promotes the building of chi, or the energy that vitalizes all things”) and the wood is FSC certified cedar (wood “based on wisdom,” which “provides protection against bugs and has anti-microbial properties”).

Reeves designed the dog house like a puzzle, so all the pieces fit together without nails, screws or glue, is structurally sound and can be taken apart and set up again in 10 minutes.

And the sleeper fits in with living room décor, acting as an end table.

“It’s like a cave for your dog – helps them get out of the light,” Reeves says, as his dog Max settles in and observes us from his sanctuary. “They love it because they feel they’re part of the group. If they aren’t there, where are they at? They’re kind of laying in a corner, doing whatever, but they’re not relaxed.”

Then Reeves began to think about sleeping quarters for people, and developed Chi Sleepers. They are built with the same method and materials as the dog sleepers – octagonal, cedar and no glue, screws or nails – but they have a door on them so you can be totally enclosed in your sleeping space.

“It’s like having your own little cabin within the home,” Reeves said.

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