40 | FRONTDOORS MAGAZINE Rod Cullum enjoyed visiting job sites with his kids, Brad and Lindsay, when they were young. “We love Arizona,” said Kim Cullum, shown here with her young family. “It’s a great place.” At first, the company was very small. Rod and Kim quit their old jobs and worked out of their home in McCormick Ranch for seven years. “We had no overhead and really no expenses and no employees,” Kim said. “It was just Rod and me.” Today, Cullum Homes is an integrated design and construction firm specializing in luxury custom homes, architecture, interior design, renovations and home concierge. Their home builds are in some of the toniest neighborhoods in Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Desert Mountain, Phoenix and Carefree. “Traditionally, the builder is in the middle of the architect and the designer,” said Rod. “But I said, ‘I’m done with the traditional way of building homes.’” Instead, Cullum Homes does everything from home site selection to home design, so they can supervise every stage of homebuilding and ensure it is done “the Cullum way.” “You have one contract with us,” Rod said. “We think it’s the best way to get the best value for the client. Our niche is about the finest homebuilding experience and about the performance, quality, service and experience of the house.” It’s a mindset Lindsay learned from the start. She was born a few months after Rod and Kim started Cullum Homes and has fond memories of growing up with the company. “One time, my brother and I started a Bobcat with one of my bobby pins and drove it around a job site. We got stuck trying to climb a pile of trusses,” she laughed. Although building was in her blood, when it came time for college, Lindsay went to Vanderbilt University to study medicine. “I wanted to be a doctor, but when I got away to college, I discovered that I missed the interaction with what we did in the family business,” she said. So she decided to study economics as an undergrad, then come back to ASU for a master’s in architecture. It seems Rod’s special skill was inherited. “It just kind of rubbed off on Lindsay,” he said. “She has that magical way of explaining how to best use the lot and make the most functional house.” Lindsay describes her journey. “The love of designing homes and the ability to see spaces is something I always had. But to me, it was a hobby,” she said. Eventually, she saw it as her calling and came on board the family business full-time. Her husband, Paul Colwell, later joined her. The two met at Vanderbilt and spent the early part of their marriage moving from city to city with Paul’s military career. “When he was away on mission or training exercises for the Navy, I’d fly out here and be able to work and visit job sites,” Lindsay said. The couple decided Paul would stick with the Navy as long as it made sense. Post-Navy, their first choice would be to come to Arizona. “The Navy was always something that I enjoyed,” Paul said. “But my last appointment was when we had kids, and it was different to leave and come back six months later.”

FRONTDOORS MAGAZINE | 41 Cullum Homes projects can be found throughout the northeast greater Phoenix area, including Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. So, after a 10-year career in the Navy and a corporate stint at Honeywell Aerospace, Paul joined the team at Cullum Homes and became an integral part of the business’s day-to-day operations. A former nuclear submarine officer, he ensures checklists are followed and tries to mitigate challenges so any mistakes don’t happen twice. He is essentially applying the discipline he learned in the Navy to the chaos of construction. Paul appreciates the challenge, and the perks it provides. “It’s been exciting to go from where Lindsay and I would not be able to communicate for months at a time to now, where we sometimes carpool to work,” he said. With Lindsay at the helm as managing principal and Paul serving as director of business process, they are now the second generation in charge of Cullum Homes. Rod and Kim have taken a step back and now serve as founders and mentors. “I want to make sure the mentality of Cullum Homes is that things are done exactly as they should be — durable, sustainable and the best value we can deliver to clients. To do that, you need lots of sous chefs, but one head chef. And that chef needs to be Lindsay. Lindsay has replaced me in that role,” Rod said. Cullum Homes has grown since its early days at McCormick Ranch and today employs 87 people. Lindsay feels a responsibility to each one. “The finest homebuilding experience is not only for our homeowners, but for our team and trade partners, for everyone that touches the project,” she said. “It’s a matter of doing the right thing by all those groups, and living to that standard.”