The concept of Country Estate Crafters, LLC was born during Matt and Debbie Gunter’s first construction project, an equestrian estate for Debbie’s parents and their horses. At that time, Debbie and Matt and their own two horses were living on a mini-farm east of Hillsborough, which they had developed after the frustrating experience of living in
Debbie and Matt Gunter received their project assignment along with a deadline. Within the space of a year, they had to acquire a suitable parcel, locate contractors, develop the land, and build the facilities so that Debbie’s parents could move, along with their herd of 8 horses, from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi to
The first hurdle was securing a horse friendly parcel of land. They finally found 22 acres in Efland, but no one would have described that land as “horse friendly”. It had been clear-cut several years previously. Much earthwork and clearing would be required to create pastures, after which they needed to select a contractor and building system. They interviewed several local contractors and toured their portfolios, but they found many of these facilities unfriendly to horses or not properly constructed. They eventually decided upon a building system from a manufacturer, but this manufacturer’s regional representative did not have a General Contractor license, so they had to manage and build the project themselves. They were unhappy with the experience from an owner’s perspective, given the many difficulties encountered in managing the permitting and construction processes.
At that point they realized that if this were the typical experience most country estate owners had endured, perhaps they could change that experience for the better. The result is Country Estate Crafters, LLC, a company dedicated to providing turn-key equestrian amenities to the horse community in