About EarthCraft

I'm Jon Clark, owner of EarthCraft Construction. I honed this aspect of the craft Ron Hixson mentored me in for almost 8-year —not just the technical side of building, but what it means to take personal responsibility for creating spaces where families will live their lives.

Standing on the Shoulders of a Pioneer

Ron Hixson was doing design-build in the 1970s when it was still a radical idea. He was an absolute pioneer—not just in Idaho, but nationwide. He built Idaho's first LEED-certified single-family home. He brought green building to this state before anyone called it that. He figured out how to make straw bale construction work at a professional level when most people thought it was just a fringe experiment.

He weathered every economic storm. He built production homes when he had to, developed properties, built hundreds of custom homes over a 50-year career. But what he really perfected was a way of working—design-build done with conservation at the center, service as the foundation, and integrity in every transaction.

Ron came from a depression-era mindset: use what you have, don't waste, don't take more than you need, build things that last. That became his approach to green building long before it had a name.

But what mattered most to Ron wasn't the awards or being first. It was that building someone's home is sacred work. You're creating the environment where a family will live, have experiences, grow up. That demands your best, every time.

I found Ron in 2017. Or maybe he found me. He'd been looking to pass his business to someone—not just sell it, but pass it to someone who would carry it forward the right way. Three other apprentices (check the word) before me didn't work out.

We worked together for almost 8-years, until the day he died in August 2025. He was my mentor. My friend. A father figure. Ron taught me what it means to be a builder, what it means to design, what it means to take responsibility—personal responsibility—for this work.

His last half of life was devoted to giving back, to teaching, to helping someone else the way he wished he'd been helped. That's what I got. Something I can never fully repay. I can only pay it forward.

Ron's ethos didn't die with him. This isn't just business to me—it's personal. It's legacy. It's responsibility. Every home I build carries Ron forward. Every client I serve honors what he taught me.

We Are Conservationists at Heart

Ron started building this way in 1978, before "green building" existed as a term. His philosophy was simple but radical: use what you have, give more than you take, build to last generations.

High-performance assemblies as standard.. Net-zero design. Passive solar orientation. Straw bale construction that sequesters carbon. Materials that don't off-gas toxins. Air quality inside that's measurably cleaner than outside.

This isn't an upgrade package you can add on. This is the foundation of how we build. It's been our standard for 5-decades decades.

Service-Oriented, Single Point of Responsibility

This is not my house. It's yours.

I'm here to build what you want, not what I think you should want. When you have a question, you call me—not the electrician, not the framer, not a project manager. One person is responsible for everything. I will handle it.

This is a collaborative process. I need your input throughout because your home should fit the way you actually live. You're not juggling multiple contractors or playing telephone between an architect and a builder.

High Integrity, Cost-Plus Model

We operate cost-plus, which means if I do my job super efficiently, I don't take home more money—I pass those savings back to you. That's a point of pride and responsibility.

The job cost is what it costs. We don't pad estimates. We don't hide markups.

Our preliminary plans cost barely what they cost us to produce—sometimes we lose money on that phase. That's intentional. We're betting on ourselves to earn your business before you commit to anything major.

This model only works if you believe two things: that we have integrity, and that we're oriented toward serving you, not ourselves. If you believe that, then cost-plus is the inevitable place we end up—because you get the best possible product for the least amount of cost.

If this resonates with you, let's find out if we're a fit.

Let's Talk

EarthCraft Construction, Inc | Treasure Valley, Idaho

Serving Boise, Oregon & Surrounding Areas (208) 391-3754 | [email protected]

PO Box 9613, Boise, ID 83706

Licensed and insured in Idaho RCE-27334 and Oregon CCB-186023