Meet the Sunny Acres Community:
Dave Dieter, Construction Manager.
‘Doing things the right way’
It takes very little time being around Dave Dieter, construction manager at the Sunny Acres sober living ranch, to realize you are speaking with a master woodworker.
Surrounded by his tools -- saws, hammers, chisels, planers, drills -- and leaning against one of his work benches in his woodshop at Sunny Acres, Dave appears to be a man in his natural element.
Born in 1962, in Paso Robles, the now-56 year-old Dave has one sister, Lori. He is the son of Monty and Eunice Dieter.
The family business was wood cabinetry, and it was a business at which Dave began to work at the young age of 10.
“I got a social security card at 10,” Dave says today. “I swept the floors, cleaned the bathrooms. I was paid 25 cents and hour.”
It was a large business, too. Starting in Monty’s garage, the company grew to employ more than 100 workers. The company grew when it went from custom to commercial cabinetmaking. Some of the firm’s corporate clients included: Gap; Banana Republic; Old Navy; Safeway, among many others.
Over one summer in junior high school, Dave grew six inches in three months. The ultra-fast growth spurt made Dave’s leg bones weak, and he had two major broken leg surgeries before he graduated from Paso Robles High School in 1980. Dave graduated on a Friday, and was at work Monday morning.
“I liked woodworking. It was a good job,” Dave says. He worked for the family business from the age of 10 until he was 45 years old.
Dave started drinking alcohol at the end of his senior year in high school, and what a start it was. In his first experience with alcohol, at a graduation party, he consumed half a bottle of sloe gin and an 18-pack of beer. He drove home, and wasn’t sick the next day. That is an abnormally high tolerance for alcohol, and that was just the beginning.
Dave’s first DUI came at the age of 21. “Back then, it wasn’t punished as harshly as it is today,” Dave says. “I got a fine; no jail.”
Dave got married, and he and his ex-wife had twin daughters, now 25. When asked what year his daughters were born, Dave whips out a tape measure, pulls out the tape to 118 inches, folds it, looks up, “1993,” he smiles.
It’s a nifty little trick that takes just a few seconds and shows how comfortable Dave is with a tape measure. “I’ve gotten drinks off it,” Dave says of the trick.
Dave’s drinking, he was pretty much a beer drinker at this point, had become a problem in his life. He went to the Betty Ford Clinic in 1995.
After Betty Ford, Dave was alcohol-free for four-and-a-half years. During that sober time, he did what others could not, nor should, do. He hung out with people who drank.
“I would go to friends’ houses for Super Bowl parties; holidays; barbeques, and I would drink non-alcoholic beer,” Dave says.
One day, Dave recalls today, “I just decided I wanted to drink.”
In 2001, the family shut the business down. According to Dave, running a large commercial cabinet-making company in California became untenable. His family wasn’t competing with California companies, but international ones, including Chinese-owned companies.
Dave got into construction, a trade known to be conducive to heavy drinking. He never drank on the job, though many crews did.
“My thought was, they’re paying us to work, not drink,” Dave says today. “If you want to drink, let’s put the tools away and drink. My drinking was from quitting time until I went to sleep. Never drank at lunchtime. Some crews had coolers full of beer. Never touched it on the job.”
While he was working various construction jobs, Dave took a job building a log cabin in Mohawk, in the northeastern part of California. Before going up north, Dave got his second DUI. This time, unlike the first DUI, he didn’t take care of it, go through the system. Instead, he went up to Mohawk, leaving that DUI just hanging out there.
After a few years of driving with a suspended license, Dave received his third DUI. The time for slap-on-the-wrist sentences was over. Dave spent 45 total days in jail. Pending satisfactory completion of an 18-month “school” program, for which Dave is still not eligible, he cannot have a driver’s license.
Without the ability to drive to construction jobs, it is very difficult to work in the field. Dave lived in a converted garage apartment, and got a job within walking distance of the apartment. The job was at a bar. And, like with his other jobs, he didn’t drink on the job.
“Never did,” Dave says.
Dave worked the hours the bar was closed; roughly from 2am until 10am. He cleaned the place, repaired the bar, fixed the bathrooms. But he still drank after ‘quitting time.’ A member of the Elks Lodge, Dave would drink with the “oldtimers” at around 10am. Some Elks Lodge bars open quite early.
With the oldtimers, Dave began to drink vodka. He’d have five or six screwdrivers, then go home and drink more vodka before going to bed.
Dave sold his house a few years earlier, and had basically drank the money away. He moved out of the garage apartment and with his mother, Eunice.
“That wasn’t good,” Dave says about living with his mother. “I was coming home drunk. It wasn’t fair to her.”
It was Eunice Dieter who discovered Sunny Acres three years ago. When Dave arrived, founder, and ranch badass, Dan DeVaul looked at Dave and asked,
“Can you work?”
“Yeah,” Dave said
“We’ll take ya,” the crusty DeVaul growled.
Dave’s first thoughts of DeVaul?
“I thought he was an asshole.”
DeVaul was serious about putting Dave to work. “You work here. 8 hours a day,” Dave says. Sunny Acres also requires regular AA and NA meetings.
Work was never the issue for Dave, a functioning alcoholic. “If I’m active, with something to do, work, I’m fine,” Dave says of not drinking. “It’s when I don’t have anything to do.”
Sunny Acres gives him something to do. While program manager, Johnny Rodriguez, administers the house and its residents, Dave fixes and repairs and builds the place. He does signage, cabinets, bathrooms, shelving, storage. Dave’s worked on the Sunny Acres “Craft Shack,” the “Secret Garden.” Virtually anything done physically to Sunny Acres, has Dave Dieter’s experienced hands on it. Dave also manages a small crew of Sunny Acres men, and supervises them on construction projects.
“I do things the right way,” Dave says bluntly. “You don’t cut corners.”
Dave works well with Johnny Rodriguez. “Johnny and I are on the same page,” he says.
And cranky ol’ Dan DeVaul isn’t quite as big an ‘asshole.’
“Dan’s changing,” Dave says. “Before, when I’d give him a list of things I needed from Home Depot, he take a pen and cross most of the things out. ‘Nope.’ ‘Nope.’ ‘Nope.’ Now, he doesn’t even look at my list. He just gets what’s on it.”
You can tell a master woodworker not by the quality of the wood, but the quality of the workmanship. That’s Dave Dieter.
-- End --
Dave Dieter, Construction Manager.
‘Doing things the right way’
It takes very little time being around Dave Dieter, construction manager at the Sunny Acres sober living ranch, to realize you are speaking with a master woodworker.
Surrounded by his tools -- saws, hammers, chisels, planers, drills -- and leaning against one of his work benches in his woodshop at Sunny Acres, Dave appears to be a man in his natural element.
Born in 1962, in Paso Robles, the now-56 year-old Dave has one sister, Lori. He is the son of Monty and Eunice Dieter.
The family business was wood cabinetry, and it was a business at which Dave began to work at the young age of 10.
“I got a social security card at 10,” Dave says today. “I swept the floors, cleaned the bathrooms. I was paid 25 cents and hour.”
It was a large business, too. Starting in Monty’s garage, the company grew to employ more than 100 workers. The company grew when it went from custom to commercial cabinetmaking. Some of the firm’s corporate clients included: Gap; Banana Republic; Old Navy; Safeway, among many others.
Over one summer in junior high school, Dave grew six inches in three months. The ultra-fast growth spurt made Dave’s leg bones weak, and he had two major broken leg surgeries before he graduated from Paso Robles High School in 1980. Dave graduated on a Friday, and was at work Monday morning.
“I liked woodworking. It was a good job,” Dave says. He worked for the family business from the age of 10 until he was 45 years old.
Dave started drinking alcohol at the end of his senior year in high school, and what a start it was. In his first experience with alcohol, at a graduation party, he consumed half a bottle of sloe gin and an 18-pack of beer. He drove home, and wasn’t sick the next day. That is an abnormally high tolerance for alcohol, and that was just the beginning.
Dave’s first DUI came at the age of 21. “Back then, it wasn’t punished as harshly as it is today,” Dave says. “I got a fine; no jail.”
Dave got married, and he and his ex-wife had twin daughters, now 25. When asked what year his daughters were born, Dave whips out a tape measure, pulls out the tape to 118 inches, folds it, looks up, “1993,” he smiles.
It’s a nifty little trick that takes just a few seconds and shows how comfortable Dave is with a tape measure. “I’ve gotten drinks off it,” Dave says of the trick.
Dave’s drinking, he was pretty much a beer drinker at this point, had become a problem in his life. He went to the Betty Ford Clinic in 1995.
After Betty Ford, Dave was alcohol-free for four-and-a-half years. During that sober time, he did what others could not, nor should, do. He hung out with people who drank.
“I would go to friends’ houses for Super Bowl parties; holidays; barbeques, and I would drink non-alcoholic beer,” Dave says.
One day, Dave recalls today, “I just decided I wanted to drink.”
In 2001, the family shut the business down. According to Dave, running a large commercial cabinet-making company in California became untenable. His family wasn’t competing with California companies, but international ones, including Chinese-owned companies.
Dave got into construction, a trade known to be conducive to heavy drinking. He never drank on the job, though many crews did.
“My thought was, they’re paying us to work, not drink,” Dave says today. “If you want to drink, let’s put the tools away and drink. My drinking was from quitting time until I went to sleep. Never drank at lunchtime. Some crews had coolers full of beer. Never touched it on the job.”
While he was working various construction jobs, Dave took a job building a log cabin in Mohawk, in the northeastern part of California. Before going up north, Dave got his second DUI. This time, unlike the first DUI, he didn’t take care of it, go through the system. Instead, he went up to Mohawk, leaving that DUI just hanging out there.
After a few years of driving with a suspended license, Dave received his third DUI. The time for slap-on-the-wrist sentences was over. Dave spent 45 total days in jail. Pending satisfactory completion of an 18-month “school” program, for which Dave is still not eligible, he cannot have a driver’s license.
Without the ability to drive to construction jobs, it is very difficult to work in the field. Dave lived in a converted garage apartment, and got a job within walking distance of the apartment. The job was at a bar. And, like with his other jobs, he didn’t drink on the job.
“Never did,” Dave says.
Dave worked the hours the bar was closed; roughly from 2am until 10am. He cleaned the place, repaired the bar, fixed the bathrooms. But he still drank after ‘quitting time.’ A member of the Elks Lodge, Dave would drink with the “oldtimers” at around 10am. Some Elks Lodge bars open quite early.
With the oldtimers, Dave began to drink vodka. He’d have five or six screwdrivers, then go home and drink more vodka before going to bed.
Dave sold his house a few years earlier, and had basically drank the money away. He moved out of the garage apartment and with his mother, Eunice.
“That wasn’t good,” Dave says about living with his mother. “I was coming home drunk. It wasn’t fair to her.”
It was Eunice Dieter who discovered Sunny Acres three years ago. When Dave arrived, founder, and ranch badass, Dan DeVaul looked at Dave and asked,
“Can you work?”
“Yeah,” Dave said
“We’ll take ya,” the crusty DeVaul growled.
Dave’s first thoughts of DeVaul?
“I thought he was an asshole.”
DeVaul was serious about putting Dave to work. “You work here. 8 hours a day,” Dave says. Sunny Acres also requires regular AA and NA meetings.
Work was never the issue for Dave, a functioning alcoholic. “If I’m active, with something to do, work, I’m fine,” Dave says of not drinking. “It’s when I don’t have anything to do.”
Sunny Acres gives him something to do. While program manager, Johnny Rodriguez, administers the house and its residents, Dave fixes and repairs and builds the place. He does signage, cabinets, bathrooms, shelving, storage. Dave’s worked on the Sunny Acres “Craft Shack,” the “Secret Garden.” Virtually anything done physically to Sunny Acres, has Dave Dieter’s experienced hands on it. Dave also manages a small crew of Sunny Acres men, and supervises them on construction projects.
“I do things the right way,” Dave says bluntly. “You don’t cut corners.”
Dave works well with Johnny Rodriguez. “Johnny and I are on the same page,” he says.
And cranky ol’ Dan DeVaul isn’t quite as big an ‘asshole.’
“Dan’s changing,” Dave says. “Before, when I’d give him a list of things I needed from Home Depot, he take a pen and cross most of the things out. ‘Nope.’ ‘Nope.’ ‘Nope.’ Now, he doesn’t even look at my list. He just gets what’s on it.”
You can tell a master woodworker not by the quality of the wood, but the quality of the workmanship. That’s Dave Dieter.
-- End --