Built in the trades, proven on the Eastside.

The long way here

The trades were never a career I chose — they were the world I came from. I was born and raised in Seattle and grew up inside our family business, Riverside Interiors, with my earliest memories on job sites beside my father, Mike Gallatin. That upbringing gave me something no classroom could: a builder’s instinct for how a home truly comes together, and a lasting respect for the craft of building it well.

Riverside is where I learned the work from the ground up. I trained as a stone fabricator and took on the parts of a business most clients never see — project management, scheduling, procurement, estimating, and operations. I came up alongside Miro Papirnik, a longtime family friend learning the same trade beside his own father; when my father retired, he sold the company to Miro. It reflects the way I still operate: build with people you trust, and keep those relationships for the long term.

My path here wasn’t a straight line. I enlisted in the National Guard at a young age, and a service-related injury brought that chapter to an early close. The discipline it instilled has stayed with me ever since.

I returned to school twice, earning a degree in automotive technology under Mike Clark at Bates Technical and a second degree in information technology — both while continuing to work in the family business. Engines, networks, stone, and framing all demand the same discipline: diagnose carefully, work to tolerance, and finish clean.

When the pandemic reshaped the industry, Todd Sherman brought me on to learn high-end spec home construction, and he became a defining mentor. Todd taught me how to acquire land intelligently, how to navigate feasibility and permitting, and how to run the business side of building at a higher level. We continue to work as a team: Todd leads permitting, selections, and design, while I translate that vision into a buildable plan — grounded in realistic costs and sound construction methods, then managed from groundbreaking to final walkthrough.

Big Mike Builds grew out of a community that wanted to keep working together — the builders, agents, subcontractors, family, and friends who encouraged me to start my own company so we could continue building side by side. I bring an approachable, level-headed presence to every project, matched by an exacting standard for the work itself. Easy to work with, uncompromising on quality — that balance is exactly how your home is protected.