About D. Van Kampen

I've written more here than might be needed. If you're thinking about letting me into your home, I figure you're entitled to know something more about me. 

I grew up on a prairie acreage in Saskatchewan, in a culture shaped by Mennonite farming traditions. Self-reliance wasn't an idea there — it was simply how life was lived. People repaired what they had, built what they needed, and relied on one another in a practical, steady way.

My father was a university art professor and sculptor, which gave our acreage an unusual character. There were tools, machinery, bronze casting, and a steady flow of artists and visitors alongside the everyday work of keeping a property running. Making things — whether practical or artistic — was simply part of daily life.

When I was twelve, my parents took me on a year-long journey through Europe and India in a VW camper. By fifteen I was back on the prairies building and racing my own stock car, spending most of my spare time on engines, bodywork, and helping friends and family with their vehicles. Between the acreage, the road, and the racetrack, I arrived at adulthood already comfortable with tools, uncertainty, and figuring things out.

At nineteen I left the prairies for Montreal. Shortly after arriving I started at a chocolate factory, and within a year I was production manager for a team of fifteen. One moment running production lines, the next repairing the machinery keeping them moving. Problems got solved directly and without delay.

From Montreal I moved to Toronto, then in 1989 to Vancouver — where I've been ever since. For much of that time I lived within a close-knit community, married, raised a daughter, and built a life with real roots here on the west side.

I've been on Vancouver's west side since 1989. Over those decades the work has taken many forms: home renovations, yoga centres, retail builds, fabrication, a bronze art gallery on Granville Street. The settings changed but the orientation didn't. I'm drawn to understanding how things work and to keeping them working.

Technology is part of that now — smart devices, project tracking, this website. I use it the way I use any good tool: practically, when it's the right thing for the job.

Kampen Home Stewardship grew out of all of this. Not as a reinvention but as a clarification — a small, personal practice focused on looking after homes with care and consistency. Long-term relationships with people who want someone dependable in their corner.

At this point in life, what matters most is presence and trust. Showing up, paying attention, and taking responsibility for the spaces people live in. That's what I do.

That's what I've always done.