* BUILDING got into Stephen Cullis's blood when he visited building

sites with his father as an eight-year-old, although at one point in his

youth he harboured an ambition to be a commercial artist.

An agency told Stephen the truth -- that his art work was ''average''

-- and he quickly returned to his first love, of construction. He

studied civil engineering at Bell College in Hamilton, and worked in the

construction industry for several companies until six years ago when he

formed a building company called Beechwood.

It built three bungalows at Symington in Lanarkshire with the help of

an overdraft from the Royal Bank of Scotland. Then it went on to build

on several small sites in Clarkston and East Kilbride, three or four

houses at a time.

Other property developers asked Stephen if he would build for them,

and he completed several #1m projects.

Stephen and a partner then formed their own development company,

Westpoint Homes, but this split up when his partner wanted to diversify

into kitchen furniture and Stephen decided to stick to housebuilding.

''If people ask what I am, I say I'm a housebuilder,'' he says.

''There is nothing I like more than being on a site in my hard hat.''

After several smaller developments last year Westpoint built 28 flats at

Woodlands Court at Rouken Glen on the outskirts of Glasogw.

''It was a #2m job, and my first major development, and we built it

within five months,'' says Stephen proudly.

Encouraged by the success of the Rouken Glen project he took on a more

ambitious project when he bought the 150-year-old former Westbourne

School for Girls building in Cleveden Road, Glasgow.

The #4m Westbourne Grange development includes 39 flats, seven of them

in Kelvinside House which was the nursery section of the former girls'

school.

''The seven flats in the original building were sold within four weeks

of us starting work,'' he says.

Stephen has found a book with the history of the school and of the old

building and he plans to decorate the common hallway in Kelvinside House

with photographs from the school in its heyday.

Westpoint came through the difficult period of the housing slump which

arrived not long after the company was formed. Stephen now believes it

will expand and has plans for a #3m development in Bearsden which will

include 32 flats.