Santa Barbara Remodling Company Wins MVP Award!
Dear all,
A few weeks ago Kiel and I represented Santa Barbara at a Remodeler’s conference in Seattle, WA. It was us, your favorite contractor in Santa Barbara, and seven other remodeling companies from around the country that must meet certain reveue and other criteria to be in attendance. In the room were 11 men and 2 women (me being one of them) representing the various companies present.
At the end of each of these conferences the group votes on one individual to be awarded the MVP (most valuable professional) award, and at this particular conference, I was honored to receive this award.
It was probably one of the biggest surprises of my life oddly enough. I was certain it would go to dearest Tyler from Nashville (pictured below), who was both my and Kiel's pick for MVP.
But it didn't. I don't know if I have ever been so honored professionally in all of my life. It meant probably more to me than it might have for others, because A: I am a huge dork, and B: I take my work so seriously and am so passionate about the remodeling business. I am proud and wanted to share this with you guys because, what the heck, why not?
Working with my husband to grow this business the way we have has been challenging to say the least. But the rewards have been greater, and Kellow Construction is more and more a reflection of who we both are and what we value.
It is a beautiful thing. Kiel and I, it turns out, run a pretty amazing operation in a town that has a big need for exactly what we excel in. Being able to do this in the town I grew up in, and that three generations before me grew up in is truly a dream realized.
To be honored as MVP in a room of such heavy hitters in remodeling from across the country, people that I respected immensely, took my breath away. I gasped.
I love pleasant surprises, and I also love recognition of my gifts, and it was nice to be in a place where they could be recognized and seen.
I do not thrive on school boards (woops, learned that one the hard way), or places that I feel I "should" be devoting more of myself to often as a woman and a mother. I love the process of a project, I love old houses, I love original hardware and five paneled doors, I love spreadsheets, I love the brass tacks, I love contracts, I love crunching numbers, I love Docusign templates, I love being extremely organized, and helpful. I am a direct communicator, and I do not mince words. It's not every day that these qualities are celebrated in the settings that I find myself in, so this award I think meant all the more to me because of this.
Below are some photos of our trip (sorry for poor quality).
This award, for better or worse, took me closer to loving and embracing who I am, who I was created to be. Thinking positively about myself in a world where I have been told that I maybe should be doing other things, or be different than I am, doesn't always come easy. Maybe you can relate, maybe not, it's all very complicated; I don't want to get too gendery. But I did need to get a blog out, and this seemed like as good a topic as any to write about. Thank you, Kiel, for encouraging me to come to the conference. Sorry I was so resistant to the idea, and thank you for loving me for who I am. Thank you for being on the front lines of the business, and being who you are.
I feel quite uncomfortable about sending this email out, which is probably all the more reason for me to do it. This image comes to mind for me, so I will link to it here.
Anyways, enough about the MVP award, for Pete's sake. Thank you for reading that.
Just a reminder that we are a Design Build model construction company in Santa Barbara, and we love working on older homes, restoring them to their full glory. We work on homes of all ages, but our sweet spot are homes built in the 1980s or earlier. Really the older the better.
Because we are Design Build, this means we have the ability to do all your design, plans, permitting and pre-construction work. We also work with clients who bring their own plans and their own design team. Either way works for us. In all scenarios, bringing us in as early as possible is always best practice. We work well with clients who have high standards. People who expect strong management, execution and oversight, and low levels of stress. We are a highly organized tech forward team and we LOVE what we do.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please send any projects you have that might be a good fit for our company our way!
Sincerely,
Emily (MVP)
