Building with the Feminine Touch

CBQ: You were a finalist in the 2010 SAM Awards for Best Home Renovation (without Addition). Why do you think you were nominated?
Shannon Lenstra: We had a wonderful client; they were easy to work with and had definitive choices already made. It helped that their designer came up with this fabulous plan that transformed their house. As a result, we were able to give them a complete lifestyle renovation.

CBQ: Do you bring a particular style to your renovations?
SL: No. We are very careful not to impart our style on a client—our style is defined solely by what a client wants and by what a designer has envisioned for that client. It’s the holy grail for us that we follow the designer’s intent to the letter.

CBQ: Why did you focus on renovations when you began?
SL: It was partly due to demand, but also because we found a niche market we could fit well within. A lot of female homeowners were making the lifestyle choices for their units, and we found, as a female-run company, that we connected really well with them. Consequently, we were able to push forward and grow as a business. Also, we like renovations for the challenge: There’s something that changes every day. It’s always different.

CBQ: Did you market yourself as a female-run company?
SL: We definitely talked about it and brought it up when appropriate. Our core focus, however, is not so much on us, as how we do things, but on the strong team we bring to the table, be they men or women. Customers like the fact that women are involved. It seems to breed an immediate sense of comfort in knowing the attention to detail their project will be getting on account of that—so it does work to our advantage.

CBQ: Have you encountered sexism in the industry?
SL: Oh, of course. But it’s like anything—it’s a matter of how you make it over the hurdles and of the strength it gives you to overcome it.

CBQ: Why do you and your co-owner, Fran, work well together?
SL: We are complete opposites—ying and yang. We balance each other. My strengths are her weaknesses, and vice versa. That allows us to push the company to new levels in a calculated way. I’m the outgoing, “let’s-get-it-done” one, and Fran is the analytical, business one. It works really well, because I push her and she holds me back when it’s necessary.

CBQ: Any clashes?
SL: As with any relationship, marriage, or partnership—absolutely there are clashes. But we feel our communication skills are very strong, we respect each other, and we talk it through and find that balance. That is why we work so well together.

CBQ: You also differentiate yourselves from a business-model perspective, is that right?
SL: We found that the old-fashioned residential model that a lot of other renovators employ seemed to have a lot of holes in it. We have a more commercial model, where we do a precontract agreement with the client, and then—when we know everything there is to know about the project and everything is specified—we hold a trade day where the trades come and bid. We don’t believe in a salesperson selling a job and the tradespeople not seeing it until the day they start the job. We could not do this without our trades, so why not include them right from the beginning? For us, our way makes a lot of sense and builds a far better team.

CBQ: And you’re moving into new builds now?
SL: That started about a year and a half ago now. It was a planned move, a natural progression. We really like renovations, and we’ll always be a renovation-centric business.

CBQ: What has been the difference between these new builds and renovations?
SL: Oh, they are so much easier than renovations! You don’t have the clients living in the home, and you’re not dealing with any preexisting conditions or past renovations, whether good or bad, to that home. You have a clean palette, you start from scratch, and that always makes it easier.