April 29, 2016
Employee Spotlight – Meet Jenna Landess!
One of the most exciting parts of designing your Ernest Signature Custom Home is choosing the details that make this specific house uniquely your own. When it comes to homebuilders in Savannah, GA, we pride ourselves on constantly striving to be the best at making this part of the homebuilding process not only smooth and fuss-free, but tremendous fun!
To make sure we succeed, we place you in the capable hands of Jenna Landess, our Sales & Design Consultant. When it comes to questions about flooring, appliances, fixtures or…well, just about anything else, she’s the expert who can point you in the right direction.
Jenna has been with us only since November of 2015, but has quickly made an important place for herself in our organization. Our customers have nothing but great things to say about her artistic eye, her knowledge of the latest trends in home decor and her ability to help you find the perfect match between your personal style and our hundreds of design options.
Originally from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, her family moved to Texas while she was still young, and then back to Michigan about ten years later. Both her grandfather and her uncle were in the homebuilding industry, so she grew up sketching floor plans of her own design to keep herself busy during the long road trips to visit family for holiday vacations.
She also lived for a time in North Carolina, Phoenix, Arizona and Cincinnati, Ohio before relocating to our area in 2015 with her new husband. She and Bo, currently an Engineer at Gulfstream, met while living in Phoenix, where he had been stationed at Luke Air Force Base. Married since August 2014, they have an 11 year-old boxer named Layla, who Jenna raised from a puppy.
“I love the mild winters here, and the close proximity to the coast,” she says. “I’m really looking forward to establishing a solid group of local friends. We’re building our first home (an Ernest Home, of course!) and one of my main goals is to finally get settled. We’re currently living in an apartment, and it’s important to me to know that a homebuilder cares a great deal about the craftsmanship & quality of the products used to build each home. That’s what sets Ernest Homes apart from the others for me. Ernest Homes is a family-built company and they intend to treat each client as family, too. As you would strive to provide your family with the best, so does Ernest. Customer satisfaction is essential.”
She believes that the key to excellent customer service is providing clear, prompt, and effective communication with a smile, while delivering high quality products and services. She also advises those who are interested in building a home to do their research, ask questions, and know their personal style. “I love developing cohesive palettes with each customer, starting with outside materials and pulling the look through the entire house,” she says. Her background in this arena is extensive, and she is mostly self-taught.
“I started studying Interior Design in college, and hopped around between a few different majors, including Business and Fashion Design,” she continues. “I learned important skills that translate to the homebuilding process in each. My obsession for all things home design-related really took off in 2012 when I fell in love with “picking.” I found so much inspiration at estate sales, flea markets and antique shops. My design style really began to develop and grow. Creating beautiful, functional and affordable spaces was all I could think about. I’m constantly striving to learn more about every aspect of the industry.”
While she loves to tailor available upgrades to each buyer’s personal style, there are a few that she recommends for everyone. The first is the ideal kitchen and bath. “Make sure your master bath and kitchen are what you want them to be. Those are the areas you’ll spend the most time in. If they don’t make you happy, what’s the point?”
The second? “Lighting!!! Or at least pre-wiring for future lighting. Having the right lighting can make or break a room. Being thoughtful about your lighting design before your house is built can really make it easier down the road. Getting the right electrical wiring built into the home to start with will save you a potentially costly headache later.”
When we asked Jenna the ‘million dollar question’…what’s the most interesting thing in your garage, she had to imagine the future. “Because we’re still building our house, I’d say the most interesting thing will be vintage furniture. I love taking old, worn-down items and helping to upcycle each piece back into something beautiful and useful. When we finally do have a garage it will serve as a workshop for our many projects. My husband plans to build an experimental airplane in our garage one day. That’s probably a little more interesting than my old furniture!”
