Home Remodeling Tips, Tricks and Techniques

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Site Created By: Lee A. Jesberger

About Me

My Career in the Trades

Lee A. Jesberger, still confused!

I have been exposed to various trades since berfore I can remember. With my father, and his father having been Master Plumbers, it was inevitable that I was going to learn the plumbing business.

My earliest memories of going with my father was around five years old. I remember being in my pajamas, and "helping" him on the occasional emergency calls at night. And in the summer time it was a given, that I was going with him.

In my early teens I was fortunate enough to have a neighbor who was an electrican. He too would take me with him to act as his helper, both on weekends, and at night, when needed.

It was this same neighbor that hired me to help him build a very large addition to his home. Since this was a summer project, I was there ten or twelve hours a day. And believe it or not, I loved it. I would be dissapointed on days we weren't working. I was thirteen at the time.

During the school year, my working was limited to weekends and evenings. I still wonder how I managed to do okay in school. I don't remember ever studying, or doing homework, but I do remember falling asleep in class on a fair number of times.

I actually got a job working with a steel siding contractor when I was fourteen. I was walking with a school buddy, and we passed by a house that was being sided. We passed by that house about four times that day. Each time we passed it, I watched the way the guy was doing it. Little did I know, that he was watching me, watch him. He had decided on my third trip past, if I passed by once more, and showed the same interest, he would pack up his tools, and catch up to me.

I was walking back home, this time by myself. He did catch up to me, and mentioned he noticed me watching him work. He wanted to know why I was watching him. I said it was interesting to me. He offered me a job working with him for the summer. Again, a summer job. I wasn't too crazy about the work, since it was pretty much the same thing everyday, but he was a good guy, and he paid me pretty well.

Well sometime during the ninth grade, my father decided it was time for me to work with him, full time.It was the end of my formal education, but the beginning of my apprenticeship in the plumbing business. I picked it up pretty quickly, so he paid me well. I would spend the money on tools. I had developed a liking for woodworking, so I bought tools and machines for that. My father used to get pretty mad at me when I would order something from Sears, like a Radial Arm Saw, without telling him first.

It did work out to his advantage though, as I was building vanities and cabinets for his jobs in just a short period of time.

After about three years of this, I got the urge to get into construction. I worked with a contractor who specialized in Kitchens and bathrooms. This was great experience for me, as a good bit of our work was tiling. I was pretty valuable to him, as well, since I could do the plumbing and electric work. He saved a great deal of money by having me do it. I also got a good knowledge of cabinet construction, just by installing them. He also did general home improvements, so the experience was very helpful, and quite varied.

Almost imeadiately I started doing side jobs. Pretty much anything that came along, I was able to do, since I had experience in many trades, and had a habit of spending all my money on more tools. I still do that, some thirty years later! My wife can't understand how I could possibly need more tools.

It wasn't long before I was on my own. I developed a steady clientle, who referred to me as, "the baby contractor".

I would go to someone's house to discuss a renovation project for them, usually someone I was recommended to by a friend of theirs. Often, after letting me in, they would stand by the open door. I would politely ask what they were waiting for. That's when they would ask when my father would be coming. It was quite embarrasing at times.

Within a few short years I was acting as a General Contractor, doing fairly large projects, and usually several at a time. I had upwards of twenty guys working for me, which was also a little awkward, as they were generally older than myself, as well as a large number of sub contractors. The years spent working for different trades gave me an advantage over many of my competitors, as I had experience in many aspects of the trades.

I developed a very good reputation, which lead to very high end projects, and big name clients, the most notable of which would have to be the Philadelphia Eagles. My clientle list read like a who's who, in the Philadelphia area. We handled every aspect of the project, from receiving the blueprints, to handing the owner the key.

It was these projects that lead me to open a custom cabinet and furniture shop. Since I was working with designers and architects, and was the General Contractor on the projects, I could do a great deal of the cabinet and furniture work that I would previously sub out. The first renovation project I did, after completing the building for the cabinet shop, had well over $100,000.00 in cabinets and furniture work, which was the first project for the new shop.

Now, as I am getting older, I have pretty much stopped doing General Contracting, and concentrate solely on cabinet and furniture making.

I have also invented a woodworking device, now patent pending, which we have been selling Nationwide.