About Us

Hello, I am AJ. I have been working in the construction industry since I was in high-school. First working for JV Seeds as a general laborer where I learned the basics behind keeping living things living (grass seed planting company). This is also where I met Chuck. Chuck is a former principal of several schools and a local businessman. Chuck has been a mentor to me in many ways during my young adult life. After working with Chuck for a summer I went back for my last year of high school where through a previous relationship I met Mike. Mike has been running a local landscape company for over 20 years. I learned general landscape construction and how to manage myself through tough long days and rough work. After a couple years of working with Mike things got complicated since the relationship with his daughter came to an end. Winter time rolled around shortly after and there wasn't enough snow for removal and the ground was frozen solid. Right at this time my dad, who owns a local law practice, lost his office manager to the DA office and had just hired a new front desk secretary that was still learning the phones. This left him and another attorney to run the office on their own while trying to manage their case loads and court attendances. I offered to help out and within a week of working there I was promoted to office manager and was put in charge of hiring and training more employees. I learned real quick there isn't much to running a business other than being honest with customers, quick to solve problems, and being extremely organized. After a few months and the office was back to enough people to run on its own I decided a desk job was not for me. I have ADHD bad, and am used to being outside all day and getting my energy out. This is when I started my landscape company. I started off just doing small repairs and then quickly moved to fencing and then to full projects. Always coming in after other builders or landscape companies that left a mess behind for someone else to clean up. I found it crazy how messy other contractors were. They seemed to always assume the next contractor would pick up after them. Whether it was screws, nails, wire bits, or even wasted materials. I was told often I was homeowners favorite contractor in their process because everything was always left tidy and there was no question about what time we would show up next. During the many years of landscape construction I learned how to do: utilities, sheds, shops, roofing, concrete, grading, excavation, pools, fences, gates, retaining walls, and became specialized in pavers, patio cover additions and artificial turf for golf greens. My goal was to learn how to build a house from the bottom to the top since I started my landscape business and figured it was a good place to start. I tried to move into more shops and home additions but realized that whether or not I had a customer referral from one customer to the next I was losing most of the projects to a General Contractor or home remodeler. I focused on just doing landscape jobs while I started This Guy Construction and then I eventually started picking up roofing bathrooms, kitchens, flooring, demo, layout changes, tile work, and finish carpentry odds and end jobs. Now I have my a general contractors license and am confidant and comfortable building a house from the foundation to the roof. My dream is to run a construction company long enough that enough capital is raised, to build our own apartments that houses kids straight out of high school and teaches them trades and how to run their own business's. I believe every person that is honest, and capable of owning and running their own business should be taught how to and given the opportunity. Each of these young adults would be backed by our company and would be apart of a network that has the reputation of exceeding expectations. Similar to being apart of the BBB but the customer would hire this network to manage their projects and it would protect the customer if something happened to the contractor that was working or if unsatisfactory work was performed. And it would also provide the new business owners protection from non paying customers, high insurance rates, and the luxury of having low bills while trying to run a business. Would be a 6 year program. Work 4 years in a trade, .5 year in business school and developing the business. First 4 years the rent would be deducted from the pay. 5th year, and half of 6th year rent would be free for low bills during early business life. The last half of 6th year would be market rate housing but would still have access to all of the mentors and resources. After the 6th year they have their own business completely established and can chose to be apart of the network for an annual fee or completely solo. If you want to hear more about my dreams and business plans feel free to ask while I'm onsite. I enjoy talking about my dreams and trying to motivate others!