S7, E3: 20 Houses for 20 Years: Hibbs Gives

SEASON SEVEN, EPISODE THREE | TRANSCRIPT

MELODY(00:04.322)
Why are you giggling?

KIM
I'm only giggling because again that was one of the things where we went overboard.

Just the look on that little girl's face when she came in the backyard and saw that was... ...pink covered porch and a doorbell and... It was awesome.

I know who's painting.

Yeah.

INTRO (00:20.756)
Welcome to the art of custom from Hibbs Homes. In this episode, Chris Pedigo joins us on a walk down memory lane as we revisit some of our Hibbs Gives projects and talk about how special these builds were to us. We then share an interview with the Howes family and their emotional experience with Operation Finally Home. Enjoy!

KIM (00:43.394)
We all know the power of home. It's where memories are made and futures are built. And for some, a new home is something even more profound. It's a new beginning, a chance to rewrite their story. Melody, this is going to be a very special episode that we're taping. Quite frankly, I might get a little bit emotional because it's about giving back. And it's something that we're very conscious of here at Hibbs Homes. So...

This is going to be an honor to kind of tell some of the stories that we've been working on over the past couple of decades.

Yeah, in today's episode, we're going to share some of the most meaningful home stories that we've had an honor and being part of. Today joining us in the studio is Chris Pedigo. You guys probably know him because he's always in here dropping technical knowledge but he has a pretty interesting backstory that really is a big part of our Hibbs Gives story too.

We brought him out of the field.

KIM (01:40.854)
I love that you're dropping technical knowledge on us all the time. Yeah, you drop other things too, but we won't digress. No, I'm joking. Chris is such an important part of who we are and what our mission is. And part of that mission is absolutely his gifts. We want to be able to give back to the community and we've done so in many different ways. And quite frankly, it's just an honor to be able to do that. So welcome, Chris.

CHRIS
Well, that's part of my job.

KIM (02:09.495)
So we're going to take a short walk down memory lane and because walk. You know what?

MELODY
We can make it as long as you guys like. It's pretty cold outside. So if we want to walk around in my office and down memory lane, get some exercise in. I wanted everybody to hear the story about how you became part of the Hibbs Homes team because I think it kind of speaks to how the company functions when it comes to giving back.

Can we make it a long one?

CHRIS (02:35.554)
It was actually a match made in heaven, if you will. So I ran my own contracting business for 20 plus years here in the St. Louis area. And 15 years ago or so, I decided that I wanted to be a part of something different than just building. So I actually got involved with Habitat for Humanity. I was actually construction manager for Habitat for Humanity of St. Charles County for a few years. And that is where my acquaintance with Kim and Jan Hibbs and Hibbs Homes came about.

At the time we would come to demolitions, you some deconstructions on houses that were going to be demoed by Hibbs Homes. And then we would use the procurements from those in our restore and selling those outright to help build homes. So that's how I became acquainted with Kim and Jan. At the time, the Habitat St. Charles, the construction manager was a tool belt position. It was hands-on with the clients and I had an injury that required that I get out of the field. So started talks with Kim about coming to board as possibly as a superintendent.

And that worked out. And I continued my involvement with Habitat after coming aboard with Kim and Jan here.

and tell you my story about how Chris came on board? He's absolutely right about the habitat for humanity portion, which was very interesting to us and we loved the connection that we had made, but what Chris, I don't know whether he even realizes this, but we had a trade who was pouring our foundations at the time. And he came to me and said, reminded me of who Chris was. And I said, well, of course I know who he is. And he said, Chris is looking for another opportunity and explained exactly what Chris just did. And he looked me dead in the eye and said,

If you hire him, he will be the best employee you have ever had.

MELODY (04:12.814)
Second to Melody Meiners who will in future.

KIM
Best employee in the field that you've ever had. And he was spot on accurate. Chris has grown with us for over a decade. It has been such a wonderful relationship. And what Chris brings to this team is just immeasurable. You cannot, I cannot put it into words what he means to our team.

CHRIS
That came about because Jeff and I, the guy that referred me to you, we were both involved with Habitat for St. Charles at the same time then. we had ed talks because he knew about my issues with my knee and the fact that I needed to do something besides climb ladders with volunteers. so that was, know, so yeah, he actually helped with that connection as well.

KIM
But what I like is Chris has stayed very active. He's on the board of directors. a matter of fact, he was on the board of directors, but he's still very active with it. As a matter of fact, just a couple of days ago, he sent me a text and saying, hey, can we sponsor again? What do you call it? It's called the beam.

CHRIS
Beams of Hope. It's a program where you sponsor part of the lumber package for the home and in the meantime our team gets to decorate a beam and use that beam in the construction of the home.

KIM (05:23.01)
And we're like, duh, of course. So Chris is still very active and wants to support them. We want to support them. But they're just part of a long list of local organizations that we've helped over the years.

MELODY
And what's kind of cool is I don't think people realize that as part of that green slant that we had even so many years ago, it really, came to be because of items that were being removed and not sent to a landfill. that's kind of something I don't think people take into account whenever they're thinking about demo for their house.

KIM
Well, and that's why we're specific and Chris used the word earlier deconstruction. It's not demolition. If we can repurpose as many items as possible, we've actually, there's been a couple of projects where whether there might've been a cool stained glass or there's something very unusual about the house that we are going to deconstruct. Sometimes the homeowners save that and work it into the construction of their new home. So little things like that, you know, give us kind of the chills because, you know, we want to... take care of things properly and repurpose them when we can and help organizations like Habitat for Humanity because they do such a wonderful job helping communities all around the country.

So, and we have an initiative that we don't like to toot our own horn, but as we're going through and pulling together these home stories, Hibbs Gives really is a foundation of what we do. It's a program really to help provide home resources for animals and people and all kinds of organizations within the community. But I love what we do with it. Chris, were you a part of bringing Hibbs Gives to life?

CHRIS
Yeah, I mean I've been involved in several of the projects. And honestly, the whole past 15 years for me from the decision to go from business owner to part of Habitat to part of Hibbs Homes, it's been life changing for me because that was my whole purpose of when I decided I wanted to close my business and do something different was because it seemed like when you're in that as a business owner, all you're doing is building things and paying employees and making the money and you're not doing anything other than that, there's something missing.

getting involved with Habitat and then having the opportunity to come aboard at Hibbs and still be involved with programs like Habitat and like Operation Fighting the Homes and like some of the things we're gonna discuss is what it's all about.

KIM
You know, Melody, you bring up an interesting point. I can't pinpoint exactly the year that it started. I just know that Jan and I have always been very interested in trying to give back. we have, you mentioned animals. We all volunteered. You we took the whole gang down to the APA here in St. Louis once and volunteered, you know, worked down there and did a variety of things. And that was one of the fondest memories because Jan and I are huge animal fans. We have a house full of them now. but that's just one of the things. But I can't remember exactly when I know how and why. It's because it's a part of who we are, who Jan and I are. It's a part of who the team is. Everybody always loves to step up and help out. I think we formally gave it the Hibbs Gives title probably 10 years ago is my guess. But it's something that we've always deep down inside wanted to foster within our organization.

MELODY
I took my, what I'll call my sabbatical from Hibbs, you know, kind of left in 2012 and came back yesterday was my five-year anniversary for returning. So one of the projects that I remember was the Good Friday tornado. There was a rebuild project. The Donald House. And there was a lot of precedent still is out there. And I'm actually going to, in the show notes, link to some of the

articles that were written about it because it not only speaks to kind of helping people out, but also, you know, with the severe weather stuff, I think it's there's some actually some really great information about whether or not you should rebuild in some of these articles. you want to talk a little bit about that Donald project.

I that because they lived in a very small house up in North St. Louis County. And when we were able to rebuild it after the tornado and all the damage and everything, we actually rebuilt it with a two-story home with a full basement and well above code. So it was extremely energy efficient. It was extremely comfortable. And you talk about a high performing home. So not only did we get them in a home that was larger with more space and a brand new home,

but it was also extremely energy efficient. So anytime we have an opportunity to do something like that, we look for it. And of course there were insurance proceeds that you had to work around. So there was a lot of concessions that we made because we knew, quote, it was the right thing to do, end quote, which is kind of our motto around here. And it was just something that great opportunity just to kind of give back because that was a ton of damage from those storms that rolled through here. And there was a lot of people had some horrible experiences.

Speaker 2 (10:25.939)
We wanted to try to make it a good experience for one St. Louis area family.

And I remember we reached out to lumber and steel suppliers, I think, to get some discounted, you know, just kind of explain the situation so that the build would fit within their insurance.

And it's interesting you bring that up because we couldn't do what we do in this community without our trade partners and our vendor partners. They've been phenomenal and obviously we've worked with them for a very long time. So anytime we need something, we can make the ask and we have never been turned down. Everybody is always willing to jump in and help provide material, provide labor, whether it's at discounted prices or at no cost.

It's really that the St. Louis community is a very wonderful community all around when it comes to giving back to charities.

Well, there were also a couple of other smaller projects, right? The Casa Playhouse, right? You're giggling. Why are you giggling?

KIM (11:24.582)
I'm only giggling because again that was one of the things where we went overboard. But remember we built it in your shop, yeah.

CHRIS
Was great. The design was awesome and we added a lot of little perks and just the look on that little girl's face when she came in the backyard and saw that was awesome.

KIM
I know it was painted pink and like Chris said on the inside was all decked out and everything.

We had a covered porch and a doorbell.

MELODY (11:52.063)
That was actually, that was a different project. So we did the Casa Clubhouse. Remember it was a, it was a sheriff's.

KIM
My gosh, that's right. I'm getting it mixed up. We did. See, apparently we've done quite a few. I remember the sheriffs. That was something where, again, the material was provided, the labor was provided. We were able to donate it, and that was a great.

MELODY
So I want to dig a little bit deeper into the accessible clubhouse that was for Make-A-Wish. Yeah. Tell me a little bit about the background with that story.

KIM
Make a wish foundation, absolutely right. They had reached out to us, they is the Make-A-Wish Director of Marketing and said, hey, we have a little girl who would really love some sort of a clubhouse, something that she would be accessible to her. That's where the team just jumped in. I just remember everybody taking part in it and doing it at Chris's shop. And we just had a blast. And then we trailer it over there. We got it into the backyard. We put the finishing touches on it. And she was surprised with it. We just love doing things like that.

MELODY
And that was a wheelchair accessible clubhouse.

KIM
Yes, they had a picnic table on the front porch with a wheelchair spot. Plenty of room for her friends. Right.

MELODY (13:05.932)
gosh. you guys did put the bells and whistles on that one.

KIM

Most of the credit honestly goes to Chris because he was the one who came up with the design. He's the one who spearheaded, you know, just getting everybody together to make sure that that we were building it the way it needed to be built. And, you know, he trailer it out there and that one really, Chris took the lead in that particular project and it made her day. It probably made her, it made her year for sure.

MELODY
That was a really special project and we're going to go ahead and we're going to link to that as well because we have tons of pictures of that. You guys can see the bells and whistles. know, Chris, by the way, is kind of our accessibility universal design guru here too.

KIM
We have many other nicknames

CHRIS
I wear a few good hats around here.

MELODY (13:52.238)
Just as the marketing person I am, just listening to these stories, number one with the Donald House building up, not out, getting more bang for your buck. We always talk about that, but then also creating a clubhouse that really feeds into a lot of the projects that we do. We bring those principles into a lot of the homes that we built too.

MELODY
Got to give a hat to that. But, you know, we also have our big story, I guess you could say. It's close to everybody's hearts. you know, imagine sacrificing everything for your country only to return to face the uncertainty of how you're going to manage in the place you once called home. The next home story is of an army veteran and his family who faced that exact challenge until a community rallied behind them and changed the meaning of home for them forever.

So this is a story about more than just four walls and a roof. It's a story about restoring hope and giving a hero and his family a place to call home. And that's one that I also missed during my sabbatical.

KIM
Well, you found that you picked the worst time to take your sabbatical Melody. This is a project that obviously we will never forget. It was just something, and obviously you can tell, very emotional, just thinking about it. Chris, what would you like to add?

KIM (15:10.062)
That's exactly right, know, and working with Heath and Savannah on that and actually not only helping them into a home, but being involved with Operation Finally Home with that and then actually just becoming lifelong friends with them.

I do want to make sure we give special credit to Matt Belcher. Matt's been on our podcast many different times. Matt's a good friend of ours. Matt's actually the one that introduced us to the wonderful folks at Operation Finally Home, who we did this project for, know, Heath and Savannah Howes and their two boys with. We're going to get a chance to hear from Heath and Savannah Howes about that entire project right now.

KIM (37:00.12)
So now Melody, you can see why this tops the list of the Hibbs Gibbs projects. And you understand why there's gonna be more in the future. It was just a wonderful experience, not only for our team, the St. Louis community, but the Howes family with Parker and Aiden, their sons. Great boys. They're now very active in the community. They play sports. Aiden, if I'm not mistaken, is involved in the ROTC program here and just a lot of different things.

It's just a wonderful family. And when you can take care of somebody who's sacrificed everything for the country, mean, what can you say about that? You just, have to do a project like that.

And the sad part about it too is Rusty Carroll during that interview, he passed unfortunately recently from cancer, but boy, he lived and breathed that organization. and he was such an important part of it. They're gonna carry on. They found a replacement, very, very good replacement. We're actually speaking with them about doing another couple of projects here in the St. Louis area over the coming years. But we just have to thank Rusty for what he did for the organization, what he did for the House family, what he did for Hibbs Homes. It was truly special. And we would be remiss if we just didn't at least mention how important he was to what we did and what Operation Finally Home did.

MELODY
One of the things that is really great about Hibbs Homes is Hibbs is really supportive, like with the beams of hope and things like that. so, you know, with this being the entry into our 21st year, I cannot wait to share some information about those projects. We're not allowed to talk about the Operation Finally Home projects until they get announced, but there's going be some really cool stuff in the future. I'm looking forward to sharing some of those stories too on the podcast.

KIM
And we always look for the right opportunities to help the community too. So if there's people out there that are truly in need or if there's something going on, at least if nothing else, use this as a sounding board. We know a lot of people in both the St. Louis area, St. Louis County, St. Charles County, kind of all over. So it's kind of who we are, what we do, what we like to do. So always be willing to reach out and ask a question because if we can't help, we can certainly steer you in the right direction.

MELODY (39:13.614)
And we've always talked about how this company was really founded on a heart for service. mean, we're building homes the right way for people. really excited to have shared some of these stories with you guys. we do have more stuff coming up. mean, there's more home stories to share and more projects to share. But we also have a newly launched Reddit community that we're going to share with everybody.

MELODY
We have a lot of folks that come over and find us via Reddit and so we've decided to join the community and instead of signing up for an email and getting lost in your shuffle, we are answering questions live on Reddit. mean, ask us anything. We're going to be publishing our...

KIM
Maybe not anything. No real personal question.

MELODY
Ask us anything about building. There we go. All right. And it is art of custom, our community. am going to link to it from our podcast page. you know, anything, all of our educational initiatives are under that art of custom umbrella. So while it's focused on the podcast, there's going to be other topics linked in there. Again, we're going to link to articles and projects we discussed and you can email us at podcast at hibshomes.com.

MELODY
We now have a toll free number that you can reach us at. It is 844-Hibbs20 if you want to leave us a message. If you have an idea for a show or have a question, just reach out.

You know, if you hadn't taken that sabbatical, you know how far down the road we would be right now because of all these great ideas that you've brought in over the past five years?

MELODY
See, I told you, top employee behind Chris.

KIM
Top indoor employee, top outdoor employee. know, couple of other really cool projects that we have done, Proud Green Home and Active House USA, Chris was involved. We can't wait to tell those stories too. And I think we're doing it on our next episode. Is that right? Top indoor employee.

Yeah, and we chose this one next because one of the things with both of those projects is we use those as learning centers for the building community too. And so it kind of felt like a good follow up to, you know, helping out and kind of showing everybody we're not gatekeeping good building. How about that?

KIM (41:29.836)
We're trying to spread the news, right? Exactly. And we hope everybody joins us for our next episode.

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