Jessica Livingston is breaking barriers in local construction

With the annual commemoration of Labor Day fast approaching, gainfully-employed work in this post-pandemic era may take many forms.

Jessica Livingston is involved in a hands-on business, and she loves it.

Livingston, 36, works in construction, and the 2005 Delta High School and 2008 Southeast Missouri State University graduate said she often hears comments about women working in the field.

Livingston said she understands the skepticism she sometimes encounters.

She takes the lead in a small Whitewater-based firm and specializes in home remodeling projects such as putting in a new bathroom.

Livingston has worked with her father, John Livingston, in the daughter-father business since 2018.

The younger Livingston especially notes the surprise from vendors she hires for contracted jobs.

"We have good word of mouth and, ultimately, it's about whether you can do the work, regardless of gender," Livingston said. "If we're working with another crew, we can build houses from scratch, and we've done that, although we typically don't take those on because of the manpower required. Frankly, we're not interested in growing to that point, either."

Livingston earned an interior design degree at Southeast while minoring at SEMO in architectural design.

Lifelong interest

"My dad has been working in construction for longer than I've been alive, so I've always been around it. My mom's family is full of people in the building trades, so as I grew up, somebody was always building a house. I liked visiting the job sites, and right when I got to college was when HGTV was becoming a big thing. I started seeing interior designers on that network/ and I saw the potential to be on the creative side of construction. There's a lot of math and science, too, when you're building a space in a house. For me, there's a good mixture of left brain-, right brain-type of work."

Early immersion

Livingston got an early start in her chosen field.

"I was employed at SEMO as a student worker first, and my supervisor left right before I graduated. so I slipped right into that role and stayed nine years in university facilities management," she said. "I got to do architectural drafting, took care of in-house blueprints, worked with consultants and architects. My dad worked for the same department as a carpenter. Dad retired from SEMO after more than 30 years, and there were state budget cuts in 2018 that hit our department pretty significantly. I was one of the people who lost my job through elimination. I'd found out in January that my job was going to be cut at the end of June, and I'd already been brainstorming about what working with my dad would be like. When I left Southeast, I started working with my father full-time."

Special abilities

"I hesitate to put too many things in male and female boxes. Generally speaking, though, I view projects more from the side of people who are living in the house rather than simply the construction work itself. You can hand my father, for example, a drawing, a blueprint, and he'll come in and get straight to work and will say very little to the client. I think it means a lot to build relationships with clients. Part of the difference is dad and I have different roles in the company. I'm on the design end from the very beginning of a project. What that means is I meet with a prospective client, finding out how he or she wants the space to function and what they want it to feel like when the job is done. I'm mindful of how much noise we're making as we work, and if we're making a mess, I try to get it cleaned up right away to allow the house to operate as close to normal as possible. You can't hit it every time, but I like to think my approach is more considerate to my clients than simply being at a job site. Today, people expect you to correspond more frequently with them, send emails back and forth or make phone calls. Back when my dad was working at the university, everything was less customer service driven, so to speak. My wheelhouse is the detail work. Things for which you need a very steady hand is my strength: hanging drywall, painting, installing tile, for example, are my favorite things to do. People don't necessarily realize how detailed tiling is. It's got to be just right, and I'll confess to being a perfectionist," she said.

Working with family

"I still defer to my dad on a lot of things because he's got the most experience with construction, but as far as communication with clients, I handle most of that. I take the lead in getting clients, and we work mostly off of word of mouth. If someone reaches out to me or my father, I'll be the one who decides if a project fits our schedule and when we'll be there. And, of course, I know the things Dad doesn't enjoy doing. I take the preliminary meeting with clients and the ordering of materials. One skill I have is being able to think ahead. If we need something for a house job for a week from Thursday, say, I've gotten it ordered, and it's on its way," Livingston added.

More information

Livingston said Facebook is the best way to be in contact. She may also be reached by text on her cell phone, (573) 576-2398.

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