When homebuilders Elise and Jonathan Williams launch a construction project, they think about how their own family of six functions, both indoors and outdoors.
The couple met as freshmen at Texas A&M University but didn’t start dating until they were nearly finished with their degrees. When they both ended up in Houston – Elise for a teaching job and Jonathan for a mechanical engineering job – that’s when things heated up.
The Williamses are the December honorees for the Houston Design District’s Leaders In Design program.
When they married 17 years ago, the couple bought a home in the Heights and gutted it, falling in love with remodeling in the process. They did remodeling projects for a decade before launching their Williams House LLC business 7 years ago, just after the birth of their fourth child.
They started with remodeling projects and eventually began designing spec homes of 4,000 to 5,000 square feet and a budget of $3 million to $5 million.
“Elise and I are creative in different ways,” Jonathan says of the way they work together – him starting with construction and Elise handling finishes. “Design is the creative side and construction is the execution of an idea.”
They believe that smart construction supports good health, so they factor in additional HVAC filtration, pay extra attention to insulation and choose low- or no-VOC paints to avoid dangerous off gassing.
“One family may want everyone to have their own space while another family wants everyone to share a room and be together all of the time,” Elise says. “We talk to them about how they want to do life. Do they want to eat at the island or create a banquette for breakfast? If you’re living by yourself, how do you want to engage? How do you connect the spaces?”