On any given day, you’ll find Tammy and Richard Redmond on the back porch of their Thompson’s Station home taking in the Tennessee sunshine and reading voraciously about …. wait for it… real estate. As a former real estate appraiser, Tammy says, “I can’t seem to get it out of my system.” Their real estate knowledge came in handy when the couple moved to Tennessee from Pittsburgh in 2021 in an effort to be closer to their daughter who lives in the area. Their son followed suit and is now a resident as well. “It is just beautiful here. We were looking for a little bit more land and we wanted a smaller house. We found a house that enabled us to be close to Franklin and Spring Hill, but right outside. It feels like we are in the country but we are so close to everything and the people here are just awesome!”
For Tammy and Richard, restarting their successful painting company in Tennessee was an exciting opportunity as it allowed them to make some shifts to a career Richard has known since childhood. Since he was nine years old, Richard was a familiar face on the job site of his Dad’s painting business. Ever the sidekick, Richard essentially grew up with a paintbrush in hand helping his dad. Over the years, Richard absorbed his Dad’s business acumen and painted houses as a side hustle while living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2010 he made painting houses his full time job using typical well known paints on the market. The paints worked and he made a good living supporting his family and doing what he loves.
But “business as usual” stopped when their daughter developed mold toxicity and became hyper sensitive to almost all chemicals on the market. “Whether it was make-up, cleaning products, or even paint, she had a reaction. If we wanted to paint a house and she was visiting we had to do something different.”
This prompted Richard to start doing a lot of research on the paint he was using in people's homes and the air he was breathing every day. “Most conventional paints have Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s). These toxic fumes are emitted from paint and can off-gas for up to six months. When the smell fades, it doesn’t mean the toxicity is gone.”
Richard discovered there are actually paints that have low VOC’s and even no VOC’s. He ordered a couple cans of paint to see if it was a good product. Did it have good coverage? Did it hold up well? He even went so far as to run it through an air filtration system to see if it didn't register VOC’s in the product. The ultimate test was using their own daughter to see if she had any reaction. She went into the room while he was painting and she never had a reaction. Says Tammy, “It was fantastic because now we had a healthier way to do the thing that Rich loves. It comes down to when you know better you do better” and Haven Painting Co. was born.
As a family owned business, Haven Painting Co can accommodate the requests of customers that might be outside of the box. Their favorite rooms to paint are baby nurseries, children’s rooms, as well as high touch places such as the kitchen and bathrooms.
Tammy says,“We really care about what people are breathing. Richard’s happy place is when he is just in a room painting and he won’t leave until he thinks it’s perfect. He’s an artist and painting gives him an artist high!” Havenpainting.co
