the saga

My dad is a General Contractor and my mom has a hobby of real estate scouting. So growing up I spent a lot of time reimagining spaces, rearranging my room and color coordinating my clothes. I would play Sims and only build the houses, not play with the people. I thought I wanted to be an architect. When I got to high school, I discovered that I loved being part of the theatre’s stage crew. I was a stage manager, set builder, set designer and director. I loved designing/building the sets, and being the intermediary between the actors and the stage crew. I knew how the actors were using the space and the props, how the lights and the sound came into play and during the shows, I was backstage on a head-set coordinating with the booth to make sure everything went smoothly. During high school I also worked with my dad on a variety of houses and I loved working with my hands and seeing the finished products. My senior year of highschool I had a teacher tell me to look into orthopaedic surgery because they thought it would be a good melding of my passion for construction and math/science. I was convinced that that would be the right career so I got my bachelors of science

in Exercise Science and then went to medical school for two years. At the beginning of my second year, in 2018, my mother-in-law wanted to redo her kitchen and I was very involved in the process and loving it. Then towards the end of my second year, in 2019, she wanted to redo one of her bathrooms and I had a hard time focusing on school because I was so invested in the design process. I had an epiphany at the end of my second year that I was meant to do something in home renovation and I couldn’t keep forcing the wrong career. Although I loved being able to work with patients and help them, I realized that medicine was not the path through which I was meant to help people. I left medical school spring of 2019 and started working with my dad again. I quickly realized I couldn't just help with labor; I had to be part of the design process. In February of 2020 I decided to start my own interior design business and Longo Custom Designs was born, named to compliment my father’s business, Longo Custom Builders. We work together to make my designs come to fruition.

Want to see what's been happening?