Nouvant Homes Inc.
It was the first day of summer vacation for 13-year-old Mark Gunlogson Jr. when his contractor father “invited” him to work with him.
“We were working on some apartments on Magnolia, and it looked like a lumber bomb went off up there,” Gunlogson Jr. recalls. “He said, ‘You need to put all that trash away.’” He spent that summer working alongside Mark Gunlogson Sr. at his company, Gunner, Inc., learning about the trade that would also become the younger Gunlogson’s lifelong career.
The following summer, he worked with his uncle Richard on his painting crew. “My dad would start the houses and Uncle Richard would finish them,” Gunlogson Jr. says. He worked with his uncle until he was about 18, and then began working directly for his father again.
At his father’s insistence, Gunlogson Jr. went to college after graduating from Enterprise High School. “When I was 18, I told him that I wanted him to teach me the trade — how to build a complete house. He said, ‘No way,’” Gunlogson Jr. recalls.
The elder Gunlogson wanted to ensure that homebuilding was truly what his son wanted to do. “I actually had to go to college, get an engineering degree and work as an engineer for about three years,” Gunlogson Jr. says, adding that he worked for his dad during school breaks to put himself through school. “Then I was like, ‘I’m not doing what I want to do.’ So I came back to Redding and started building.”
He established Nouvant Homes Inc. in 2009, and it remains a father-son team, with wife Renee handling marketing duties. They pride themselves on building quality, affordable homes throughout the North State. Though his father is “basically” retired, he built two houses this year and still comes to the office daily, Gunlogson Jr. says.
What does he enjoy most about his work?
“Everything,” he says without hesitation. “The client satisfaction. I see a lot of clients who are older and have never owned a house, so to be able to get them into a starter house at a low price is satisfying. I’m always happy for them.”