Grajen Homes - Innisfil, Ontario

Joe Galloro has been around construction sites since the age of 10, working with family and friends doing all types of construction work. Having learned the building trade by the time he was 18, he was ready to try out his own fledgling wings and landed his first renovation job. "I was really proud to make that deal. It was for about $500.00 and getting that job successfully completed and being paid, gave me the encouragement to try for other larger projects." 1974 was a memorable year for Joe. He married his wife Donna and built his first home. Actually, he tore down an old house in mid-town Toronto and built a brand-new 1,200 sq. ft., 3-bedroom house in its place. He sold it for $69,000 and after all the bills were paid he had about $1,000 left over for his efforts. "I must admit I was a "little green" on that first house! I ran into the usual bureaucratic problems in getting municipal approvals, but I now reflect fondly on learning from those initial experiences." With the birth of their first daughter, Grace, Joe continued to do renovations and custom homes. In 1986, Joe took his home building experience up to the next level - custom built homes in Richmond Hill. At this point, Donna and Joe had two more children - their second daughter Jennifer and son Paul. Running a one-man show was tough on the family life. Joe would often not get home until 10 or 11 o'clock at night, leaving the care of the kids exclusively to Donna as he got himself established as a full-fledged, professional housebuilder. Joe finds the biggest satisfaction in his career as a builder is seeing a job "well done" - with homeowners genuinely happy upon moving into their new homes. The biggest frustration and the hardest part of being a builder for Joe has been motivating his trades to achieve his high level of expectation of only the best quality work. Joe has had some on-site help for the past few years now from his wife Donna and his daughter Jennifer, in preparing contract documents, doing the ordering, and with their flair for colours and design, assisting in the model home decor. Following in Joe's footsteps, a 10-year-old, Paul, the youngest of their three children was given a taste of the construction world and pointed in the direction of the family business, but unlike Joe - this kind of work was not for him. Over his extensive career in the home building business Joe calculates he has built more than 200 homes in Toronto, Richmond Hill, Cobourg, Sarnia, Lindsay, Newcastle, Oshawa and now Lindsay completing Phase 3, again and Now starting in Innisfil. His philosophy is to work with the customer from the very earliest stages and to meticulously follow the Tarion Warranty Corporation's guidelines to ensure completion of each house to the homeowners' complete satisfaction. Joe is proud of his record with the Tarion Warranty Program for having "0" - (zero) "Chargeable Conciliations" since the inception of the plan. It is not lightly that on his corporate logo, after the name Grajen Homes, Joe has chosen the words "of Excellence" to follow the name!