Team Member Spotlight: Skip Newman

We’re thrilled to highlight another one of our incredible employees. J.T. Unique is proud to work with such interesting and talented individuals, and Skip Newman is no exception. As our go-to everything guy, he helps with a wide array of projects.

Area of Expertise: Everything

A Missouri native, woodwork is in Skip Newman’s blood. He grew up helping his dad build cabinetry. In addition to an appreciation of carpentry, he developed an affinity for real estate. Skip helped his dad develop some land before buying and selling properties of his own. He fell in love with the remodeling process and even built a few houses in his day. He’s always been a DIY guy, making his career in general contracting so successful.

Here at J.T. Unique, Skip works on a little bit of everything. He’s an all purpose, multi-trade guy specializing in painting, carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work. He works full time for both J.T. Unique and our sister company J. Thompson Builders which makes the client experience really wonderful. It’s always a pleasure when we’re able to combine forces from both the building and the design side because we’re able to give our clients a well-rounded experience that results in a beautiful end product.

Skipping Through J.T. Unique

Skip has been with the company for 5 1/2 years now. Because of his wide skill set and large area of interests, no day is the same for him. For example, he was just in Lacrosse for 10 days, working through some massive damages that an outdoor fireplace caused a Wisconsin hotel. Despite the small size of the fire, the damages were very intense—causing 18 sprinkler heads to go off in the hotel conference center. The water damage was so severe, the entire area needed to be gutted.

When Skip isn’t traveling to work on-site for various projects, he’s usually doing finish work, painting, and producing wood for projects. Typically he’ll work in the shop for any type of finishing work and will travel to the on-site location to install his pieces. He finds the variety in his days as his favorite part of the job, noting that doing different things all the time keeps his days interesting.

Taking His Work Home

Skip lives in Des Moines with his wife. He loves to work on his 1992 modern era house in his free time. Similar to the work he does for us here at J.T. Unique, Skip has installed new cabinetry, tile flooring, beautiful wood floors, and a brand new deck. He and is wife love to entertain and so they knew that adding a large deck was an essential addition they’d need to work on—not to mention a great way to add some value to their house. They have been in their home for 3 years now, and Skip is excited to continue working on different remodeling projects both in his own home and in many more projects to come.

Interested in learning more about our carpenters? Check out this profile on long-time finish carpenter, Mark Grant!