About
about Us
We're Reed and meg
We renovated our first house in 2016, a run down 1888 fixer. The renovations suddenly landed on us after our contractor turned out to not be a contractor–and our new house was torn apart on move in day. Three years later, my husband had an {actual} contractor's license, real estate license, and a newly launched home renovation business.
Today we renovate houses in Northern Minnesota and are parents to three little girls. Real Estate is what we love but neither of us would ever have thought of doing it for work before getting into it.
how we met
Reed says he saw me from across the room and knew he was going to marry me. We met at a church I was visiting for my college ministry, and he introduced himself to the group I was with. He had just gotten in a four wheeling accident so his right hand was broken, and I still remember having to shake his left hand when he introduced himself to me. When I left, he also left and "followed" me. We were driving on a two-laned road, and there were no other cars on it. At a red light, he pulled next to me in his jacked up truck and asked me "how old are you?" (I look young for my age; he says he wanted to make sure I was an adult. Not creepy sounding at all right?). I am not tolerant of strange men following me, asking me my age, or jacked up trucks, but I was immediately comfortable with him. TWO MORE red lights and questions later, and we drove separate ways.
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our story
our first date
Reed got my number from a mutual friend and we went on our first date two days later. We went on a walk, sat on a ski lift (pictured -> ), went to each others apartments and met roommates, went to a rock quarry, rented The Notebook from Blockbuster and watched it in a piano room at my college's campus, laid on the hood of my car and looked at stars, and laid in the back of his truck and looked at stars. It (innocently!) lasted for 16 hours, and I got home at 6 am. We have been together ever since.
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getting engaged
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We were inseparable after our first date, and knew right away we wanted to get married. On April 5, 2012, Reed brought me up the North Shore after class to a beautiful overlook and had a picnic ready for us. I knew something was up because he couldn't stop smiling and didn't want to eat, which is very unusual for him. He had hardly eaten anything when he asked me to go walk with him to the top of the overlook. When we were getting closer he told me to race him, and when we got up there we were looking over Lake Superior, and he told me to turn around and he was on one knee and he had spray painted "Will you marry me Meagan?" on the cliff behind him. I said, "yes", of course, and we spent the rest of the night telling our family and friends!
married
We started planning our wedding right after we got engaged, and planned it all while we were still in school. We got married after being engaged for four and a half months, on August 18, 2012. We had our wedding at Hermantown Community Church, and had our reception at the Ballroom at UMD. We took a two week road trip (perks of getting married in college: time!) before school started again and stayed in a condo on South Beach in Miami that my uncle graciously gifted us. We road tripped through Savannah, Charleston, and southern plantations and started off our marriage with many adventures including a hurricane, feeling like we were going to get swept away in a flash flood while driving, and being given a free 100$ river boat cruise.
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the early years
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We were both in our last year of college during our first year of marriage, and I highly recommend it, even though everyone seems to say not to do it. We got to spend all our time together, do homework together, and even save money on tuition because we were married! We went on 4 road trips from Maine to San Diego just in our first year of marriage. After college, we had a huge amount of student debt so we prayed for a well paying job. Reed got a job on the railroad, which is great for paying off debt but terrible if you want to ever see each other. We payed off 65K in less than two years but hardly did anything else during that time.
the little years
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In January 2015, we found out we were having our first child. Reed worked on finding another job because we didn't want to keep his job on the railroad with a family. He quit in 2016 and started his own business with his brother. In 2016 we also bought a house and completely renovated it. In December 2017 we had our second baby, Sophia. In May 2018 we bought our second flip, and in June 2019 officially started our renovation business with a 1920s duplex.
We are both Minnesota natives. Reed has lived in the Duluth area his entire life, and I grew up four hours west near the North Dakota border. I've lived in Duluth since 2010.
Reed has had many careers already in his life, from getting his degree to be a police officer, then a criminal justice degree, then an engineer on the railroad. After the railroad, he opened a business with his brother for two years before opening our renovation business. This is his longest career, and the first we can actually see doing long term.
I earned my degree in Duluth in Writing Studies, and spent many years as a part time wedding photographer. When we had kids, I stepped back and eventually closed the business to focus on our family and this business. I also write in my spare time at meaganelling.com and in varying seasons host a podcast. I primarily stay home/homeschool our kids while doing our design work from home.