Meet Our Dedicated Design Team
At Excel Homes we pride ourselves on our thoughtfully designed and affordably priced homes. By the time we open our showhomes to the public they look and feel like a home truly should. However, getting to that point takes a lot of work!
Our Design Team is composed of three incredibly smart and talented women who help bring Excel's vision to life. We have Neely Lloyd who is our Senior Manager, Community Architecture, Lindsey Amonson is our Design Team Lead, and Serena Hiscock our Architectural Designer completes the team.
These three women work hard behind the scenes to ensure we have a product that we know will sell and attract buyers. Curious as to what they do on a daily basis? Read on!
Our Design Team does a lot! Serena and Lindsay are responsible for designing new floor plans and elevations, creating pre-planned options for new floor plans, developing colour palettes for our exteriors, as well as working with developers to determine which homes will be available in each community. They also work closely with our Drafting department on job specific requirements and once in a while they get to take a field trip out to site to conduct framing and selections walk-throughs.
Neely is in a more senior position with Excel and is involved in helping to keep us competitive in the marketplace, she does things that include: maintaining corporate and community-specific product offerings, reviewing new plans and elevations for market and value acceptance, maintaining relationships with developer partners and architectural consultants to ensure that Excel can deliver and succeed in the communities that we build in.
The team agrees that the most rewarding part of their job is being able to create and design houses that customers will eventually call home. They share that seeing your vision come to life is incredibly rewarding and an amazing feeling.
Lindsey notes in particular that the ability to spend her days getting to be creative is definitely one of the biggest perks of her job. She also enjoys being part of a company with such great leaders and employees. She shares that she feels grateful to come to a job that she loves every day. While Serena says that she enjoys being part of a company with a team that cares so deeply about what they put out into the world. She says there is a sense of pride in what Excel does, and we couldn't agree more! Neely has been with the Excel for 18 years and has many favourite aspects of her job. She shares that we are a close-knit group and there are long-time employees that very much feel like family to her. She shares that seeing Excel grow within the past few years has been incredible to witness and she is proud to be part of a team that is an industry leader.
While the ladies love what they do, the job doesn't come without its own set of struggles. They agree that coming up with new and fresh ideas is the most difficult part of their gig. When creating new plans they have to stay within certain square footage and this can prove to be challenging at times, as Lindsey says "think out of the box, but stay in the box." Neely also adds that at times shifting and re-prioritising projects can be tricky, but as a team they always lean in and work through it together!
If you combine their years at Excel together the Design Team has 33 years of experience with us, within that time they have created many stunning homes, however; Serena and Lindsey agree that the Brentwood in Mountainview is one of their all-time favourite models. Lindsey also has a soft spot for the Portman, Fairview, and Harlow, while Serena prefers the Baldwin, Radison, and Crosby. Neely actually lives in an older Excel Home herself and she loves it! It is now referred to as the Fairview, but when she purchased it was sold as the Monarch. Some of her other (and older) favourite models include: the Kimberley, Kendal with Loft, and Kennedy
Outside of work you can find Serena working on DYI projects, Lindsey planning her June 2018 wedding (which she is very excited for), and Neely keeping busy with her six-year daughter, Rowan and husband Jake.
Lindsey shares that her niece and nephew are a huge part of her life outside of work. She also shares that her and her fiancé, Dustin, are lucky enough to be able to travel to see their parents who reside in Nova Scotia and San Francisco respectively. Serena says that she loves to take something old and give it new life and has successfully refinished most of the furniture in her house herself. She also adds that she enjoys spending time with her boyfriend, Brad, as well as her family and friends. Neely is always on the go with her daughter's activities, especially on the weekends. Once life begins to move at slower pace in the summer you can find Neely, Jake, and Rowan visiting various parks around the city or escaping to her parent's place in Pigeon Lake. When Neely finally finds time to relax she enjoys spending time with her friends, partaking in girls' nights or brunch dates, and of course relaxing with a glass of wine.
