I don’t remember not drawing. As a child I drew animals, people, landscapes – and yes … even houses. I took drafting in high school and even worked as a teenager for my parents’ design/build construction company; again drawing. By the time I was in college, I worked weekends and summers on designs to earn extra money; and then as a junior - I landed an internship for Southern Living Magazine – in the House Plans department.

During my senior year of college, my internship shifted to full time employment. While working, I also completed my course work, graduated & became the Editor’s Assistant. From there, I helped manage our house plan magazine, special interest publications and coordinated many many House Plan Collection Portfolios.

But, the entrepreneurial spirit had always been in my blood and slowly, from 1993-94, I transitioned from the corporate world at Southern Living - to opening my own Design Studio. Coming into the 3-decade mark amazes me – it’s been a fabulous ride with lots of continued growth and learning …. and thousands of designs. And it has flown by; I think because I LOVE what I do.

Thru the years, I have created a process that allows me to help homeowners run thru scenarios for their remodels, additions and new construction projects. We work together as a team to decipher your wants and needs and create a vision and a plan on paper that will communicate those aspects to your builder. I take a process that many dreadfully anticipate as “painful” and put organization and thought into it so that it becomes a delight. It truly is a FUN endeavor, and one I hope you will allow me to help you with.

My name is Sydney Wright and I am the Office Manager here at JLJ Designs.

I grew up watching the home improvement channel with my mom. That's where my interest first began. I also was very organized and detail oriented all throughout grade school. I graduated high school in 2020. I worked as an office assistant at Scot Industries for a little over 4 years. I began working at JLJ Designs at the beginning of 2021. After working here for almost a year I have gained an incredible amount of knowledge and opened my eyes to the endless possibilities that home improvements have to offer. At the start of 2022 I decided to continue my education and get my associates degree in business while taking design and architectural courses on the side. I look forward to gaining more knowledge on the industry and to help future clients.

I’m George Massey, Designer here at JLJ Designs.

During most of my time in primary school and later junior high school, I seemed compelled to near continually drawing various things from my imagination. (This was invariably a MUCH MORE. interesting activity to the often-boring subject matter offered by some of my teachers). The subject matter of my drawings typically ranged from imaginary space craft / rockets, tree forts, boats and such - to drawings of various animals. By the time high school came around, I was delighted to learn that classes in mechanical drawing & drafting were available to me. As might be expected, I signed up for and excelled in these classes.

Originally schooled in Business, Marketing, and Economics at The University of Montevallo and more recently and additionally at UAB – In later years I also began to delve into the world of CAD (Computer Assisted Drawing). The use of such software to produce the custom house plans which I had been drawing by hand; would greatly enhance the speed with which I could complete my design drawings. So, my daughter Jennie (who is also a home designer) and I together studied and were tutored by a tech from the CAD company. Since then, all my designs are completed with the CAD system; and I haven't looked back.

Though my professional life has included simultaneous professional work in several fields, the one theme which has been a consistent so far; has been the design, construction (as a licensed Home Builder) and inspection of homes (as a Registered Home Inspector). Additionally, even much of the rest of my work experience has included related fields; and has included side employment as code official / building inspector for two different cities and professional marketing of building materials. Currently I am retired from all else and just enjoying home design.

Hello, my name is Christopher T. Bivins, but everybody just calls me Chris.

I’ve been a Drafter/Designer here at JLJ Designs since the early part of 2021. I have an Associate’s Degree in Drafting & Design from Ayers State Technical College (now a part of Gadsden State Community College). I received this degree in 1997 and have been in the design field, mostly in electrical, since that year. If my math is correct, that works out to twenty-five years.

I am the proud single father of two amazing kids - my son Ethan and my daughter Sophie. I now also have two fur babies a Black & Tan Terrier mix named Toby and a Chiweenie named Tucker. I was raised in Calhoun County (mainly Jacksonville) all my life. In June of 2020 I moved to Lincoln and am enjoying being here.

Hello my name is Xavier Garrett.

I graduated from Munford High School in 2013. I am a former customer service manager of Office Depot and current IT Manager & Field Technician for Jennie. I also own a side business, X Digital Services.

With 15+ years of experience, my passion is helping people with all things digital, and in this world - where technology moves seemingly years by the day – I keep JLJ Designs on the cutting edge.

When not working, I am enjoying family time with my beautiful wife and young son (with another babe on the way) and also take pleasure in photography (people and scenic).