As the daughter of a carpenter and an English teacher, Jenn has been honing her love for woodworking and writing her entire life. In 2001, she moved from Michigan to New York City to combine those interests into a career as a writer and producer for This Old House. Over nearly a decade, Jenn produced and wrote monthly columns like Weekend Remodel, Homecenter Project with Tom Silva, Starter Kit, and Build it or Buy it. Her work with the TOH staff and cast, and a few on-camera appearances of her own, imprinted her passion for sharing knowledge and teaching others.
When a family move relocated Jenn and her husband to rural Massachusetts, they finally got to put that knowledge to use on a fixer-upper of their own. To document her woodworking and house projects, Jenn started her blog, Build Basic. Over the next few years, she set out to prove her blog’s motto; “You don’t need expensive tools and advanced training to create high-quality furniture and home goods from scratch—you just have to know the basics.”
In 2016, Jenn was offered an opportunity to rejoin the TOH team as the head of a new sub-brand for young homeowners and DIY’ers. Following months of planning and brainstorming, House One launched as a new home for easy DIY projects and as a showcase for the work and talents of the online Maker Community.
Today Jenn wears the hats of both editor of House One, and the in-house DIY Expert for This Old House. From her home in Ohio where she resides with her husband and two sons, she shares weekly projects covering woodworking, home upgrades and tool tutorials.
Follow Jenn on Instagram at @build_basic
