We recently connected with Haley Koci and have shared our conversation below.

Haley, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, what do you think about family businesses? Would you want your children or other family members to one day join your business?

Row Homes is a family business born out of a business plan created during the height of COVID quarantine in May 2020. My husband and I had always dreamt of owning a renovation business, combining our backgrounds of construction (Ryan was a practicing Estimator at a commercial general contractor) and design (I was a Project Interior Designer in a large engineering firm). We felt the push to establish something of our own.

Partnering in business with your spouse has its continued challenges. It can become all consuming. We’ve found it necessary to set boundaries to protect our personal time. Running a business together also means we are spending much of our time together, we’ve found it’s also been important to make time for ourselves, individually. Operating a business as a family can also make discussing conflicts difficult. In these instances, it’s imperative for us to remember our biggest driver: Row Homes is successful with OUR combination of effort, knowledge, and passion.

Owning a business with your spouse has advantages that outweigh these challenges. We truly know each other, allowing us to best position ourselves for the business’s best benefit. There is a deep foundation of trust, more than I think you could find with any other business partner. Our business gives us flexibility. The biggest perk, Row Homes has allowed us to build something—together.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Haley Koci is a co-owner and designer at Row Homes. She has a passion for people, product, and

Professionally, Haley is a connector in the commercial design community where she drives mind and market share by cultivating relationships. She formally practiced interior design in the commercial world before beginning Row Homes with her partner, Ryan Koci.

Haley’s blend of design, product, and business development experience provides a unique perspective as the lead designer for Row Homes and advocate for clients. Ryan is the co-owner and manager with a background in commercial construction, estimating, and project management. Together they bring their love for architectural history, preservation, and design to their residential projects.

Row Homes: The name ‘Row’ is a combination of two family names. When combined with Homes, takes on the double meaning of rowhouses—homes that share a common structure. Our business name highlights our shared mission of the importance of family and design.

Row Homes renovates and restores homes for modern living. This is accomplished through two avenues—
Row Homes invests in outdated Denver real estate then brings the home back to life for future generations. In this era of teardown, it’s so important to conserve our city’s original homes.

Row Homes also assists clients in modernizing their homes while maintaining their character and improving their function. Specializing in kitchen and bathroom remodels, furniture planning, and overall design concepts.
Preserving and highlighting the original details in our projects aligns with our purpose. We love mixing these vintage details with modern elements. An example at our Den property, a 1912 brick bungalow—

We uncovered Den’s original fireplace surround, a cast brass piece, in the home’s crawl space during demolition. We knew it had to be restored and incorporated into the home’s final design. We gave it a deep clean and polish revealing octagram details. This surround was then installed atop a beautiful green mosaic tile bordered by dark wood accents. Our tile choice required a bit of research. Mint green was a common accent color in early 1900’s Denver homes, especially those featuring blonde brick like Den. We honored the property’s history with this period appropriate color scheme and found original details. We loved reestablishing the fireplace as the focal point of Den’s living space.

What differentiates us is our true focus on maintaining a city’s character while renovating its homes for modern living of generations to come.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Our story is a little different than most. The idea of ‘Row Homes’ initially began out of desperation while renovating our first home in 2017. We knew we had the combined construction and design knowledge to pull-off a complete home renovation but we didn’t know if we had the time. We were due to move into our ‘new’ 1925 bungalow in four months and needed to have a habitable kitchen, functioning bathroom, and somewhat complete bedroom. We worked tirelessly after our ‘day jobs’ and every weekend was consumed by renovating. For most, this would be a recipe for disaster. For us, it kindled the idea of creating a business.

As most side-projects do, our home renovation stretched out a few years while we continued our careers. Then, COVID hit. That May, Ryan and I were sitting on our back porch and decided to finally build something of our own. We outlined a skeleton business plan defining our purpose, process, funding, and timeline. A year later, Ryan left his job in commercial construction to pursue Row Homes full-time. Managing and implementing all of our projects from start to finish. I’ve maintained my professional career while driving design decisions and client management for Row Homes.

While Row Homes is still my ‘side hustle’ we’ve managed to scale our company into Ryan’s career. I’m still able to ‘fill’ both of my cups and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Our most recent project, Moore, was a full renovation of a 3,000 square foot 1961 ranch home. We completed this renovation one week before I was induced with our first child. This was not our initial plan, as we found out we were expecting a month after closing on the property. But we were determined to close-out Moore before our son was born so both of us were able to take a few months of full parental leave. Pushing for this deadline meant eight months of renovating while pregnant (or in Ryan’s case while having a pregnant business partner). Pregnancy brain resulted in incorrect finish orders and lack of recalling plan details. These ‘mistakes’ made us pivot but the final solution ended up better than the original plan. I was doing touch-up paint, coordinating furniture rental, and staging the home nine months plus pregnant. We hadn’t started the nursery at our own home for our soon-to-be new family member. Filled with worry, anxiety, and determination—we finished the project a week before our son was born.

When you’re a family operated business, your personal and professional lives blend together. But that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice one for the other. In this case, we were able to prioritize both.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rowhomesco.com/
• Instagram: row_homes
• Other: [email protected]

Image Credits
Moore and Den images by Parrottino Photography Zuni images by r.a.evansphotographyllc