Team Bios in the Remodeling Industry
Rosie Romero, Jr.
Rosie Romero is the host of Arizona's No. 1 home improvement radio show.
Rosie moved from the Lacassine Bayou of Louisiana to Arizona with his family when he was a young boy. He began working in the remodeling industry in 1972, and for 15 years, worked with a variety of contractors.
He opened Legacy Custom Builders in 1988, and sold the majority of his stock to key employees in October 2002. During his 14 years as owner, Legacy received numerous awards, including these national honors:
- 1993 Remodeling Big 50
- 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004 National Association of the Remodeling Industry's Contractor of the Year Award
- 2002 Finalist in the Better Business Bureau's Ethics Award
- 2003 Gold Award in Quality Achievement, the highest recognition by the residential housing industry
- 2003 Remodeler of the Year
In 2001, Rosie was the first remodeler ever selected as a finalist in Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The same year, he received the International Furnishings and Design Association's Visionary Award of Excellence.
In 1988, Rosie began his Rosie on the House radio show as a hobby. Since then, Rosie on the House has become a powerful home improvement resource and referral network.
Rosie is a nationally recognized speaker for the remodeling industry and travels regularly to share his knowledge of the business.
Rosie and his wife, Sweet Jennifer, have six children born between 1981 and 1997. They spend much of their time exploring, boating and hiking Arizona.
Romey Romero, III
Romey Romero is second of Rosie and Sweet Jennifer's six children, and although he shares the same name as his father and grandfather, he goes by "Romey." Two Rosies are all the family can handle.
From the time he was old enough to hold a hammer, Romey has worked side by side with Rosie, even as he was home-schooled through eighth grade. As a high school student, Romey stayed busy as Captain of the wrestling team and Student Body President, and earning his Eagle Scout award. During this time he took summer jobs at Legacy Custom Builders, where he learned hands-on construction skills.
After high school, Romey moved to the Romero family duck lodge in southern Louisiana. He worked to improve the lodge, served as a hunting guide, entertained the guests, sampled local cuisine, repaired the boats and decoys, attended fais-do-do's (like any fine Cajun gentleman) and worked as a farm hand on his relatives' rice crops and crawfish ponds during off season.
Romey is back in action here in the Valley of the Sun and the co-host of Rosie on the House. In 2004 Romey graduated from the Arizona Sun Tech School for home inspectors and recently finished building a home of his own in the unincorporated Maricopa County town of Wittmann.
His favorite part of his Rosie on the House job is the satisfaction of helping others convert their homes from liabilities to assets and transform them from homes to castles. Romey believes that though many are blessed to have homes, few know enough about how to properly care for them.
Romey wants to further his education in the housing industry and continue working alongside Rosie his mentor, role model and best friend.
John Jay Harper
John Jay Harper is the Rosie on the House expert in gardening and landscaping.
“Jay” is a third- generation native Arizonan and the third generation of John Harpers in the nursery business. That is why his friends in the nursery business address him by his middle name: because there was too much confusion when he worked alongside his grandfather, John Sr., and his dad, John Jr.
John Jay moved to the outskirts of Phoenix when he was in the eighth grade. He graduated from Chaparral High School in 1976, and cum laude from Arizona State University in 1980. He began working in the nursery and floral business in the early '70s, delivering flowers and doing landscape jobs on the weekends and during the summers.
Around 1980 Lee Kirk, the weekend Host for radio station KTAR, called Jay to offer an on-air gardening tip on Friday mornings to help listeners get ready for the weekend. From there, Jay's show, “The Green Thumb Garden,” was born.
Jay enjoys sharing his love of flora with his fellow gardeners. Jay is involved in the garden community in Arizona. He gives up many nights to speak at gardening events, at which he shares his knowledge and passion about the industry. Jay is a board member of the Arizona Nursery Association and past Lieutenant Governor of the American Nursery Association. He is a past board member of the Desert Botanical Gardens and the Scottsdale Boys Club, and is a member of the Hohokams, a civic organization in Mesa. Jay is married to Trina and has two children, Travis and Jaymi. He enjoys spending time with his family, being active in his church and community, and hunting and fishing.
Harper's Nurseries & Landscape Co. is the winner of the Media Award from Maricopa County Master Gardeners. The Arizona Business Journal in 2006 named the company the third-best garden center in Arizona.
"Sweet" Jennifer Romero
Jennifer Romero is Rosie's wife, and she loves being part of Arizona's friendliest call-in radio show.
Jennifer, known through-out Arizona as "Sweet Jenn" is Rosie's wife since 1978. She is mother to their 6 children and acts as the call screener for the Saturday morning radio show. She is the first contact Arizona Homeowners have in calling the program, fielding dozens of phone calls each hour. She will very often answer the callers question off-air when lines are loaded or the callers schedule won't allow them to hold long enough to air their question (she's discovered many of those callers are actually calling from work!)She loves answering the phones and talking to the callers. She finds helping Arizona listeners find answers to their questions and dilemmas challenging and fun. When not call screening, Jenn is very active in the lives of all the Romero children, Carol Grace being the last one at home. Jennifer enjoys hostessing Sunday afternoon family Bar B Q's at the house, riding her horse, Peanut, and doing what she can to teach Rosie horsemanship on his horse Patch Adams. It's a work in progress! She'll be awaiting your call every Saturday morning, give her the chance to introduce herself.
Melissa Waskowski
Melissa Waskowski is Senior Marketing Consultant for Rosie on the House.
Melissa started in radio in 1997 in Tucson as a Promotions Assistant at KIIM-FM Radio. In 1998 Melissa moved to Phoenix when she accepted a position as the Promotions Assistant and the Assistant to the Programming Director for 98.7 K-Lite, now "The Peak." Melissa was quickly promoted to the Promotions Coordinator overseeing three stations: K-Lite, ESPN Radio KMVP and News Radio 620 KTAR.
In 2001 Melissa became an Account Manager for News Radio 620 KTAR. In 2003 She happily accepted the position of Senior Marketing Consultant for ROTH Productions and has been happy with that decision ever since.
Melissa has a bachelor's degree in Media Arts from the University of Arizona. GO WILDCATS!!
Her interests: piña coladas and getting caught in the rain.
Ilene Takiguchi
Chief Financial Officer for Rosie on the House, Ilene Takiguchi has 12 years experience as a financial analyst for Fortune 500 companies. Her well-rounded background as a financial professional not only includes the corporate world, but small business environments as well.
Ilene has been instrumental in her role in management, budgeting, and operations. Her results-oriented style helps the ROTH staff tremendously, as she’s been able to effectively implement innovative methods for streamlining processes and increasing profits. She also possesses excellent analytical, organizational, and problem solving skills.
Ilene is a Valley native and actually worked for the Rosie and the House for a short time 10 years ago. We’re happy to have her back.
Julia Drake
Julia Drake is number 5 in the Rosie clan. She lives in the valley with her husband and 2 small children. During high school, Julia finished her 2 year college degree, and transferred to Northern Arizona University for a year pursuing Social Work. Although it is on the back burner to her family for now, one day she’d like to finish the work she started in that field. For now she is enjoying a career in Homeowner Relations and call screening at Rosie On The House and will be seen at home shows and live broadcasts. Previous work experience has included customer service in both the retail and service industries, as well as preschool education. The part about her job here at Rosie on the House that Julia likes most is being able to help get people even one step closer to the calling their house a home…just as she has gotten to watch Rosie and Romey do all these years.
Stacie Lambeth
Stacie Lambeth is the Digital Asset Manager for Rosie on the House, a job that involves everything from keeping Rosie plugged into social media like Facebook and Twitter to solving computer problems for the staff.
Before joining Rosie’s team, Stacie was a freelance social media consultant who created and administered social media campaign strategies for local companies. Her work included support and maintenance of social media accounts; Web site development and maintenance, search-engine optimization and content management.
Stacie says her greatest achievement is her daughter, who reminds her of the real meaning of life every day.
Stan Zumbrunnen
Stan Zumbrunnen is the Director of Homeowner Relations for Rosie on the House.
Stan has over 41 years of experience in the construction world, about 7 years of which were with our own Legacy Design Build Remodel. He started as a superintendent there and ended his career with Legacy as Production Manager!
He lives in Scottsdale with his wife, Nancy. The ZumBrunnen’s have 3 kids and 6 grandkids in Washington state. Stan owned a construction business remodeling and building single and multi family homes as well as some light commercial work.
If Stan had unlimited time, he would spend it golfing, fly fishing, and taking spontaneous road trips around Arizona with Nancy. Rosie has known Stan for around 10 years and is excited for each of you to get to know him as well.
Mike Risch
Mike Risch is the Audio Engineer for Rosie on the House.
Mike comes to us with a background of radio broadcasting and board operating experience back in his hometown of Brookings, South Dakota. Mike has broadcast everything from music and talk shows to play by plays of sport’s games.
He has a construction background from his 3 years in Seattle when he was restoring wood windows and helping with general construction around his hometown growing up. He relocated to Phoenix for us with his dog Freddy after a yearlong career at Pella Windows and Doors as a customer consultant.
He enjoys watching Baseball, reading the news, and the great outdoors.
Rebecca Larsen
Becky Larsen is the Staff Writer for Rosie on the House.
Becky formerly worked as home and garden editor and assistant city editor of the Marin Independent Journal in Novato, Calif.
She and her husband, Alan, moved to Arizona in 2001 and live in Scottsdale; they have three children and six grandchildren living in Northern California.
Becky has done home and garden and real estate articles for magazines published by Gannett Pacific Publications in Scottsdale. She has also written for Target Market Media, Phoenix publisher of legal magazines in several cities; for National Jurist, PreLaw and Golf Inc. magazines; and for a golf Web site, Travelgolf.com.
She has journalism degrees from Northwestern University and the University of California-Berkeley.
Jules Holzgrafe
Jules Holzgrafe is the Sales and Marketing Assistant at Rosie on the House. She just relocated back to the Valley from the Prescott area to be closer to her 3 children and 8 grandchildren.
Jules has a strong background in construction, marketing and media. Her career has been with Chamber of Commerce’s, Economic Development, Habitat for Humanity and she grew up in a family owned construction company. Her education includes the Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation at Arizona State University, Human Development at Yavapai Community College and the Western Association of Professional Executives Academy.
Jules has a passion for all types of music and is a motorcycle and vintage car enthusiast.