A FULL-CIRCLE JOURNEY HOME
A Full-Circle Journey Home
After many moves, the Lacenskis return to where their story began
By Cassie Bustamante
Photographs by Liz Nemeth
When Jordan and Evan Lacenski were looking for a more family-friendly home after their son’s birth in 2020, they saw a sleek, black, midcentury Modern beauty in Hamilton Lakes. But, says Jordan, “My husband and I had never paid anything like that for a house and we were like, ‘That’s insane!’” Then, a Zillow listing caught Jordan’s eye: an abandoned house with an overgrown yard in New Irving Park. A vision of what could be hit her. With her knack for design — and a great general contractor — a clean-lined gem, just like the one that had been beyond reach, materialized.
Today, the Lacenski home, built in 1985, has a bold, black, white and wood exterior that lends to a Modern vibe. What was once empty is now full of life: with Evan, Jordan, Everett, their 5-year-old son, and Austen, their almost 2-year-old daughter, plus the family dog, Bullet. Seeing the original Zillow listing, you understand what an ambitious dream Jordan had for the diamond in the rough. The listing images, as it turns out, are still online. “I hope they never take it down,” she says, because the photos remind her of just how far their home has come.
Thanks to both having parents with jobs that relocated them, Jordan and Evan originally met as middle schoolers in Greensboro. When Jordan was entering the seventh grade in Cleveland, Ohio, her father took a job in the furniture industry that meant a big move to North Carolina. Not wanting to leave her friends behind, 12-year-old Jordan “went outside with my sleeping bag and my goldfish” and told her parents she was staying put. Naturally, Mom and Dad won that battle.
Evan, on the other hand, was used to moving. His father worked as a criminal investigator for the IRS, a job that required frequent relocation. In his nearly 40 years, Evan, a Green Beret veteran, has lived in 19 houses total. “I got to meet lots of new people,” he says, “but I wouldn’t want it for my kids.”
He was a quiet kid, Jordan recalls, but a part of her friend trio, which consisted of her, Evan and their friend, Ian, aka “Spanky.” She’d safely placed him in the friend zone until “he wrote me a love poem,” she says, a poem that he still knows by heart. Yet, she wasn’t convinced — “and then he moved.”
Their paths diverged and wouldn’t physically cross again for several years. And yet, through the wonders of social media, they kept up with one another and remained Facebook friends. When Jordan was a student at Northwest Guilford High School, her father lost his job. While she’d had big dreams of attending college out of state — even as far as Hawaii — her dad encouraged her to apply to affordable in-state schools. She enrolled at N.C. State, where she began studying art and design. “I thought I was going to be an architect.” Until: “Math — maybe not.”
Tuition money ran dry after a few semesters and, while her father eventually found a new job, he moved out of state and her parents divorced. After taking a semester off, she enrolled at UNCG. “And I loooooved UNCG,” she says. She found the faculty especially approachable and empathetic, on top of being innovative. She recalls one particularly tough life moment when she — in tears — asked her professor for a project extension. “I am sobbing and then I am saying I am sorry,” Jordan recalls. “And she said, ‘Why would you ever apologize for being a human being? Human beings cry.’ It was the first time anyone had ever said that to me.”
At UNCG, she pivoted to studying communications and graduated in 2008, right on time for the Great Recession. Since then, she notes, she’s also experienced a global pandemic while pregnant. “We’ve just lived through it all.”
Eventually, Jordan landed a job in her field. With craft beer coming heavily onto the scene, Caffey Distributing created a new position. As the the local beer distributor’s first craft brand manager at the age of 25, Jordan says, “The amount of business that I got to learn because I was sitting in the room with all these C-suite dudes was wild.” Financially secure, she got a dog, a beagle named Siler, and purchased her first home, a foreclosed condo that she and friends painted together while sipping wine. “I was so proud of it,” she says.
Meanwhile, after graduating from the University of Oklahoma on an ROTC scholarship, Evan was stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army. But he’d never forgotten about his middle school flame after all these years and distances. In fact, when she went through a breakup, “He sent me chocolate lava cake to cheer me up.” She recalls Skyping with him afterward while her mom, Sandi Reasoner, was off screen, whisper-yelling to her: “Are you kidding me? Tell him thank you. He is so cute!”
As luck would have it, Evan ended up taking the Special Forces Qualification course at Fort Bragg and, while there, offered — several times — to take Jordan to dinner. A former relationship with someone in the military made her apprehensive about accepting. Plus, she says, “Army spouses have to make a ton of sacrifices, often at the expense of their own careers and ambitions.” After repeatedly turning him down, she eventually agreed, “and that was that.” A year after that first date in 2012, they were married.
Soon after, Evan found himself stationed at Eglin Air Force Base, and the couple hauled their belongings and their two dogs, Cider and Lucy, a great dane, to the sunny, seaside town of Destin, where, Jordan quips, it’s “spring break all the time.” They bought a house, and, as if two dogs were not enough, Jordan came home one day to find Evan on the phone with people at Animal Planet. Soon, Cheech, a rescue he’d seen on Pit Bulls & Parolees, joined their canine brood and the family subsequently appeared on a 2014 episode featuring his homecoming (a real tearjerker — grab the tissues if you watch!). “He had a human soul,” says Jordan wistfully. A wall in their bathroom serves as a memorial to those three dogs, filled with their pictures.
After a year in Destin, Jordan landed a job as the director of marketing and communications for Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation. While Evan was deployed much of the time they spent in Florida, Jordan launched a side hustle, SheWolf Collaborative — a “non-agency agency” for women in the marketing industry to come together and work collaboratively, no matter where in the country they lived.
Finally, after eight years of service, Evan could take a desk job or transition out. His last deployment to Afghanistan had been tough and he’d lost a teammate, Andy. “Everett’s middle name is Andrew after Andy,” says Jordan. “They were a really tight-knit squad, so I think that changed his perspective and he opted to get out.”
Evan enrolled in the Army’s program that provides counseling, employment and workshops to transition to civilian life, but pivoted when, on family vacation in Montana, he noticed Svallin, an organization that trains protection dogs. He knew of a veteran who trained dogs for them and the idea appealed to him.
Once again, the Lacenskis moved across the country to Bozeman, Mont. There, says Jordan, SheWolf blew up. The area itself is entrepreneurial and the women who live there thrive on collaboration, “like sunshine for everybody.”
Evan’s dog ranch job, however, did not pan out as planned. “He basically was supposed to manage a ranch in Montana and one in South Africa, where dogs were trained to counter poach,” says Jordan. “And that never happened, so half of the salary that we expected him to get never happened.” Back to transitional training he went, where he learned to work in medical device sales. When he was ready to start applying for jobs, one opened up in Greensboro, of all places, and, in 2017, the couple found themselves back where they began.
They moved into a brick Tudor on Walker Avenue, but, once Everett was born, knew a change needed to happen. “He was downstairs, we were upstairs,” says Jordan.
With the help of Matthew MacLanders (“our realtor since I bought that first condo”), they visited what would become their home. Jordan and Matt were going a mile a minute, talking excitedly about what could be done to the house. “And my husband is standing there holding Everett,” quips Jordan, “like, ‘What are you talking about?’”
Jordan brought over her pal, Jodee Rupell, a “total badass” who had loads of remodeling experience. Jodee suggested not just renovating the kitchen, but moving it entirely. Jodee also pushed up her sleeves and got to work: “She was out here one day with her husband’s tractor and hedge clippers at 7 a.m.”
With a design of her own making in place, Jordan reached out to several general contractors for quotes. “And we ended up with the company that actually renovated the Hamilton Lakes house, Donny Root, Building Roots.” With a renovation loan secured, the bank allowed just six months for work to be completed, so Donny, his brother and his nephew worked on the house almost every day and became like family to the Lacenskis.
Jordan sourced materials herself for much of the renovation: tile from Floor & Decor, cabinets from Kitchen Cabinet Worx, light fixtures from “a smorgasbord of Wayfair and all that.”
Entering through the original double front doors, which the couple updated with paint, one of the first things you see is a disco ball hanging in between the entry and kitchen, which are now part of an open-concept central space. The family hung it for New Year’s, but loved it so much that it became a fixture. “At 1 or 1:30 p.m., it does its thing,” says Jordan.
“Only in the winter,” adds Evan, because of the sun’s placement.
Previously, the entry housed a dated grandfather clock where you’d expect to find a secret passage leading upstairs — just like the one in the 1980s sitcom Webster. Now, the wall is open and freshly updated with visible stair railings that have been given a modern look inspired by an image Jordan spied on Pinterest. Donny ran with it, Jordan says. “They just figured it out and they built that.”
The bright, modern kitchen now faces the backyard, where they extended the deck — the “brilliant idea” of Jordan’s mom, who let the family and their dogs crash with her during renovations. (Sandi, as it turns out, loves to spend time on that very deck, sitting by the pool in the summertime.) Light, warm wood cabinets pair with cool, gray, chevron backsplash tiles and white quartz countertops with gray veining. An island with a waterfall countertop offers seating for casual family meals.
Where the kitchen previously sat now serves as a playroom for the kids, complete with three Nugget play couches — “You can’t have enough Nuggets,” says Jordan. The family uses them to build forts, even opting to create “dinner forts,” where they sometimes eat meals.
Just off the playroom is the very thing that sealed the deal. “What sold me was all these windows,” she muses, gesturing to the home office’s wall of tall windows. These days, both she and Evan each work at home frequently, so they have their own desk spaces, with a small desk for Everett in-between the two. Jordan has taken on a new role as director of marketing for ExecBrand Authority, but she’s also pivoted SheWolf away from being a marketing collaborative, turning it into an inclusive space for women from all walks of life. Because she herself was seeking community, she decided to create a platform for it, offering outings, such as kayaking, watercolor lessons and Mahjong, plus opportunities to give back. “At the end of the day, every time I do something outside in community or adventurous in community or creative in community, I always leave happy at the end of it,” she says.
On another wall in the office, Jordan had hoped for builtins, but when the exterior landscaping cost more than she’d expected, some corners were cut. Instead, Jordan painted a series of three freestanding cabinets in a dark-green Annie Sloan chalk paint. Evan’s drum set and 3D printer also take up real estate. Evan, says Jordan, has multiple hobbies. His latest? Ice hockey.
On the opposite end of the main floor, the living room features a large, cushy sectional stuffed with pillows, perfect for cozying up and lounging. A soft, fuzzy, blanket on the sofa welcomes Bullet, the 115-pound gentle giant who serves as door greeter and crumb picker-upper. An array of art climbs the wall behind the couch, a collection of the family’s treasured pieces, including a watercolor painting of Evan and Everett by local artist Alisha Wielfaert. “Art is the way to my heart,” says Jordan.
Before, the room was still in its 1980s heyday, complete with a bar. “Cabinets came out to right here and ran the whole length to that window and in the corner there was a sink,” says Evan. “It was really weird.”
“Because people were partying!” quips Jordan. “At their houses!”
Just off the living room, the couple added a screened-in porch, where Evan’s cold plunge and sauna sit. Once that was constructed, less natural light flowed into the living room, so they brightened it up by painting the wood-paneled ceiling white.
Heading upstairs, another gallery wall, now visible from the home’s entry, adorns the wall. This one features family photos taken throughout the years, most by Winston-Salem photographer Jo Lindsay. “We just added photos of Austen,” says Jordan. “She’s officially part of the fam,” she adds with a laugh, noting that life with two young kids keeps one too busy to keep up with actually printing, framing and hanging said photos.
At the top of the landing, Jordan has assembled a smattering of Tin Nichos, whimsical, colorful 3D shadowboxes crafted by local maker Jayme White, to splash color onto the white wall. Jordan’s collection includes a “cereal killer” and a woman who inspires her, Lucille Ball.
While downstairs features a guest room, the family’s bedrooms are all upstairs. “And where we used to be on different floors, now we are all real close,” says Jordan.
Everett and Austen each have a playful mural in their bedrooms. Everett’s is a mountain scene in rich earth tones, cool gray-greens and tans that Jordan painted herself. And his dresser and nightstands are hand-me-downs from Dad, given a fresh look with chalk paint. “We just repurpose what we can, you know,” says Jordan.
Austen’s wall was a collaborative effort between Jordan and local artist Kara Lewis, a former art teacher at Greensboro Day School. Using “an old-school projector,” Kara painted the black flower outlines and Jordan added splashes of color. Jordan selected flowers that hold special meaning, including hydrangea for abundance, heartfelt emotion and gratitude, and ranunculus for charm, admiration and joy, among others.
In the primary bedroom, Jordan got a wild hair to paint the wall behind their bed. When Evan saw it finished, she recalls, “Evan said, ‘You just said you want to paint that 10 hours ago!’” In her own words, Jordan often takes an idea and runs with it from “zero to 100.” Now, the wall anchors the space in a warm rust, a mixture of two colors “because one was too red brick and one was too Arizona.”
On the opposite wall, next to a dresser Jordan scored at Red Collection, an array of hats surrounds an arched mirror, some from their time in Montana. “This one,” she says, “this is my pride and joy.” Even though there’s a Stetson in her collection, the hat she’s holding was crafted by the Montana Territory Hat company. Underneath its rim, it’s been branded with the word “howl,” a nod to SheWolf.
Of course, Everett saw his mom and her pal writing on the wall and wondered if he could join in the fun. So, on the space that hides behind his bedroom door when it’s open, Jordan wrote “Everett’s Wall” at the top and let him go to town on it. Now, “Everett is very proud of his room.”
The en suite bathroom was completely renovated. A new, modern tub was installed and long, wooden shelves built by local woodworker Amanda Marley float above it on the wall. But Jordan’s favorite added feature? A skylight just above the shower. “No one can see you except for the birds,” she says.
What was once an empty, dated house is now an inviting home filled with art and life, perfect for a modern family. In fact, Evan says, when they first bought it, they had it appraised. Two years later, they had it appraised again. Little did they know, they’d end up with the same appraiser. He called Evan afterwards to ask who had designed it so he could recommend them. “And I was like, ‘My wife did it,’” says Evan. “And he said, ‘That is literally one of the best renovations I have ever seen of an original home. Tell her that she should pursue a career in this.’”
Jordan lets out a squawk of a laugh. While reinventing herself as someone who updates and redesigns houses may not be in the cards, there’s no doubt that she’s made their New Irving Park fixer upper — and Greensboro — into a home she never wants to leave.
“We’ve seen a lot of the country, and we’re here, I think, longterm,” says Evan. Plus, every time he returns from travel, he finds himself saying, “I am happy to be back home.”
