Our vintage homes occasionally need some TLC. Jane Arnoff Logsdon and Ernie Logsdon, owners of Shaker Home Maintenance, are here to help.
Interview by Sharon Holbrook
Ernie Logsdon and Jane Aronoff Logsdon, owners of Shaker Home Maintenance. Photography by Rob Muller.
Who: Jane Arnoff Logsdon and Ernie Logsdon
Where: Lomond
Business: Shaker Home Maintenance, a family-owned home repair business specializing in Shaker homes and retaining their style. We are a hyper-local company that embraces the idea of a highly specialized, neighborhood-based business.
Mission: To help customers with both typical and specialized projects, such as older doors or windows, and to do it all to impeccable standards.
What We Love About Our Work: We are passionate about the work and love the satisfaction of complex projects, such as restoring older doors or making windows from scratch. We also like to teach our staff the craft and how to honor our standards.
Ernie, who’s always been handy, never thought he could do this as a full-time gig, but I (Jane) always encouraged him and knew he had the skills to make it work. We really work together with complementary skills – Ernie is in the field working his magic while I’m behind the scenes managing scheduling, customer service, and most of the billing. We are proud of what we have accomplished.
Personal Background: I grew up in Novelty, Ohio, before moving to Shaker for high school and graduating from Shaker Heights High School. I attended college in Beloit, Wisconsin, and lived in Minneapolis before moving back to Cleveland in 1997 to attend the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.
In addition to being the co-owner of Shaker Home Maintenance, I’m a licensed social worker and a building substitute at Onaway Elementary School. I’m also the founder of Buy Nothing Shaker and co- founder of the Shaker Heights Anti-Racism Coalition.
Ernie grew up in El Paso, Texas, and we met when he lived in Minneapolis. He moved to Cleveland with me and worked as a chef for many years at Nighttown, Mustard Seed Market and Cafe, and The Cleveland Food Co-op. His dad taught him how to fix things and build houses. He began doing home repair jobs part- time after we moved to Shaker in 2016, and it grew fast. We founded Shaker Home Maintenance in 2018.
We have two children – Aaron, 17, a student at Connections Academy, and Aviv, 16, a junior at Shaker High. Both boys have worked with Shaker Home Maintenance and seem to have picked up dad’s skills. We also have four cats, a snake, a bearded dragon, and fish both inside and outside the house. Our son built a koi pond in our yard. We garden and grow as much food as possible, including making and canning homemade sauces. I also make my own beauty and household products.
On Working and Living in Shaker Heights: We love living and working in our own community for the convenience and for the personal ties we develop while we work. It makes us feel connected to the neighborhoods and community at large. Plus, Ernie loves working with the incredible variety in Shaker’s housing stock.
Our family’s favorite places in and around Shaker are Motiv, Gentleman’s Cave, Shaker Library, Cleveland Metroparks – and our own backyard.
Contact:
Email: shakerhomemaintenance@gmail.com
Facebook: @shakerhomemaintenance
Phone: (216) 505-0682
