Finding My Path to the Future 

My path began when my grandmother had a stroke. She was bound to a wheelchair. She lived in an old Victorian built in 1918, (I love that house). She was coming home from the hospital and needed access to the house. My uncle had just returned home from Vietnam. I was 8 years old. It was the first time I had ever met him. We spent the summer building a beautiful wheelchair ramp to match the existing house. The first thing he taught me after how to hammer a nail, was the one reoccurring theme in my life and what I teach to my children; “A carpenter never leaves a bent nail in place even if he must straighten it himself”.  It was a LIFE changing experience. I will always remember those three weeks, the sweltering summer of 1977.  

(I lost him after his body gave out after years of abusing heroin. All that knowledge skill and life; lost so young).

When we were completing the white exterior siding, I told him “When I grow up, I will be a carpenter”, (Like most of the men in my family on both sides, going back as far the 1700s in St. Mary’s County Maryland). He simply and directly told me that “the world changes; and we must change with it; but never forget the past, remember the forgotten, integrate the past, present and future. True beauty, he explained in fashion that my 8-year-old mind would later interpret as meaning the following. Mountains are old and majestic, and Trees new and sprightly, but each complement thy other. As should your carpentry as an Artisan, complement what you are building.”.

After completing my training in the trade of carpentry & building maintenance at the Western School of Technology & Environmental Science in Catonsville Md. in 1986, I spend the next years, due to life’s circumstance traveling and working in the field of carpentry. I worked in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, and California. On some of the most heavily damaged gorgeous old homes in need of time and care and new homes also. Most of those were built in the 1500s through the 1900s. I learned some techniques and tricks only used in those regions of the country.

 That began my love for restoration.

Now, after 35 years as a carpenter, I feel it is important to teach the trades; to those young people who do not want to be in “IT” or Computer Programmer or simply do not find joy working in an office but really enjoy being hands-on.

Artisan Historic Contracting: Works to restore the building.

Jordan’s Design and Building / J.D.B. Restore L.L.C: Plans to work with schools, churches, at-risk kids, and Veterans groups. To teach and train new craftsmen to keep the trades alive and help build the future.

International Guild of Artisans and Masters Inc. (IGAM): Plans to be a place where those who love the trades, can blog/talk, shop and share old and new ideas. Also share stories to the Haunted Restoration blog.

It is also planned to have the Haunted Restoration appear on multiple types of media broadcast in the future that help and support ongoing programs.

Mission Statement

As the founder of Artisan Historic Contracting.

I plan to take on projects that aid the community by preserving the history and traditions of the trades, while restoring what is being lost to the ravages of time. By aiding home and building owners by creating a dedicated network of trades, crafts, artisans, business, civic leaders and all who wish to help. Also, by teaching all who wish to learn these crafts and trades in the field and in the classroom.

When I was 15, I found myself suffering homelessness, the only thing I had was my love of carpentry and a twilight program through Western Institute of Technology that taught trades. Except if they knew I was homeless I could never have attended. Luckily, I could get a work permit and work as an apprentice, I worked as an apprentice in the field in Baltimore for 5 years. So, I would have a safe place to stay and sleep, I joined The Guardian Angels. My apprenticeship was over and with other life altering factors; I decided to leave Baltimore. It was Dec. 1992, and I knew it would be plenty of work in LA. I had $400.00, it was enough for a bus ticket that would get me as far as Riverside and a little food. When I got to Riverside there were basic resources to help maintain a person who is suffering from homelessness.

The shelter on 3rd street was, first come, first serve by 6pm to get a spot/bed, so instead I used to sleep behind the Universalist Unitarian Church of Riverside on Mission Inn Blvd. and Lemon St., between the church and the annex building, it was safer. I used to talk about carpentry and working on old houses with someone that was involved with the Universalist Unitarian Church of Riverside and set on the restoration board. It was the beginning of January 1993; I remember because later that month the grandmother that my uncle and I built the wheelchair ramp for (the one that started me on my carpentry journey), died.

I did not survive well in Riverside. The Architect who was working with the Universalist Unitarian Church of Riverside on the restoration board, (who I later found out his name was Green). He told me that there were programs in downtown LA (Skid Row) that might be able to help. He gave me $20.00 and told me, go down there. Skid Row, at that time was like North Ave and Pennsylvania Ave in Baltimore where I was born; but warm year-round. Yes, I found programs that were structured well but something always fell short, if you just worked just one, but you could only work just one at a time according to the funding rules and regulations. These times I found were convenient for the program providers only. That was my interpretation. It took 3 months to find and schedule the 4 programs I needed to get off skid row.

Education, Training, Therapy & Access to Resources

September 1993, I got my first apartment on 3^rd and Berendo in LA.  Then 6 months later I found myself crawling around partially collapsed apartment buildings installing screw jacks, after the January 1994 North Ridge earthquake, for R. E. Lee Design & Construction

On two other occasions in my life, I found myself suffering from the disease called homelessness again.

(YES! A disease that needs to be cured).

1. At the beginning of 2000 my father died in January and my second child, a son was born in March. I was trying to buy my first house and open a small construction business in Moreno Valley. Except the person that was selling the house did not own it and the FBI soon showed up at the door. The mother of my 2 children took the kids to live with her family and because there was no room at her family’s house I could not stay. I went back to Baltimore and rebuilt and later, sent for her and the children.
2. . I lost my handyman service in 2007 just before the 2008 housing crisis, so I was helping a friend save his business in Monticello Illinois, when the mother of my now 3 children had a heart attack in 2009. I tried to hold on, with illness, bills, 3 children under 13 and a souring friendship the led to my family being evicted in January 2011. She and the children had to move back to California to stay with her family. I stayed behind to finish off jobs I had started and to pay debts, I followed in March. I did not get along with her family, so I slept on the street. I saw my kids all the time and by April had a motel room and was working for the contractor that was building the Double Tree Hotel in Anaheim. The mother of my 3 children & my best friend moved to Riverside to stay with her mother. When she moved in with her mother, she made me make her a promise and she held me to it. “That after the heart attack and all has happened, I would never be no more than an hour away from when the kids needed me”. So, In December 2011, I followed them to Riverside. The city where I first arrived in California.

I stayed at Hulen Place Homeless Shelter, close to 3rd & Chicago. I was working to find work and get a place. I found a job; with that job I got a motel room (to make room for the next person). With that motel room and the help from the tradesman who gave me the job I got an apartment on 5th St. & Lemon Street. in downtown Riverside. Just 2 blocks from the Universalist Unitarian Church of Riverside. In keeping with a promise, I made the mother of my 3 children and my best friend before she died in January 2014. I received my C-6 Contractor’s license in December 2019 and after renting space, buying equipment paying all the fees. I opened Jordan’s Custom Woodwork. Launch date January 1, 2020. Then January 2020 lock down COVID. Got through that. In 2022 I took the test and passed to get the B license, and I became a General Contractor. Then it happened. The Once Every 100 year; the 2023 atmospheric river. From January to May. Jordan’s Custom Woodwork, succumb to the rain delays, like so many other businesses. Overwhelmed with stress I suffered a stroke. With a heavy heart I had to shut Jordan’s Custom Woodwork completely down and file chapter 7 bankruptcy. After talking with CSLB and making sure we were in full and complete compliance. We restructured with a singular focus. Straighten out all issues if possible. Retain at least one client from Jordan’s Custom Woodwork and make sure we show them that their faith in us is well found.

 I have opened a new company, Artisan Historic Contracting, specializing in two things.

1. Historic Restoration
   • We match as close as possible every aspect of your structure’s restoration project to the finest possible detail.
2. Custom Home Building
   • We work closely with our clients, Designers and Architects to build the home of your dreams.

By combining restoration and custom home building we integrate the old and the new, provide our A) restoration clients with a wealth of design innovations and B) custom home clients, we give the unique ability to replicate a lost home with modern amenities that are blended into the design seamlessly.

One thing that I learned over the many years as a Artisan, and courses of my life is: A good maintainable foundation is the key. Even if all you have is a cardboard box to start, maintain it keep and use it as a jumping off point and or a fallback point. This will help you not be afraid to take small risks, just remember each mistake you made, and how you made them. Write them down if you must. Lookout for the warning signs for the first month and a half. Like I tell my 6 children. Please make mistakes but own them; and learn from them; for with every mistake comes a lesson. The mistake I was making was and from listening to others is only seeing the mistake and ignoring the accompanying lesson.

I still live just blocks away from the Universalist Unitarian Church of Riverside. And, in the churches annex building use to house, on the second floor in the rear for two years the offices of Jordan’s Custom Woodwork
To try to do my part, I developed a 5-month path out of homelessness program. I have developed the program to work for our youths, those newly released from incarceration, and our returning veterans. And ANYONE WHO NEEDS IT!

Remembering the Forgotten
G. Ellsworth Jordan (Founder)