Visit a Hammer Construction site and you'll probably run into project manager Niki Magdelenic, clad in her hard hat, blueprints in hand, meticulously directing construction down to the finest detail at one of the company's many home sites in northwest Cape Coral.
Your start? I was a single mom in Vegas and I needed to make a lot of money. I worked for NBC there and almost starved to death. A couple of construction guys took me under their wing and showed me how to do everything. I learned how to construct stairs and I ended up working in developments, running my own crew and building additions and remodels. I moved to Albuquerque but decided it was too cold to be swinging a hammer outside, so then I moved to Florida.
Your workload? I've been in construction for 18 years, but each house is custom-built with different engineering. Each one usually takes about nine months to complete, and I work on nine or 10 at a time.
Manual labor? I was a tomboy growing up and I'm not one to be inside an office all day. I run on solar batteries so I have to be outside to recharge them. My heart lies in building something, so that at the end of the day I can step back and look at what I've created. Construction is a great fit for me.
A man's world? In Vegas I was the only female framer anywhere. It used to bother me. The guys would ask me if I was the homeowner and would be surprised when I told them I was the superintendent. They are skeptical until I show them what I can do and that I take pride in it.
-Rebecca Loveridge
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