Jon Stevens
PresidenT | CEO
At only 37 years old, Jon Stevens has more experience under his toolbelt than 99-percent of construction executives. The president and co-founder of Stevens Custom Homes framed his first house at just fourteen years old, and had built three houses before turning 19. His passion for building — and for people — has fueled him to become East Tennessee’s premier home builder. With the hands-on experience of an octogenarian but the quick mindedness and nimble adaptability of a thirty-something, Jon brings an unmatched element not just to the region, but to the industry.
Jon and his wife Sarah — high school sweethearts and Knoxville locals — founded Stevens Custom Homes on December 31, 2019 with the goal of making their hometown an even more beautiful place to live, adding value to their community, and supporting local businesses through that work. Their business has differentiated itself from the competition through unmatched quality control from start-to-finish, and functional design that incorporates lifestyle and personality into the architecture.
“We can start with a stock plan, but we don’t build it according to cookie cutter instructions,” says Jon. “We customize it around how you’re going to live in it — how are you going to enjoy and exist in this space? When you’ve got ideas and dreams, we always ask ‘why.’” Using two decades of experience with clients, he has insight into how and why people envision their homes, and is able to bring that vision to life with an intuition and foresight not found elsewhere.
Having held every position on a construction team at some point in his life — from framing crew to superintendent to president — Jon understands both the macro and micro of every project, and can answer literally any question a client may have. He can manage a team not only from the perspective of knowing what needs to be done, but knowing exactly how it can (and should) be done, what challenges each team member might face, and how to overcome them. He holds himself and his work to an impeccable standard, and the proof of that is evident in the pristine homes you’ll see in the East Tennessee area (or on the @stevenscustomhomes Instagram).
Jon is comfortable with people, and his clients feed off this energy; his non-abrasive brand of extroversion reads as easy comfort versus strident showmanship. While conversations about construction timelines, framing crews, and lumber budgets can strike fear and panic into the hearts of many, Jon’s ease, sense of humor, and penchant for hilarious storytelling allows even the most anxious of clients to unwind.
When Jon isn’t at the office or on the job site, he’s with his two young sons Walt and Tucker and his puppy Chonk, working out (to a killer playlist he made), grabbing a beer at Epcot in Walt Disney World, or finding the coolest new restaurant in Knoxville with his wife Sarah.
Sarah Stevens
Vice President | CFO
If Joanna Gaines, Marie Kondo, and Reese Witherspoon fused into one person — who also happened to be a financial expert, Jazzercise star, and Knoxville local — it would be Sarah Stevens, the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Stevens Custom Homes. In addition to managing the entirety of the budgets and finances at SCH, she’s the face of our social media, and shares tips on everything from where to find the best athleisure items to seasonal decorating 101 (while also moonlighting as a virtual Target personal-shopper-slash-shaman on Instagram).
With a discerning eye and a hyper-organized approach to life, managing multi-million-dollar spreadsheets is just one component of this co-founder and CFO’s day-to-day. Though she spent years in the financial field after earning her accounting degree from the University of Tennessee, she found her passion for entrepreneurship more recently. She and Jon realized their dream of creating a company of their own at the end of 2019, and this type of work (and the ability to work with clients on a more personal level) proved to be much more fulfilling for her than audits and cash flow forecasts alone.
Beyond the bottom lines and budgeting, Sarah brings the “home” to your home build experience, imbuing life and style to what can feel like a cut-and-dry — and honestly, sometimes unpleasant — process. While Jon handles the behind-the-scenes of drywall, permitting, and plumbing, Sarah sees the big picture for you; she will help you understand how it all fits together in your dream life, and keep you focused on what it will feel like to live in the space you’re creating — the things that make a house feel like your home, beyond the lumber, concrete, and shingles.
Sarah is constantly combing through the selections at East Tennessee’s local home furnishing and décor businesses, and working with Whitney to select décor for different projects (and the blog!), highlighting the best of what this region’s artisans have to offer. Whether you have a question about budget projections, the best spots in Knoxville for a killer brunch, or where to score the perfect treat yo’ self care item, consider her your personal advisor.
When she’s not in the office, our CFO is either at Jazzercise, buying plants, or with Jon and their two sons, two dogs, and three cats, exploring Knoxville … and most likely listening to Dolly Parton on her way to get iced coffee. You can also catch her and Jon running a half marathon at Walt Disney World at least once a year.
Whitney Shehane
Interior Designer | COO
Whitney Shehane — in founder Jon Stevens’ words — is “the most overqualified person on the team” at Stevens Custom Homes. With a degree in biomedical engineering already under her belt, Whitney went back to school to pivot, change careers, and become an architectural designer. Today, she’s Stevens Custom Homes’ in-house designer, drawing up blueprints, generating renderings, and helping select finishes and furniture for clients.
It’s not often you find a designer with an engineering degree and a bachelor of fine arts, but Whitney has always been primed to blend the right- and left-brain perspectives, achieving the ultimate balance of functionality and aesthetics. In fact, this Nashville native began her engineering career with the intention of bringing beauty and science together by designing prosthetic limbs.
Encouraged by a family of engineers — as well as her top grades in high level math and science coursework — Whitney excelled in her collegiate academic curriculum. However, she quickly found that despite the joy of problem solving and taking on new challenges in the engineering field, her “romantic” goal of designing beautiful and functional prosthetics that would “vastly improve the quality of someone's life,” would be unattainable. The reality of that prospective career trajectory involved much more mundane, menial work, with limited ability to connect with the overall design (and the end user).
Deciding that engineering wasn’t the right path ended up sharpening Whitney’s focus, and her new goal was crystal clear: she would bring the same problem-solving mindset and desire for aesthetic beauty and harmony into the world of interior design and architecture.
Whitney then earned her BFA from Watkins College of Art, Design & Film (where she graduated magna cum laude), and began her career at the Nashville Civic Design Center, eventually moving on to work with Live Nation at their Nashville headquarters. Before joining SCH in Knoxville, she honed her skills in commercial and residential design in “Music City,” and won a Historic Preservation Award for her renovation of the Hyde-Stephens Home (an iconic pre-Civil War estate).
Whitney’s ability to tap into and seamlessly blend two distinctly different ways of thinking — combined with her inherent eye for design and flawless execution — make her a second-to-none designer. She toggles between a right-dominant and left-dominant mindset while oscillating between technical blueprints and house plans, and artistic color and material selection. Clients are drawn toward her signature relaxed, textural style; she’s known for mixing textiles, materials, and mediums in a way that produces a stylish and luxe yet relaxing ambiance. With deep roots in the South, her designs are influenced by the rich architecture, culture, colors, flora, and fauna of the region.
When she’s in the office, Whitney is most likely drawing to a soundtrack that’s heavy on Fleet Foxes and The Shins. After hours, she’s with her husband and daughter, grabbing a treat at Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop, arranging flowers, having dinner at Kefi, or visiting the Knoxville Museum of Modern art where she and her husband were married.