Our People
JEFF BROOKS â Owner
VELUX Five-Star Certified Skylight Specialist
Following Buff's passing in 2016 Mr. Brooks took over as owner. He joined the Houseworks team in 2007 when he purchased part of the firm. Prior to that he had run a successful custom millwork company and had spent over 20 years in the securities industry dealing in institutional fixed-income securities. An avid woodworking hobbyist, he brought many innovative solutions to certain installation challenges and has been a champion of employing innovative technologies to assure a smoothly running organization. Those innovations help keep costs in check allowing Houseworks to be highly competitive in bidding skylight installations.
LEANN LEDGERWOOD â CEO
 VELUX Five-Star Certified Skylight Specialist
Following Buff's passing Leann took over as Chief Operations Officer. Her attention to detail and her extensive business and bookkeeping background have made her a very valuable and important part of the management team. Leann was actually our first employee and she has helped us grow in many ways. YES, she is a graduate of the VELUX Five-Star Skylight Specialist program.  Even though Leann will not be installing skylights on your roof, she feels it is important to know about the products we sell and the process required to install them properly. Leann may be the first Houseworks personality you meet as it is she who answers the phone with our cheerful âHow May We Brighten Your DayâÂ.
LEE COLLINS â Manager and Senior Estimator
Five-Star Certified Skylight Specialist
Lee manages our Iowa office and has been in the window and glass business for over ten years. Formerly with a Pella Windows dealer, Lee has seen his share of old skylights that need to be replaced. He brings more experience to Houseworks Daylighting Solutions of Iowa than his age might predict. Lee grew up in South-central Iowa, graduated from UNI and is married with three children. He covers all of central Iowa for both residential and commercial skylight applications.
MARK BECKER â Estimator
VELUX Five-Star Certified Skylight Specialist
Mark is our senior estimator in Illinois and has been in the skylight and window business since 2006.  He brings a great deal of experience to his job and approaches each opportunity as a consultant might.  Very customer oriented, Mark enjoys finding solutions others may have missed. Our customers find Mark to be a straight-shooter who tells it pretty much the way it is. Mark lives in Tinley Park with his wife and three teenage children.
LARRY ZINTAK â FOREMAN
VELUX Five-Star Certified Skylight Specialist
Larry joined Houseworks in 2016 and quickly established himself as a go-to guy whenever our customers presented us with a difficult installation. Larry is very resourceful and seems to figure out solutions to some of our most complicated installations. He joined us as a journeyman carpenter and his experience and knowledge recently earned him a promotion to Foreman. In this roll Larry supervises all our installers and their installations. He reviews every job that comes in and makes certain each is properly quoted and that the are installing the correct products. Employing installers with Larryâs abilities is what makes Houseworks special; we simply will not put rookies on a skylight installation.
TOM EDSON â ESTIMATOR
VELUX Five-Star Certified Skylight Specialist
Tom comes to Houseworks with a wealth of experience in both the construction and real estate markets. He is a licensed real estate agent and owns a successful remodeling company; needless to say, Tom is a go-getter. With his background he is well suited to help our customers make good choices when it come to installing skylights. He understands the economic value skylights can add to a property. Tom will be handling leads in Northern Cook County. He is a Purdue graduate. In his spare time Tom is a Boy Scout Leader and loves the outdoors.
NICK SMITH â INSTALLER
VELUX Five-Star Certified Skylight Specialist
Nick joined Houseworks in 2020 coming to us from a local remodeling company. He has been able to translate that experience to become one of our lead installers. We get lots of very positive calls from customers who like his bright smile and winning way in additoin to his very competent workmanship. Outside of work Nick appreciates the outdoors and spending quality time with his fiancee and two children. Together they enjoy watching any and all motorsports. The family lives far South in Kankakee County. Nick says he enjoys âbrightening our customerâs dayâ.
JULIO CORONA â INSTALLER
VELUX Signature Skylight Specialist
Julio may be one of the nicest guys weâve ever hired. He comes to us from an appliance installation company where he worked with homeowners to install new refrigerators and stoves. He has taken to skylights well and breezed through the VELUX training. Our customers love him and praise his workmanship and attention to detail. Quiet and not much for conversation, Julio gets to the job on time and gets it done. He lives with his wife and young family in Glenview.
DAVID RAMIREZ â INSTALLER
VELUX Signature Skylight Specialist
David worked for us last year for several months and was hired away by a competitor who offered him more money. After several months he realized that the job he had at Houseworks was so much better that he came back to us. We are delighted to have him back almost as much as he is glad to be back. David is a skilled installer who seems comfortable even on the steepest roofs. A real believer in safety, David is always wearing his safety harness and is careful to remain tethered whenever heâs working on a roof. He lives with his daughter and significant other in Tinley Park. A devoted father, David spends much of his time off with his kids.
JORGE MARTINEZ â ASSISTANT INSTALLER
VELUX Signature Skylight Specialist
Jorge takes after his brother Julio as being a genuinely nice guy. He joined Houseworks this summer after Julio recommended him. His job is to prepare the skylights for installation and assist the installers with anything from running to Depot or Lowes for materials to cleaning up the job site. Jorge is a fast learner and is moving toward becoming a certified installer. He has already completed VELUX Signature Skylight installation training and should be installing skylights and Sun Tunnel by this time next year.
FRANKIE ROMEO â DELIVERY DRIVER AND WAREHOUSE ASSISTANT
VELUX Signature Skylight Specialist
Frankie was my neighbor and joined Houseworks last spring after working at Lowes and the Village of Lake Forest. He handles our significant delivery work bringing skylights, flashings and materials to our installation crews and to roofers and contractors that purchase from us. A typical morning might find Frankie in Aurora at the VELUX Distribution Center picking up skylights to deliver to a crew in Orland Park...then back to Houseworks to accept several pallets of skylights from VELUX and stack them away. Frankie now lives with his significant other in Lindenhurst. He is a hard worker so you will seldom see Frankie sitting around doing nothing.
Ryan Zimmerman â Weather By Request
Ryan Zimmerman -- and his company "Weather By Request" is employed by Houseworks to help us schedule jobs relative to predicted weather conditions. Many times Ryan has advised us to proceed with a job on days bad weather is forecast by accurately predicting when and where the rain may arrive. Ryan and his meteorological skills are an important component affecting the services we provide.
BUFF HOFFBERGÂ Â Â 1951 â 2016
IN MEMORIAM TO OUR FOUNDER
Buff Hoffberg left us on April 1st, 2016 after a valiant struggle with cancer. Houseworks Daylighting Solutions is a result of Buff's vision and our success is largely due to his efforts.  He opened Houseworks in 2001 selling only tubular skylights.   When he passed in 2016 the company was one of the largest VELUX Five-Star Dealers and well on its way to $3 million in annual sales with offices in Illinois and Iowa. We will miss Buff's glass-half-full attitude, his guidance and his thorough knowledge of skylights...and of course Buff himself.
