Defying expectations on and off the job site

Delainey Larocque never thought she would work in an office. She tried it once at the start of her career, and it didn’t take long for her to realize it wasn’t the right fit.

“I was working a desk job for the company my Dad worked at in Alberta, and it was definitely not for me,” she laughs. “One day they needed some shelves built in a seacan and I was happy to do it. I left the office to build those shelves and basically never went back inside.”

Instead, Delainey, who had previously worked at the saw mill in her rural Northern BC hometown at the age of sixteen, found other work at the company that was more suited to her interests. She ran machinery and did odd jobs until she decided it was time to pursue a career in the trades more seriously.

“I’ve worked on just about every kind of job site you could think of,” Delainey says. “I worked on a rock crusher, ran equipment at a mine, took a logging job, did labouring jobs of all kinds and then went into marine construction.” She then went on to complete four years of carpentry school to get her journeyman ticket.

At almost every single one of these jobs, Delainey was the only woman working on the job site.

“It was weird sometimes, especially when I worked at camps,” she says. “There weren’t even facilities built in some of those places for female workers.”

But Delainey refused to let anyone or anything convince her that she didn’t belong. “I was always determined to prove myself. I wasn’t always the strongest person on site, but I could outwork just about anyone.”

Unfortunately, Delainey’s unwavering dedication to being the hardest worker on site eventually took a toll on her body. While working in marine construction in Kelowna, she sustained an injury that changed the shape of her career. She was no longer able to do hard labour, making the kind of work she had been doing her whole adult life unsustainable.

And that’s where LUX Quality Homes came in. A design build company that specializes in custom homes and comprehensive renovations, LUX was looking to hire a project coordinator with a solid construction background and experience on the ground.

“They had actually offered me a job before,” Delainey remembers. “I was so certain I wouldn’t be able to do the desk job part. But then after my injury, I knew it was time to slow down.”

She was unphased by jobs that would make most people nervous and never let anything or anyone on a job site hold her back, but Delainey was terrified that she wouldn’t succeed in a more office-focused job.

But then, she surprised herself.

“I can’t believe how much I love working for LUX,” Delainey says. “I’m still connected to the construction world, and now I get to build relationships with clients during a really exciting time.”

Among the things Delainey loves about the team at LUX is their integrity, transparency and of course, the exceptional quality of their work.

“This isn’t something I ever thought I would be doing,” she admits. “But LUX is a place I want to stay and grow for a long time.”