Welcome to LUGO Homes

My story, and my company’s story, go back to my parents who grew up in Brazil. My dad lived in the slums of Brazil and eventually worked for my mom’s dad in his bakery. The two fell in love and, long story short, after years of trying to be together, against the desires of my grandfather, they married and moved to the US where they had, and raised, my brother and me, outside of Chicago, IL.

I had a wonderful childhood and although we weren’t rich I never remember feeling like we didn’t have enough. My dad worked hard and eventually settled on being a truck driver which he did for many years to provide for our family. The big downside was that he was gone most of the week. At a young age, I began working for my friend’s dad’s company doing large-scale renovations. Not only did I learn a great deal about construction, I realized I had a natural ability to do that type of work and I enjoyed it.

I continued doing this work as I went to college at Northern Illinois University, where I studied Business and Spanish. After graduating, I moved to Nashville, TN and worked for years in sales and marketing. I finally landed back in construction working at Pulte Homes in OH. I lived in OH for 3 years and decided to move back to Nashville to be closer to family and friends. I then worked a short time in commercial construction before going back to Pulte and then jumping off on my own to start LUGO Homes, LLC.

This story, just like the significance of my company name, now comes full circle. LUGO is a combination of my parents’ names (Lenita and Hugo) and the logo of LUGO is actually written in my father’s handwriting, who is no longer with us today. An important part of what my company does is use a portion of our profits to build homes in Honduras for families just like my father’s.