When you see her on a jobsite, hear her talk about her work or watch as she accepts yet another prestigious award, it’s easy to assume that construction, renovations, and Interior Design were always in the cards for Krista Paine.
Today, she’s an award-winning Renovator, Home Builder, Interior Designer, as well as a Certified Red Seal Carpenter and now the owner/operator of Ian Paine Construction (IPC) and Design, but Krista initially had a different path in mind.
“I knew I wanted to run my own business one day,” she says. “But I wasn’t sure if it would have anything to do with construction and I really wasn’t sure if it would be my dad’s successful construction company.”
After spending some time studying business at SFU, she discovered an exciting alternative. “I talked to a few friends who were doing the Interior Design program at BCIT, and it sounded like the most amazing program I had ever heard of,” Krista laughs.
She attended BCIT, became a Registered Interior Designer, and worked for a few different companies before 2012, when she officially joined her dad, Ian at IPC, adding her design expertise to the company’s service repertoire.
Fast forward to 2016, when Krista and Ian were awarded the company’s first Gold at the annual Tommie Awards for the very first home they built and designed together. Being selected as a finalist is a huge accomplishment in itself, but winning Excellence in Single Family between $1M and $1.5M for their very first collaborative project was unexpected.
“It’s honestly hard to describe what the excitement is like when you’re sitting there at the gala surrounded by hundreds of your industry peers and they call your name,” says Krista.
Since then, her company has won an impressive slew of awards, including Canada’s 2020 Renovator of the Year.
Krista has definitely found her niche, and is happy to say that the joy her work brings her makes any uncertainty she experienced earlier in life worth it. Every decision she made or side-step she took brought her here.
“When I was taking over the business, I was not only a single mom, but I was entering a male-dominated field,” she explains. “I remember being really concerned with what other people thought about me, and that was challenging.”
What kept her going was the love of her work, the support of her family and letting go of the idea that she had to do everything the “right” way.
“You don’t have to have everything figured out from the start,” she says. “For me, I’ve been lucky enough that whenever something didn’t go as planned, I almost always came out the other end better than before.”
And, she adds, if you’re ever feeling stuck, remember that there are more opportunities than you can count just waiting for you to find them.
“Whether you have kids, whether you’re a single mom, whether you don’t feel you have enough experience or education, whether you’re a female in a male dominated industry, whatever your situation is—there is always opportunity out there to do what you love and what makes you happy.”
--
This article was originally published in the inaugural edition of I Am Woman, a magazine celebrating female leadership in the Okanagan. Read more stories of exceptional local women.
If you appreciate what we do, we ask that you consider supporting our local independent news platform.
If you get value from KelownaNow and believe local independent media is important to our community we ask that you please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter.
