Kelly Kirk, Owner and President of Greymark Design + Build, has a particular way of describing what she stepped into when she took the helm.

"For such a small woman, she left some pretty big shoes to fill," she said of her mother, Leslie King. "Looks like I have some work to do. And some award-winning too."

On Episode 150 of Builder Stories, Kelly talked about what that work has actually looked like, how a woman who grew up in her mother's business ended up running one of Houston's most recognized design-build firms, and what it takes to build something that lasts past the person who started it.

She Grew Up in This Business

Kelly grew up watching her mother carve a path that did not yet exist. Leslie King started her career as one of the first female mud engineers at Imco Services, worked her way through sales and management, found her way to realty, and eventually found her calling in design and build.

By 2001 she was the Remodelers Council's first-ever female president. By 2015, the GHBA's second. She built Greymark through a period when women in construction were the exception, not the rule, earning 62 awards and a reputation in Houston that reached well beyond the industry.

None of that was abstract to Kelly. She went to job sites as a kid. She ran payroll as a teenager. When she came to her mother and explained why her bank balance did not tie to her net profit, Leslie listened.

"She respected me enough and my education enough to actually listen to what I was saying," Kelly said, "and see me as an equal in that regard." That respect went both ways, and it tells you something about both women.

In 2017, Kelly approached Leslie and said she was ready to come on board. She had spent years building the credentials to do it right: a finance degree, a master's in accounting, a CPA. This was not an accidental succession. It was a deliberate choice by someone who had spent her whole life watching a business be built and knew exactly what it would take to carry it forward.

The Work at the Center of It All

Kelly built the process that lets the work define itself. At Greymark, the building designer and interior designer work together from the first conversation through the final walkthrough, with one team accountable for the entire project. Kelly locks cost in a fixed-price contract before demolition starts. The team that designs a project builds it. No handoffs, no translation errors, no one who moves on before the job is done.

The portfolio shows what that process produces. Southgate won a GHBA PRISM Award. Ship(lap) Happens, a whole-house renovation of a Woodland Heights home where original 1920s shiplap was discovered in the walls and became the defining character of the finished space, earned a PRISM finalist honor. Dated to Dreamy took a 1970s Memorial Villages kitchen that had not been updated in decades and turned it into something a young family actually wants to live in.

The awards matter. But Kelly's measure is simpler, and to her, more important. "We can help a lot of people live their best lives," she said. That is what the work points toward.

Kelly became the Remodelers Council's third female president in 2023. Leslie would have expected nothing less.

Building a Company, Not Just Running One

"Leslie King is not a process," Kelly said. That was the work: taking a company built on one remarkable person and building the systems and structure that would let it keep being remarkable without depending on anyone to hold it together through sheer force of personality.

She looked for resources the way she looks for everything: practically and without ego. Her peer roundtable group, Remodelers Advantage, became a genuine sounding board.

"They are fantastic, wonderful human beings," she said. "They are a large reason why I'm standing here."

A business coach worked with her on the day-to-day discipline of running the company. She thought she needed complicated analysis. What actually helped was a simple revenue spreadsheet, working in one and three-month windows. She was a CPA who came to understand that the most powerful tool is sometimes the simplest one.

Right People, Right Seats

Kelly will tell you that hiring is one of the most important things she does. She learned early that the right seat matters as much as the right person. At one point she moved someone out of project management and into estimating, where he had far more relevant knowledge than anyone had recognized.

"He has been thriving in that role," she said.

She also demonstrates exactly the kind of judgment that makes a good leader: knowing when someone else is the better fit for a role, even when that means stepping out of it herself. When she recognized that estimating was not where she added the most value, she moved out of it and put the right person in. The company got better for it.

The results are in the longevity of the people who stayed. Jenn Chen, Greymark's Office Manager, has been with the company 17 years. Jorge Arreola, Building Designer, 11 years. Javier Gonzalez, Senior Project Manager, 8 years. Troy Ziller, Estimator, 7 years. In a construction industry where that kind of tenure is unusual, those numbers reflect something specific about how it feels to work there.

"Allowing my team to be able to take care of their health has allowed them to be able to do a better job," Kelly said. She is also proud, genuinely and visibly, of watching people grow. One team member now just goes ahead and implements things without asking, because the trust is that solid. "It is the coolest thing to see this happening," she said, "and I just get to sit back and watch it."

"My why," she added, "is to create a safe and non-judgmental place to help others bloom."

What She's Building Now

Kelly has a one, three, five, seven, and ten-year plan, with org charts, budget assumptions, and salary projections mapped to each. She did not describe this as unusual. She described it as obvious.

"I need to know where I'm going in ten years, but I also need to know what I need to do in between to get there and how to make sure I'm on track."

The vision is growth of the right kind: large enough to serve more Houston families who want to stay in the homes and neighborhoods they love, structured so that the people she has built up have room to grow into something of their own.

"The goal is to get to a point where we're large enough to have a really good amount of clients," Kelly said, "where we can help a lot of people live their best lives."

Leslie started that work. Kelly is building the company that carries it forward.

You can hear the full conversation on Episode 150 of Builder Stories.

Learn more about Kelly and the Greymark team.

Greymark Design + Build is an award-winning, woman-owned design-build firm in Houston, TX. We specialize in kitchen remodels, bathroom remodels, home additions, and whole-house renovations. See our work or learn how we do it.