Jennifer Beaman Pippin, FAIBD, CPBD, CGP owner of Pippin Home Designs, Inc., is a nationally acclaimed Residential Design Specialist and a recognized expert in sustainable and green building practices, with a focus on creating new homes and renovation projects. Pippin owns a green home and studio, which has been open for tours, as a teaching resource on living sustainably.
She goes by ‘Jenny’ or ‘Pippin’ and grew up in eastern NC on a working tobacco farm, working in the field with her family from the time she could walk until she got her driver’s license and could get a ‘real’ job. She cropped tobacco, drove the tractor’s and loaded and unloaded the barns, even going on Saturday mornings to the warehouse with her uncle and cousin to assist her uncle, the auctioneer, in marking the sold bales of tobacco for $2.00/day. Her first real job was as a stock room clerk for a children’s clothing store, unpacking tagging and putting new merchandise on the floor during the week and cleaning the store on the weekends. After graduation from High School, she worked as a waitress at a Pizza Hut, then a Steakhouse in Raleigh for a couple of years, to put herself through college, first at NSCU for a couple of semesters, then on to Wake Technical College, where she received her degree in Architectural Technology. All the while working to support herself and an abusive alcoholic mostly unemployed husband, who was her high school ‘sweetheart’.
Jenny worked at a local design firm during her last year of college through their coop program, then after graduation worked at a large spec home builder for several years and divorced her husband. Later, she met and married her second husband who was a land surveyor, whom she met doing drafting work on the side for them. They moved into a passive solar home in the country and Jenny was intrigued with this style of architecture and began to study solar and energy efficient design and was determined to share this knowledge with others. Jenny was being ‘green’ long before it was in vogue. During this time she was involved in a serious car accident where she was run off the road by a car that left the scene of the accident, which left her in a body cast with a broken back, laid up horizontal for months, until she could be placed in a back brace and was allowed to work again part time for a while. After her recovery, she went to work for a small custom home design firm and learned this is where her passion would take her. She then moved with her second husband to Lake Norman and began her own Design firm full time. After 14 years, she divorced her second husband, who had created a highly successful land surveying company with her help, but blew it all getting involved in cocaine. He lost his business, his wife, his home his friends and eventually his own life.
Jenny went on to buy her own home and renovated it in 1999, then buying and renovating her own office building in 2004. Jenny met Wes in 2004 and they were married in 2005. In December of 2006 they began the process of an extensive renovation to their home, which ultimately became a certified ‘green built home’ and Jenny moved her office into their new home Studio and put her office building on the market for sale in Jan. 2008. During this time, Jenny became very successful with her firm until the bottom fell out in October 2008 with the economic collapse. Every client she had at that time put their projects on hold and Jenny and her staff were left with nothing at all to do. She had finally assembled the best team she had ever worked with and she had to let them all go.
The bank she had financed her office building with through an SBA loan swooped in quickly and foreclosed on her building, since it didn’t sell right away, after refusing to work with her in any way to make different payment arrangements, refinance, etc. This was an incredible blow to her self-esteem, as she and her building were both very well known in the community. Shortly thereafter she began the process of fighting the bank on her own home foreclosure and went ‘down the rabbit hole’ of learning about the fraud in the financial industry, as well as in all aspects of our lives, and learned that it was going to take ‘intestinal fortitude’ to stand up to the system, as one friend put it to her. Jenny was upset, very angry and up to the challenge! She stopped making payments on a rental home they owned, stopped on both of her business credit lines and on all of their credit cards, when they decided they would no longer aid and abet they corrupt system and started down a path of learning various remedies to their situation and to save their home from the bank theft.
She fought the bank’s trustee and attorney at numerous hearings at the Clerk of Court’s office where she objected to the foreclosure of their home on 3 separate occasions. She actually prepared documents on her own without a lawyer, utilizing suggestions and templates, along with loads of research, and moved their case to Federal Court where she demanded a jury trial in a quest to have the truth of the matter heard in open court. After 2 and a half years filing into the case various documents, Courtesy Notices and Affidavits, none of which were ever rebutted by the bank, along with over a year time period where the bank never even responded to the first filing, the judge remanded their case back to state court, refusing to grant a trial by jury and have the truth exposed in his court room, where it would have set precedent for other homeowners to follow. He knew the Clerk of Court would not be required by ‘law’ to look at any of the evidence Jenny had filed into the case. The lawyer for the bank quickly set up the next hearing date and the Clerk allowed Jenny to speak her mind, quote numerous codes and statutes related to the case, and the attorney and Clerk denied all evidence, whereby the Clerk signed the order for foreclosure. Jenny stood up over the Clerk, looking down upon her and basically told the Clerk that she was “corrupt” and aiding and abetting the corrupt system, whereby the Clerk threatened Jenny with contempt of court and asked Jenny if she wanted to spend the night in jail, whereby Jenny said no, she did not intend to do that. The Clerk did not follow through with her threat, but did hand her a wet ink signature original signed ‘Order’ for Foreclosure.
Jenny immediately filed a Notice of Appeal into the case the next day and then the Clerk’s assistant called to say that they would not stay the sale of their home without them paying $10,000 non-refundable money. Jenny and Wes refused to pay the money and the sale was held 21 days later on the courthouse steps. Jenny and a friend witnessed the ‘sale’ and served the substitute trustee who conducted the sale with a Courtesy Notice. Then, Jenny and wes moved out of their beloved home into a rental house, all the while maintaining their home, keeping the electric on, mowing the yard, and keeping their boat on the dock, and moving a few others they met through the OPAL gatherings into their home, even hosting the OPAL tour in December. By the time their one year lease was up at their rental in February of this year, they decided to move back into their home since nothing was happening with their lake home. Then, 4 days later they received a letter from the lawyer with the Notice of Appeal Hearing date scheduled for March 10th. Jenny asked the lawyer to postpone the Hearing, but they refused.
At the hearing Jenny and Wes submitted a Praecipe into the case, along with their I AM documents and Declaration of Rejection. The judge acknowledged seeing the Praecipe in the file, even asking what it was on the record, then proceeded to ignore the documents and dismissed the Appeal. Jenny continued to file more documents into the case, whereby the Clerk ordered her assistants not to time and date stamp any more of Jenny’s documents into the case file, as it was now considered a ‘closed’ case. Since then, Jenny has recorded into the Catawba County Register of Deeds a 112 page filing, where she uses the I AM documents as the underwriting and grounding documents for cause, for cancelling the original DEED OF TRUST and all subsequent alleged contract documents, along with cancelling the Order for Foreclosure and the Order Dismissing the Appeal.
So, here we are 6 years later and a literally a truck load of documents completed and Jenny and Wes still have their home, the bank continues to mail letters stating that “the loan terms originally agreed to in the transaction documents you signed remain valid and enforceable throughout the life of the loan. These terms are in no way compromised, altered or amended by your sending this correspondence”. Yes, the Sheriff has yet to send his deputy’s out to evict them.
Jenny is a fighter, determined to stand up for what she believes is right, to expose the truth. Her many credentials include: a Certified Professional Building Designer (CPBD) since 1989, and is a professional member of the American Institute of Building Design (AIBD) since 1988; Pippin holds diplomas in Classical Architecture, Green Building and Renewable Energy Technologies and is a Certified Green Professional, with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). She is also the past chair of the Lake Norman HBA Green Building Council and a well-known speaker and lecturer on Green Building and Sustainable Living practices. She was recently nominated as a Fellow in the AIBD, the highest ranking membership level in her professional organization.
She is the recipient of numerous design and business achievement awards, including: the ‘Environmental Leadership’ award in 2013, by the Charlotte Hornets’ Nest Girl Scouts Council; the 2009 ‘50 Most Influential Women of the Year’ award from Mecklenburg Times; in 2008, The Charlotte Business Journal recognized Pippin with three Green awards: Green For-Profit Business of the Year, Green Advocate of the Year and Green Residential Renovation Project of the Year and she also received the Special Project – Green Renovation Stars Award, from the NC Homebuilders Association for her own home. In addition, she was awarded the prestigious 2004 Charlotte Woman Business Owner of the Year Award, from the National Association for Women Business Owners; the 2004 Top 25 Women in Business Achievement award, by the Charlotte Business Journal; and the 2008 Top Women Business Leader in the Golden Crescent award, from Business Today.
With 30 years of experience in Residential Design, her award-winning homes can be found all around the Lake Norman area in NC and multiple states nationwide, featured in numerous local and national magazines, and in television programs including HGTV, NASCAR Today, and Desperate Design. The vital concepts of environmental consciousness, Universal Design, and Feng Shui are all combined and incorporated into every project she creates.
Her many local and national awards and credentials speak to her professional capability. The homes she and her firm designs reflect the diversity and uniqueness that has given her the reputation as the Green Home designer for "homes with a view." Pippin utilizes the natural features of the site, the views and the movement of the sun across the property, to create a comfortable home uniquely suited to its environment, providing healthy, durable and loveable homes, incorporating the unique visions of each individual client, to make them authentic to the homeowner and the site.
Increasing her talents and expertise, Pippin regularly attends continuing education courses and workshops, learning about energy efficiency, solar design, universal design, the various market segments, high performance home design, renewable energy technologies, etc. These qualities speak to her commitment to remain on the cutting edge of design, for the ultimate benefit of her clients.
Phone: 704-363-8037
Physical Address: 7390 Gabriel Street, Sherrills Ford, NC 28673
Mailing Address: 516-D River Highway, PMB 174, Mooresville, NC 28117
