Who
We Are
PJ Antonik
Founder, CEO
PJ is a Cape Cod native and grew up visiting his dad in Connecticut where he learned the family trade of Carpentry. Being surrounded by mechanics and trades people, he quickly learned additional trades including general contracting, landscaping and finish carpentry. PJ attended Hofstra University for communications and pursued a career in the corporate world building a knowledge base of marketing, sales and communications.
After years of corporate world experience, he started to take his skills as a manager and adapting them to his hands-on skills as a carpenter. The natural step was to start buying, fixing and selling real estate. His philosophy is to buy the cheapest houses in the most expensive neighborhoods, looking for the worst of the worst, the house everyone else turns their nose at. In his mind every house has potential, you just need to buy it right. Some just need a bit more love than others...
PJ resides in Hingham Ma and does home renovation projects across the South Shore of Massachusetts. He lives with his wife Lizzy, and their two kids.
Lizzy
Antonik
Lead Designer
What people don’t know is that for about 5 years Lizzy has moonlighted as the lead designer as she worked a full-time job in Athletics. As she helped her husband PJ pick all the finishes in the homes we realized it was a skill that takes real patience and creativity. Lizzy also came to the realization that this was something she loved and was incredibly good at! Since 2020 Lizzy now acts as the full-time Lead Designer at OAK DD. She is in charge of working with our team members to pick every finish in our spec homes while helping organize the flow of materials to meet our aggressive deadlines.
Meet
The Team
Jarrah Lankas
General Manager
An Australian native Jarrah moved to the states full-time 10 years ago and put his impressive list of skills to work as a project manager in construction. His avid talent as a carpenter, personable attitude, and unmatched attention to detail make for the perfect mix of skills to be a PM. (Not to mention his accent, people love it…)
Jarrah joined the Oak team in 2018 as a part-time PM and within two weeks went full time. He runs the day-to-day on our projects and keeps the wheels turning at lighting speed. Jarrah lives with his two kids and his wife in Hull.
Melanie Chandler-Blood
Creative Marketing Manger
Melanie graduated with a BFA in Ceramics from MA College of Art & Design. After graduating, she attended Tufts University earning a Master of Arts in Teaching. She began her career as a High School Art Educator Over the past 10 years, Melanie has led workshops, professional development, and also served on the Alumni Leadership Board at MassArt. Melanie's fearless mind and creative eye led her to take a chance at a new career as the Creative Marketing Manager. At Oak DD as the company's photographer and digital marketing creator Melanie continues to work as an artist on the side and lives on the South Shore with her wife Devan.
Cindy Bello
Director of Finance & Human Resources
Cindy grew up alongside her little brother PJ here in New England. Early in her life, Cindy knew that a path in finance would serve her well. She became a Certified Public Accountant during her time with Grant Thornton, spent time in the the private sector as a Financial Controller and moved quickly to Financial and Human Resource Consulting when starting her own family.
Cindy has been with OAK since the start, lending support and advice first in a non-official capacity. As time has gone by, she has taken on a more full-time role focused on the financial, accounting and human resource aspects of the business.
Kati Finneran
Junior Designer
Kati graduated with an associates degree in Interior Design from New England Institute of Technology. She believes that home is the most important place in our lives and it should be carefully designed and built for our specific needs. Her philosophy is that designs should be approachable, livable, and support the overall well-being of its occupants. Having a home people love is what drives Kati as a designer. To her, the most important aspects of design are using a creative mix of textures and materials that keep an authentic connection to nature. Kati has a wide range of technical and creative skills that allow her to create the feeling of home through design for our clients. "
Leigh K. Roy
Senior Accountant
Leigh has more than 15 years of financial real estate experience, including working with both U.S and international real estate advisors of various sizes. She is responsible for managing the daily accounting operations, all financial reporting and establishing proper accounting policies and procedures. She is a proud resident of Hingham where she raises two young children with her husband Adam. She donates much of her time and skills to fundraising campaigns and events on the South Shore and is the Treasurer for the Hingham Girls Softball organization.
Rochelle Terranova
Office Manager
Rochelle joins the team after her retirement from a successful career as a paralegal for Boston and New York area law firms. She has always been passionate about home decor and dreamed of a second career working with those as enthusiastic about development and design as she is. From corporate mergers and acquisitions to real estate acquisitions, Rochelle has found her dream job as Oak’s office manager. Rochelle hopes to put all her hours watching HGTV to good use as she decorates her new home in Hull. She looks forward to entertaining family and friends, and watching her granddaughter play in her new backyard.
Kyle King
Digital Content Creator
Kyle is a Cape Cod native who graduated with a bachelors degree in film and computer science from San Diego State University. Kyle is most comfortable behind the scenes creating content for social media, filming for Heart of Oak, and editing for the show. He is an avid traveler and environmentalist, who is attempting to visit every country in the world. In his spare time, he loves to ski, scuba dive, and discover new places through the lens of his camera.
Renee Griffin
Senior Producer HOO TV
Renee is a Massachusetts native and career producer who joined Heart of Oak mid-way through our Season 2 production. The show was poised for a major growth spurt so her timing was perfect for this new adventure. When Renee isn’t building budgets and sending out daily schedules, you can find her running around Hingham making sure our cameras don’t miss a thing! Partnering with PJ, she transitioned the production to our new broadcast home NECN and NBC Sports Boston and will launch Season 4 in Fall of 2021. Renee is truly “at home” with Heart of Oak.
Tom O'Brien
Assistant Project Manager
Tom grew up in Pennsylvania where he started out working for his father’s real estate company focusing on commercial and industrial developments. He received a bachelor’s degree from Merrimack College in Business Administration. In 2020, Tom was awarded the Gold PRISM Award for Rising Star of the Year for his accomplishments and performance within the Construction and Home Building Industry. Tom joined the Oak team in 2021 as an Assistant Project Manager. He assists in securing building permits and overseeing our projects from preliminary review through final sign-off.
Jason Margaca
Director/DP
Jason is an industry veteran with chops on set and beyond. Tapping his directing skills on large commercial projects, he came on board during season 3 and has been working closely on set with PJ as well as the production team, always willing to go beyond his titled role. If you go behind the scenes, Jason might be watering the grass, getting his hands dirty, or helping out with the corps team. Working with a small team, Jason has really enjoyed his tenure at Heart of Oak and looking forward to continuing to develop the vision.
Style: Louie Style, Weymouth MA Makeup: Gabriel Maldonado
Hair: Ashley Melanson at AZ Studio Location: The Newburyport Studio
Where
It All Started
When we started to look at office spaces we were rudely reminded that overhead is tough! We also found it hard to invest money in someone else’s space to make it look right and still have to pay rent
So that made us think… How can we create a space that shows our design, vision, and craftsmanship without renting something? The ultimate goal was to buy a small commercial space but at the time, we needed to grow and we needed a cost-effective spot to work at other than Starbucks.
We started to think, what about a job site trailer?
But not one of those metal terrible looking ones, but rather a high-quality long-lasting Tiny House office?!
We worked with our partners at Tiny Foundations Northeast out of Lime, CT to determine the best trailer for our needs. We then gave our desired floor-plan and they helped build us a steel framing plan to build the outside walls. Ultimately, we wanted to stay as true to the Tiny House culture as we could while keeping it practical for our use.
In the end, we built a functional, cost-effective Tiny House that was the perfect design until we could buy a traditional office building. Today, the Tiny House is parked next to our new OakDD office in Hingham, MA and Is used daily by the design meetings, and home to our weekly podcast Half in the Toolbag.
How
It's Going
After many cramped hours in the tiny house, we found the perfect place for our expanding team to call home. Situated along Hingham Harbor, Oak DD's new office allows our team to work faster, more diligently, and most importantly comfortably.
The new office is our day to day hub for all things Oak. This is where we host design meetings, draw up new plans for upcoming builds, and even edit for our TV show Heart of Oak. If you're in the area, and want to talk business, we will gladly give you a tour, an espresso, and chat about how we can help you with your home goals.
Stay tuned and check back for the latest updates and news as our team continues to grow. We have many exciting upcoming projects, builds, and ideas that we hope to share with you.