MEET THE
OWNERS
David King
CRAFTSMAN,
FIELD MANAGER
David King was born and raised in Michigan (but we won't hold that against him). After enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps, he traveled the country and trained in aviation ordnance.
His final unit was in Warner Robins, Ga., where he met his future wife. He liked the state so much that he decided to stay in Georgia after he got out of the Marines. It wasn’t long before he was saying y’all.
David has always had a love of designing and building things, and creativity found him at a young age. Some of his earliest memories include designing with Legos, and drawing. Art was always his favorite subject in school. He enjoyed drawing and painting … anything to flex his creative muscle.
Before joining the Marines David had an interest in custom cars and concept design and was in school for automotive repair. He especially loved painting and welding. His creative design work was particularly popular with area motorcycle owners, who swamped him with requests.
After getting married in 2014, he found his passion in woodworking and custom builds. He has built his wife a houseful of useful items including built-in bench seats in their sunroom, a coffee table, and an amazing peninsula in their kitchen.
David went on to do home and small commercial repairs for clients for many years before deciding to team up with his wife.
His other interests include woodworking, watching Michigan football, hockey, International Motor Sports Association racing and smoking meat on his Big Green Egg.
He's never met a stranger and you'll get to know him well when he serves as your project manager.
Kate King
DESIGNER,
OFFICE MANAGER
Kate King is an original Georgia peach, born and raised in Snellville.
Kate was creative at a young age. Her earliest memories include painting, drawing, designing clothes for her Barbies and dreaming up new ways to decorate her bedroom. One of her favorite memories was when her maternal grandmother gave her an interior design kit with Styrofoam furniture. She used that to design her dream house when she was a mere 8 years old.
In addition to art, she has always had an interest in business. She showed her entrepreneurial spirit by starting a successful pet sitting business and a hand-poured candle business before graduating from high school.
After originally starting out in the newspaper industry right after high school, Kate went back to college, earned a prestigious portfolio based scholarship and graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Art degree from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2010.
She started a corporate events photography business in 2012 and has traveled internationally, taking marketing photos for clients. She's the House Photographer for the Infinite Energy Center in Duluth, Ga., and you can find her concert photos lining the walls of the Center.
Kate is also the Board Chair of the Hudgens Center for Art & Learning, and is proud to help the arts community grow in Gwinnett County.
Her other interests include baking, art, boating, shih tzus and Elvis.
Kate loves to see a vision come to life, and she can't wait to help you with your next project. Outside of that, you'll get to talk to her if you call the office, because she's there taking care of billing and contracts.
ABOUT
Honeydew Homes was created in early 2019 by husband and wife duo, David and Kate King.
While dating, Kate and David were constantly looking at houses for sale online and envisioning what changes they could make to improve them. They started designing floor plans together, and thinking of what their perfect home would look like -- inside and out.
The dream continued after they got married, and Kate gifted David his very first saw. The rest was history. For his first project, David created a surprise coffee table for Kate’s Christmas present. He used a vintage window pane that doubles as a shadow box to create this beautiful, one-of-a-kind gift.
After being married for six months they bought their first home. It was a great starter home but lacked some design elements that both craved. They worked together to build bench seats in their sunroom with storage underneath (Kate has a Christmas decoration obsession and the storage was essential!) and a large peninsula with a baking station in the kitchen.
Seeing how much they loved working together inspired them to start their own business. Their goal is take care of your "honey do list."
THEIR STORY
Everyone loves a good story with a happy ending, right?
Once upon a time (December 15, 2020 to be exact), David King was in the Marine Corps , presenting the colors at a "Homes for Our Troops" groundbreaking in Hawkinsville, Ga. Kate Awtrey was also there, taking photos for her client, PR Newswire.
Kate originally wasn't sure if she wanted to take the assignment because she had to photograph a personal party the night before that wouldn't end until very late, And the “:Homes for Our Troops” event started very early, and was almost a three-hour drive from her house. But since her photography business was very new, her mother told her "You better take that assignment. You never know what other things it could lead to."
Once she got to the event, the first thing she noticed were the Marines. But thinking nothing more than, "Those are good looking dress blues," she just kept photographing. At one point she got a photo of the group of Marines with the veteran whose house was being built.
As Kate was getting ready to leave, she passed out some of her business cards to the event organizers if they needed any photos. She walked back to her car and looked around one more time to make sure she didn't miss anyone.
At that point one of the Marines walked over toward her. He introduced himself and asked if he could get a copy of the photo she took of him and his friends. Thinking nothing of it, she gave him her last card. She had no clue that he was interested in her, because people ask for photos all of the time, and she wasn't wearing makeup or nice clothes that day since they were in a muddy pre-construction area.
That Marine, David King emailed Kate a few days later, but it went to her spam and she didn't find it for almost a month. Once she found it she realized, "I think he may like me." They set up a date for February 15th once he got back from leave.
The day after their first date, Kate's mom asked how the date went, to which she replied, "It was wonderful. I'm going to marry him." Which was quite the statement since she had taken a year off from dating.
After dating for a few months, David invited Kate to the Marine Corps Ball in November. Kate was so excited that she had a custom 1950s style red silk dress made by a friend from SCAD. She wanted to have photos taken beforehand, and trained her brother how to use her camera so they could have some nice couples photos.
Little did Kate know that she was the only one that didn't know the actual plan for that evening. They went to downtown Loganville to have some photos taken before the Ball. David said, "Look over there, what's that?" Kate had seen a man dressed up as a snowman earlier advertising a sale for Christmas decor. She replied, "I already saw the snowman..." "No, what is that? Look at that!" She finally turned around to look and saw nothing. When she turned back David was on his knee with a ring held out, and said, "You know I love you right?"
Kate and David were wed six months later and they lived happily ever after.
