Anthony Cuoco, Redefines Goo Goo Doll's John and Melina Rzeznik's Home
Anthony Louis Custom Home Building - Matawan, New Jersey
Anthony Cuoco, the owner of Anthony Louis Custom Home Builders, LLC, has been working in the home building and renovation business for over 22 years, having built and renovated dozens of new and historic homes in the New York/New Jersey area.
Two artists learn they have a lot in common throughout this large-scale renovation. Anthony Cuoco learns a lot about himself when he completely renovates Goo Goo Doll’s John Rzeznik and Melina Gallo-Rzeznik’s beautiful Victoria era home.
Randy: Hi, I’m Randy from Build With A Bang. Today we’re in New Jersey to meet with Anthony Cuoco of Anthony Louis, Custom Home Builders. Anthony was half way to becoming a doctor but instead became a custom home builders and custom home renovation specialist. Anthony is also literally a rock star contractor, having completed a home renovation for his close friend, John Rzeznik the lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls.
John: You talk to him for five minutes and you understand that he’s at a different level then a lot of other people in the building trades. Anthony is an artist.
Randy: Lets let Anthony tell his story as we jump in to our Builder Profile.
Randy: So, Anthony I’ve noticed that you have a really good idea for design. Where does that come from? Does that go back to your childhood, or how did that that progess?
Anthony: My father’s an artist, and when we were kids when he had us on the weekends, we would go to the Frick, the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), Metropolitan Museum of Art. What I really liked was the architecture.
Randy: How did you get from there to here?
Anthony: When I was working for a Fortune 500 company and I started to feel that it was not fulfilling anymore. And, a friend of mine called me up and said, “hey they’re looking to hire someone to paint all the common hallways in this building in Hoboken, New Jersey.” I’m like, yeah I’ll do it. I’m just trying to pass the time. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And from there, people in the building would say, “hey can you do this?”
So I started doing a new sink, a faucet, some electrical outlets, repair work and what not. And I liked it. The creativity, building something, having a finished product at the end, and the jobs just kept getting bigger and bigger. I felt fulfilled. I felt like everyday that when I went home, as tired as I was, as dirty as I was, I really felt good. I actually slept. I actually slept!
Randy: You’re building a house now in Westfield, New Jersey on Arlington Avenue that was a “knockdown.” So you purchased the home, you knocked it down, and now you’re building an entirely new home on that same lot. How do you scout for a knockdown, and once you find that knockdown, how do you convince an investor to invest in that build?
Anthony: When I look for investors, I present the idea to them. And I say to them, “This is what you could potentially make if we do well on the house.” And we go from there.
How do I look for a house? Well, I drive around the neighborhood a few hundred thousand times, I just don’t find a house and say, “Oh that’s a house, I want to buy that house and knock it down.” So it boils down to location the cost to buy it, build it and sell it.
Randy: You are best friends with John Rzeznik, who is the lead singer for the Goo Goo Dolls. You’ve also renovated his gorgeous Victorian home from top to bottom.
Anthony: So I was living across the street from a guy who calls me up one day, says I got a good friends of mine. He and his wife are looking to either build or renovate a house. About a month or two later a get a phone call and it’s John. I really didn’t know who it was. I told my wife. My wife’s like, “I know who he is.” And she starts playing all this music. I go meet with him - I’m not really star struck. He’s a normal guy.
John: When I met him, I thought for sure OK, I’m going to have to deal with a contractor, this is a big job. I was really surprised. We got along immediately. We just sort of, became friends. And that friendship has grown since then, and now he’s one of my closest friends here now.
Anthony: When I started the work, he was on tour. While he’s on tour and I’m doing the work, he’s texting me everyday and every night, and he’s telling me, “I want to do this, can we do that, can we do this, do that.” And then all of a sudden, it stopped. And he’s tell me, I want to do what you think is best. I said, are you sure. Yeah, you know what, you do this house. You seem to know what you’re doing. I’m very comfortable with you, you’ve got great ideas… and that was it. I started renovating that house like it was my own house.
John: He definitely has an artistic flair. And a body of knowledge about what is right, and what is the best. And he really brought that to this whole project.
Anthony: I gave him a price for the generator at the beginning of the work, and he (John) said, “Nah, I’m not doing it.” But we had to do some digging. And I said you know what, I said to my electrician where would the generator go if we decided to do a generator? You know what, let’s do all that now. (Electrician) “But he’s not doing a generator?” I said, I don’t care. I have a feeling he’s going to do a generator.
He (John) calls me up, he says “I’m in California and we had a power outage, what’s it going to cost to do the generator?” I said, all you have to do is buy the generator. He (John) says, “What are you talking about?” I said I already prepped everything for the generator. (John) “What do you mean?”
(Anthony) I had to dig a hole anyway, it doesn’t cost me anything. What if you didn’t do it now, and then five years down the road you wanted to do it, it’s there already. I thought ahead of the game.
That’s the thing, I approach everything like it’s MY house. I take pride I what i do, I just can’t do a half-ass job. I can’t go home, put my head on the pillow knowing that I didn’t do the right job or I didn’t use the right material. I don’t want to be called back for something that I put in that was substandard. I’d rather be called back to say, “hey can you do this now for us.”