Women's work is home repair
Boston homeowners face a long list of challenges: snow; cold; ancient clapboard; and, of course, high prices. And would-be Ms. Fix-Its have the additional trouble of entering what's often considered a man's world.
``When you bring a man in to do something, they kind of act like you're an idiot," said Sarah-Ann Shaw, a retired CBS-4 reporter who's owned her Roxbury home for 17 years.
Who needs attitude when you've got carpenter ants? Aiming to bolster women's repair skills and confidence, the Building Materials Resource Center kicked out the boys and made June 6 ``Women's Night." A secondhand chandelier hung overhead in lieu of a disco ball.
The 120-plus attendees varied in tenure of homeownership from just six months to nearly two decades. But a common theme emerged: The more you can do yourself, the more you can afford.
You have to be handy, said landlord Jill Ebbott of Brookline, 46. ``It's either that or pay someone every time."
The center, founded in 1993, offers workshops and donated building materials at low cost to help lower-income homeowners maintain their houses affordably. After buying a house, said Deb Beatty Mel, the resource center's assistant director, ``oftentimes there's not a whole lot left over to do any renovations or repair."
The free event was designed as a sort of in-person ``Car Talk" -- for homes. Many found it difficult to ask questions in home-repair stores. Celia Grant of Braintree said that sometimes men ``think I'm questioning their expertise."
To ward this off, all 16 experts were women, who were offered a $100 stipend. (The center itself had only women staffers there.) They ``seem to have a different perspective," said Carol Ann Yancey of Roxbury.
General contractor Robin Combs said that many women find it ``a lot more comfortable . . . to work with a woman," especially given the trust needed to have someone in your home.
Conversation hummed as the women monopolized the architect, landscapers, real estate attorney, and contractors for two hours and ate sandwiches and sweets. Citizens Bank sponsored the event and sent mortgage consultants.
The women ``were very much in control," said landscaping expert Lyn Gaylord. Combs ran out of business cards. Along with to-do lists, homeowner horror stories abounded. When she bought her first house in 1988, Ebbott said, ``there was about nine inches of sewage" in the basement. ``I was like, `Where's my landlord?' "
She and many other attendees felt they had some knowledge but could use more. Fay Strigler of Quincy cleaned goo out of her toilet with toothpicks rather than pay a plumber $400.
No matter what your skills with a hammer, anyone can buy fixtures. Attendees browsed the warehouse eagerly, walking between the walls of cabinets and boxes of coils, showerheads, handles, vents . Any store, contractor, or homeowner can donate material, and much of it is new.
Banita Burgess, who lives on the Mattapan/Milton line, examined a pewter-toned handle that could have come from Restoration Hardware. The center always has ``really good deals," she said. Grant needs those deals. She's supervising ``a complete gut rehab" of an 1873 Highland Park brownstone that was boarded up for over 25 years. Buying donated Kohler pedestal sinks and ``brand spanking new" lighting from the center allowed her to expand her renovation plans.
With only a few months to go on the repairs, ``I need to have a little cot there so I can nap," she said. She'll need the rest after she tries her hand at installing crown molding and tiles.
