Lowell Sun, October 22, 2006
By MARIE DONOVAN Sun Correspondent
WESTFORD -Marie's Home Improvement is an unusual business. Its proprietor, Marie Leonard, calls herself a "handywoman."
"When I work, I've got paint covered pants on," she said. "Then I clean up really nice, but I can't worry about fingernails."
She can build a set of stairs or loft, rehabilitate furnishings, tile a back splash, paint a room or hang pictures. Leonard also does demolition work and replaces plywood floors, doors, knobs, insulation and rotting decks.
"I do some really dirty jobs," she said.
When Leonard, 46, started her handywoman business in 2002, it was her third or fourth career. A University of Vermont graduate, where she studied business, she is a former financial analyst, human resources consultant for Digital Equipment Corp. and corporate trainer.
But after 9/11, "I had gotten tired of the whole corporate world," said Leonard, who has two daughters, ages 11 and 8.
She learned many of her skills as a kid helping her father—now a full-time volunteer with Habitat for Humanity in Phoenix—refurbish apartment buildings he owned after the family moved from Albuquerque, N.M., to northern Vermont.
"I grew up in a family where my father and my mother did everything. I was the youngest of four children and we were the gophers for his business. I absorbed the belief that regular people did their own work," Leonard said.
She tries to work about three and a half to four days per week, which leaves time for parenting her two young elementary school-aged children and taking care of her own household. She recently married William Leonard, an attorney from Maine. Her first husband and father of her children, who lives in Harvard, is still a friend and client of her business.
Leonard does no advertising. Instead, she-relies on word of mouth to get new clients, including people she meets through a local Business Networking International chapter. She also has a Web site (www.marieshomeimprovement. com).
"A lot of my clients are older women. They assume I'll take good care of them," Leonard said. Many clients work along with her to learn flx-it-yourself techniques.
But it isn't always easy.
If something goes wrong, "Women, they assume they made a mistake—we take it personally. Men assume the thing is broken," Leonard said.
Still, she is part of a trend where more women are learning and doing home maintenance. Figures from Home Depot and Lowe's home improvement chains
have shown that women make about half of all purchases at the stores.
Leonard is neither certified as a plumber nor electrician, but gets technical advice and at times, physical assistance, from experts when she needs it.
One client from Leonard's BNI group, Westford RE/MAX Prestige Realtor Angela Harkins, worked with Leonard to install new 12-inch mocha slate Italian tiles in her guest bathroom, put up new molding in the kitchen and install ball floats in the toilet at her Colonial-style house.
Harkins said her husband is "not a handy guy—doesn't want to be. I'm very handy,
but there are certain things that are beyond my limits."
"For my customers, I recommend her. She always gets very high reviews," Harkins added.
After working with Leonard, Harkins was able to help install blinds in her
daughter's new condominium.
Leonard charges $60 per hour for her services, whether she is hired to do a job or teach the homeowner to fix something themselves.
She will offer opinions on design elements if her clients ask, but "I'm not a decorator," she said.
In addition to being proprietor of Marie's Home Improvement, Leonard teaches a
course called "You Can Fix it Too!" at community centers, adult education programs and libraries in area towns, including Westford, Acton, Lexington and Andover. At the class, she teaches women an introduction to tools, how to drill holes, hang a towel rod, and fIx a leaky faucet or a toilet leak.