"HIP Chick" gives women home improvement help | Coach House ...

I?ve been trying to look closer into how women have been influencing home improvement in my last few All Things Women blogs. When searching for articles on their impact, I came across this blog article by Jen call ?Hip Chick? gives women home improvement help. She talks about her story and how she grew interest in home improvement. First, Jen was not the type of home owner to start getting her hands dirty and fix up things around her home, but after attending a few workshops, she grew a lot of interest in how she could improve her household. She states that one of the main points she wants to share is that a lot of home improvement workshops are open to men and women; women have a big impact on their house besides telling other what they may want done. I hope you enjoy this article by Jen and her journey into home improvement.

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By Jen Wielgus

Beth Allen was raised by a handy mom who never shied away from getting her hands dirty, and never thought to hire someone for a project she could do herself.

You might say the hammer didn?t fall far from the toolbelt.

Allen, 40, who lives in Horsham with her husband and three sons, not only follows her mother?s approach to maintaining her own home, but she empowers other women to take complete charge of their living space.

Her ?HIP Chicks? workshops ? ?HIP? stands for Home Improvement Projects ? cover everything from how to handle basic tools to how to build shelves and hang towel racks to how to create a ceramic tile backsplash.

The next workshop is scheduled for later this month at the Lomax Carpet & Tile Mart on Bethlehem Pike in Montgomery Township. It consists of three Thursday sessions, May 19, May 26 and June 2, and each runs from 7p.m. to 9 p.m. Cost is $60.

To register, contact Allen via e-mail at reddoordecors@verizon.net.

Allen owns an interior decorating business and has taught home improvement courses in both the Hatboro-Horsham and Cheltenham School District adult evening programs.

She says she decided to branch out and run her own courses because she wanted other women to feel the same satisfaction and confidence that she does after tackling a big remodeling project.

?Over the years I?ve just tried not to let fear hold me back,? says Allen, who worked as a nurse before having her first son. ?I go online. I read books. I have a couple contractor friends, and I?ll ask some questions. And then I?ll just tackle it.?

She?s had some ?screw-ups? along the way, but she has grown very comfortable taking on projects.

?So many friends and family members or acquaintances will always go, ?How do you know how to do all this stuff??? she said. ?And I thought, I need to empower other women to ? especially women, although certainly there are a lot of guys who could use this information ? but I really want to empower other women to really feel like they can handle these things.?

It?s important to note that Allen?s workshops aren?t just for women. All are welcome, and Allen says several men have attended in the past.

Allen can tell her teachings are making an impact. She recalls the story of one student, an elderly widow, who initially was too scared to get up on a ladder and drive a screw into the wall for hanging a drapery rod.

?She got up there and got the drill, and I was cueing her, and when she got the screw to catch and drove it all the way in, she was like a little kid on Christmas morning ? ?Oh God! Look what I did!? ? and she was so excited,? Allen says. ?That?s what drives me, to see someone so excited because they did something they never thought they would do, pushed a limit, thought outside the box.?

Allen pushes her own sons to do the same thing. She and her husband have involved the three boys ? ages 13, 10 and 8 ? in several of their home improvement projects. Most recently, their oldest son, Matthew, installed the outlet for the new microwave in the family?s kitchen.

?I think it is so important for young people in high school, college and even younger, to learn how to handle some basic tools and make home repairs,? Allen says.

She recalls that whe she was young, her partents didn?t have the money to hire people to work on the house, so they learned to handle the jobs themselves.

?I think so many people today ? so many young people ? see their parents hiring the contractor, hiring a painter, they hire somebody to mow the lawn, they even hire someone to come clean up after their dog,? Allen says. ?Kids aren?t seeing how to be resilient and independent and manage their own home, and we?re going to have a generation of people who don?t know how to do anything in years to come.?

To combat that, Allen is attempting to ?raise? a new generation of handy mothers who will pass their can-do attitudes on to their kids.

?Instead of nagging their husband and having a fight or having to call daddy to come and take care of it, they feel they can at least tackle some of these things,? she says. ?If this little bit of confidence they get from being able to fix something or hang blinds in their home, that confidence might spill over into the rest of their life.?

To visit the direct link for this article and other articles by Jen, click here.

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Source: http://www.coachhouseaccents.com/2012/08/22/hip-chick-gives-women-home-improvement-help/

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