Let’s Give a Hand for Those Handymen
by Bill Primavera
The Home Guru
As Published in The Examiner, The Putnam Examiner and The Yorktown Examiner
Handymen are always interesting to me in that they know how to do everything I don’t know how to do. Having owned two historic homes and participated in the construction of a new one, I’ve hired many handymen through the years, and the memory of them lives on in the work they’ve done. Am I odd that, when I look at or use any of the handyman projects that surround me, I usually think of the craftsman who did the work? Am I obsessive about such things, I wonder?
Recently I’ve talked with three interesting craftsmen grouped in the broad category of “handyman,” and while they may use different job titles and come to their trade by different routes, they each seem to share the common trait of absolutely loving the work they do.
Serendipitous Entry for Paul Markowitz
Paul Markotwitz of Somers comes by the profession more circuitously than most. The 36-year-old father of two young children started his professional career as a bonds trader, “but it was the commute from Long Island to Weekauken, New Jersey, that killed me,” he shares. That commute, which involved a car trip to a Macy’s parking lot, a long walk to the train station, the train to NYC, walking from Penn Station to the ferry terminal, and finally a jaunt across the Hudson, took three hours each way. “I did it for a number of years, and it got to be too much,” his says.
His career and lifestyle-altering opportunity came to him serendipitously when an in-law was having construction work done at his home, and Paul offered to build a small house for a newly-acquired dog. “That house was a fancy one that I did mostly for fun. It had molding, windows, carpeting…it was really special,” he relates. “When the contractor saw my work, he asked if I wanted to be a handyman, and right away I said yes. Both my dad and my granddad had great skills and I had always been a hands-on kind of guy, so I thought, that’s one way to out of this three-hour commute.”
Paul says that the switch to being a handyman was the greatest thing that ever happened to him. “First of all, I’m sure that I wouldn’t have a job right now in this economy as a trader. Today I can set my own hours, do pretty much what I want to do and get to be with my wife and kids. Besides that, I’m busy. It’s good, you know.” Paul says that he does everything for the home from molding, built-ins, doors, and windows, tiling, sinks, and “just about anything you need to have fixed.” What he likes best about his job is that no two days are ever the same. Paul can be reached at 914-400-4144.
A Steady Route for Carl Olsen
There was never any doubt in the mind of Carl Olsen, 68, that he wanted to be a carpenter, a title he distinguishes from “handyman.” “Handymen do a lot of other things, but I am a carpenter” he explains.
He pursued a purposeful training program starting with his BOCES schooling in Rockland and serving a four-year apprenticeship after that. He studied both technical work, such as learning to read blueprints, to hands-on applications, building everything from the foundation of a house up, including framing, sheathing, exterior trim, installing windows and doors, sheetrock and anything else in preparation for the work of the plumber and electrician. After the other trades finish their work, he returns to install interior trim and the kitchen
As a matter of full disclosure, Carl happens to be my carpenter, and I can say unequivocally that he does the best work my house has ever enjoyed.
Coming from a background of public relations as I do, what I find most interesting about Carl is his natural and keen sense about marketing himself, from attending every networking meeting of the Yorktown Chamber of Commerce to leaving his cards wherever he can, focused mainly on hardware stores.
A really novel marketing idea he introduced recently is to offer apprenticeships to homeowners who want to help him with the work for a reduced fee. “It’s my answer to the recession,” he says. “People need work done but they may not be able to afford it right now, so they can work alongside me, learn something and save money.” Any taker-uppers don’t have to be skilled, according to Carl. For instance, for a deck job, it may involve only the work that an unskilled helper would do, such as assembling and holding up the wood for Carl.
“I love my work so much that I’m always doing projects at home like a busman’s holiday. When I describe what I do, I just say that I like to take things that aren’t so good anymore and make them good.” Carl can be reached at 914-245-6072.
Ken Seeds Influenced by Errol Flynn
Within minutes from the time Ken Seeds walked into my office, I knew that he was operating from a different perspective than most people looking for fixer-upper homes as investments. On the phone prior to our meeting, he had described himself as a house painter, but really a jack of all trades with home improvement, and in my mind I designated him as a handyman, but I felt I had to modify that after a short time in his company to perhaps “artist of the home.”
We began talking about his sense from an early age that his life was destined to follow adventure and to create beauty in his environment. He would run home from school in Pleasantville to watch the swashbuckling Errol Flynn on the old movie channel of the time. “Errol Flynn had a sense of adventure that I wanted to emulate,” Ken shares. An early work ethic developed from his father’s teachings that his reputation would be based on the quality of work he did and that his handshake was his bond.
Between his sophomore and junior years in high school, Ken followed his natural entrepreneurial bent by creating a house painting business with some of his classmates. “I learned the trade from the old timers,” he says, “and over time, I added carpentry to my offerings, along with roofing and eventually total house renovations.
“I’ve always felt a special sense of spatial relationships and color within my environment. My mother even had me tested for it. Whenever I walked into a room, I could envision how that room could be more beautiful and practical, from adding crown molding to painting it a more beautiful color or, from a practical standpoint, fixing a leaky pipe!”
Ken explains how he uses this natural gift to work with homeowners today. “For instance, there are hundreds of bad choices that can be made for choosing a color for a room,” he explains. “I know intuitively which perfect color will work in a room to show it to its best advantage. If a homeowner suggests a bad choice, it’s my job to have her or him see the right vision for the room.”
Ken’s sense of adventure took him to the sea after high school, traveling to the Virgin Islands and then other locations for various jobs from yacht deliveries to boat chartering, then a parasailing business. He showed me a photograph of himself, posed much like Errol Flynn on the boom of a schooner, living the life of adventure he craved from an early age. Now 54, Ken spent more than 20 years, off and on, enjoying this lifestyle.
Today he’s back in the Westchester area, fulfilling his sense of destiny to “make homes beautiful.” In particular, he’s planning to help homeowners who may be financially stressed or who have a house that may be physically distressed. “I want to partner with them to create a win-win situation,” he says. Ken can be reached at 914-471-3200.
By the way, I tried to identify a handywoman to feature in this article. If any reader knows of a special handyperson of that gender, please let me know for a future piece.
Bill Primavera is a Westchester, NY-based realtor ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and marketing practitioner ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) who can be reached for questions or comment directly at 914-522-2076.
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