In the Early 90's, I became fascinated with The Fox Theater building in Spokane,WA. It was a failing dollar theater at the time, with very little budget for maintaining the opulent furnishings and unusual 30's art lighting fixtures. Management asked me to come in after close and do many much needed repair and maintenance tasks for the building. Eventually, they had me repairing and maintaining all the their theaters in Spokane and North Idaho regions. Back then I did roofing during the day and eventually transitioned to remods, rental turnovers, and had a small list of "frients" who gave me regular small handyman jobs. I learned how to estimate and bid effectively, and how to make modern hardware work on archaic buildings. By the 20s, I was taking care of rentals, hotels, vacation rentals, private homes, and supplementing my schedule with assembly gigs. When a stranger comes into your house to put together something you bought online or fix your toilet, it can feel a little awkward for some. I learned that making people feel comfortable having me in their house was a big part of my job, and that trust is the main driver of repeat business. 
 
When Covid hit, I was living in the Gorge. Many of my neighbors were elderly and no one was sure how transmission worked yet, so I decided to focus on decks, fences, and gazeebos so I could stay outside. I wanted to buy a home and learned that mortgages are harder to get with independent income. I took regular employment with a nice property management company in the Gorge. They had over 120 properties, including vacation rentals and long term leases. They helped me hone my skills and I learned that I loved being in a different place, doing a new task for a new person every day. I was thinking about moving into Portland, but becoming unenthusiastic about many aspects of the rental management industry. I saw many lovely privately owned homes here and large unmet demand for maintenance and repair services. I took employment with a busy handyman services company to learn how the industry works here. The scheduling, on-the-fly estimating, and crazy pace took a lot of hard work to get good at. There were many normal home fixes that I thought I was good at already, that I got very efficient with, after doing them hundreds of times. You learn what unforeseen issues are likely in what situations, where to source things quickly in each part of town, what different kinds of clients most like to see, and how to get to an appointment 30 minutes away in 20 minutes while on the phone and changing your shirt in heavy traffic.
 
In my years of doing building repairs as an employee, I carefully watched how they organized their business. I watched how clients and the market responded to business decisions. I saw things I really liked and things I thought I could improve on. I was constantly fantasizing about how I would do things if I ran my own home maintenance company. These fantasies became a philosphy, then a business plan, and recently, Happy Home Maintenance LLC
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Thanks for taking an interest in
Happy Home Maintenance LLC
-Casey Byers, Owner/Operator