News

Jun 27, 2023

Women in construction give advice, Philly's inspection system fails home buyers

When I lived in a Center City rowhouse I call “the mouse house,” my landlord sent some guy to take care of the rodent problem. He handed over a few glue traps, sprinkled some poison, used my bathroom,

When I lived in a Center City rowhouse I call “the mouse house,” my landlord sent some guy to take care of the rodent problem.

He handed over a few glue traps, sprinkled some poison, used my bathroom, and left.

I hired a local pest control company to do a more thorough job, and I was pleasantly surprised to see my exterminator was a woman.

Lacey Soslow in South Philly and Gabriella Ainslie in Texas are betting that given the choice, many women would want to use the services of other women for projects around their house.

So last year, the two friends started an online platform called Matriarchy Build that offers one-on-one virtual consultations with tradespeople who are women or nonbinary.

Keep scrolling for that story and to see how safeguards on Philly construction can fail home buyers, learn how writing wills can protect family homes, and peek inside a gutted three-story rowhouse in Olde Richmond.

📮 Did you have major problems after buying a newly built or renovated home? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.

— Michaelle Bond

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Americans spent more than $650 billion last year on home improvement, maintenance, and repairs.

The women behind Matriarchy Build want to call attention to the women who are part of this massive industry and empower customers both to learn to tackle projects themselves and to feel more confident when they talk to trade professionals.

My story highlights four women in the Philly area who use the online consultation platform:

Customer Madison Alpern, an interior designer who was staring down the gut renovation of her home and worried a contractor might scam her

Pro Kelly Ireland, known on social media as the Tiny Plumber Girl, who started her own business after facing sexism in commercial construction

Customer Whitney Bennett, a small business owner who relied on the advice of a Matriarchy Build pro to help realize her dream of opening her own store

Pro Mariel Herring, a carpenter who was a “LEGO kid” and one of her college’s only “lady bike mechanics”

Read more about their experiences and what Matriarchy Build has meant to them.

Are you buying a new or renovated house? Do your homework first.

Julia Blaukopf, a first-time home buyer, was taken in by the “magical” renderings of what her gutted rowhouse in Kensington would look like.

The $359,000 price tag was out of her budget, but since the home had been completely renovated, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about additional work.

She was wrong. She said that within months of her moving in last year:

her roof started leaking

the heat stopped working

the front window blew in

Because the home was new, Blaukopf didn’t hire her own inspector, who might have caught problems, before closing her purchase. She said city inspectors didn’t do the examinations they said they did.

Philadelphia’s system of monitoring for critical safety concerns in construction relies on city inspectors with “impossible” caseloads and third-party, city-licensed inspectors hired by contractors in an arrangement that risks conflicts of interest.

My colleague Samantha Melamed’s latest story in her “Crumbling City” series gets into the details and the safeguards that can fail home buyers.

These are the winners and losers in Philadelphia’s post-COVID office market.

Here’s why a Zillow listing for a 35-home investment portfolio in West Philly went viral.

A grassroots effort in a Camden neighborhood has residents blooming with pride.

The future of the Sixers’ plan for a new Center City arena will be decided in City Hall.

Emergency stabilization work has begun at a National Historic Landmark that was the home of an acclaimed Philadelphia artist.

Termini Brothers is giving away pieces of its South Philly bakery’s original porcelain, pinwheeled-tiled floor.

An architectural salvager sold a West Philly church’s Tiffany windows for $200,000. Now the church’s mortgage lender says the proceeds should go to the bank.

House of the week: For $750,000, a three-bedroom condo in Ocean City

Leslie Davis thought of her nana’s house as her own.

She’d grown up in the North Philly home, took care of her grandmother there, and has continued to live there since her nana died.

But the home wasn’t legally hers. It was still in her nana’s name.

That meant Davis didn’t qualify for programs that would help her pay bills or make home repairs. She couldn’t get homeowners insurance.

She had a tangled title, or unclear legal ownership of the property. Davis was able to get hers straightened out, thanks to a volunteer attorney.

Residents with tangled titles are vulnerable to scammers who steal deeds, and they can’t tap home equity for repairs or other needs. They also can’t sell the homes. All of this can prevent the passing on of generational wealth. And abandoned houses can become neighborhood blights.

Tangled titles affect more than 10,400 properties across the city.

I’ve written a bunch of stories over the last few years about tangled titles. My latest one looks at how Philly organizations are helping people prevent tangled titles through estate planning.

Marlena Grzaslewicz bought a 2,000-square-foot, three-story rowhouse on a corner lot in Philly’s Olde Richmond neighborhood in 2019. Then she gutted it.

Her renovation took 18 months (with pandemic delays), but now the home is perfect for her.

She has an office, space to display her books, and an outdoor area. She keeps her clothes in a large closet in the basement.

Grzaslewicz likes to cook and bake but wanted a clean look to her kitchen, so she added a large walk-in pantry where she keeps pots and pans and ingredients in labeled glass jars. In her kitchen, she has stainless steel countertops and a two-drawer dishwasher.

Friends built her a special kitchen table, so she made her front door extra wide to fit it through.

Peek into Grzaslewicz’s home, and see why one of her favorite places is her third-floor terrace.

Atlantic City is mostly known for its casinos, boardwalk, and outlet shops. But among the stores of the Tanger Outlets, there’s a new museum that adds to its cultural scene.

Question: Who is this museum dedicated to?

A) the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

B) Mahatma Gandhi

C) Toni Morrison

D) Harriet Tubman

This story has the answer.

Do you know the location this photo shows?

📮 If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories of visiting this spot might be featured in the newsletter.

―

Yesterday, I watched a webinar by the National Association of Realtors. (You mean that’s not how you spend your lunch hour?) And its economists said some interesting stuff that will probably show up in our future coverage. (Spoiler: Nothing about mortgage rates free-falling, sorry to say.)

But I want to share some quick stats now about home buyers’ ages.

The association said the median age of a repeat home buyer is 59. And the median age of a first-time buyer is 36.

But in 1981, the typical age of a repeat buyer was 36. Home ownership rates among people my age aren’t keeping pace with the rates of previous generations when they were our age.

It’s a sign of how times (and affordability, and societal norms, and housing supply, and personal wealth ...) have changed.

Enjoy the rest of your week.