Who would guess that a knack for tinkering around the house would spawn a mini-media empire including weekly radio spots, two cable television shows, a syndicated newspaper column, and a new how-to video on home repair?
Not Beverly DeJulio, a long-time Palatine resident who, to her own surprise, has come to be widely known as Miss Fix-It.
”I am of the generation where women never even thought of having a career,” much less one in home repair, says DeJulio, whose first foray into teaching do-it-yourself techniques was by conducting product demonstrations at stores.
She admits that even though she now writes a newspaper column under the nom de plume of Handy Ma`am, she had much to learn and made some mistakes when she jumped into doing her own home repairs 17 years ago.
”I got into it out of necessity,” explains DeJulio. ”I was a single parent of four small children, had a medium-size house and a very small-size budget.”
Her first challenge was replacing a sump pump. DeJulio recalls that she neglected to put pipe sealant in a joint and when the pump was turned on
”water started spurting out all over.”
Such minor mishaps might have prompted others to rush and call a professional, but DeJulio claims that ”do-it-yourselfers have the self-confidence, stick-to-itiveness, and curiosity” that keeps them plugging along when others break down.
Promoting such home repair confidence, especially among women, is one of the joys of her job.”A lot of people are intimidated by the mysteries (of home repair). I like to take away the mystery and show them the basics,” she says. ”It may seem complicated, but I try to put it into understandable language.”
DeJulio`s husband, Bill Catlin, is enthusiastic about her handiwork.
”She understands anything electrical,” said Catlin. ”I handle most of the stuff now because she`s so busy, except for the electrical. I wait for her to handle that.”
Anyone who wants to learn these easy to understand explanations from DeJulio in person can do so at Harper College in Palatine, where she periodically conducts workshops.
