About House Handy

If you're thinking you haven't met too many female contractors, you'd be right! And it's turned out that to be a great advantage for Cynthia Werts, owner of Househandy. "A few decades ago lots of people thought only men could fix things," says Cynthia, "but I've found that not only do people appreciate that my team and I can build, paint and install as well as the next guy, but we clean up afterward too!"

Cynthia's first experience taking things apart and putting them together came when she was just ten years old when the glove compartment of her mother's car got stuck. She figured it out in no time flat (just a penny stuck in the hinge!) and soon learned that "fixing is looking!" Her father soon started working with her in his workshop, teaching her how to diagnose broken lamps. "Lamps were a good place to begin because they taught me how to track down the cause of something not working. It could be the bulb, the contact, the switch, the plug, or any number of things," Cynthia says, "so I learned to go through each thing methodically to find out where the real problem was. And I found that I really enjoyed this process!"

After graduating college Cynthia took over care of her mother's home in Highland Park which had several tenants and for the next ten years learned to fix the wide variety of challenges that occur in a multifamily home.  "This was my mother's primary source of income at the time, so I wanted to save her money as well as make sure she had some money for her retirement" she adds. Cynthia jokes that this period turned her into a real tool aficionado as she learned to buy the very best tools for the job. She later bought her own two-family home which she lived in for many years. "Working on my customers' houses is one of the most satisfying jobs I could have, because I know when I leave, my customers have something they can be proud to call home!"