Christy and Drew Heiskala are in the business of saving homeowners\u2019 sanity.<\/p>\n
The La Mesa couple just opened their new remodeling business, DIY with Pro Help, in Bankers Hill for those who want to take on remodeling projects themselves (Do It Yourself) but need professional help (Pro Help).<\/p>\n
The couple helped Erin Clark when she wanted to demolish and reconstruct her bathroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I could do a lot of the work myself, but I couldn\u2019t do everything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She had painted her Santee home, done some minor electrical work, painted all her kitchen cabinets, and even installed plantation blinds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are pretty heavy and unwieldy, but I got it done,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But when it came to demoing her bathroom, Clark knew she needed help. That\u2019s when she heard about the Heiskalas and DIY with Pro Help. She said Drew, a licensed general contractor, helped her create an accurate timeline, and helped with the bathroom demolition, including plumbing and tiling.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great hybrid experience between doing it yourself and having someone come in,\u201d she said. \u201cI am now confident that if I want to put in ceramic flooring in the future, I would be able to do that. I didn\u2019t have that confidence before.\u201d<\/p>\n There were a few common encounters that drove the Heiskalas to start DIY with Pro Help. First, Drew would spend an exorbitant amount of time giving quotes \u2014 as much as five hours at a time \u2014 to ultimately not get the job. Then they found that many of their clients often wanted to do the work themselves to save money, but they didn\u2019t know how.<\/p>\n \u201cHomeowners can do more harm than good if they try to DIY on their own,\u201d Drew said.<\/p>\n He found himself competing with home remodeling shows like HGTV and videos found on YouTube. By teaching homeowners to do projects firsthand, the Heiskalas found a niche.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the way the general contracting business is going,\u201d Christy said. \u201cNow all the shows make people [believe] they can do their remodeling on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n So the couple decided to go against the general wisdom of general contracting and only doing projects they bid for and won, and help homeowners with their own remodeling projects.<\/p>\n Lauren Gaggioli and her husband were among their first clients.<\/p>\n \u201cMy husband and I really enjoy DIY projects, but we didn\u2019t know what to do if we got in a pinch,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n They had purchased a 1,100-square-foot, two-bath condo in Carlsbad and knew it needed some work. They managed to paint the whole 1983 condo, but came up short when it came to tiling the bathroom and replacing the windows.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like the house wasn\u2019t complete,\u201d she said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have finished features.\u201d<\/p>\n Drew taught them to tile their master bathroom in a few hours, and they were able to complete the job.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, Drew was so helpful and so patient. We had some really long days and the proof of his quality work is that we asked him for a quote for the rest of the house,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n DIY with Pro Help charges $75 an hour for teaching homeowners to do their own work. The couple\u2019s new storefront, where in addition to remodeling work, they offer d\u00e9cor, salvage and architecture services, is located at 1851 Fifth Ave. between Elm and Fir streets in Bankers Hill.<\/p>\n Gaggioli said she and her husband initially never planned to DIY, but when they saw the savings it would produce, they decided to have a hand in their remodeling.<\/p>\n \u201cWe figured it was time to stress-test our marriage,\u201d said Gaggioli of her 30-year-old relationship. The two have been married two years. \u201cI think our communication improved. And it was a fun and learning experience as well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014Contact Catherine Spearnak at C<\/a><\/em>atherine.spearnak1@gmail.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Por Catherine Spearnak<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1141,"featured_media":248400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Doing it yourself with the Heiskalas","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"DSC_0148webtop\"](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/DSC_0148webtop.jpg\")
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