Handy Women Northwest empowers a can-do sisterhood

Freshly renovated wooden stairs and banister are shown

Nancy Hazen demolished an old pair of steep stairs, then rebuilt the new stairway and installed paneling, along with fir trim and a fir ceiling. Nancy Hazen

When Vanessa Spady moved into a three-story contemporary house in Beavercreek five years ago, she knew the 1980s-era beige and brown flecked Corian bathroom counter would have to go. And, as an experienced DIYer, she knew it would mean gutting the space from backsplash to floor. As she researched the project, she happened on to the Facebook group Handy Women Northwest and asked the members for their suggestions.

“I got a lot of responses,” Spady said. “I knew you could tile over this and paint over that, but I didn’t have any experience with Corian. No one I knew had covered it, they just removed it.” Handy Women members had plenty of ideas, including painting it, topping it with a concrete finish or covering it with an epoxy pour. “This is definitely why I posted the question,” Spady said. “Now, I have a lot of research to do to see which method I am most aligned with.”

Spady is one of about 7,000 members of the Handy Women Northwest group, an offshoot of the original Handy Women group that has over 700,000 members. There are also seven other regional groups. Founded in October 2019 by New Yorker Geraldine Anello, Handy Women was inspired by a question Anello read on social media seeking a site for women needing help with tools. Apparently, such a site didn’t exist. “When I saw the post, I thought, ‘Why isn’t there one?’ Anello said. “I had been a community builder for eight years with other groups. I knew I was the right person to do this and do it for the long run. I came up with the logo and launched it that same day.”

Anello’s goal is simply to empower women with tools. Likewise, the rules of the group are also simple, albeit firm. There is no advertising, no promoting of services or merchandise (other than the Handy Women boutique), no male bashing and all new members must be manually approved.

Two years after the launch of Handy Women, Anello launched the Northwest group. Its members, whose numbers have nearly doubled in the past year, range from the do-it-yourself types who have never met a project they didn’t at least want to attempt, to those who have never held a power tool. Together, they form a sort of sisterhood of the can-do.

A newly installed light fixture hangs above a staircase

Katherine Lambert, who lives in Garden Home, turned to Handy Women recently when she found herself needing to change out light fixtures at odd angles about 12 feet above a stairwell. She also gutted and remodeled a bathroom over a three-day weekend.Katherine Lambert

Handy Women Northwest

Katherine Lambert, who lives in Garden Home, turned to Handy Women recently when she found herself needing to change out light fixtures at odd angles about 12 feet above a stairwell. She also gutted and remodeled a bathroom over a three-day weekend.Katherine Lambert

Katherine Lambert, who lives in Garden Home, turned to Handy Women recently when she found herself needing to change out light fixtures at odd angles about 12 feet above a stairwell. She recently gutted and remodeled a bathroom over a three-day weekend, but the stairs had her stymied. Not all the answers were helpful – though not for a lack of trying. The 100 or so responses included one from a woman who posted, “Don’t do it. It’s not worth your life.” Another suggested she weigh the cost of her medical deductible against the cost of hiring someone to do the work for her. Still another, “My risk level is 1, no one should be doing that.”

“I think if I had prefaced my post with, ‘My risk tolerance level on a scale of 1 to 10 is probably 7…’ the more risk-adverse people probably just would have scrolled past. They were absolutely being supportive by being worried for my safety.” In the end, members told Lambert about a particular ladder that enabled her to safely get the fixtures replaced.

Spady and Lambert enjoy the group for the tips they learn, but also for sharing what they know. “If I know the answer, or if I’ve done that project in my own house, I get so excited,” Lambert said. “There are ones I just scroll past, but also those I read to learn about things I might encounter in the future.”

Retired schoolteacher Nancy Steinert Hazen is one of the members who doesn’t need much advice but has plenty of experience to share. She makes her home now in Lake Stevens, Washington, but grew up in Oregon and still spends a good part of her time in the family’s Cannon Beach summer house -- a beach getaway for four generations of her family. Hazen recently single-handedly demolished an old pair of steep stairs, then rebuilt the new stairway and installed paneling, along with fir trim and a fir ceiling. Finished with that project, Hazen pitched in to build the second-floor addition. She’s also built furniture, rewired lamps, fixed water leaks and is currently putting together a greenhouse. (She’s also a beekeeper and glass artist.) On finding Handy Women, Hazen recalls, “I was like, ‘These are my people.’ These are people who have the desire but might not have the knowledge and don’t necessarily know to ask who isn’t going to brush them off or try to do it for them. It’s delightful to me.”

The exterior of the family cabin on Cannon Beach

Nancy Hazen spent most of her childhood summers at the family cabin in Cannon Beach, where built new stairs and renovated the second floor.Nancy Hazen

Wood paneling covers the walls, ceiling and floors of this room

Nancy Hazen pitched in to build this second-floor addition.Nancy Hazen

When one member sought help with timber posts that she feared might be cracking in her 100-year-old house, Hazen said, “Some people had some great ideas, but some people were saying to do things that were scary to me because I learned a lot about framing when we worked on that second floor. Someone said, ‘You can run some bolts through it,’ and I was like ‘Nooooo.’ ” Hazen asked for some photos, then shared some tips to see if the cracks were really a problem or, as she suspected, merely something superficial in the paint.

Like Hazen, Julie See Durst, also likes to help others on the site. Durst, who lives in Longview, Washington, and grew up in Roseburg, describes herself “as a bit handy” before divorcing nearly 20 years ago. But after, “Being single and owning a home, being poor, you have to figure out how to do stuff,” Durst said. “I think mostly I have given encouragement and kudos to women that say, ‘I am older, I am widowed, I’ve never done anything before, I’m really nervous...,’ those folks that seem like they really need it or could benefit from having cheerleaders. One of the things I really love about that group doesn’t matter what your skill level is, people are supportive.”

Handy Women Northwest

Julie See Durst, likes to help others in the Handy Women Northwest Facebook group. “Being single and owning a home, being poor, you have to figure out how to do stuff,” Durst saidJulie See Durst

While not exactly a rule, that spirit of encouragement is another of Anello’s strong suggestions about behavior. “We are very strict to make sure it stays positive and inspiring,” Anello said. And for some that’s as good as the advice they get on the site.

“I love the Handy Women pages, both the Northwest and national sites,” said Noelle Guest, who lives in a house built circa 1932 in Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood. “It’s the most genuinely useful Facebook page I belong to.” Last year, after a contractor left her with a patio door only partially installed, then disappeared never to be seen again, Guest asked for help in dealing with some of “the many funny little things” that had begun popping up with the door. “These were things I had no clue about … and they were able to identify several small but critical issues and then tell me what to do next. It’s as if you have a group of solid friends. These are smart people. The collective technical knowledge combined with the kinds of support of these mature women is wonderful. It’s an example of the best part of social media.”

— Lori Tobias, for The Oregonian/OregonLive

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.