Title: When A Woman Takes An Axe To A Wall
Author: Allegra Bennett
When a Woman Takes An Axe To A Wall explores the synergy between a woman and the four walls she calls her own. Through anecdotes and incidents, it shows us that a woman, or indeed all women who take on their own home repairs, embark on more than just superficial fix-it jobs--they dip into the reconstruction of their own spirits.
"When you knock down the wall, who knows what you will find? What a wonderful collection of stories about self affirming experience. We must always take a deep breath and swing that hammer to find what lies beneath. Maybe you will find the answers you've been seeking."
-Alma Powell, Chair, America's Promise, The Alliance for Youth
Home Alone
Divorce and widowhood have been the typical entryway to first-time, solo homeownhership for many women. That’s how it was for me. I got the house in the divorce. It was not the best part of the deal.
The house was a half-century old stucco-over-wood-frame Victorian located in a stable, vibrant neighborhood. It featured a three-quarter wrap around porch, a deck, four bedrooms, a living room, formal
dining room, eat in kitchen, attic and basement and was situated on a lot with front, back and side yards with lots of grass. For a dozen years, it was the Ponderosa where my husband and I raised our son and daughter and sealed the finale of our 23 years of marriage.
What I didn’'t know as a wife I discovered as a divorcee. The place had issues. The house was a hypochondriac. There was always something mechanically or physically amiss. The roof needed surgery, the outside walls and trim needed a facelift,
the basement needed plugging and the plumbing constantly demanded alternate doses of curatives to relieve the bouts of nausea and constipation in the pipes. I wasn’'t cognizant of this stuff while I was married. I didn'’t have to be. A man was at home. He was the fix-it quarterback and I had no desire to run interference.
Had it occurred to me that I would have to do my own repairs, I would have insisted he take the house in the divorce. Then I could have been the one to go live in a condo with a
concierge in the lobby and 24-hour, on- call maintenance service. However, it didn’'t happen that way. In fact, The Ex didn’'t even put up a fight for the house. He just let me have it. Smart move on his part. But I am not unhappy. At least not now.
Back then the house started out feeling like a place of confinement and unending expenditures, but it evolved into an institution of perpetual learning. I learned all of its systems, what it liked and didn'’t like, its vulnerabilities, how to do repairs major and minor and
perform maintenance routines to keep the misadventures down to a minimum. In that process, I discovered a part of myself that was far more sufficient and brave than I had practiced being. That self forged a career I would never have thought of for me in a hundred lifetimes.
A backed-up garbage disposal gave birth to ‘Allegra Bennett Renovating Woman™’. Lively and humorously self-deprecating, Allegra describes herself as an avowed home repair ignoramus, until divorce and bad plumbing forced her to smarten up, demystify the workings of a house,
and depend on herself to get the job done. She shared what she learned in broadcast commentaries, newspaper columns and three books. Hers is a seminal voice in the emerging trend of single female homeowners, who take on their own home repairs—the Renovating Woman™ Movement.
Allegra has been featured in newspaper and magazine articles and on home repair segments on local and national television shows. She has appeared on Home Made Easy, a
show on the DIY Network, and on Baltimore station WBAL. Sought after for her expertise and authenticity, in February 2006 she was the spokesperson for the Baltimore Gas and Electric Consumer Energy Conservation Program.
In March 2005 Allegra launched Renovating Woman Magazine, a quarterly home improvement publication for women; and on April 1, 2006 she introduced the Renovating Woman Do-it-HERself Workshops.
