Julie Erickson on the front steps of her house surounded by Travis Toth, an electrician from Toth Electric, Sean Dowling, a plumber with AAA Able Plumbing, Ron Steele from Service Master Restore of Union County and Sandi Goodman and Tohon Jasdanwala from Homowners Hub.
MAPLEWOOD — Life became a lot harder for Julie Erickson after she was diagnosed with cancer.
A self-employed career coach, chemotherapy sapped her strength and left her capable of only working about a quarter of the time she used to and also in need of help with formerly simple tasks she couldn’t perform anymore.
“I started posting (on Facebook) about my journey and how people were helping me by doing errands, things like cleaning the litter box and emptying and loading the dishwasher and picking up prescriptions,” Erickson said. “Life tasks that I couldn’t do because of chemo.”
An old friend, Sandi Goodman, who Erickson had initially met because Erickson’s nephew went to preschool with Goodman’s daughter, saw those posts. Erickson’s nephew had died of cancer at the age of six. “That really affected their family and mine as well of course,” Erickson said.
Goodman is the co-founder of Homeowner Hub, which charges a monthly subscription fee to handle home maintenance issues for homeowners. “People pay $12.95 a month,” Goodman said. “We will source the tradesperson. We will dispatch them for whatever the homeowner needs and make sure it gets done to their satisfaction and then the homeowner pays us and we pay the tradesman.”
Goodman had been looking for a way to give back and she knew plenty of good tradespeople she thought might be interested in helping a person in need so she reached out to Erickson. It turned out, Erickson’s home needed some work so Goodman arranged for some people to take a look.
Travis Toth, an electrician from Toth Electric, Sean Dowling, a plumber with AAA Able Plumbing and Ron Steele from Service Master Restore of Union County, all agreed to provide their expertise pro-bono.
“She needed an electrician, a plumber and a general contractor to look at some general structural issues,” Goodman said. “They put together some items they could do pro bono.”
“The trades people are doing it for free. We are doing it for free. At the end of the day, she will be in better shape,” Goodman said. There was a problem with light in the basement, which created a tripping hazard, there was a bathroom faucet that had a leak, some cracks in the plaster walls.
“These are things that she was not able to take care of on her own at the moment,” Goodman said. “Her energy level was reduced due to the rounds of chemo so we decided we would address those issues.”
Erickson has just finished five months of chemotherapy and she gets a few weeks off before she begins radiation treatment.
“Chemo was way harder than I ever anticipated,” Erickson said. “Now that I’ve had a week without it, I’m still detoxing and the energy is not back yet. But they say it will come back. Be patient and continue on this adventure.”
A potentially dangerous situation was found and fixed.
“There was a lot of corrosion on the lines leading through the dryer and washing machine,” Erickson said. “They also installed an exhaust fan in my bathroom to prevent mold, which was starting. It was something I could not afford to do.”
“It’s amazing,” she said. “What did I do to deserve this?”
Goodman said this will not be a one and done thing for her company and the tradespeople. They want to help people who are truly struggling in the moment with a health issue or serious financial issues and are unable to take care of their homes and find themselves in a precarious position.
“We want people to feel safe in their home,” Goodman said. “If they can’t do it themselves, we would like to help them accomplish that.”
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