COLORADO SPRINGS — While the pandemic has forced some businesses to cut back their workforce, it’s had just the opposite effect for those in the home remodeling business.
“I help clients space plan, design their kitchens, pick their cabinets, the counters,” said Allison Bremmer, an interior designer for Aspen Kitchens in Colorado Springs.
As of late, she’s picking up more and more clients.
“Probably every couple weeks or so,” she said.
And just ask her counterparts--
“This past year I would say we’ve probably seen a 20-30 percent increase,” Aspen Kitchens Designer Johanna Alstrin said.
--Business keeps booming.
“Because interest rates are low, so home values are steady and increasing,” Alstrin said. “They’re not able to spend their money on vacations… and they’re stuck in their homes.”
But there’s more at play.
“Most homes need to be remodeled after 20 years, and 20 years ago we had a huge population boom,” she said.
When you combine a hot market with people spending more time in their homes…
“I think it’s a perfect storm right now,” Alstrin said.
It’s a storm of opportunities.
“We’ve hired on quite a bit more people,” she said.
‘People’ like Bremmer.
“I’ve been here for about six months,” Bremmer said.
Her job only exists thanks to the boom.
“Because they needed help, because everyone was remodeling their house,” she said.
It’s not always easy.
“There’s a lot of stress for everyone involved, and there’s a lot of details and a lot of decision making,” she said.
But for her, it’s the perfect challenge.
“I thrive on a little bit of stress and a little bit of time crunch,” Bremmer said. “So I’m not complaining.”
