Home Projects Spike Since Covid-19

Samantha Croston: Retired Solvay teacher Carolyn Pardee was going to the gym frequently and giving music lessons at LeMoyne College before COVID-19 struck. Since then, she found another way to keep herself busy.

Carolyn Pardee: When we did the patio we decided we would do all of the walkways that lead into our backyard. We also had a fence that had been needing replacement. So we did both of those things.

Croston: Pardee, like many others, had the disappointment of a canceled vacation. She decided to use the money towards a home project because the end to COVID-19 was not in sight. She wanted to enrich the area she would be spending more time at…her house.

Pardee: I just remember just looking around and saying I definitely can do something with my backyard so that I have a beautiful space.

Croston: Pardee is not alone in her desire to renovate.

Pardee: Even ordering backyard patio furniture, we are waiting five to six weeks for something to come in because so many people have done the same thing.

Croston: Samantha Croston, N-C-C News.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) –While many businesses have tanked since the start of COVID-19, one industry has excelled—landscaping. During a normal year, people would be out enjoying their July participating in all types of fun summer activities—going to concerts, drinking at bars, and dining at outdoor restaurants. However, now that many of these activities are no longer an option, people have turned towards a different hobby to keep them busy—home projects.

Central New York Landscape owner Paul Swimm explains why his company, Swimm Landscaping, has acquired so much business throughout the summer.

“With people being stuck at home, they are looking at their houses all the time now, and thinking ‘Oh this should be fixed and that should be fixed,’” Swimm said.

One reason for the boom in renovations is that people have been spending so much time at home. They have been looking more closely at all of the things they want to upgrade. In an effort to use their newfound free time productively, they are deciding to act.

Another reason people are drawn to home projects is because upon completion they are provided with a sense of fulfillment. This is enhanced because we are living in a time when many of the things that normally provide people with this sense of fulfillment have been canceled or restricted due to Covid-19.

“They can’t go to movie theaters, they can’t go to baseball games, and they especially can’t go on vacations with their families,” Swimm said.

Many people had to cancel their vacations, but still wanted to spend their money instead of saving it.

“In a way, you almost feel like they want to spend it because they are making up for something that they lost,” Swimm said.

One of Swimm’s recent clients was a perfect example of that. Carolyn Pardee, a retired Solvay teacher was supposed to go on the trip of a lifetime with her husband and two daughters. The family was scheduled to go on a 10-day cruise to Hawaii in June, but it was canceled because of Covid-19. Instead of saving the money, she chose to use it on a new front and back patio as well as a new fence to surround her pool.

“We decided we would take the money that we had spent on this cruise and try and make ourselves a little beautiful area to sit in because that’s as close to Hawaii as we were going to get,” Pardee said.

Pardee, and many others, will not be going on vacation this year. Upgrading the backyard was a way that she could use the cruise money to bring the vacation to her family.

Pardee isn’t the only one who was taking on backyard projects during the quarantine.

“The day after we ordered our fence, we were told that the company was not taking orders anymore because they had so many orders for things,” Pardee said.

Even when Pardee went to shop for backyard furniture for her new patio, she was told there was a five to six week wait for certain products that she wanted because so many other people had been revamping their backyards.

The craze is not limited to costly projects. If you want to join in on the fun, here are a couple of ideas for fun home projects to try that are completely free.