Announcing Brico Babe
Brico Babe is a radical new group to empower women with power tools, new skills in home renovation, and a community supportive of personal growth.
If you want to...
learn more about home renovation (or teach others)
learn how to use power tools (or help others learn)
better supervise the contractors you hire (or provide tips to guide others)
want to meet new people
pay to learn new skills that will help you save time, money and hardship in the future
earn money by sharing your skills and knowledge with others
... this group is for you. Join us!
This group is open to people of all genders, but women will be able to rsvp for most of our events first.
The idea for this group started in 2021 when I bought a fixer-upper home to turn into a guesthouse. The purchase process started in May. Two months later, the home, city of Verviers, the Province of the Liege, and all of the surrounding areas of Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were impacted by severe flooding... one of the worse floods Western Europe has seen in the last half century.
Despite the devastation, the disappointment, and the damage to the basement, backyard, and flooring on the ground level, I decided to move forward with the project. I still loved the Province of Liege and having a home base near Spa, the forests of the Ardennes, and the biggest protected area in Belgium - Les hautes fagnes. I also still dreamed of owning a home and creating a beautiful, eco-friendly space where I could welcome family and friends.
Like countless others, I poured myself into transforming a site of devastation into a place of pure delight. I've spent thousands of euros and devoted endless hours into making my dream a reality. Along the way, I made some tough realizations:
This sector of home renovation and construction is almost entirely comprised of men.
Many of these men are sexist and some of them are also racist.
All contractors want your money, but few of them are truly motivated to do their best work at your house. Often, contractors will take your money and try to do as little work as possible to get the job "done".
If you're not very persistent and insistent, you may rarely see jobs done well. If contractors are sexist or racist, they may be even less motivation to do good quality work for a woman or a person color.
Our home environment - be it a flat, a room, or a house - has a huge impact on us each and every day. We all deserve to live in a place we find comfortable and enjoyable. Home renovation and improvement is key to this. But as things are currently set up, men are grossly and disproportionately the ones financially benefiting from this sector born from a universal human need for shelter.
We need more balance. The current, male-dominated home renovation sector is in shambles. We need better quality home renovation work done at a more affordable price.
We need more women to have the skills to take control of their home environment, to renovate their own spaces and carry out essential maintenance without shelling out hundreds and thousands of euros for mediocre work done by contractors.
We need more women to have the knowledge and confidence necessary to properly supervise and review the work of the contractors they hire, to demand and receive good quality service, and to not be taken advantage of.
Women and men need to breakdown the asymmetries of information that enable sub-par contractors to thrive economically.
The situation isn't great, but we can make it better! If we lean in, learn more, share more, and help each other and can achieve more, save money, and be happier in our home environments.
To join us, visit our club page on here to sign up for future events!
