Not only does Cynthia Milloy want to fix houses, she wants to spruce up an industry.
"Every homeowner has heard horror stories," she said. "Contractors don't show up on time, don't fix things right . . . or take off with the money. We want to be perceived as professionals, not as some low-life salesperson."
Mrs. Milloy, 39, who lives in Arundel on the Bay, was named Remodeler of the Year by the Home Builders Association of Maryland in large part because of her work in setting standards for remodeling companies.
She helped to found the Certified Graduate Remodeler program in 1990, a nationwide certification program requiring tests on subjects ranging from sales and marketing to legal contracts, from building technology to customer service. Applicants need a minimum of five years in the business and must be either an owner or manager of a company. About 500 remodelers have been certified.
Sitting in her office -- a cozy, sun-splashed nook tucked in her waterfront home in Annapolis -- Mrs. Milloy has come a long way from the days when as a sculptor she molded metal in an unheated studio in southwest Washington.
Mrs. Milloy graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in fine arts.
There, she met her husband, William. After school, she worked as a sculptor, welding metal into free-standing shapes in a studio on Capitol Hill.
Her art career didn't quite take off, so Mrs. Milloy started making window guards and handrails. But then Mrs. Milloy had trouble finding space after getting tired of her unheated studio -- "You can't really weld at home," she said.
In the meantime, she started working with her husband at Oaken Hammer Design and Remodeling -- which the couple founded in 1975 -- initially as a go-for. Eventually, she took over running the business side of the company.
In the beginning, her real challenge was being a woman in a predominantly male industry.
At supply houses, male clerks would "correct you in front of everyone just to let you know you weren't technically accurate," she said. "On sales calls, clients would question me, saying, 'Don't you need to have a guy come over and take a look at it?' "
But times are changing, albeit slowly.
With more women working in the field, one's gender is less
important, but stereotypes still exist among consumers, said Kathy Wheatley, owner of Monkton-based Wheatley Associates, who was the first woman to win the remodelers' award, in 1991.
"It's one thing if women are selling carpet or floor tile," Ms. Wheatley said.
"But customers may be a little uncomfortable when women are selling a $200,000 addition."
Mrs. Milloy said gender is no longer an issue. More of a challenge, she said, is working in a field where every job offers something new to learn.
Usually, Mrs. Milloy admits, she learns from her clients and subcontractors in areas ranging from sales and marketing to design.
One example is a job where Oaken Hammer contractors accidentally trapped a client's cat beneath floorboards that had been replaced.
Receiving a frantic Saturday morning telephone call from the owner, who could hear the animal meowing but couldn't find him, Mrs. Milloy removed the floorboards and coaxed the cat out.
"Who would have thought we had to do a cat count?" she laughed. "But it's one of those things. Now we search for all animals."