“I had to fight tooth and nail to get into this line of work,” says Pico Foster, a handywoman who runs SheFix. Now she has so many clients, she’s turning down work. 

Pico Foster has loved building things since she was a little girl helping her mom renovate an old home in Kingston. So when the pandemic hit and the company she worked for went under, she seized the opportunity to change careers. Goodbye, computer production! Hello, master carpenter apprenticeship.

Learning on the job, via retrofits and new building construction, Foster expanded her skill set from what she initially gleaned from childhood days spent in the garage begging her mom to let her make dog houses and use “all the power tools.”

After her apprenticeship with a local carpenter, Foster, a 2019 SUNY Ulster business graduate, decided to go independent — as a “female handyman.” And she had a very specific clientele in mind.

“I had all these elders reaching out complaining, ‘I need this small thing done and I can’t get anyone to show up, and if they do show up, they don’t come again, or they overprice me. And in terms of COVID, they aren’t vaccinated!’”

Foster named her new business SheFix and offered her services to the senior citizen community in lower Ulster County. The response was swift bordering on overwhelming. Turns out a lot of people of a certain age in the Hudson Valley have small but urgent needs that Foster is more than capable of doing. She’ll work anywhere within an hour from her home in Kerhonkson.

“At this point I need 10 more sets of hands and wishing I had other women I could hire! I am turning things down which is kind of sad for me,” she says. But she feels compelled to stay true to her chosen niche and increase her older clientele’s well-being. “I have a lot of people coming from the city who need work done that isn’t urgent. I am turning that down.”

Still, Foster doesn’t want to leave anyone stranded, so she’s currently building a database of contacts to connect with potential clients. “I am trying to bridge the gap between homeowners and contractors. If I can’t do it, I am going to help you find someone who can.” This helps everyone, including Foster, who was heartbroken recently when she didn’t have time to build a ramp for a 14-year-old dog. “I am going to make sure that dog gets the ramp he deserves!” she says.

Recently Foster’s days have been spent shoring up mailboxes knocked down by snowplows, replacing window glass broken from cold weather, and fixing lots of drywall. As she works, she’s perpetually on the lookout for other women in the industry. They’re not easy to find, even in 2022.

“I hear of them, but people don’t remember their name or swear they saw a woman in a truck at Home Depot,” she says, laughing. It’s as if they’re UFO sightings.

“I had to fight tooth and nail to get into this line of work,” she says, noting that the apprenticeship she landed in 2021 was one of many she applied for. “It was one person out of 20 willing to take a chance on me as a woman.”

Foster would love to grow SheFix but doesn’t currently have the bandwidth to take on a full-time apprentice. But she does show women the tools of her trade whenever she can find time. “Some of [it] is so simple,” she says.

So simple that Foster will consult with any potential client willing to help themselves. “I have a lot of women who call me and say, ‘I wish I could do this kind of thing.’” Foster believes they can, and if they’re game to try, she’s available to teach. In a few weeks, she’s booked to show a New Paltz farmhouse owner how to switch all of her electrical outlets that don’t cosmetically match. “It’s easy! This sets me apart,” she says.

For people game to DIY, Foster will even share her phone number and talk them through projects. “That’s how I learned most of what I know. I did apprentice, but everything else was YouTube and reading Reddit.”

Driving to and from people’s homes, writing proposals, finding materials, and sending invoices is time consuming. Advice is comparatively quick. “Give it a try, I’m a phone call away. We are all very capable. Having a trusted person to call and ask questions helps.”

To that end, Foster adores local hardware stores, like the Marbletown True Value on Route 209 in Stone Ridge. “Shout out to Jamie! And to knowledgeable hardware store workers [who are] kind and willing to stand there and talk to you,” she says.

Recently a client in her 70s hired Foster to take down some Christmas lights, tighten a doorknob screw, and patch a few drywalls. “She can’t find someone she feels safe with,” says Foster, who always makes sure to share that she’s fully vaccinated and boostered against COVID-19. “It’s a huge weight on me going into so many people’s homes,” she adds. She has even curtailed her social life to try to be as safe as possible in seniors’ living spaces.

Currently Foster is enjoying the learning curve of her new business. She’s learning how to estimate, price, and bid on projects, and understanding her worth. She loves being useful doing tasks like hanging blinds and toilet paper holders — the kind of things that can sit unmounted in homes for months or even years.

Maybe Foster will take on bigger projects one day, like built-in cabinets and staircases, but for now, she’s sticking with the small stuff.

“My rule of thumb: if it takes more than a day or two, I have to turn the job down right now so I can help more people.”

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A born-and-bred New Yorker who spent childhood weekends and summers all over the Hudson Valley, Alexandra Zissu transplanted fully to New Paltz in 2013 with her family to be close to the farms that feed them-the best move ever. Waking daily to a view of the Gunks sustains her. She's obsessive about family meal, loves trying to grow vegetables with her two girls, talks to trees as she walks in the woods, fosters kittens, and has written six books, all about the environment and health.