Home renovation primer

MONIKA ULLMANN

It's spring and while a young man's fancy may indeed turn to love, it's just as likely to turn to home maintenance – especially if he has managed to marry his love and she has morphed into a wife worried about sprucing the place up. But not to worry, help is on the way.

Timo Kellokoski, aka the Home Doctor, is a local entrepreneur who believes that home maintenance, repair and renovation can be fun and easy, provided you know what you're doing and get organized about it.

During his 20 years as a home renovator, he discovered that most people fall a little short on both counts. So he decided to come up with a product that would help them. It's a unique software package dubbed the Premso Maintenizer that teaches homeowners how to organize all aspects of home maintenance.
"Most people, when they see it, can't believe that nobody has thought of this before," he said proudly. In fact, maintenance software for business has been available for years, but this is the first time a similar product has been available for individuals.

Kellokoski has spent two years perfecting the product and is now finding that people want it for all kinds of different reasons. Homeowners contemplating major renovation projects like it because it helps them plan and track the project. If they're worried about timing maintenance properly, it helps them pinpoint when to check for roof leaks, how long the siding they have should last and calculating when that rusting water heater might need replacing. Kellokoski has built all his expertise into the program, so that it is educational as well as practical.

Among the data that homeowners can enter are basic information about the home, including overall size, mortgage information and rates, as well as a personal property inventory. This last feature is perfect for making a room-by-room inventory; basic information that can become crucial in case of fire or theft. Another topic is a materials list, which nails down the exact color combination of a particular paint shade, where it was purchased and for how much. All maintenance is divided into spring and fall categories, teaching you when to check and what to do about minor repairs.

"You want to catch those minor repair problems before they become a major expense," he said.

Real estate agents like giving the package to their clients because it teaches them all they need to know about protecting their biggest investment - their homes. Kenny Au, a local real estate agent, said that he likes it because he wants to help his clients be organized and knowledgeable about maintenance. "They feel really good about that," he said.

Kellokoski was trained as a home builder and graduated from a technical college in his native Norway, where he gained practical experience for a decade before coming to Canada in the early '90s. He immediately began working as a renovator, first for others, then as an independent contractor. Overall, he said, Europeans tend to take home maintenance more seriously than Canadians do, but he hopes he can bring everybody up to speed. He said he has tried to meet different needs, including those of people who don't like working with computers.
"People can buy the binder, which has hard copies of everything that is in the software, and [they can] just enter their information by writing it in," he said.

Kellokoski finds that most people prefer to have both a binder and the CD, allowing for maximum flexibility. The binder retails for $60 and the CD for $100. Kellokoski is hoping to have his product available at major home building outlets soon but, in the meantime, people can buy it directly from him by accessing his website, www.premso.com.

Monika Ullmann is a local freelance writer who could have used one of these programs years ago.

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