This FH series introduces readers to a few of the women who make up 11 percent of the construction workforce in the U.S., spotlighting stories of their careers in the field. Know someone we should feature? Email us here.
Eight years ago, Kat Christie took her childhood love of tinkering pro, starting as an espresso machine technician. That ignited her curiosity and desire to delve into home repair. In 2017, she earned a Handyman Certificate Course from York College in Queens, New York, a major step toward her dream of running her own handywoman business.
Christie launched She Fixed That in 2019, and went full-time the following year at the start of the pandemic. Since people were home, mulling unfinished projects and ordering home office necessities, her business took off. “Patching a small hole in a wall, furniture assembly, hanging TVs and gallery walls, building pantries and library walls — no day is the same,” Christie says.
In 2021 she moved from New Jersey to Birmingham, Alabama and quickly re-established her business in the new location. “Up north or down south, people want to hire women. Women want to hire women,” she says. “It’s a niche that I think exists everywhere.”
We asked Christie for her thoughts on the state of the residential handyperson business.
Q: How did you get into fixing things?
A: I got a philosophy degree, so naturally, here we are, right? Ha! Jokes aside, I’ve always been a tinkerer. As a kid, I stole my brother’s Legos, K’Nex and Lincoln Logs. I took apart the old VCR to see how it worked, and loved building forts with pillows, sticks, boxes — anything really.
Later in life, while working in the coffee industry, our units would occasionally break down, and the company dispatched a tech. I loved when this one tech, Jay, came out. I’d pick his brain, curious about how the machine’s internal components worked. He was patient, knowledgeable and cool as hell. I wanted to be him.
Fast forward some years, and I landed a job as a tech repairing those same coffee machines. That was one of the best jobs I’ve had— a road warrior, fixing things and keeping America caffeinated. I felt like a superhero and still reminisce about it.
The thing of it is, once you know how a boiler, valve, flow meter and switch all work, it’s transferable to everything: cars, washing machines, water heaters and so on.
Q: What are some of your favorite fix-it jobs?
A: My heart is in mechanical and carpentry. Given my prior experience, I especially enjoy small-appliance repair.
I love hunting for a service manual with an exploded-parts diagram tucked away in an internet corner and sifting through troubleshooting forums online to find the fix. In this disposable culture we live in, making something old work again, like rewiring a lamp or dissecting an antique mortise lock, is exceptionally satisfying.
Carpentry is the inverse — I build rather than take apart. But issues always arise. Not as dramatic as HGTV, but something to troubleshoot nonetheless. I love to cope trim. There’s nothing more satisfying than an invisible joint!
My absolute favorite fix-it job isn’t something specific. It’s when a client has had to work around/settle with a seemingly minor issue, be it a stuck drawer, loose knob, door that doesn’t latch right, broken hinge, you name it. When the fix brings ease back into their lives, I’ve done my job.
