Central Virginians find ways to stretch a dollar

The math is simple.

• Auto engine oil is $2.50 a quart, says Art Giannini with Art's Automotive Service in Henrico. A new engine can cost you $5,000.

• Working with his father, Ben Bundens replaced the deck on his Jackson Ward row house this summer for $2,500. He figures paying a contractor would have cost him four times that amount.

• A new pair of dress shoes can easily run $100, $150 or more. Having your comfortable old shoes -- the ones that fit like a glove -- resoled and reheeled is $31 to $45, according to Rick Hendrick of Jerry's Shoe Service in Lakeside.

With the American economy staggering, people are looking for ways to improve their lives and the value of their possessions -- and stretch scarce dollars.

"We've gotten in our society to think about everything as disposable: furniture, automobile, clothing," says writer Wanda Urbanska, creator of the PBS television show "Simple Living."

"The recession has given us a chance to challenge those long-held assumptions," said Urbanska, who lives in Mount Airy, N.C. "The economic situation is causing us to really question every purchase. We need to change our mentality not to think of them as disposable but as reusable."

Around central Virginia, people are finding ways to spiff up, fix up, adapt or add on to homes, cars, clothing -- even pool tables -- to keep them going and increase their value. And lots of businesses are eager to help.

Urbanska is a leading voice in this back-to-basics movement. Her program examines what people can do to make their lives easier and more stress-free, from buying products that will last a long time to managing budgets more responsibly.

And other benefits spring from reusing and adapting the things in people's lives, she said: lowering impacts on the environment, and sharing experiences with others, especially family.

For instance, for Bundens, replacing the deck on his 109-year-old home gave him an opportunity to work for a week with his dad, Ben Sr., who has been recovering from leukemia.

He hadn't planned on doing the project this year, Bundens said, but then, "Mother said, 'Get your Dad to do the deck. He's got a clean bill of health and he needs a project.'"

So the two men spent a week cutting, measuring, drilling, hammering, working, building -- together. "Dad is 68," the younger Bundens said, "and I'm so grateful to have him alive."

Home

"Since the beginning of March till now we've been going nonstop," said Michael Gundersen of Professional Home Services. His Richmond company installs replacement siding, windows and roofing, insulation, decks and gutters.

"People are fixing up their homes," he said. "They're taking advantage of tax credits."

Adding vinyl siding -- an $8,000 to $15,000 investment depending on a house's size -- is a great way to increase home value, Gundersen said.

"It's going to sell quicker and it's maintenance-free," he said. "And it reduces your heating and cooling costs."

Willton Silvestre wanted a garage for his Thousand Oaks home in Henrico County.

"We decided to . . . attach it to the house," said his wife, Faye Silvestre, "and went up and added a master suite."

The Silvestres also put vinyl siding on their home.

Buying a new house to provide the same space and amenities would have set them back $800,000 to $900,000, she said, but the couple's addition cost $100,000, paid for with a home-equity loan.

Her own shutter business takes her into homes across the region and "that is what I was seeing people doing," she said. "They were taking what they had and upgrading instead of buying."

"Now we've just got so much space, and I never would have found that in a new house," she said. "I love it."

Tom Piero of Tom's Toolbox recently renovated a bathroom for a West End woman who had been planning to sell her home. With the residential market in the tank, he said, she decided to remain in her home.

For $3,700, Piero replaced the floor, put in ceramic tile, shelving, light fixtures, ceiling exhaust fan, a new toilet and shower doors, and then painted the bathroom. "If she was going to stay," he said, "she wanted the bathroom the way she liked it."

Jennie Dotts' Old House Authority is in the historically appropriate renovation and restoration business.

For her 19th-century Church Hill home, she took her own advice and installed custom storm windows. While the resulting energy savings are fantastic, Dotts said, "anybody who lives in the city knows it's noisy.

"For my money, the most important feature of the storm windows is noise reduction," she said. "At night, you put the storm windows down and you can't hear a thing. It's fabulous."

Auto

If Justine Wiseman had her druthers, she'd get a new car every two or three years. But the economic downturn blew the tire on her plan to trade in her 2005 Chrysler Pacifica.

Happily, prior experience overseeing heavy equipment maintenance programs made the real estate project manager a believer in taking care of her vehicle.

"I want it to run properly," the North Side woman said, "and if you take care of your vehicle . . . it's better for the environment."

"I'd love to trade it in," she said, "but it's just not feasible." Consequently, regular oil changes, tire rotations and filter replacements are key to the mid-size SUV's holding its value -- and keeping it running, she and her husband, Blake, said.

The recession has tricked some of Giannini's auto-repair customers into the false economy of skimping on routine auto maintenance, he said.

"Most of my customers drive older vehicles," Giannini said. But he's noticed a drop-off in people bringing their cars in for regular servicing.

"They're bringing in more cars with major problems than a year ago," the auto-repair shop owner said. "We do some major work because of neglect."

Wearable

Old is back in clothing and footwear this year.

Fashion, family and finances are luring customers into used-clothing and consignment shops for bargains -- and cash.

Nicole Morrison, 23, of Richmond stocked up on summer shirts at Plato's Closet before she goes to Atlanta.

"It's not expensive," Morrison said, "and most of the clothes are just as nice" as those being sold new in boutiques and department stores.

"People don't have enough money to go to the mall," said assistant manager Elizabeth "Izzy" Mills at Plato's Closet, which sells "gently used" clothing, in the TJ Maxx Shopping Center on West Broad Street.

"We're able to provide people with all the mall brands at really low prices," Mills said. "I spend a hundred bucks at Abercrombie & Fitch for what I could get for twenty bucks here."

But, Mills said, "We've gotten a whole lot busier with taking things in and giving people money, rather than selling our things."

Urbanska urges -- tongue in cheek -- a clothing strike. "Why do we need all this clothing?" she asked. "When I'm working at home, I just wear the same pair of sweatpants or shorts."

"The problem with women's clothes is that they're too complicated," the one-time Los Angeles journalist said. "The smart money is on reducing your wardrobe: quality pieces but fewer of them -- can I wear this in 10 years?"

Anna Ramsey was at Jerry's Shoe Service on Thursday getting a buckle fixed on her favorite pair of nursing shoes. The footwear cost her about $65. The repair was $3.50. And besides the savings, Ramsey said, the old shoes fit her.

Because of the recession, even sneakers have become candidates for tender loving care at Connie's Shoe Repair in downtown Richmond, said owner Nathan Elkin.

"Some we can fix and some we cannot," he said, "but they're bringing them to me because it's cheaper to have then fixed than to buy new ones."

At Bygones Vintage Clothing in Carytown, owner Maynee Cayton said her business is up 8 percent this year compared with last.

Bygones specializes in the clothing and jewelry of the'30s,'40s and'50s.

"People perceive it as being less expensive than new things," she said, "and more importantly people perceive my business and things from the past as comfort, memory.

"What I have is evocative of . . . things their mother and grandmother wore," Cayton said.

"That's valuable to people."

Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or .