And, if you think men made the major decisions about home improvements and women only selected colors and styles, you are wrong. A study completed last spring by Owens Corning found that many women today play the lead role in home improvement projects.
Women research the project, hire and manage a contractor and purchase and install materials.
The study found that 65 percent of women are more involved in home improvement than ever before, and 55 percent actually make the repairs or make the home improvements. Married women have taken over many home improvement projects from their husbands, and are finding they enjoy and excel at making their homes more comfortable and efficient. Nearly 90 percent were involved in creating concepts for the projects and gathering information while only 12 percent of husbands came up with the idea on their own. More than 40 percent handled finding and hiring a contractor while 68 percent were involved in managing the contractor. Women also influenced nearly 80 percent of all purchasing decisions and were involved in two-thirds of all materials installation, with 13 percent installing materials by themselves.