International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
The first gathering to celebrate this event was in 1911 and was fully adopted by the United Nations in 1975 to help forge a more gender-balanced world. Not long after that, our very own Catherine Taylor decided to leave her full-time job as an elementary school art teacher and enter the world of new home construction. As the story goes, “It was summer and I was off from school. After a chance meeting with someone who was building modular homes, I decided to leave teaching and go into home building.” She completed a few projects on her own, then in 1981 incorporated as Connecticut Valley Homes.
Specializing in offsite modular construction since the beginning, Catherine was intrigued by the idea of building a home inside a factory.
“Modular construction just made so much sense back then, as it does today,” she said. “Homes are built in a climate controlled facility, scheduling isn’t dependent on weather or the availability of local trade partners. The use of precision machinery at the factory gets the cuts right the first time, saving time and money and virtually eliminating waste. Once delivered to the site and placed on the foundation, the house is weather-tight once all of the modules are in place. It was, and is, a much better way to build.”
The practicality of modular construction inspired Catherine to go out on her own, but it is the clients she serves now who continue to keep her going.
“Today’s consumer is far more educated, far more aware of what we do and how we do it. Many of our clients want their dream home but fear the building process, that it will be daunting or it will go over budget. I love helping them shape their vision, simplifying the design and build process for them, so they can achieve their goals and stay within a price-point that is right for them.”
Catherine has designed almost all of the 1600 homes her company has built.
She still enjoys offering creative ideas and solutions and takes great satisfaction in hearing how much they love living in their new home. “We have learned a lot along the way, and enjoy sharing those learnings and our refined process with each of our clients. Starting my own company turned out to be hard at times, and certainly different than the path that I was originally on. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. Many of our clients are either repeat clients or referred to us by someone we built for in the past. It’s a compliment we hold in the highest regard. Helping others achieve their goals, designing and building a home for them to love – that continues to be my passion today.”
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