“It’s a good crowd for a Thursday,” said David Cuddy, Marketing Coordinator for Couto Construction at his company’s Home Show booth as the aisles began to fill up the Rhode Island Convention Center on day one of the four-day event after a Covid-imposed two-year absence. “It may even be the best Thursday crowd I’ve seen here. I think people are hungry to get out.”

While so many businesses have had a very tough time coping over the past two years, the home improvement business (everything from contractors, landscapers, and architects to dog fence companies and carpet cleaners), has experienced unprecedented growth. The piping hot housing market has added to the emphasis on nesting and cocooning by making upgrading much more financially painful, resulting in consumers ameliorating what they already have.

“With people confined to their homes, lots of us looked around and said, ‘Hmm, this isn’t really what I want to be surrounded by 24/7,’ and with the extra time and money they found themselves with, they did something about it,” said Pat Jordan from Ideal Concrete Block, whose company makes stone-looking structures from concrete forms.

This sudden abundance of time at home was something that affected everyone, all the way to our furry friends, as people, looking for companionship, realized that the barrier that made pet ownership previously problematic, namely available time, was now there in spades.

“Our business exploded as people emptied the shelters and breeders had one- and two-year waiting lists,” said long-established local Invisible Fence purveyor Mike Moriarty.

What made things more complicated was the lack of available labor, something that many businesses still reference to this day (the U.S. just posted the lowest unemployment rate since Covid began, and one/tenth of a percentage point away from tying the lowest on record). For Moriarty however, that issue seems to be turning around.

“Just in the past 2-3 weeks we’ve seen a steady increase in available talent, whereas the past two years we’ve been beating ourselves up on Indeed [a job posting website],” he said.

Whether it’s because of lack of available labor or a reeling supply chain or the exponential increase of materials being sought for home improvement causing prices and lead times to skyrocket, that pain was shared across the board. Head designer of Meridian Custom Homes (an up-market new-home construction company) said their lead time for completion of a home was previously under a year from framing stage, while today it can be double that, all due to materials and labor issues.
Not everyone, however, knows why lead times and costs are sky-high.

Mark Pouliot, from Arnold Lumber in Bristol, one of the show’s sponsors, said, “In some cases lumber prices are higher today than even during the past two years of Covid, and I honestly don’t know why. Yes, we’ve had some issues with Canadian lumber being unavailable for one reason or another, but that’s only 10 percent of our inventory. It’s like the market is being influenced by unseen forces—I don’t know what the issue is.”

This lack of being able to explain why, for example, a two-by-four now costs three to four times what it cost in 2019, has been frustrating for everyone in the industry.

“It’s uncomfortable to have to tell homeowners the cost of their home renovation has doubled, or more, for no tangible reason they can put their fingers on,” said Alex Platt, from Riverside-based contracting company Marshall Building and Remodeling.

Be that as it may, the Rhode Island Home Show was packed with those exact consumers browsing the wares of home improvement, as well as an expansive landscaping and flower section (including a Gardens of the World exhibit, where apparently Canadian gardens feature flag-festooned ice-fishing huts), an Energy Expo, and lots of activities for the kids.

“The same kind of thing that happened with Covid happened 20 years ago, just after 9/11. People looked around and said they’d rather stay home,” said Moriarity, who is feverishly working to keep up with demand for his Invisible Fence product. Unlike the mood post-9/11 however, which ebbed over time, our self-imposed exiles into our home-spaces is a trend that’s not likely to wane.

While in the past our homes may have indeed been our castles, today they are also our offices, playgrounds, restaurants, and vacation spots, and with so many self-designed touch points on one property, why would you want to go anywhere else? Just don’t plan on getting that outdoor pizza oven installed any time soon — there’s a two-year waiting list.

Drew Nederpelt is a Barrington resident and a Warren volunteer firefighter. He can be reached at Drew@DrewNederpelt.com.