Home schooling

On a Wednesday evening in late summer, it's hard to tell who's interrupting whom: the people peppering Dexter Parker for advice on decorating their Baltimore homes or Parker, who is trying to finish his seminar on interior design in the allotted time.

As Parker explains how furniture should fit with a room's size, questions hammer him from around this room in the Enoch Pratt Central Library, an upstairs auditorium to which the program was moved when far more than 20 people signed up.

The free hour-and-a-half presentation drew 75 people, a substantial turnout of persistent questioners.

How high above the dining-room table should the chandelier hang? (30 inches is the rule of thumb.) Do big mirrors make small spaces seem larger? (Not always; you'll see two of everything.) How do you find a room's focal point? (Start by looking for the strong architectural elements.)

Such house-related seminars are a testament to buyers' and owners' quests to deal with their homes.

Classes come in many forms: workshops at community colleges, presentations through community associations, clinics at stores, programs at businesses and more.

They're free or low-cost ways for homeowners to get quick guidance in the gap between knowledge and goals. Subjects include introductions to buying, selling, gardening, woodworking, repairing, electricity, lawn care, and on and on.

"I think it speaks to the interest level. We have 500 requests so far for our August classes," said Anna Custer, the executive director of the Live Baltimore Home Center, which sponsored Parker's talk and was accepting reservations for buying and renovating classes later in the month.

The nonprofit group aims to entice people to move into the city and keep them as residents. As a result, it has expanded offerings ranging from demystifying the buying process to beautifying the property.

"I own a home in Patterson Park. I know I'm going to be in this home for three to four years," said Eric Jones, after attending his second Live Baltimore quick-hit seminar. "For me, it's important to get a perspective from somebody who's not on TV, who knows Baltimore homes."

He came to Parker's seminar because he wanted to make sure that when hanging photos from his travels, he's creating a display that is not crowded and doesn't shrink the narrow space, but is appealing.

Home-help classes can aid consumers in losing that deer-in-the-headlights fright when figuring out what they can afford to buy and confronting a house's major systems. Many have had scarce exposure to those tools, financial or otherwise.

Allegra "Renovating Woman" Bennett of Baltimore, the author of a 1997 home-repair guide, is scheduled to run classes this fall at Baltimore City Community College. The topics include replacing a lock and patching holes in a wall.

Such basics are more attitude and empowerment than genius, and homeowners ought to know them to keep their house functioning and save money, she said. Dreamy-eyed buyers don't think about that.

"In the basement, knowing where the main cutoff is for water and power, they don't know it," she said.

"Having water cutoffs right at your kitchen and bathroom sink is a good thing. You see the faucets and you say, 'Oh, look at that pretty stainless steel.' But then there is water coming up out of the sink and you are in a panic," Bennett said.

"Some of us don't have the basics of how to cut with a saw and how to use a screw gun," said home-improvement contractor and cabinetmaker Suzanne Maddox, who teaches the skills at the Community College of Baltimore County.

That's because plenty of her students never went through a high school shop class, she said.

"A lot of people don't bother to take those things," she said.

Some high schools don't offer shop anymore.

Related topic galleries: Real Estate Buyers, Home Depot Incorporated, Patterson Park, Colleges and Universities, Consumer Confidence, Homes

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