Meet Neshama Littman of Plott Hound Handyma’am Co.

Today we’d like to introduce you to Neshama Littman

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
When I was a kid, my childhood home in Takoma Park, MD was in a constant state of renovation. I watched my dad re-shingle the house, fix electrical issues and build me a playset in the backyard – complete with a uniquely designed flat metal slide that burned your legs in the summer and ended in a sharp 120 degree angle that bruised your tuchus. I was interested in my dad’s projects, but his love-hate relationship with them made it more likely that he’d snap at my questions in misplaced frustration rather than teach me what he was doing. I settled for working on my own creative “projenations” – masterpieces made from polymer clay and multitrack tape recordings of me singing every part in “Duke of Earl.

Many years later, when I was studying voice at UNC-Chapel Hill, I fell in love with old-time music and the land-based southern folkways it emerged from. Farming was central to those folkways, and I began obsessively seeking out old farmhouses and barns in Orange & Durham Counties. I loved touching the timbers and boards in those buildings, imagining the people who cut and carved them by hand a century ago.

After college, I made a haphazard career in early childhood education – nannying my way through stints living in Brooklyn, San Francisco and Boston. I became a single parent when my child was 3, and pressured myself into getting a “real job” – moving my education work behind a computer at a Jewish non-profit in Atlanta. That work was emotionally exhausting, and by the time I moved to Durham to be closer to family in early 2020, I was ready for a reset.

The pandemic forced that reset in a big way, narrowing my focus to my house and yard. One of the first things I did when the world shut down was to dig up my front lawn and build garden beds out of the loose boards laying around in the backyard. Home improvement projects snowballed from there – the garden needed a fence, which needed a beautiful gate. Plants needed trellises to grow up, and garden tools needed shelves to live on. Over those isolated years, I became someone who looked around for things that needed to be fixed or built and thought, “I can probably do that.”

This new-found confidence in my fix-it abilities coincided with a diagnosis of ADHD, which was both surprising and relieving as a person in my 30s. I realized that physically demanding work was a balm for my brain, and I challenged myself to find a career that was aligned with that need. A friend told me about a new training program in Carrboro called Hope Renovations, a 3-month paid pre-apprenticeship program for women & non-binary people considering a career in the construction trades. I joined a cohort with 5 others, and we learned about residential renovation from a textbook before putting that book knowledge into practice with 6 weeks of on-the-job training with the in-house construction crew. I fell in love with the mystery and puzzle of renovation work and the combination of brute strength and strategy it required.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
After the program, I worked on a friend’s farm helping him finish a barn and then found an apprenticeship with a small renovation company. Even though this company was vouched for by Hope Renovations, I dealt with misogyny there on a daily basis. My male coworkers would quite literally take tools out of my hands rather than showing me how to do something, and regularly expressed doubt that I would choose to work in construction long-term rather than staying home to raise children. My male manager acted like training me was a waste of his time, belittled me when I asked questions, and said that any communication issues we had were because he “didn’t speak Venutian” – i.e. he couldn’t communicate with me effectively because I was a woman. Aside from being personally hurtful, these recurring instances of misogyny were maddeningly inefficient – I loved the work itself and just wanted to be allowed to do it rather than defending my competency at every turn.

I know that the prevalence of misogyny from men in the trades is an issue that affects clients as well as coworkers. My female and queer friends are often extremely uncomfortable having a strange man in their home to fix an issue, especially if they live alone. This discomfort can come from a fear as big as sexual assault and as small as being ignored or dismissed when they ask a male tradesperson questions or point out a flaw in his work. When I started my small handyma’am business this summer, I had those friends in mind. Home repair work lives at the intersection of so many social and economic issues – from overconsumption & waste production to isolation & lack of community. I can’t solve those issues just by repairing a leak under a renter’s sink or lowering a closet rod for an elder, but doing this work still somehow feels like sacred community care to me, and makes me feel one step closer to living in a healed, connected society.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Plott Hound Handyma’am Co.?
I’m a Southern Jewish lesbian wandering around your dinner party testing door hinges & muttering to myself about the baseboards and what kind of insulation might be behind the walls. Kind of like your dad might do, if he exuded utter delight & curiosity rather than grumpiness & vague disappointment.

I feel a strong kinship to old houses and dream of finding a 100-year-old farmhouse to renovate. I’m obsessed with the elaborate decorative styles in Victorian architecture, and love to admire the ornate trim on porches & eaves around Durham.

No job is too small – I do everything from fixing loose doorknobs to replacing rotting deck boards to building your dream catio. I especially love working for people who, for whatever reason, are uncomfortable with having an unknown man in their house to repair things.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://plotthoundhandy.com
• Instagram: @plotthoundhandy