Rescue Heroes: Husband and Wife Team Throw Reno Lifelines to Families (Ep# 3)
00:03
Tom: Hello Pros, and welcome to the Profiles Podcast presented by LL Flooring. I'm Tom Kraeutler, and on this show, we interview successful professionals working in the home building and remodeling industry, and we hope that also describes you. I hope you're out there having a good day of staying busy. You're completing projects, you're getting paid on time.
But if you're not having a good day, if the materials didn't show up, if your client keeps asking for more change orders or the dozens of other things that can stall a job, we say count your blessings because somewhere and probably very close to your neighborhood, there are those that struggle greatly just to get by.
And that's why today I'm delighted to feature Gina and Vincent Centauro, a husband-and-wife team who ran a successful construction business and discovered people in their own backyard who are struggling with disabilities, financial hardships, and everyday tasks that most of us take for granted. They believe that by transforming someone's home, you can transform their lives. But they don't just say it. They live it. They're the founders of Rescuing Families, an organization dedicated to transforming people's homes into happy, safe and comfortable spaces.
Meet Vincent and Gina Centauro
01:15
Tom: Vincent and Gina Centauro, welcome to the Profile's Podcast! How you guys doing today?
01:19
Gina: Good, good. Everything's really great. Thanks for having us.
Tom: Hey, so um, tell me how you guys got started in the home improvement business were you both always handy. Did one of the other marry into this? How did it happen?
Getting Started: Beat Up Old House Leads to Life Change
01:33
Gina: Oh, so I was always handy. Vinny was actually the carpenter. We bought a beat-up horrible house, probably the worst house on the block, and that's kind of how we got into it. We started renovating our own home and then Vinny said, "Let's start a contracting business", you know, and basically, that's how it went.
01:57
Vinny: Yeah, Gina was she was an extremely quick learner and, you know, you know, having a partner in a relationship and bringing you onto a renovation and it all worked out greatly. There was no arguing going on. It worked out smoothly. So, we said, "You know what? Let's take this a little bit further and you know, let's get out in the community and see if we can do this for a living." And it really honestly, people love having a husband-and-wife team come to their house, and it really took off from there.
02:24
Tom: So you are you guys started by basically fixing up your very own money pit. It sounds like.
02:28
Gina: Exactly.
02:29
Vinny: It was an extremely money pit. Yes, it was like overwhelming as much as it could have been. It was stressful at times, but you know, we got we got through it and the money continues. We're still going at it. We're still not completed.
02:45
Tom: Yeah, well, the job like that is never done right. And so, there's always a project. You know, I got a house that was built in 1886, and I look forward to the weekends because it's my therapy. You know, I used to I used to do it during the week and then that was work. But now it's therapy because it's on the weekends. Once you guys started in the business what kinds of projects did you specialize in? Sounded like you started by tackling everything under the Sun with your own house, and now you actually got to do it as a job. And maybe it might have been a little bit enjoyable when you were fixing up your own house, but now you've got some responsibilities, you've got to make sure this place works out right for the customer.
Customers Lead Business Growth from Small Projects to Major Renos
03:19
Vinny: So, you know, we started off, I would say, honestly, we started off small. We started, you know, as small painting jobs which turned into, you know, doing detailed type of molding, more applying carpentry jobs. And then we went into, you know, bathrooms and kitchens, and then we were doing basements. And then after that it kind of took off. We were at that point, we started doing more framing. So, we got into extensions and then, you know, honestly, it took off from there. So, we started off small, but it escalated very, very quickly to larger projects.
03:50
Tom: Gina, did you find that your customers sort of guided your business growth? Because I think a lot of times folks do start off small, doing smaller kinds of projects like you mentioned. But then, you know, once the customer relationship is formed, they don't want to have to go find another contractor. And, you know, if they want to have some kitchen cabinets hung or a new floor put in and they say, "Hey, can you guys do this?" And you go, "Sure, why not? "And all of a sudden, you're in the kitchen business, the floor business, or you're doing additions.
04:15
Gina: Yeah, that's exactly how it happened. Still have the same customers 15 years later that still call us for everything under the sun. And then, of course, they like our work, so they refer us to their friends, family, neighbors. So, we have been very fortunate in the 15 years that we're in business that we've never had to actually advertise. And we've done quite well just from word of mouth, which I think is a testament to what we do and what we bring.
04:42
Tom: That's fantastic. So, you had a lot of business success and now you've taken a turn in a new direction. I won't say it's brand new because you've been doing this for quite a while with your charity rescuing families. And I understand you're spending now about 90 percent of your time doing the charity renovation, so more like, from success in business to success for the soul, it sounds like. Tell me about the charity and how did you guys get started with that?
Rescuing Families: One Late Night Idea Launches Lifelines to Hundreds in Need
05:06
Gina: So, it's going, it's going to sound funny, but we were we were in bed at night and then Vinny turned to me and said, "Listen, I have an idea." And which was normal for him. And he said, You know, we see so many things, so everything starts in our lives when he has an idea. I just take it and run with it.
05:25
Tom: I thought you were going to say. "Vinny starts with, I have an idea, and then you brace for it."
05:31
Gina: Exactly. Like "Oh God, how much work is this going to be for me!" So, we've seen our own families struggle with disability because we renovate the homes of families with disabilities, and we have seen our own customers some that might not be financially sound. Some that have a disabled family member. Things like that were kind of struggling and we would always throw things in for free. You know, if someone needed something done, we would just do it for them if we, you know. But it got to the point where financially we said, you know, we can't keep shouldering every, every freebie that we give. So why don't we start to think about starting some sort of charity so we can actually help these people and have other people jump on board with us and help families just like ours and just like the families that some of the families that we were working with? So I was all on board for that one. That idea wasn't so bad.
06:35
Tom: So, Vinny, how did you guys? Tell me about your first project? How did you do it? How did you find the clients? What was the need? And just tell me about that first one, because I'm sure that always stands out.
First Project: Desperate Need Quickly Clear
06:47
Vinny: Honestly, our very first project stands out tremendously. We put a feeler out there, you know, social media wise and we obviously, you know, you put something out there like that. You get hundreds of applications. But you know, Gina and I went through them and we had this, particularly this one family, and they sent these pictures to us that were just like, they just kind of blew our mind. We just couldn't understand how they were even living like this. They had no electric, no water for about 15 years living like that. And one of them is was severely handicapped. Occupied, you know, bedridden, living in these conditions with no heat, just bundled up in his bed, you know, curled up and just trying to survive. And we went there. We truly -- just the pictures don't even really can't even really describe until you really go there in person to see how this family was living. And the worst part of this family was only living, maybe, you know, 20 minutes from where we live. So it isn't, you know, that far away is happening right in our community. So, once we did a site visit, we, I think Gina and I personally have never seen anything like this in our lives. We've never seen how someone can live like this. So, for us, this project was like they went right to the top of the list. They were our number one, our family that needed help right away. It was like there was no time to waste to this family. We were, we met them it was, I think it was January or so. It was, you know, thirty-four degrees in the house. I mean, it was just unimaginable. So that was our first project. And you know, originally my plan was to start small. We were a brand-new charity. I said, "maybe we'll start with a handicapped bathroom for an elderly woman. Let's start something small."
08:26
Tom: Make a ramp, right? Yeah.
08:29
Vinny: Let's you know, I had this idea. I just wanted to take it slow. But with Gina you know, there's no taking things slow.
08:37
Tom: I'm getting the sense that I get the sense Gina that you said, "OK, now get out of the way I got work to do here" and took it over, you know, I guess I'm from one-on-one side. You're looking at the situation, you're going, "how is this possibly 20 minutes from your house?" And then probably at the same time you're thinking, "what the heck did we just get ourselves into?" It must have been pretty overwhelming. A little scary at times.
08:58
Gina & Vinny: Yeah, it was.
08:59
Vinny: Yeah, I, Gina go ahead. I mean, I was I was scared. Yes, definitely was.
09:03
Gina: I'd like to say, yeah, I was a little I was a little scared. I was scared. Were we going to be able to accomplish this? You know, I was scared about that and not so much from the contractor role. There were so many other variables there, like we're used to going in and fixing people's homes. That's kind of a no brainer. But now you're dealing much, much more with the human level you're dealing with. A lot of, you know, there's just a lot of things going on. You're dealing with the financial level. You know, this is a small charity we just started. We're looking at, you know, over $100,000 worth of work that needed to be done here. Are we going to be able to raise the money? How much of this is going to be on us? So, there was a certain level of stress there financially, and there was a tremendous amount of pressure to to help these two brothers that we were working with a tremendous amount of pressure, but ultimately it worked out with everything that went on. I mean, there's ups and downs and everything, but with everything that went on, it worked out beautifully. And, you know, they wound up with a beautiful home, so we renovated the entire house inside and out. Landscaping, driveway, siding, roofing, everything you can imagine. All new appliances, everything inside was brand new. Our volunteers were amazed. Some of them were able to come out and help us. Some of them helped in a different way. They were amazed. The family themselves were completely shocked by everything. There was a lot of crying good tears. I think like with anything else, there was trust issues because they're not allowed to see the home while we're working on it, so they don't know what we're doing.
10:42
Tom: So, you had to find a place for them to live while the work was going on. Is that typical with your clients?
10:46
Gina: Yes. Yeah.
Temporary Housing for Clients is Constant Costly Challenge
10:48
Vinny: So that's one of the biggest things for our charity is that financially is finding them, you know, paying for a hotel course that takes a big chunk. Not only, say, the $100000 renovation that we're doing now, we have them in a hotel for three to six months, which is costing, you know, tremendous amount of money. But that's why, you know, we do what we do and with the fundraising to try to get funds for those needs and we handle a lot on our own. Obviously, all the contracting is taking care of. Our labor is free, but the hotels and stuff like that, that all comes out of the charity and that's a big part of it. That's a big struggle for us is housing them to believe it or not. A lot of them, a lot of these families that are disabled like this, they're really on their own. They don't a lot of them don't have family members or families that would be able to take them in necessarily. So they're really they're disabled and they're out there on their own. So that's one of the biggest challenges we face is putting them in another location that's safe and that's accessible, which is a hard thing to find as well.
11:45
Tom: You know, we're talking about the renovation. We're also talking about the financial hardships, I guess, in addition to being experts in construction. Did you have to familiarize yourself with all the social service programs to kind of do almost an audit of what your clients were receiving and what they may have been entitled to, just to make sure that every box was checked and they were getting the benefits that were out there?
Not Just Hammers and Nails: Team Developed Expertise in Social Services
12:05
Gina: So that's where I kind of come in because my sister is multiple disabled and my dad was a disabled Korean War veteran, I was very familiar with all the services that they're entitled to. So, we not just renovate the home, we make sure that they're able to be OK and take care of their home financially, and they're getting the services that they need. Again, it's red tape. You know, there are times I'm sitting at the job site and I'm on the phone with social workers and the state and vet or the Veterans Administration or all these different organizations to try to get them help. It's a huge part of what we do.
12:45
It's not just like you said, it's not just the construction and you know, we want them to be able to stay in their homes, you know, and thrive, not just survive like they've been doing. So, by doing that, it enables them to get more familiar with what they are entitled to.
13:01
Tom: We're talking to Gina and Vinny Centauro. They are two of the founders of Rescuing Families, a charity aimed at assisting struggling homeowners with disabilities or financial hardships with home rehab or modification. Now we talked about your first project. It's five years have gone by. Now you've done a lot more since then. Have you found the fundraising and the work to become a little easier over the time? Have you gotten better at this? I know that I'm sure that the pandemic placed some unusual challenges on you. Where are you? Where are you today with the projects?
13:35
Vinny: So we had our second project, which was about almost a year after the first project. As far as fundraising and getting more backing as we are growing after that first project we had, we had a lot of media coverage on that. So, it really brought, you know, brought awareness out there to people and we really got a stronger backing after that first project. Also, now we're on, you know, our second third and moving on to our fourth projects. It's becoming a lot easier. We're having a bigger volunteer force come out, so we are able to accomplish these projects a little quicker in the beginning. For that first project was myself, Gina and Michael, my brother-in-law and the other founder of the charity, Roger. That was mostly who did that whole project. But it did take us a year to complete that first project, which was a very long time for a home renovation. Now we're moving along a lot quicker. We have the volunteers, so things are getting easier. Obviously, we got shut down with the pandemic. We get our efforts to other things during that time since we weren't able to, you know, necessarily help the families or renovations. But we were able to help the disabled families with masks and hand sanitizer and other things that they needed during that pandemic. So we kind of shifted gears a little bit. But now that things are easing up a little bit, we're back full force again doing the renovations.
PPE Drive Delivers Badly Needed Masks and More Nationwide
14:49
Tom: Well, you know, you deserve to be commended for all the work you do. But I noticed in particular that you were able to distribute over 10,000 N95 masks as well as. Face shields and gloves, handmade masks, sanitizer, so you guys really kicked it in a full gear when the pandemic hit. That's amazing.
15:07
Gina: Yeah, we did. We. We wound up shipping, believe it or not, not just we didn't just help our local area. We wound up shipping stuff as far as Hawaii.
Tom: Wow.
15:17
Gina: They got wind of what we were doing, and we have we had companies and from all over the world helping us gets the items, the masks, the gloves, the face shields. We had a local guy over here on Long Island that was manufacturing face shields, and he was getting them to us so that we could hand them out, you know? So it was such an amazing collective effort to get this, you know, this feat because it was a major feat accomplished. It was no small task.
15:47
Tom: If we all think back to the early days of the pandemic, you know, trying to find N95 masks was like gold. I'll tell you myself, I had a package of the 3M mask with the vents on them, on my shelf, in my workshop, probably for two or three years. So I had no need for it, you know, at the time, and it turned out that those two or three masks got us through most of the pandemic. We're very careful, you know, take care of them and, you know, clean them and not stretch out the elastic. You know, we're all really careful with us. So, it was hard to get new ones. Well, that's really impressive and really amazing. So, let's talk a little bit about how you balance the charity work with your contracting business. I'm sure a lot of our listeners are thinking, that's great, but how do you survive? How do you make a living if that's got to be one of the toughest balancing points? Vince?
16:38
Vinny: Yeah, you know what? That's a good point you bring up. That is one of the biggest challenges we do face because, you know, we have to survive and maintain and be able to help these families. But we also got to help our own family as well during this whole process. So, like we said, are taking on our contracting business, started taking on the larger projects. We progressed to the larger projects. But now we've actually trimmed it back down where we're taking on maybe like the projects we started off in the very beginning, maybe the painting and the fine carpentry work and smaller projects just to make ends meet just so we survive and so we can continue helping others, so we don't take on those large projects anymore that are going to keep us away from the charity for weeks at end. That was one of the one of the biggest changes that we made. And you know, it's working out as so far it's been working out great.
17:25
Tom: So, the smaller projects are probably a little more modular. They're easier to fit in, you know, over a shorter period of time than having to commit to, you know, tearing somebody's roof off and needing to get it all wrapped up as quickly as possible.
17:37
Gina & Vinny: Yeah, definitely.
Sponsor Support Essential to Success
17:39
Tom: So, tell me about your sponsors. You've obviously needed to have a lot of help with this. I know that you've got tremendous media coverage. There's dozens of glowing articles and news stories and videos on your website. So well done on that. But how have the sponsors reacted? How have they supported you guys?
17:56
Gina: Our sponsors, I have to say, are some of the best people and the best companies that we've ever met. Most of the companies are products that we've already use through our contracting business, so it was kind of a no brainer. We just approached them and said, "Hey, guys, this is our idea. This is what we're doing. This something, you know, your company might be interested in getting involved in", and that's kind of how it started. Basically, just a verbal agreement, word of mouth getting some products, and it has ballooned and grown from there. We probably our first project we started with, I want to say, 15 companies on board for that project to date right now as of today. And it's still growing for this project that we're on now and that the three more that we're doing this year, we have close to 70 companies on board. I see you have a good combination of national brands like LL Flooring, as well as smaller local companies that are supporting you. It's just wonderful that you were able to pull this kind of support together for the families that you've been working with.
Condemned by Bad Contractors: Poor Work Left House Virtually Unlivable
19:00
We talked about your first project. I want to ask you about your current project because I understand it's been a pretty big challenge for you. I'm interested to know if it's the same one that this Herald article talked about where you had an infestation of mice and mildew in the bathroom. The floors were busted apart, the deck was leaking, and you found out that the walls were rotted when you tore it open. What a nightmare is that what you're working on now?
19:27
Vinny: That project that you're talking about is our current project. Yes, it is.
19:30
Tom: Wow.
19:31
Vinny: This project, you know, started off, you know, when we went for a site visit, we knew we were making the kitchen handicapped accessible bathroom accessible as well. The flooring was coming up. She had old parquet flooring that was glued down over a slab when she was getting moisture coming up through the slabs. So that was rotting the whole floor out. We knew we had some issues there, further going through this renovation when we got up the windows, we take the siding down as soon as we remove our siding on the house, we've all looked. At each other and we said, "Oh boy, this house is in really bad shape." This is like this just added, you know, weeks to months to this project. Whenever there was a window, all the sheathing, all the structure, every wall that there was a window was completely rotted with termites and mold and mildew and totally rotted and belly. You know, we you couldn't even put a hand to the lumber you're putting in touch lumber. We just crumbling in your hand.
20:21
Tom: It sounds like this house was condemned and didn't know it.
20:24
Vinny: You know, that's the worst part. Yeah.
20:26
Tom: And all the time you've got this house has two disabled family members, a mom and a son living in it. So, wow, a lot of pressure on you guys. And it really unforeseen circumstance. You know, we always know that when you open up the walls, you can be surprised. But man, it sounds like you had a lot of leaks around these exterior windows and doors and then a lot of water in. And of course, the water gets in, the decay starts and the termites go, "Oh boy, I don't even have to go back to the ground to drink. I can just stay right in this house and have a full buffet.".
20:54
Gina: We it was also we had one of the biggest surprises we've ever seen in our history of doing in this business. We knew the whole house was on the concrete slab that's normal for our area, but we went to open up. There was a part of the floor that was like mushy or it wasn't it just it was very bouncy, which is very odd. We took the plywood off the sub floor and there was nothing under there but dirt. There was no concrete slab. It was regular two by four lumber built on a on a on just a mound of dirt.
21:28
Tom: So somebody just hacked together some two-bys called them floor joist, threw them on the dirt and went up from there.
21:33
Gina: Yeah, yep. Yep, man. And everything from there up was rotted.
21:38
Tom: So now you take it all apart, you got to start with the foundation of there and going up. So boy, what a can of worms this place turned out to be. I guess that must have put a lot of stress on the project because now what happened to your budget, it must have doubled or tripled.
21:50
Vinny: That was that's yeah, it ballooned to, you know, becoming probably one of the worst houses that we've had to work on. For budget wise, that really looked like probably the nicest, almost the nicest house we've worked on. But actually, turning out to be the worst one. Sometimes you just can't envision the problems ahead of time. You just feel you're in it.
22:09
Tom: And oh, by the way, there's that whole pandemic thing happening at the same time, making it even more difficult, right? I mean, you have to laugh at some point, right? Because you just can't make this stuff up.
22:19
Gina: No, you can't it's just amazing. The family got COVID two weeks before. While we had started packing them up. They got sick. Then we had to quarantine. everybody quarantines that we were two weeks behind there. You know, it was just one. It was a comedy of errors. One thing after the other to get supplies now is just the biggest challenge. I think anybody and we're all going through in this industry we have ever faced, we have never seen anything like this.
22:48
Tom: And I see that some of the problems were caused by contractors that had done work in the past that had done work that was incorrect. They were unlicensed. They had essentially ripped off of these. This homeowner and made the situation better but worse. Is that correct?
23:04
Gina: Yeah, yeah. Should they? The family paid them $34,000 to basically destroy their home. They built that addition. Yeah, the addition with the dirty floor. And then they kept asking them for more money because they didn't have enough money for supplies.
23:20
Tom: I bet, they they're probably spending it on the last job. Sometimes it's like a pyramid scheme with these guys, right? They they borrow from Peter to pay Paul. As the saying goes.
23:28
Gina: Yeah, we've seen it a lot.
Charity 5 Years Old and Growing Strong
23:31
Tom: I got to say, you guys deserve all the credit in the world for the work that you're doing. It's so wonderful to see pros in the business that are talented and experienced and don't have to be doing this charity work too and not only do it, but start it and maintain it now five years strong, that's really, really amazing. If we have folks that want to get involved, want to help out, want to support you. Talk to me about how they get in touch.
23:56
Gina: They can always get in touch with us through our website at www.RescuingFamilies.org. They can give us a call at 516-697-9403 or they can always email us at RescuingFamiliesInc@gmail.com.
24:15
Tom: Is there one thing in particular that you guys really need right now?
24:18
Gina: Money? Well, we always need. Well, I'm going to say we always need financial backing. That's because of the hotel stay for this family in particular has ballooned because now they've had to stay there longer than expected. So yeah, financially, we we're always looking for any type of donations.
24:40
Tom: Well, let's hope that that starts to come in better than ever before. And now that we're out of the pandemic, people are getting out there and I think folks are appreciating what home means more than ever before. Gina, Vincent, thank you so much for all the work you do for all the families in your area. RescuingFamlies.org is the website. RescuingFamilies.org, thanks again and continued, good luck with everything you do.
25:05
Gina & Vinny: Thank you so much very much.
25:07
Tom: You're so welcome.
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