Alex D’Alessio was finishing his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Maryland when 1 of his professors informed him the greatest engineers were often the laziest persons.
People people, his professor advised the class, have been also the kinds who made a decision to find a solution.
Now, Alex displays off his artistic remedies and renovation problems to about 424,000 followers on TikTok and Instagram blended.
He and his now-spouse Kylie D’Alessio bought their house in Baltimore Town in August 2020. They didn’t have the dollars to seek the services of contractors to resolve up the more mature regions of their household. With no encounter at all, they took on tasks themselves.
The initially massive task was redoing their laundry home in September 2020, Alex reported. The earlier house owners rented the townhouse for years, so the laundry area was in “pretty poor form,” he mentioned.
They expected it to be carried out in a weekend. Alternatively, with a ton of enable from YouTube, the project took far more than a month. It was stress filled, but when they stepped back and seemed at their perform, they had been in awe.
“Everything from there [on] was crafted on top of the self-confidence from that to start with challenge,” Alex mentioned.
All through their renovation, they sent their friends and family videos of the course of action. Following the laundry place was completed, Alex begun putting up films of himself doing work on unique projects on TikTok.
He posted the 1st video clip in December 2020, but went viral in February 2021 when he posted his entire bathroom renovation. The movie currently has about 863,400 sights on TikTok.
When they very first started off renovating their property, Kylie was the handier one particular, she reported. But Alex did a whole lot of exploration in his down time to determine out how to use applications and do flooring tiling himself, she reported.
Now, Alex does most of the construction, whilst Kylie helps make the style and design decisions.
“He doesn’t make any legit really hard conclusions with no my, I guess, acceptance,” she explained.
Considering the fact that he commenced producing video clips, Alex and Kylie have built a constructed-in bookcase, concluded the basement, redone the grasp bathroom and created other designed-ins all over their house.
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Dwelling in a property that is under design has been an adjustment, Kylie stated. They have to make certain Alex keeps his stuff in 1 spot and keep in mind to strategy ahead, she explained.
Alex desired to spotlight the actuality that he was just a standard man or woman who designed mistakes in his video clips. He normally jokes in his videos that he’s a university student of the “University of Diy Youtube.” Several other creators just exhibit the perfect completed merchandise, he explained.
“It demotivated me and made me experience like I could never ever do a little something as excellent as them and so when I started out my site … I required to present the true everyday living sections of the renovation,” Alex said.
He’s unsuccessful plenty of moments though hoping to total a job, he claimed. All those videos stay up, due to the fact he hardly ever needs to be seen as somebody who is aware particularly what they’re undertaking, he explained.
After he acquired a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2018 and a graduate diploma in task management in 2019, Alex worked at Clark Development.
In Oct 2021, in the center of renovating his grasp bedroom, Alex quit his engineering occupation to pursue material generation whole time.
Neil Schulman, just one of Alex’s professors in the course of his masters degree software, reported when Alex instructed him about the selection, he was astonished but thrilled for him.
“It’s nevertheless operating out quite effectively, so far more electrical power to him for accomplishing it,” Schulman claimed. “It’s a main change in vocation, but he’s young and it may perhaps be a super strike for him in a new direction.”
The D’Alessios talked about the selection for a extensive time just before Alex quit, Kylie explained.
“No superior time than correct now since everything — lifestyle — just gets additional sophisticated,” she mentioned.
They decided that they would give it a 12 months and then decide if Alex would continue with written content generation full time, Kylie mentioned.
The very first six months have been gradual. Alex only experienced 1,000 followers on Instagram and most brand names set up their brand discounts by October. Kylie remembers questioning when the Instagram account would blow up.
When he hit 2,000 followers, Alex and Kylie were extremely fired up.
“Looking back on it now like we just giggle about it, that we ended up excited about 2,000 and now I imagine he has like 130,000 [followers],” Kylie mentioned.
Till July, they struggled to keep their way of life, she mentioned. But the moment brand promotions rolled in, Alex has currently surpassed his yearly income at Clark Design, Kylie said.
Having said that, Alex is distinct about which model discounts he requires, given that getting authentic is crucial to his brand name.
“If you just consider any solitary paycheck that they’ll give you, that is just an injustice to your group,” he explained.
Alex also requires a whole lot of opinions from his commenters. Other content creators and even experienced contractors comment with suggestions.
Regardless of his mainly supportive and type community, Alex has a couple trolls in his remark segment.
Schulman reported he thinks that component of Alex’s trouble resolving capabilities arrived from courses he took at this college.
“That was really the essential to these classes, in a given situation, how to clear up the trouble and get from A to Z,” Schulman reported.
Alex acknowledges that certain factors, this sort of as absolutely new plumbing and wiring, ought to be still left to the specialists.
“There’s specific factors you just cannot tackle each legally and just with a good head on your shoulders, you know that you likely need to leave selected matters to a professional,” Alex reported.
Schulman stated Alex has a shiny and thriving foreseeable future forward of him. While social media commenced as a informal endeavor, as a everyday point, Schulman can see Alex creating a business and branching out.
He designs to have Alex appear in and discuss to just one of his classes about entrepreneurship and innovation.
“He can give the college students a very little data, some inducement into pondering outdoors the box with new strategies in engineering … I feel he’d be a wonderful motivator for the learners to occur up with some strategies,” Schulman mentioned.
Currently, Alex is working on a household bar and has a list of new initiatives for the potential … When he runs out of matters to do all over the home, Alex may possibly consider leasing out the property and relocating to another fixer-upper, he said.
“I’ve also carried out initiatives at one of my very best friend’s houses and have other people’s properties that requested me to do jobs for a lengthy time so I consider I’d be fine on that front,” he said.
