Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Delaware County, PA (Delco"") and the surrounding Philadelphia Metro Region.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco
Greg Ahart: Revolutionizing Home Storage with Victory Closets' Custom Closet Solutions
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Greg Ahart: Revolutionizing Home Storage with Victory Closets' Custom Closet Solutions
This episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast will allow you to discover the secrets to transforming your home with custom-designed closet solutions, as Good Neighbor Podcast Host Bob Blaisse chats with Greg Ahart, the craftsman founder of Victory Closets. Greg shares his journey from cabinet maker to the inventor of his patented modular self-locking storage system for walk-in and reach-in closets, kitchen pantries, laundry and mudrooms, as well as coat and linen closets and wall organizers. Get ready to uncover how Greg's innovative approach to storage can revolutionize even the simplest spaces into highly organized, personalized areas. With his insightful expertise, Greg breaks down the full-service approach his team takes—measuring, assessing and listening closely to homeowners' needs to create dream closet spaces that are both flexible and efficient.
In this episode, we also explore the rising trend of well-designed closets and how they play a crucial role in enhancing a home's functionality. Hear Greg's invaluable advice on how the addition of well-thought-out closets and storage spaces can boost a home's appeal and potentially increase a home's market value.
Whether you're a homeowner eager to maximize your space or just curious about the latest in home design trends, Greg's passion and knowledge make this conversation an enlightening experience.
Victory Closets
victoryclosets.com
facebook.com/victoryclosets
Tel. 484-366-1836
--- About The Show--- Good Neighbor Podcast is a spotlight on local businesses in and around Delaware County, PA (“Delco” ) and Beyond... The executive producer and host, Bob Blaisse, is a community sponsorship advocate, business branding specialist, and publisher of several hometown magazines, including: Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors, Marple Friends & Neighbors and Newtown Edgmont Friends & Neighbors, mailed monthly to more than 12,000 homes in Western Delaware County, PA, and also available for reading online.
Custom Closet Design With Victory Closets
Speaker 1Hello, delco. This is Michael Barkan, welcoming you to the Good Neighbor Podcast, where fans of local businesses and their neighbors come together. It's my pleasure once again to introduce my friend and neighbor, our host Bob Lacey.
Speaker 2Well, thank you, michael Barkan, for that introduction and everybody, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Good Neighbor Podcast, delco. We call it. Coming to you from Delaware County, Pennsylvania and beyond. We say Delaware County, pennsylvania, you may know, is commonly referred to in abbreviation as DELCO, lovingly referred to as DELCO. We're the county that's in the southeastern most part of Pennsylvania, just south of Philadelphia and across the river from New Jersey and just north of the state of Delaware, that very corner there, in fact, one of our borders actually even has a circle, the only circle, state border semicircle that's formed by a compass and it's a unique border of Delaware County, pennsylvania.
Speaker 2Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. My name is Bob Blasey and my goal of this podcast is to bring businesses that are in Delaware County and beyond, serving homeowners and other businesses in Delaware County, known for being a good neighbor business, as we call it, and we find out why in every one of our episodes. So let me bring to the stage our guest today for this episode of the Good Neighbor podcast, the owner and founder of Victory Closets, greg Ahart. Greg, welcome to the program. Hey, good morning Bob. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2It's great to have you because we don't often get a chance to have the owner or the founder, the person that begins a business. Your business is called Victory Closets and I think it's fairly well known in the Philadelphia area because of being around for a while. And when we see a business called Victory Closets, I think everybody knows now we're not talking about closets that you buy at Ikea and bring home. We're talking about custom-made closets that people are putting into their homes for reasons we're going to learn about. So, greg, tell me how long has Victory Closets been in business? Tell me a little bit about the founding of it.
Speaker 3Yeah, so we've been in business since 2013 or 2014. It actually all started before that. I was developing a kind of a modular self locking storage system, which I maybe 2012, 2013 was working on that, and then actually filed for a patent and decided to take the product to the Philadelphia Home Show. At that point had never done a home show basically set up a booth, set up my closet system and, yeah, long story short, I got very busy. People seemed to love it, yeah. Then we started selling closets.
Speaker 2At that point, well, let's talk about what a closet is If it's not something that you roll in and it's self-contained like an armoire, you know, kind of a boxy thing. Really, what you're talking about is using space in a much more efficient manner and then providing shelving and hooks and rods or whatever to hang up. So you got to be a bit of a dreamer here to kind of first understand that you wear a closet. Good go, people know they need space, but you might come into their house and say I can work with this space. Tell me what that kind of idea to design. Do you design what they have in mind or do you help them get in mind what you can design?
Speaker 3Yeah well, it's a full service. So we come into the home, measure the space, you know, take a look at everything, basically kind of get a general wish list from the customer, what they're trying to achieve, and then basically it's like putting a puzzle together. Our designers look at the space and say you know, how's this closet, how are we going to utilize every inch of it, make it easy to use that closet space? But actually any closet system is a matter of sections and in those sections you're gonna have hanging, shelving, drawers, all of those things. And so that's where we come in.
Speaker 3We design the closet and then install it. But what's nice about our system is that it's very modular and you can reconfigure it so you're not stuck with whatever we come up with. You're gonna be able to move items around with no fasteners. It's all self-locking, and you can even call us later to plug other things in that you may want to add to your system, maybe like a jewelry drawer or a hamper, or more shelving, more hanging, so you're not stuck with that one initial development.
Speaker 2Right. And so people that have homes with, say, walk-in closets. They're kind of bare, there's rods on both sides but they're not that efficient because people's clothes hanging isn't going all the way to the floor. And you would come into a space like that and redesign it by showing them, say, photos of the type of cabinetry I guess is the best way to call it that would fit into those spaces and then lock together in those spaces.
Speaker 3Cabinetry, I guess is the best way to call it that would fit into those spaces and then lock together in those spaces. Yeah, so usually and I'm sure a lot of your listeners have this have the white wire shelving, which is a builder's grade shelving, and it really limits you to one shelf, one rod. What we do again, we measure the space and design the closet and then we we will show you a 3d view of your new closet with, with your clothing, your shoes, every closet, and it gives you a price on that closet.
Speaker 2So it's very easy to visualize what your final product's going to look like while you're there. Well then, let's talk about the person whose main complaint is I just don't have enough closet space. Uh, they don't have the walk-in closet but they just like I'm dying here. You know, those people are putting their clothes in Tupperware containers or they're going back and forth to the attic and all that kind of hanging stuff in a damp basement. Do you look at space and say, well, let's look around the house here and see where there's space that you're not using that could become closet space, and not necessarily meaning closed door closets, but just shelving and such.
Speaker 3Well, yeah, ours is a wall mount system, so any place there's a wall we could add, you know, shelving and storage system for that. But a good trick that we used to use. Well, we use it all the time, really, when we walk into a closet or a space. If we look into that closet and we see a painted wall, it means that wall isn't being utilized. So when we go in, when it's finished, you know you're utilizing, from ceiling to floor, every inch of that closet space.
Speaker 2Well, and now we're talking about people who have homes where they actually have a room that they're not using or something. When we, my wife and I, would look at people on TV with these nice homes being redone, we're shocked that it isn't just a walk-in closet, it's like a walk-in room closet, you know, and so do you look at space where they aren't even imagining that they could turn into a storage.
Speaker 3Right, we do a lot of that actually. You might take one of the smaller bedrooms in a home that were used as an office or a nursery or something and they're not being used, and a lot of these older homes just don't have much closet space. So we can come into an open room, use all of that room or part of that room. We put our support rail in, hang our system in it and within a few hours that room becomes a walk-in closet. Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2Well, I was going to say that the thing that confuses, I think, a lot of us homeowners is not my house in particular, but you know others. Rooms are different. I mean they're not just all like old homes that have square, rectangular rooms. I mean you can have rooms now and family rooms, even that you need closets and storage, but high ceilings and angled ceilings and things like that, it gets to be pretty complicated. Does that make it suddenly be custom? Is everything custom? Or because it's modular, is that where there's efficiency and economy, and can we expect that it's not as expensive as people think to have what they want?
Speaker 3Right, yes, you're exactly right, and that's a concept that everybody has is that a custom closet is going to be crazy expensive and that's just not the case. Yeah, so we can go into any of those spaces and using our you know our parts based system. It's like getting a custom built closet system to that space. So you would know the difference if it was handcrafted, you know, piece by piece, by a carpenter, or if it was our system getting mounted with all the things that you need in your, in your setup, for instance, the drawers and the glide outsets.
Speaker 2You mentioned that they can be moved around, and I guess that means that if you actually need it in another closet, another place, you could move it. But how does that go with people who are selling their homes? Speak a little bit about this. Is it either or you could upgrade your home, the look of your home, and get your money back real fast, because look at this closet that some new buyer falls in love with, look at the shelving. Or is it the kind of thing you can say to a possible home buyer that, hey, this stuff's coming with us because you could probably use it in the next house you're going to?
Speaker 3Well, you could. You certainly could and we've had that happen, but it's rare that that happens because, honestly, if you're selling your home and you have a custom closet system in that home, it's going to help you sell the home and get a better value for the home. In fact, a lot of new builders are using these systems instead of the wires and upgrade because people like to see that, so usually it stays in the home.
Speaker 2Sure, and if you're building, if you're redoing an area where you probably even because you're going to be lining a wall with closets or something like that, I mean a mudroom say, if you're going to have a whole mudroom, kind of a closet maybe because it was an addition that you put onto your house, you're not really remodeling the mudroom as much as you're lining it with closet space and there can be some savings even in getting the closets installed while you're making a change, putting an addition on your house.
Speaker 3Oh, absolutely. And it's not just the mudroom, we do laundry rooms, pantries. Pantries have become a big seller for us because people just those wire shelves just don't do the trick. So we go in gives the adjustability. We can do rounded corners if it's a walk-in pantry. But you're right, it adds a lot of value to your home when you sell it. But usually people that have this put into their home wish that they would have done it years ago.
Speaker 2Yeah, I wish that I had done it years ago. I wish I had it right. Now we're talking to the founder of Victory Closets. The founder of Victory Closets, the owner of Victory Closets, who has joined us here on the Good Neighbor podcast, greg Ahart, is a carpenter by trade and also a patent holder. He's created lockable, interlockable cabinetry that is for closets and shelving that is unique to his craft and now being sold throughout the Delaware Valley. Greg, I understand that your business serves primarily right now the tri-state area of the Philadelphia metro market and if they were to want to reach you, they could look at your website, right? Am I correct that the website is victoryclosetscom, correct?
Speaker 3Correct. Yeah, you can go to victoryclosetscom and it'll tell you everything about the history of our company photo gallery, everything you need to know about closets.
Speaker 2Greg, is it possible that some people even get to talk to the owner? It's so uncommon these days for a big company and company that does what you do so well. If they wanted to talk to you directly, may I give out your phone number that I have here? Absolutely Well, listen, listeners. We have an art here. It's a craft art for classic design and to not only design what you need but to see it designed in the look of your own space. That Greg Hayhart or one of his professional technicians, carpenters and representatives will be able to show you.
Speaker 2You can reach Greg himself, the founder, the owner of Victory Closets, at 484-366-1836. And Greg Ahart, the founder, will talk to you about Victory Closets. Talk to you about Victory Closets, greg, if they're not having you come out and install it, but say one of your representative number of teams that you have. Tell us a little bit about what that means for a homeowner. Can they expect you know to be the whole area to be cleaned and to be done in a day or to take more than a day and securely and safely? Tell us a little bit about what your process is, how long it takes.
Speaker 3Right, so one of our designers will come out and do the initial design and what we had just talked about Our installers they're all very sociable, neat, clean. You don't have to worry about a thing as far as them making any mess of the home. There's no cutting and fitting on site. Everything goes together just as your design shows. And, by the way, not only can you call us and talk to me, but we have a couple of home shows in the area coming up. One is at the Valley Forge Casino and that's January 3rd and 5th, and then also the Philly Home and Garden Show in Oaks on February 21st and the 23rd. I'll be there so you can come and see our product, speak to me or one of our designers and get to know us and see our product.
Speaker 3I think, a lot of people will Greg.
Maximizing Closet Space
Speaker 2And if you can't make that show in the future, take a look at victoryclosetscom. I'm sure the shows that they'll be attending regularly will always be listed there. Greg, it's an honor to have you come as an owner a local owner of Victory Closets to share with us a little bit about this kind of new thing in the last 20 or 30 years people thinking about designing closet space but we hear it all the time from people I don't have enough closet space. This is a way to get it and to spend money wisely because, as Greg so well said, new closets, closet space in a home that you're selling you'll get your money back in your investment. It'll help sell your home because it's so attractive neighbor business to everybody here in the Delaware Valley and making yourself accessible for people who want to learn about how to improve their home and have closet space by Victory Closets. It's been great to get a chance to meet you and thanks for coming in for the Good Neighbor podcast today.
Speaker 3Thank you, it's been great. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast hosted by Bob Lacey. This is Michael Barkan inviting everyone to get on the Good Neighbor team. Nominate your favorite local business to be featured on an upcoming episode by going to gnpdelcocom or by calling Bob at 610-557-3745.