Elgin’s Marcia Johnson and her husband Ken attended the annual Home and Garden Show at the Kane County Fairgrounds in St. Charles on Saturday morning.
“I’m a little bit interested in installing solar on the roof. I’m also thinking about adding a three-season room to get some ideas,” she said. “I’m in the middle of renovating the house I bought.”
Winter may not have reached the halfway point here in Fox Valley yet, but spring and home improvements were already on the minds of hundreds of people this weekend at the annual Home and Garden Show.
Hosted by West Chicago’s Omni Media Inc., the show features vendors offering kitchens and baths, siding, roofing, landscaping services and more during the two-day event on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. increase.
Organizers say this is just the second year that the exposition, which has been held for years at the old Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, has taken place at the fairgrounds.
Omni Media president Scott Hardesty said last year’s show at the fairgrounds was moved to the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year’s show “occupied about 15,000 square feet and had probably 70 to 80 vendors,” Hardesty said. “This year the entire facility is in the Prairie Events Center, expanding from 15,000 square feet to perhaps he 30,000, about 140 businesses.”
Hardesty said that large crowds at events “people are planning because their home is their biggest investment.”
“It’s important to people, they feel that a better home means a better life, and they make plans and come out early to meet people and think of spring even if it’s January. “A lot of people during COVID had only the essentials, but now they’ve stepped out of that and are looking not just at their needs, but at their wants.”
Saturday’s first day was off to a good start with cars swarming around the Prairie Events Center by 10am.
Vendors like Connor Flannery, event and retail marketing manager for Glenview-based Renewal by Andersen Windows, whose company has been at the show for at least a decade, said the event: window replacement work.
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“It feels like the audience is back and things keep moving,” he said. “The show is expecting him to double and have a lot of turnout.”
Marsha Johnson said, “I felt people came out early in the season because we found it was a good idea to start early given the lead times and the supply chain and the shortage of workers.” Told.
North Aurora’s Donna Cole said she came to the show Saturday morning and was “looking for something to do on a cold, snowy day.”
“I was looking for something I wanted to do, and I was always thinking about bathrooms and kitchens,” she said. “It’s good to look around and see what’s out there.”
Debbie Wellick of St. Charles also said she was at the show.
“We are already talking to someone about the windows we plan to replace in the future,” she said.
Debbie’s husband, Craig Wellick, said he liked the show’s one-stop-shop feature and that the couple also sees the bathroom.
“We’ll just walk in and see what’s going on,” he said. “There’s a lot to see here.”
Batavia’s Steve Mudd said he is currently building a house and is looking for a siding and bathroom vendor.
“I’ve never been to a home show. We’re building a house, so I’m trying to get an idea,” he said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.