Grandmother Janice Bristow, 62, from Lancashire, has unwittingly turned her husband Steve, 61, into a sex symbol with a huge following of American women after posting a video of him doing DIY. The clip, showing Steve ripping down their garden shed and building a pergola, was set to Salt-N-Pepa's hit song "Whatta Man" and has since gone viral.
Five Million Views and a Fan Base
Janice, who became an accidental influencer at 57 and now has a million followers on Instagram, was shocked when the video took off, fuelled by US women admiring her handy husband. "That video's had five million views and practically every comment is asking where they can get a man like that," says Janice, who charts her home and garden improvements at @ourhomeonthefold.
"Steve doesn't usually let me post pictures or videos of him at all. I've actually got loads of footage of him because he doesn't know I'm often filming." The couple have built such a fan base that they were approached by US followers during a midnight walk in Rome, where they had gone for Janice's birthday. "I don't really know how it happened, if I'm honest, it was all a complete surprise," she says.
DIY Transformation on a Budget
Thanks to Steve's building skills, the couple, who bought their three-bed house 29 years ago for £112,000, have transformed it into a four-bedroom worth between £500,000 and £550,000. "Steve does everything himself," says Janice, a company director of the window installation business they run together. "He's installed windows all his life, but he can put his hand to anything. He built the extension of our house himself eight years ago just by following YouTube videos. It took him six months, start to finish, mainly on the weekends. He did an amazing job."
Janice keeps an eagle eye on their budget: "We buy everything as cheap as we can and work it out from there. If I've got a specific piece in mind, like a lamp or new rug, I'll go on uFurnish.com to see what's out there and compare prices so I can keep my costs down." When the Bristows first moved in, they changed things bit by bit while caring for their two young children. "We're not cash rich so we've done it on a DIY budget as we've gone along - we've never been extravagant," she says.
From Private Account to Career
Janice first turned to social media to chart their home's transformation. "That's the reason I started the account, because he built our first pergola right at the beginning, about five years ago, and I wanted somewhere to gloat about it rather than my own Facebook page. It was actually my sister in Australia who said, 'You need to set up a home decor account,' and I thought that sounded silly, but that's how it started. My account is famous for that pergola - that's really where it all began."
Initially, the account was private, known only to her daughter and close family. When her daughter shared a video on Facebook, it spread, and a neighbour spotted it. "I'm much more relaxed about it now. My neighbours are really supportive - they see me out filming and just get it, they understand what I do." She adds, "It's strange - I'll be walking through Tesco and bump into someone I haven't seen in a while, and they'll mention loving a recent video, and I'll think, 'do you follow me?'"
What started as an experiment has grown into a career for Janice, who hopes it can be her post-retirement plan. "I'd like to make something more of it in future for me and my husband, since he's still out working on building sites. I see other people making an absolute fortune from it and feel a bit like a dinosaur, fumbling my way through, not entirely sure how to approach it properly."
Janice designed her latest upgrade using AI and quickly involved Steve in building a hot tub enclosure from salvaged wood and decorative screens he found on a building site five years ago. "I did an AI mock-up of how I thought it could look and within an hour he was completely on board and excited." Now they look forward to enjoying it in the winter, with Janice planning to be in it on Christmas Day. "A lot of people look at that pergola and assume it cost an absolute fortune, but it hasn't because my husband did all the labour himself. From pulling down the shed to the finished result, it took Steve three weeks, working in the evenings after his day job."
