Ben Edwards, Handy Valentine Blinds
Handy Valentine started as a handyman business in 2016 and moved into blinds, curtains and shutters full time in 2023.
A veteran of fifteen years in the Air Force, Ben is now a proud partner of Australian Partners of Defence (APOD), offering 5% off to serving and former ADF members. Licensed and insured, with 5 star reviews on Google.
- Licensed and insured
- Newcastle owned and run since 2016
- Veteran owned
The job that started the business
Valentine, on Lake Macquarie
Ben was renovating one of his own investment properties to sell. Everything was done except the windows.
He rang a big local blinds company early, well ahead of the listing date, and told them when the house had to be on the market. They took a 50% deposit and quoted six weeks. Fine.
Two weeks later he rang to check how it was going. They had not been out to check measure yet.
The six weeks did not start when he paid. It started from the check measure, and nobody had mentioned that.
The house sold before the blinds arrived. When he tried to cancel, they told him he could not.
He had been doing handyman work for real estate agents for seven years by then. His blind supplier, who had sorted him out on an earlier job, told him he should be doing this himself.
So he did.
Why you will see the words “check measure” everywhere on this site
Most people have never heard of a check measure and have no reason to care about it. Ben cares about it a lot.
Ben does the check measure when quoting, before you even accept. It is the single step that cost him a house sale, and it is the reason he tells you when it is happening rather than leaving you to assume.
Every service page on this site names the check measure inside the measure-and-quote step, so you can see where your lead time actually starts.
The exact measure your blinds, curtains or shutters get made to.
Taken at the quote, before you have agreed to anything.
Ben with the sample range, which travels to the job rather than sitting in a showroom.
Air Force, a pizza shop, and seven years on the tools
Ben spent fifteen years in the Royal Australian Air Force. Five of those as an aircraft technician, then as an air combat officer.
He bought his first investment property at nineteen and has been renovating his own places ever since, which is where he learned what a rental actually needs and how quickly a trade can hold up a settlement.
After the Air Force came a pizza shop. His words: that is where he learned business, having spent fifteen years not learning any.
Then seven years of handyman work, almost all of it for Newcastle real estate agencies. That is where every agency relationship he has today started. Property managers move between agencies and take their trades list with them, so his name went wherever they did.
Blinds took over in 2023.
Royal Australian Air Force
Where he learned business
Handyman work for Newcastle agents
Blinds, curtains and shutters full time
Fitting blinds around Newcastle and Lake Macquarie
Handy Valentine has been Newcastle owned and run since 2016, working out of Valentine on the lake.
Ben covers Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Cessnock, the lower Hunter and out to Port Stephens. All of it is within roughly an hour of home, so he can come back if something needs fixing.
- Newcastle
- Lake Macquarie
- Maitland
- Cessnock
- Port Stephens
Based in Valentine, on Lake Macquarie. Roughly 50 to 60 km in every direction.
Who you actually deal with
Ben quotes the job
Itemised room by room, so you can see where the money goes before you decide anything.
Ben measures it
The check measure happens at the quote, which is where the fit is won or lost.
Ben orders it
He is the one on the phone to the factory, and the one who rings you if anything moves.
Ben installs it
Fitted and cleaned up on the day, by the person who measured the window.
There is never going to be six people to deal with.
He has been the one on the phone chasing an order, for the house he was selling.
Telling people what they do not need
A lot of the properties Ben quotes belong to investors who will never set foot in them. It would be easy money to price every window in the house.
He does not. If a window is frosted glass and does not need a blind, he says so and takes it off the quote. He is not there to make an extra hundred dollars on a window that is fine as it is. You will see the same thing on the service pages.
Curtains in a bathroom
Bathrooms are the wrong room for curtains.
Blockout blinds on their own
A blockout blind will not make a room properly dark without a channel or a pelmet.
Imported shutters against a date
Imported shutters are cheaper and take eight to ten weeks, so if you are working to a date they are the wrong call.
Honesty, reliability and integrity are the three words Ben used when he was asked what the business stands for.
If something goes wrong afterwards
A customer rang about a shutter blade that had snapped. Somebody had caught it walking past, which is nobody’s fault and nobody’s warranty.
Ben drove out, swapped it, and did not charge for it.
Polymer shutters
Roller blind fabric
Curtain fabric and stitching
Ben's own installation work
Who Ben works for
Property managers and real estate agents
Most of this work is repeat, from agencies across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. Quotes on blinds usually come back within 24 hours, and he carries $20 million public liability.
Homeowners
A whole house is the job Ben likes best, whether it is a new build, a renovation or a place someone has just bought.
Builders
Ben also works with Hunter builders on turnkey contracts, insurance work and retirement village fitouts.
Veteran owned, and what that means if you have served
Handy Valentine Blinds is a registered veteran-owned business and a proud partner of Australian Partners of Defence (APOD).
Mention it when you ring or put it in the form and Ben will apply it to the quote.
for serving ADF members and veterans.
Get your free measure and quote
Fill in the form or give Ben a ring, and he will come out with the samples and measure up. The measure and the quote cost nothing, even if you decide not to go ahead.
Ben gets back to every enquiry by the next working day.