“My Economy” tells the story of the new economic normal through the eyes of people trying to make it, because we know the only numbers that really matter are the ones in your economy.

Bruce Ridenour has worked as a wall coverings contractor for 40 years, primarily hanging wallpaper in commercial and residential spaces. He started off working for the family business in Michigan alongside his father and brother, before striking out on his own and moving to Danbury, Connecticut.

For many of those years, demand for wallpaper was sparse and Ridenour worked as a jack-of-all-trades, doing jobs in construction and painting to cover his expenses. 

Lately, Ridenour is seeing greater demand to hang wallpaper in his area. He says the trend started about two years ago — around the beginning of the pandemic — but things really took off around the start of this year. All the new work is overwhelming the local contractors, who don’t have the bandwidth to handle it all.

“As the work comes more and more, faster and faster, it just comes more and more to those of us who are left,” Ridenour said. “Right now, there’s so much work going on, we’re all overwhelmed.”