Under one roof

EPHRATA — In a little blue house on the corner of Division Street and E Street, Yuritzi Chavez and her husband Victor decided to take a chance.

“I’ve been doing taxes for 12 years,” Yuritzi said as she sat behind the big desk in an office that still smelled of fresh woodwork and new paint. “My life has been in taxes and business.”

However, Yuritzi said that while she worked preparing individual and business taxes and selling insurance, she was also looking for an opportunity to expand her business, but nothing presented itself. Then Victor found himself working for a roofing company that was no longer paying him. To the Chavezes, it all suddenly seemed like a heaven-sent opportunity.

“You’re not making any money, they’re not paying you, so you might as well start something, you know, you’re not going to lose anything,” Yuritzi said as she related the tale of how they started their business, Heavenly Roofing. “That’s where we decided to start looking for a place to rent. And so, we’re like, we’ll pray and God will put the right place for us to rent.”

Or buy, as the case may be, as Yuritzi added about the building they’ve painted bright blue at 524 E. Division St. in Ephrata. The inside is covered with faith statements, including the company’s motto, drawn from Proverbs 16 — “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”

It seems an odd pairing at first, a tax preparation service and a roofing company in one building. Victor’s construction skills allowed them to do much of the work customizing their new digs on their own, while Yuritzi said she is able to take much of what she’s learned about business doing taxes over the last decade and effectively run the office part of the roofing company.

“With my tax business growing, I needed additional help,” she said. “And with the roofing, we can share the office. I manage everything.”

Yuritzi said she enjoys doing taxes because she knows she’s helping people, especially members of the Columbia Basin’s Hispanic community. However, she said, she considered closing that business when the roofing company started taking off until longtime clients dissuaded her, telling her how important she was to their personal and business success.

“You develop an attachment,” she said. “Just seeing people smile and be happy and the trust they have with you is just, like, it made me think twice … People were just telling me ‘no, you can’t, I don’t want to find another person to do my taxes for me.’”

She also said she tries to advise many of her tax clients to be better stewards of their money, to save their refunds and invest them or use them as part of a down payment on a new home.

“It’s more of a personal family relationship to help them, so that makes me happy that I can still have that,” she said.

As the business has grown, Yuritzi said she hired several people last fall to do taxes and keep the office organized, while Victor has hired several crews to install and repair roofs.

“I like numbers, and I’ve been able to help here with Heavenly Roofing by keeping the numbers for all the houses. We have done over 160 houses this year,” said Brenda Bucio, who will also help with tax preparation in the spring.

However, Yuritzi noted both she and her husband are finding the transition from workers to employers and managers to be a challenge.

“The plan was never to have a business. Even now it’s kind of hard. I have to tell him (Victor) ‘the business is growing and you need to get off the roof and, you know, help with inspections, help with customers,’” Yuritzi said. “If it was up to him, he’d be working like a laborer with all the guys.”

Victor sat quietly and smiled. Speaking in Spanish as his wife interpreted, Victor said he likes the feeling of accomplishment of repairing or installing a new roof and making a metal or shingle roof look nice.

“He likes to do the worst roofs because that makes it look very nice when it’s finished,” Yuritzi said.

For more information, contact Heavenly Roofing at 509-398-7344 or online at www.heavenly-roofing.com.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.