Occupation: I’m a civil engineer and I became a home inspector about nine years ago. I work for Home Directions out of Ridgefield. We do inspections all over New Haven, Fairfield, and Litchfield Counties. I took time off from my career to raise my family and wanted to get back into engineering. Home inspections offers flexibility and it’s actually very fun.

Family: Douglas and I have been married 29 years. We have three children. Geoffrey is 26, Carolyn is 22, and Michelle is 18. They all went to Newtown schools, except for three years when we lived in Vienna.

Pets: One dog right now, Spike. Spike is about 15 years old; he’s just a mutt. We rescued him from a pound and he has been with us a long time.

How long have you lived in Newtown? We moved here in 1985, when Geoffrey was 3 years old.

What is the most challenging thing about being a home inspector? I think I’m the only woman in Connecticut who is a home inspector, and it seems like I’ve always ended up in a profession with mostly men. When I started in 1977, I was the only woman out of 500 engineers where I worked. I go up on roofs and belly into crawl spaces — that’s not the most glamorous part of my job. The most challenging thing, though, is that as a home inspector you only have a short amount of time to relay a great amount of information to people. You feel a little pressure, because you want to convey to people what they’re purchasing in this large investment. On the other hand, it is very rewarding in that you’re helping people.

What do you like to do in your free time? I like visiting my children. Geoffrey is in New York and Carolyn is at Princeton for her senior year. Michelle is at Fairfield University, so she is the easiest to visit. I like to read and travel, and right now I’m very involved at St Rose in the Christ Renews His Parish program. It is a retreat program for renewing people’s spirits and relationship with Christ and their parish.

Do you have a favorite book? My favorite book is Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. It’s about building cathedrals in the Middle Ages, so being an engineer I find it appeals to me.

Do you have a favorite travel destination? Right now we are planning a trip to Europe this summer. We’re taking our three children and Geoffrey’s fiancée, Andrea. We’re going first to Vienna, where we lived from 1991 to 1993. The kids have wonderful memories of it. We plan to go through Austria and into Germany and the Czech Republic. We’d like to do a day trip to Venice, too. We traveled a lot when we lived in Vienna, but I’m looking forward most to seeing our old neighborhood. I think it is a trip for memories.

What is the best thing about Newtown? I think the people. Newtown is the people who are here. I meet just wonderful people all of the time, and people are always willing to help each other. The connection between people in Newtown is so nice.

If you could travel to the past or future, which would you choose? I guess I’d travel to the future. The past, we have a lot of history we can study. I’d probably want to travel far enough into the future to see the changes in mankind – and to ensure that mankind is going to actually survive!

Do you have a personal philosophy? Do unto others as you would have done to you. I try to do that. Then you can’t go wrong.

Do you have a guilty pleasure? Chocolate is my weakness; anything that is chocolate. My favorite is probably Belgium chocolate.