A Brief about Virginia
A Tucson resident since 1990, moving from Palo Alto, California.  For over twenty years I’ve had a career in the construction industry working in various capacities such as office manager, project manager and project engineer.  For the past six years worked for one client as a personal assistant.

Areas with which you might need help:

• Office running over with paperwork and don’t know where to start.
  1. Let’s organize the paperwork.  Setting up a filing system if you don’t have one.
  2. Tickler files that can be used to let you know when things are coming up or are due
  3. Update your phone and address lists
  4. These are just a couple of things that might help you.
     
     
• A renovation project or new construction that you need help with. 
  1. I’ll work with you or give you the insight that will help you manage your own.  
  2. Maybe you need help in selecting contractors.
  3. Keep track of costs

• What do you do when you go away for months, especially when you leave the country? 
  1. I’ll pick up your mail and check it to be sure that there are no unpaid bills
  2. Keep you posted about things via e-mail. 
  3. Stop by and check your house, flush the toilets, turn on the water faucets.
  4. Check the pool if you have one.  Pools must be taken care of immediately even if you have a pool service, so another set of eyes does not hurt.

Past Projects:

• Assisted owner in a remodel project while the owner was out of town. 
• Personal Assistant for six years.  The tasks ranged from office work, banking, follow up on items of discrepancy, keeping track of items in three various homes, moving furniture between houses in Tucson, Phoenix and Santa Fe, NM.  During this time there we new houses purchased and sold. A trip to New York to meet with the movers and set up her new home. 
• Set up office files that were in boxes after a move to a new house.  Went over credit card bills to make sure all necessary items were included on expense account.  Coordinated weekly invoices.
• Project managed a fire project in new home. This consisted of working with the contractors hired to clean up the property, organizing subcontractors for the repair work, working with the building department and then returned when the furniture was moved back into the house.
• Owner’s rep for remodel/addition project that lasted three months  on a very large house.  Owners were out of town as the construction was being done.  Kept a daily log of contractors on site and work in progress. Walked the project several times each day.  Kept in touch with the owners by phone and e-mail so that they felt in the loop and knew what was going on.  A photo log was kept up to date showing the progress being made, but photos were sent to the owners on a regular basis. 

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Here are a couple of Testimonials from clients:

Virginia was in my employ of over three years, until I moved back east.  She continues to help on a much smaller scale at this time.  She is an excellent administrative organizer, but that’s not all.  Virginia is honest, courteous, with good people skills and a penchant for solving a problem.  She is a willing partner for anyone who needs extra hands.
J. Lavendar, Woodstock, NY

Virginia provided office manager services at my Arizona office in support of a CBRE subcontract that provided energy management services at several hundred Washington Mutual Bank locations throughout the U.S.  She did an outstanding job working in an autonomous atmosphere.  She coordinated weekly invoices and expense reports for a team of five, and my office was never more organized and efficient.
J. Muckey, Marana, AZ

Virginia provided outstanding project management services in the reconstruction of my Arizona residence damaged by fire.  In her capacity as project manager, she provided excellent oversight, coordination and surveillance of contractors and subcontractors ensuring that the project was completed on time and on budget. Later, Ms. Updegrove’s project notes were instrumental in securing successful resolution in a legal dispute against one of the subcontractors and a cost avoidance of approximately $20,000.
J. Muckey, Marana, AZ

Traveling in Europe for five months, we were happy to rely on Virginia to pick up our mail, check for anything unusual and report back to us via e-mail regularly.  She is very competent and honest and we know we can trust her completely.  She has also checked on our house and alerted us to a problem we had with the pool.
D. Krajnc, Tucson, AZ