Special Deliveries : They Serve You Right While You Stay Home

At a recent party in Tustin, guests were surprised to find that the waiters appeared drunk and spent the evening swigging wine.

The salad was well-tossed--right onto the floor--and laundry was being hung in the party room while a washboard quartet with violins serenaded the guests.

Hosting a surprise “tacky party,” with drunken waiters or gum-chewing waitresses, is hardly a mission impossible for Connie Vlasis and Sue Tamulevich, owners of Creative Capers in Garden Grove. The pair, also known as the “Fantasy Island” caterers, have staged an intimate dinner party in an elevator, catered a splashy party inside a fountain and hosted “health” dinners where guests were forced to jog and food was yanked from under their noses if they ate too much.

Vlasis says that devising these and other tortures for her clients often keeps her up nights. “In this business, it pays to never grow up,” she adds.

Parties made to order are among scores of inventive services available in Orange County for people who want to stand the “do it yourself” ethic on its head.

Whether the service is home aerobics for those who shun Spandex, on-the-spot house-breaking for dogs or auto repairs in the comfort and safety of your own driveway, county residents often can--and do--pay someone else to make life a little easier while they languish poolside or rake in another big deal at work.

A handful of entrepreneurs interviewed in Orange County say there is a ripe market for home services, spurred by an abundance of disposable income and often-hectic executive schedules that leave little time for people to do things for themselves.

The services can get personal.

Cecilia Goodman, co-owner of Newport Beach’s Image Works, spends much of her time in clients’ bedrooms, relentlessly raking through closets to weed out the de- moded.

She and co-owner Sandy Clark make a living by removing skeletons from the closets of more than 2,000 clients throughout Orange County. Goodman says many are “ nouveau riche, but not in the negative sense--just newly rich.” They may have wardrobes that don’t reflect their “new selves,” she says, or may be seeking guidance on how to project their image through dress and makeup.

If her methods seem extreme, clients and spouses say they’re later relieved she rids the family of a long-hated pea green jacket or frilly skirt left over from a 1950s college tea. Goodman says many people need someone else to tell them it’s OK to throw such items away.

Goodman’s style was demonstrated during a recent visit to accountant Janet Garner in Orange.

“This goes in the Goodwill pile,” she said, referring to a seemingly innocuous gray and pink jacket. “It looks like something a 14-year-old would wear. Get rid of it.”

Garner tentatively produced a dress with tiny pink flowers and puffed sleeves. “Now, Janet, what’s wrong with that?” Goodman asked.

“It’s a ‘one’ personality type, right? Too cute?” Garner answered.

Garner’s personality had been typed by Goodman, based on a trait chart that plunked Garner into the type “3-4” or mostly “classic” range.

Goodman quickly vetoed the flowered dress, which fell in the “pretty” range. “Teeny flowers are a dead giveaway. If you’re a business person, this will compromise your authority. It’s a ‘let me take care of you’ look.”

Goodman makes no apologies for her blunt remarks. “They don’t pay me to beat around the bush,” she said.

She and Clark opened Image Works five years ago, beginning with color analysis and expanding to include a boutique with clothes and accessories. Clients can choose just a closet cleanup, but “we prefer to help create a whole new image, from soup to nuts,” Goodman said. The cost of that image varies from as low as $25 when Image Works has a “closet cleanup special” to several hundred dollars for makeup analysis and “accessorizing.”

Although many clients are established businesswomen, Goodman tries to keep up with changing times. She didn’t object to one youthful client who had a streak of purple in her hair, “But the shade was all wrong. I told her to choose a purple that would complement her skin tone better,” she said.

Dogs Trained at Home

For those who dread bullying their pooch to attend a training institute, Matthew Margolis, president of the National Institute of Dog Training, promises “the ultimate in home training . . . for the dog in your life.”

“Believe it or not, there are 6 million dogs in Southern California, and on any given day at least 100,000 of those can go to the bathroom on the floor,” he says.

The 26 trainers at the institute in Monterey Park offer home as well as kennel training in Orange and Los Angeles counties--training that emphasizes rewards rather than punishment.

A dog is born to please, said Margolis, and will do anything for an owner once he knows how. A key to successfully training a dog, Margolis said, is “teaching the people. I once had a lady who waited 10 years to house-train her dog because she thought he would get better every year,” he said.

Exorcising Exercise Clubs

People who question the wisdom of paying health club prices for fitness have an alternative in stores like Newport Beach’s Instead of Spinach home-exercise-equipment store.

Salesman Jim Hope says a lot of his clients are fed up with the “singles scene” at spas and clubs. “They are sick of the overbooked membership, the strains of perfume pervading the atmosphere, the makeup and Spandex tights.”

At Hope’s shop, amid studio lighting and mirrors, would-be Charles Atlases make investments in equipment ranging from the price of lunch to a down payment on a yacht. Some are willing to spring for $3,500 for the Universal Gym, complete with chrome weights that coordinate with the living room decor, abdominal board, bench press, captain’s chair for the all-important lower stomach and a thigh developer.

Others settle for a pair of Heavy Hands weights at $17.95.

Jeri Miller and Judy Olsen are among those who provide other options for fitness buffs who value privacy.

Miller, of Aerobics Ms. Fits, teaches the cha-cha, the samba and the Charleston to those who “for reasons of health, convenience or personal embarrassment feel they don’t want to put on a leotard and dance with a group.”

And Olsen, owner of Annapurna Yoga in Costa Mesa, will make house calls to teach relaxation through exercise. “I had a woman who spent an hour and a half with a wine bottle every evening. After an hourly lesson with yoga, her life improved measurably, and with no hangover,” she said.

Have Wrench, Will Travel

Extending home service to the driveway are firms such as Traveling Mechanics, based in Anaheim. Four vans with the logo of a little running man are available to rescue car owners from mostly self-inflicted tragedies. Owner David Haydu says a common client is the driver, equipped with all the right tools except know-how, who decides on a little home tune-up and then calls Traveling Mechanics to get the car running again.