We were profoundly lucky to find Carl after searching a couple years for a painter passionate about restoring the exterior of our 1941 Cape Cod-style house and preserving its original cedar shingles.
When we bought the house five years before we found Carl, the seller had just recently had the house painted for appearance, but they'd done no scraping or prep, and it was badly peeling shortly thereafter as a result. (It's hard to imagine that it had been properly scraped down in decades.) We needed someone willing to undertake the arduous labor of removing as much of the original peeling paint layers as possible, do the carpentry work where any rot had resulted in window and door frames, and lovingly paint that prepared canvas.
We met with contractors who suggested we get vinyl siding or who were going to do minimal prep but charge us slightly less--or who would charge us a great deal, perhaps for slightly more prep, and then hand off the labor to an underpaid crew and barely be on site.
What a joy to have Carl and his small, long-time group, including the assiduous, quiet Mike, with us during the process. It took nearly a month altogether, because the necessary scraping and other prep turned out to be so extensive (and some rain interrupted), but it was a pleasure to have such kind and thoughtful people working on our home and caring for it. They were meticulous, melting off the old peeling paint manually with heat, scraping where they needed to, before lovingly layering on the new primer and paint.
And the result is magnificent! It's been almost a year now, and we still glory in the lovely colors we chose in consultation with Carl and miss having our delightful, insightful, kind painter around! Carl is an excellent, consistent communicator and collaborator, including around all business and financial details. There were no surprises and no strain or stress. We feel lucky to have met him and lucky to live in the beautiful results of his work and vision. read more
