[Chat] Painter

[echalmers at mindspring.com]

Jack Denning, the painter who has been working on my house, will be looking for more work in the coming weeks. His number is 410-499-8170. He has done a good job painting my walls and has been very reasonable--$25/hour (including some Benjamin Moore paint). Jack has one very important virtue: he is 100 percent trustworthy, so you can have him in your house when you are not there without worrying. He also appears to treat women decently, unlike many of the male contractors I have met. And he is very tidy--he moves all the furniture, covers it up, and then cleans up and replaces things. 

He has just started working on his own, and I have found that by telling him exactly what I want him to do, I get better results. For instance, I was not happy with the first patch he did, so I told him exactly how I wanted holes patched, and he followed these instructions. The patches now look good. I also did not let him scrape any woodwork, in part because it's such an expensive task and in part because he refuses to wear a respirator, which he says does not go with his beard. Really.

I would rate him B+ on prep and A- on actual painting. Oh yes--he also does some faux finishes.