Storage is what I get called about most
Stouffville houses tend to be generous on floor area and short on anywhere to put things. Garages fill up, the pantry has two shelves, and the closet came with a single wire rack that sagged in the middle inside a year. Much of my week here is storage work: heavy racks fixed into ceiling framing, pantry and linen shelving cut and levelled, closet systems built properly, hooks and a bench by the back door so the boots stop landing on the floor.
Fixings are the whole job. The plastic plugs that come in the box will hold a picture, not a shelf loaded with tins. I find the framing first, use anchors rated for real weight where there is none, and load the shelf myself before I call it done.
Main Street and the houses behind it
The old part of town is a small pocket, and it behaves nothing like the streets around it. Brick and frame houses near Main Street have plaster walls, wide painted trim, doors that were hung by hand and floors that run downhill by a few millimetres across a room. Trim gets scribed to the wall rather than forced flat, shelves get packed level, and patches get feathered wide so they do not show under the light from the window.
Ballantrae, Musselman's Lake and the roads out of town
Head north or east and the housing changes again. Ballantrae is bungalows on quiet crescents, single storey, where a good share of the work is fittings that have been in place since the house was built: taps, toilets, ceiling fans and light fixtures nobody would choose today. Around Musselman's Lake there are places that started as cottages and are lived in year round now, which usually means several generations of framing, additions meeting at odd angles, tired screen doors and decks that take the full winter.
Distances out here make batching worth it. Everything on the list in one go, one price agreed first, and no repeat trips down the same concession road.
- Garage racks, pantry shelving and closet systems built and anchored
- Flat-pack wardrobes, beds, desks and outdoor furniture assembled
- Televisions, mirrors and artwork mounted on solid fixings
- Interior and exterior doors adjusted, with new handles or weather stripping
- Drywall and plaster repairs, followed by paint that matches
- Taps, shower heads and toilets swapped like for like
- Decks, railings, gates and fence panels repaired
How a visit actually works
Quotes are free and there is no obligation attached to one. Photos sent with your request help more than anything else, because I can usually price from them and arrive with the right parts in the van. You get a fixed price for the job or an hourly rate, agreed with you before I start.
Materials come with receipts if I supply them, or you buy your own and I fit them. I clear up the work area before I go, and if something is not right afterwards I come back and sort it out. Replies usually go out within one business day, and I work Monday to Saturday, with Sunday by appointment.
