Niemar from Nick's Pro Painting responded 10 minutes after the request was submitted and agreed to…read morean appointment 2 days later. He was available the next day, but I wasn't. He arrived 15 minutes early after confirming the appointment time 1 hour beforehand. He was professional, took the time to drive to Worcester, and provided a free estimate. Even though he was not hired, which is reflected in the raiting and the following explained experience, Nick's Pro Painting does deserve positive acknowledgement for this paragraph.
This is a specialty job requiring detailed workmanship to strip and match stain as close as possible that two different contractors destroyed (after being asked NOT to paint/stain). One room has four different color stains, paint smeared on woodwork, doors that don't match their door frames, and a new expensive barn door with dried stain running down it.
My initial request included pictures and explained that this job was mainly to sand, strip stain, and match woodwork as close as possible. All respondents were aware upfront. This task is able to be accomplished because a professional painter had already performed some of the work before becoming unavailable.
It was disappointing to hear Niemar, a professional painter, recommend to just paint everything white. This, after one painter already completed some of the work, a second painter the previous week said he could do it, and a contractor yesterday said he could do it. I, myself, could just slap white paint on the woodwork if that's what I wanted, losing the higher quality wood in the process. 1"x 4ft pieces are painted white, not oak baseboards and carved moulding.
This is a two-story house, so while the second floor would have beautiful matched stain, MOST (not all) of the first floor rooms would have white, painted trim. While that is the standard nowadays, this city house on a dead-end street has trees and nature on two sides, plus deer/wild turkeys/bunnies that pass by. The interior woodwork is a reflection of the ever disappearing nature outside. The desired end result is for beauty and consistency. This was my deceased mother's house, to be listed for sale in spring 2025.
With a 5 rating I think I had higher expectations than a lazy suggestion. Additionally, the brief, interim owner after my mother died, is a Real Estate Agent with Coldwell Banker-Worcester Branch, who flips houses (I'd run from her and them!) She had the nice vinyl siding painted, which is now peeling and cracking after only 16 months! Niemar said he couldn't touch it up without having the exact brand and color paint used. This was surprising to hear since ROOFERS were able to replace some cracked siding (my mother kept extra of the original, unpainted siding) and they painted it to match by bringing a scraped piece of paint to Home Depot and having exterior paint tinted to the sample. The type of paint was recommended by the initial, professional painter, who painted the entire interior and was capable of correcting the mis-matched stain nightmare unnecessarily created by incompetent contractors who refuse to listen.
My impression is that, because the project is a tedious, detailed labor of love honoring my mother's memory and for the next family, Niemar just didn't want to do it. Which is fine of course, but it might be better in future to say something to the effect of, "While I'd like to help, this project is going to be a little too time-consuming to fit in with other jobs we currently have," rather than what he actually said, which was, "It will have to be sanded. There will be dust. I can't do it." It would have been better if, after seeing the request/pictures and knowing what was being asked before contacting me, that the response was, "Unfortunately, Nick's Pro is unavailable." Coming to see the house when unable to perform the job was just a waste of time for both of us.
