Buying a move-in ready home is backwards in a way, but understandable. Many first-time homebuyers don't have a lot of money to spend right after buying a home, so a move-in ready home makes sense. Consequently, the buyer is initially stuck with the seller's home: The seller's choice of colors, flooring, heating systems, etc. Over the last 11 years, I've been gradually transforming the seller's home into my own dream home. This has prompted many questions as to whether the house is being prepared for sale. The concept of finally bringing the house up to my specifications so someone else can buy and live in it seems crazy to me.
So, when I decided it was time to finally transform the exterior of my dream-home-in-progress to MY chosen colors, I didn't take the hiring process lightly. Truth be told, I ended up procuring more estimates than I intended, thanks to Yelp sending my inquiry to several painters. Bids ranged from $2600 (what are you going to paint my house with, water colors?) to a staggering $13K (wtf??? you using 14kt-gold-based paint?), just 2K shy of an estimate I'd gotten for vinyl siding. Most of the estimates were reasonable, though, and close to one another in scope and costs, and all of the contractors seemed capable of the task. So, why did I end up choosing Eugene Painting?
Eugene did 2 things during the estimate process that none of the others did: 1) He tested the under layers of paint for lead, thereby eliminating the question of whether my older house contained lead paint (it did not), and 2) He tested the trim and siding for moisture. This informed him of the type of paint and approach most appropriate for the condition of my wood siding. Needless to say, after going through the head-spinning process of getting nearly 10 estimates from painters who all seemed knowledgeable and competent, Eugene stood out.
Eugene was very easy to work with. He was helpful, knowledgeable, and patient while I worked out what I did and didn't want, often asking him endless questions that had no real answers. His work was as thoughtful and as thorough as his proposal. He went to great lengths to help me nail down a shade of color without exerting too much influence. In fact, I wasn't sure that he even liked the color I chose (SW Blue Chip) until after he'd completed the job and said so. He even let my dog rope him into playing fetch a few times. I had to warn him that Oscar could do that all day long!
This is not to say that the job did not have its challenges. Improper priming by previous painters, deteriorating siding, and the unfortunate discovery of a section of substantial rot all contributed to the challenges. Eugene was thorough in explaining how each of these limitations would affect the overall quality of the job. He was not able to address the rot issue, so he left that section of the house unpainted and returned the following week to paint it after the rot had been repaired, ironically by one of the other contractors who submitted a bid on the house painting.
This will most likely be the final paint job before the existing siding has to be replaced, but the results are stunning! The color has a beachy, breezy quality to it that better reflects my personality and desire for an in-city oasis than the previous muted yellow did (yuck!). The first thing Eugene asked me when he came over to give me the estimate was whether I was selling the house or not, and we went from there. Eugene, thank you for making my house my home! read more