I don't know if there is a perfect or ideal time of year to get the ball rolling on house projects that involve contractors, but ours always seems to be in late spring or the early to mid-summer months.
We had an extensive crawlspace renovation done in the spring of 2024. Just a few weeks ago, the house underwent a roof replacement, and along with that, we had some fascia boards painted or replaced. Sometime in the next month, we're going to have a tree removal service come in and clear out a lot of trees and brush, something that is long overdue.
I'm like a lot of people in that I can talk a lot about projects I want done around the house and yard. I've even made out a list of projects I want done that would require an experienced handyman or contractor. But I've been trigger shy for a couple of reasons, primarily: 1) I don't want to spend the money and 2) I've had very mixed experiences when it comes to hiring out people to do work to the extent that it's made me perhaps a little overly cautious when it comes to getting the ball rolling.
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But sometimes, the projects just fall into place fairly quickly due to unexpected circumstances, something I experienced very recently during the course of the roof work that was just done.
We had a few ceilings in our home where there were minor water stains. Only one was new. The rest were from many years ago, prior to a shingle replacement job Mom and Dad contracted out for. The shingle work was done, but they never got around to getting the water stains painted. I should note that my dad knew how to paint, but it was one of his least favorite things to do.
So anyway, it just so happened that the roofing company had a guy on their staff who not only was a painter but also a carpenter. He painted not just the water stains but the whole ceiling of the rooms where the stains were located. And he did an absolutely wonderful job not just with making them go away, but also with some light mudding and caulking work he said needed to be done in spots, how he set up each room to do the job, and how he cleaned up afterwards.
We got to talking at one point, and I mentioned to him how both Mom and I wanted to have some rooms painted, including her bedroom, our spare bedroom, and my home office. I told him that we'd had a painter who we really liked and who had done a couple of our rooms for us, but he had moved away. And we knew from experience that you didn't want to just bring in anyone to paint your walls.
He mentioned that it just so happened that he did paint projects a lot on the weekends, and at that point we asked him for quotes for the work on the rooms in question, and to make sure to include the fact that there were some leftover cracks over some of the doorways (from before the crawlspace job) that would need to be fixed before the painting started.
We found him reasonable (not to mention he was super-patient with the questions we had), so we took his number down to call him sometime in the next few months to see what his availability is like. So at some point, I'm going to be able to get "painting" checked off that long project to-do list.
Something else he did here that was helpful was all the stuff he moved out of/shuffled around the dreaded spare bedroom to get the ceiling painted. Doing that better enabled me to see what was in there and what needed to be gotten rid of.
DIVE DEEPER (VIP): The Vicious Cycle of Stuff, Stuff, and More Stuff
As a result, I'm now about 75 percent done on getting the room decluttered, organized, and rearranged. This is a significant accomplishment, believe me - something that has been on my plate for going on 3+ years. It feels really good to be able to walk by that room now.
Basically, the roof project has led to me being able to get some of my own personal projects done that I had put off for various reasons, and has also put in motion future projects with a contractor who we believe we can trust and who we believe won't take us for a ride.
Funny how these things end up working out, isn't it?
