Salt Spreader Riser Build | West Chester, PA

A local landscaper, Marc Zarelli Landscaping, came to me and asked if I could add some additional height to his salt spreader in preparation for the winter’s snow.  With the addition of the riser the spreader’s capicity rose from 2 tons to 3 – 3.5 tons of salt.  This additional capacity means less trips to get refilled and the ability to finish larger jobs with one load of salt.  Take a look at the transformation below.

Here you can see the original salt spreader's height where the stainless steel walls meet the bottom of my pressure treated lumber.

A good look inside to show the new depth and angled top.

The finished product. Let it snow!

New Deck Addition | King of Prussia, PA

The customer and I graduated from the same college and came way of a fraternity brother I have done work for in the past.  They had a deck that was sad and overgrown with landscaping.  I took down all of the unecessary bushes and doubled the size of their deck finishing it off with composite decking and railing.

The deck before I started pulling weeds and dead bushes.

Here is the other side of the deck to get a better idea of what it looked like before.

Decking framing complete with the extension to the right of the slider.

I had to add an additional beam because of the cantilevered fireplace box.

The complete and finished deck. Yes, it was raining when I finished. It rained a lot during this build and I got very wet.

Nice, open deck. I decided to leave one tree. It was the best of the bunch.

See...the tree was nice and tall and added a little something to the new deck.

Deck Resurfacing | West Chester, PA

A long time customer and I were discussing the options of deck resurfacing.  I told them about the different products and options that were out there.  They chose to stick with the tried and true pressure treated decking to resurface both of their decks.  All toll there was a total of 585 square feet of decking removed and installed in addition to 108 linear feet of railing removed and installed.

Old decking removed from the master bedroom deck and the start of the new decking layout.

New decking complete.

Stiffeners were also added to the master bedroom deck to eliminate some racking (movement) this deck was experiencing.

The railing was also replaced with 2x8 pressure treated lumber.

Existing decking on the living room deck.

Existing decking adjacent to the kitchen.

New decking installed adjacent to the kitchen.

New decking installed in the small eating area adjacent to the kitchen.

And finally, new decking installed on the same deck new the dining room.

Bathroom & Porch Reno | Lansdale, PA

At the time this customer was expecting the arrival of their 2nd child.  So before their bundle of joy was brought home they wanted a few things done to the house to make it a little more livable.  The main focus was on the bathroom and the porch.

Here is the bathroom just after I removed the carpet from the floor.

New cabinetry that was built behind the toilet for additional storage. All doors had individual locks and magnetic closures.

Plenty of additional storage for the family who lives in this house.

New tile floor finished.

The lower level of the bathroom is where I added new tile to coordinate with the existing tile in the shower area.

The homeowner wanted to add a railing to the front porch so her older son could ride his bike.

The new porch railing finished.

This railing included two possible exits. Here is one of them at the rear of the porch.

The second was located directly in front of the front doors with a double gate for easy of accessability.

Dollhouse Build | Wayne, PA

Every year I donate a full days worth of labor to the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, PA for their silent auction.  Earlier this year the auction chair contacted me to do a few things around her house.  The last, and largest project, was to built and paint a dollhouse that was only about 25% complete.  Always willing to try something new I took the dollhouse and all of its parts home. Forty hours later plus the time it took to paint the dollhouse it was finished.  Needless to say their 8 year old daughter was super excited to see my truck pull up with the finished house in back.

This is how I received the house. Let the building begin!

After 40 hours of building and about 10 hours of painting by Mark Lauren Painting in West Chester, PA the house was finally complete.

The interior of the house was to be finished later. Nice wrap around porch.

Each of the nearly 2000 shingles were hand applied, the toughest of all on the gazebo roof. Thank you to my wife, Stacey, for her help with this task.

Bill from Mark Lauren Painting added the nice detail of the stains glass window. Great finishing touch!

Custom Locker Build | Haverford, PA

A very loyal customer came to me and asked if I could build them a custom locker for their kids coats, shoes and book bags.  Of course I said yes.  Making custom furniture is one of my favorite things to do.

The custom unit measured 4' wide x 6' tall and was 15" deep. Hooks above for jackets and an open space under each side for a basket of shoes.

The original baseboard was removed and new molding was installed along the base to make the piece seem built-in.

A coat of primer and three coats of high gloss paint were applied for lasting protection and easy cleaning.

Deck Landing | West Chester, PA

As my business grows so does the ways people go about finding me and my services.  This client came about while do a Google search for handymen in West Chester.  After a few visits to other websites he decided to give me a call based off of the work I had previously done.  They had a rotten deck that was ready to fall down just outside their sunroom.  He asked if I could remove it and install a landing with steps to the brick walkway.  Below are the before and after shots.  Let me know what you think.

The rotten deck before removal.

More rotten deck.

The underside of the original. Notice the 6" drop of the triple 2x8s.

No stairs to the brick walkway.

Nice, new shiny deck.

Finishing rail for the existing deck.

New stairs to the brick walkway.

Railing on new deck landing.

Granite Countertops & Under Cabinet Lighting | West Chester, PA

This frequent client of mine contacted me because she was interested in having new granite countertops installed as well as under cabinet lighting.  I removed all the original countertops and prepped the kitchen to receive the new granite.  Two weeks before, my electrician installed the under cabinet lighting on a dimmer switch.  See the photos below for the process.

Desk & microwave area removed.

Countertop removed from the dishwasher area.

Countertops removed from the main run around the range.

Shiny, new granite with under cabinet lighting installed.

Ahhthe smell of new countertop!

I also installed the new faucet and two soap dispensers. The sink was installed by the granite installers.

 

Garage Door Install

This was my very first time installing garage doors.  The instructions were followed to the ‘T’ on the first door.  The second door went up in half the time of the first because I knew what I was doing.  I have officially added garage door installation to my repertoire.  Take a look at the before and after.

This was the better of the two doors pre-installation. The other door was much worse.

New door installed. This one actually shuts, has a lock, weather stripping and an insulation value of R8. Not to shabby.

Dump Truck Sides | West Chester, PA

A local landscaper that I have done work for in the past contacted me. He needed wooden sides built and installed for his new dump truck.  Take a look at the final product below.

The sides we built out of 2"x12" pressure treated lumber and galvanized carriage bolts to withstand the elements.

I cut the top 2x12 at an angle so the bed cover would have a natural place to rest.

Both sides complete.