West Seattle Handyman
2025-07-18T05:02:24.433Z
We had a large multiweek basement renovation project for our small mid-1940s home with Michael, including bringing the original stairs up to code, installing an egress window, walling in the bathroom and installing shower, walling in utility room adjacent to stair case, running electrical, and framing/insulating/drywalling/painting the full area (1200 sqft). We were looking for a collaborator vs. a "execute the plan" contractor, and Michael lived nearby and was intrigued by the project scope. We were operating on a pretty firm budget and were able to negotiate the scope to arrive at an acceptable estimated cost. At the time, Michael worked from an estimate with ~weekly billing for labor and materials. This method worked well for us, as the big projects were sort of a "black box" with uncertain steps ahead (the stair header ended up being quite a job and sucked up a bit of our "extra time/money" and we could finish the final work ourselves, but wanted a pro to do the structural alteration, city permits and extensive framing/sheetrocking. As such, he does not build in a contingency or "pad" the estimate, which worked well for us. Michael brought on an *excellent* worker (Stephen) who took the lead on the framing, insulation, sheetrock and priming. Michael focused on the complicated building parts, including bringing on electrical work on fairly short notice and coordinating a larger than expected debris removal. The entire project took about 6 weeks, and then we ran out of money and he ran out of time :D, but we had gotten the city permit and the big important work was done all the way up to the walls being fully primed. We have a reasonable punch list remaining of trim and flooring, and some minor fixes from attempting to install modern square manufactured solutions into our decidedly non-square home :). The patchwork flooring in the photos is my own doing, I used dricore insulated modular panels and reinstalled them after cleanup of the active site. All of the remaining work was generally expected, and we had a very successful collaboration throughout the experience. I had newly returned to the office, so Michael and Stephen came and went in our home with my partner and small dog home working remotely the whole time. We felt entirely safe with this degree of access and trust, which counts for a lot. There were a number of decisions where Michael could have taken a shortcut or done things in a disingenuous way, but did not do so. In the end, it was a super successful step in our journey towards having a fully functional and weatherized basement! I recommend collaborating with Michael if his style of work dovetails with your own needs- he is a trustworthy, reasonable and skilled individual. We look forward to buttoning up the last bits this summer and winter and are already enjoying the effects of their work!