STOCKTON CUSTOM PAINTING

When I compared receipts and realized she was over-charging me, I confronted her about it. She would start crying, and then demand additional money. This happened multiple times. She ultimately left and did not complete the job. I paid her an additional $15,000 over her original bid, for work she did not do.

I don't want to sound too effusive about my experience, but I cannot imagine it going better than it did.  It was an amazing expereince and a almost perfect outcome.
We were very apprehensive of hiring Jane at first because we spent too much time shopping on the internet, reading reviews and sage words of advice from complete strangers.  We had never met her and did not have any friends who had worked with her.  She was also the lowest bid, which added to my apprehension.  Finally, we called her references and got glowing reviews, so we took a leap of faith.  Jane started immediately with two workers.  They showed up everyday on time, and worked 6 days a week to get it done.  Jane is chatty and effervescent.  She is very communicative and willing to negotiate on payment schedules, colors, needs and wants.  She definitely has opinions, but understands that the final decision was ours.  It was so nice.
The workers were professional and quiet (as quiet as sanders can be).  They were also very thorough.  They patched holes in our house that I didn't think could be patched.  They replaced glazing.  Even when we increased the colors from 3 (the original contract) to 7 colors, no one scoffed. We just made a fair renegotiation and boom! it was done.
The final product is a beautifully restored craftsman house from 1908 that is both cheery and classic.   I am embarrassed that I ever hesitated.  I do not know what happened with the other guy that gave her a bad review, but I cannot recommend her highly enough.

We were recommended to Jane by our local paint shop, Jill's Paint, and we couldn't be happier with the work. We'd lived with colors we hated since we moved in. Originally, we chose our colors hastily and overpaid another painter to get the work done. Jane came over to our house and talked to us about our options. She is a wonderful color specialist, was very honest without being rude, and spent a lot of time with us helping us find colors that would make us happy and complement our furnishings. We ended up finding a color for the dining room that I never would have found on my own, and it's so beautiful that I can hardly stand it! Just two days later, Jane's one-man crew came to our house. Mario was meticulously clean and quiet (my baby slept soundly while he worked just one room over from her!) and FAST. He completed our living room (with 14' ceilings) and dining room AND kitchen in two days. He had to patch and repair many of our picture hanging follies and did so beautifully.  Honestly, it was a perfect transaction from start to finish. The one quirk was that Jane is SO prompt that she was a little early on two of her visits! Thankfully, she was very understanding of the chaos that new parents lives in. We were able to come in under budget because of her fair pricing, and the job, from first phone call to completion, was only four days.  It feels like a whole new house in here. I recommend Jane without reservation.

EXCELLENT PAINT JOB! Jane Stockton worked with us on color selection and placement, with great results. Her painters were exceptionally skilled and focused on the job. They arrived on time every day and tidied up the premises at the close of each day's work. They worked quietly and with consideration for us and our neighbors. Jane was here at least part of every day to supervise the work and talk with us about any concerns. She started and finished the work on our requested schedule. We are very pleased with the completed paint job.

I am updating my first report because I saw the recent posting by a custom who rated Jane Stockton "F". I have not contacted Jane Stockton about this, but I felt this was so unfair that I should add another comment on the job that she did for us, mentioning in more detail the interior painting rather than the exterior painting (see my earlier report). I have had four house painted, in Ithaca, NY, in San Diego, CA, and Seattle, WA. Jane Stockton was the best of all these painters and her advice on colors, inside and outside, was invaluable. Maybe merchants should have an Angie's List of their own where they post ratings of their customers.

Jane Stockton was referred by a local paint store. She said she was excited about doing a Colonial (Spanish and ranch dominating the neighborhood), wanted to make it a showplace for her skills and wanted a to qualify for a good review on Angie's list. It didn't work out that way, and I have joined Angie's List specifically to write this review. We signed a contract and paid a good-sized deposit. The work seemed to start well, as her crew tackled the preparation work when promised. It soon became evident, however, that areas needing obvious work were not being addressed, which we had to bring to her attention. Then when priming began before the house appeared completely prepped, we questioned Stockton, who became defensive about her work. An example of her approach was to paint the double-hung window sills up to the outside of the lower window sash, leaving a strip of different color (the existing exterior color) on the continuation of the sill under the sash! In her words "That's inside the house"! I have NEVER seen an exterior window sill painted in two colors! In a number of locations obvious peeling paint had not been addressed, nor had some necessary minor siding dry rot repairs been made. In general, the prep work ranged from barely OK to nonexistent. We also had been working with her on colors during the prep, and she brought a sample of a white for the trim that she pushed very hard. We said it looked nice, but did not make a final decision. Despite this, on the basis that we didn't reject the color out of hand, she "bought" several 5-gallon containers of the paint. I'm guessing that the paint was left over from another job, but that's conjecture. However, we got mad at her presumption on the paint and said we would not accept it. She got even more defensive and upset and said she didn't want to finish the job. This was after about 3 weeks of prep work that didn't look very good, and certainly wasn't complete. She finished the day's work, took her equipment AND THE TRIM PAINT WE HAD PRESUMABLY PAID FOR, and left. The upshot was that we had to hire another painting contractor who charged us more than Stockton's entire contract, but who did an outstanding job in fixing her poor prep, continuing with more detailed prep of his own and painting the house. It now is the showcase we wanted. (See review for Scott Johnson aka "Fussy Painting")

Update August 2013
I was looking at my past reviews and just read Ms. Stockton's response of Mar. 2010.  I have the following comments:

1)  Nowhere in my review did I mentioned tardiness, yet she made a big deal out of this imagined criticism.  Maybe it's because I rated "punctuality" as a "C".  Her crew did not always arrive on the dot, but they did always show up within a reasonable time.  Should I change my rating to a "B"?  OK by me.
2)  She most definitely tried to convince me that painting up to an imaginary line across the sill of a double-hung window at a point somewhere in the area where the sash touches the sill, resulting in a "two-tone" sill, was proper.  It is not.  The sill color is applied up to the stop across the back of the sill.  This stop is inside the bottom of the lower sash, and paint applied to that point cannot be seen from inside..  To do otherwise creates a disturbing split color in the middle of the sill.  This may be her style, but not what I've seen everywhere else.
3)  We NEVER agreed to the white trim color she proposed.  We said it looked OK (meaning it wasn't ugly) and would consider it along with the other colors we were looking at.  But we did not make a definite choice, and certainly did not authorize her to purchase it.  Perhaps she interpreted our not rejecting it outright as our approval, but she should have confirmed that fact as she knew we were still looking at different choices.  Nonetheless, the paint she bought with the funds we gave her should have been ours, but she walked off with it.
4)  If her bid was 1/3 of her normal rate, she never made that clear to us.  She did say she was bidding aggressively, but her price still came in between two other bids.  I can only wonder what her "normal" bid would be!
5)  Regarding priming before filling - I've never seen this done.  Maybe it's an industry practice I'm unaware of.  However, several of the spots that her crew primed had received no prep work at all, leading us to believe that no prep would be done.  She did not explain her process.  There were other areas where primer was put over flaking paint.  Seems to me that once the flaking paint is removed (as it should be), the primer is, too.
6)  Yes, we got pretty vocal, especially regarding the unauthorized purchase of the trim paint, given the other issues that had already occurred.

I was delighted with the job performed by Jane Stockton and her house painting team (Mario and Peter) on my house. Jane is brilliant with color, exceptionally attentive to detail and approached her work with extraordinary care and attention. She was not only highly dedicated - working alongside her team of painters to finish the job on schedule - but took time to listen to my concerns and to make extremely helpful suggestions. She is both efficient and highly knowledgeable regarding color choices: a rare combination. She has a background in the arts, which shows in her excellent taste in applying color and her awareness of period styles. Her team was likewise diligent and impressively precise; they also left the worksite very clean and were respectful of my neighbors in doing their work quietly. I would recommend her to anyone and use her again without hesitation. I could not be happier with the end results.