Dietra Nickerson

I have bought and sold several well lived in houses and thus experienced a number of handymen, none better than Dietra Nickerson, handywoman. I hired Dietra because of the great reviews she received on Angies List. The couple of negative reviews appear to grouch about problems reaching her, not about her work. She always got back to me as promptly as any worker could who absorbs themselves in the work they contract to do and must act as their own secretary. Dietra made a number of repairs to my home, inside and out: carpentry, painting, plumbing, electrical, and misc. As she would quickly fix one problem, I would think, why not give her a crack at another that has been annoying me. For example, after she installed a couple of light fixtures I thought, why not give her a shot at untangling the wiring mess in my attic which left me with dead switches and lights which require unscrewing the bulb to turn out. How much would an electrician cost? She untangled the mess and everything was working right in well under an hour. I had hired a plumber (highly recommended on Angies List) to fix some slow filling toilets. They were better after he left, but still not quite satisfactory. Dietra came in after him and now they flush great and refill in record time. I never expect to call a plumber again for minor plumbing if Dietra is available. Her carpentry included repairing two dilapidated fences (they look new now) and constructing a hexagonal roof to a structure. We couldn?t find a suitable pre-built roof. As it turned out, I doubt if we found one that it would be cost competitive to the one Dietra built. Probably among her many best qualities is that when she feels that some other service provider is better qualified than she to do some job she will not hesitate to recommend them and even help find the right provider. That was great for me since I hardly knew where to start looking. I highly recommend Dietra, above other handymen, for any tasks that do not require great strength or two men. On the other hand, don?t underestimate Dietra; she?s a very strong lady with great ingenuity. Dietra?s work included time spent off my premises shopping for me and building the hexagonal roof. But when she presented me her bill most of that time wasn?t included. She undercharged me. She is the only service provider in recent memory with whom my own ethics required me to argue to readjust their hours up and bill me higher. When I told my son I was hiring a handywoman he said, ?Dad, there?s no such thing.? My son, so smart, is dead wrong on this one!

It was a pleasure working with Dietra. Besides doing great work she offered a lot of tips on how I could do things. She helped me select the paint color and recommended the paint that was used. She came the day before to do some wall patching. She painted the master bedroom/bathroom and an indoor bench. The total time was a little under two full days. Her work was top of the line through the clean up. I am planning to have some more painting done late summer/early fall and Dietra is who I will be contacting. I would highly recommend her to anyone needing the services she offers.

I contacted three contractors for an estimate on repairing a small area of soft flooring between the toilet and the tub. I thought maybe the toilet needed to be re-set. The first two both decided, based on their years of experience, that the cause was shower water running down the front side and into that corner of the bathroom. They were both estimating pulling the toilet out, cutting out that corner of soft sub-flooring, replacing it and several vinyl tiles. Contractor #1 Estimated the job over the phone at one price, doubled it after inspection and then dropped it below the phone estimate when I failed to call them back. Contractor #2 Estimated the same job over the phone for a lot less than #1 so, I asked him to expand the estimate to include tiling the floor. After his inspection, he quoted a price on the whole job still less than #1's phone estimate, but he couldn't start for a week or more. I was willing to wait. When he was ready to start the job he called to say that he had underestimated the job and would need an extra 2-3 hundred. Contractor #3 was Dietra. She had told me initially that she would be busy for the next 3 weeks and hoped that I would keep her in mind for the next project. By the time #2 was ready to start she was back. I cut #2 loose and Dietra did her inspection the next day. Her assessment of the situation was a little more in depth. She pointed out how compromised the shower itself was and was pretty confident that it was the source of the problem not the toilet or a minor stream of shower water down the side. She was willing to do the patch job as first described but wanted me to know that it was not the right way to go. I hired her not because she was the least expensive, even though she was on the part of the job that the other two had also estimated. I hired her because she didn't fall back on her years of experience instead, she was able to point out the offending areas around the shower and expound on what might be happening on the other side of the existing tile. The floor turned out to be the least of the problem. She provided 3 written quotes, one to repair and tile the floor. One to just re-caulk the shower. One to re-tile the shower. I had her re-do the whole shower and tile the floor. She started on time with no surprises, cleaned up, took her trash with her and offered well thought out recommendations. The end result was seamless and picture ready.

Dietra and her helper did a fantastic job in our sun room. It looks great and we love it. It is not easy to do the larger tiles with the very small grout lines.

Since we never were able to talk with her, not well.

We bought a new refrigerator that just barely fit in the space. We thought we would need to literally move a wall, however Dietra showed us that she could make room by just "shaving" the bottom part of the wall (you could see that the wall was not straight) which of course saved us a lot of money. We had some areas in the sheet rock that had "cracks" from the house settling and asked her to patch them and then paint the whole downstairs. She said that she could do the repairs and find a paint to match the color on the walls so that she could just touch up the areas, which again saved us money. She came in to give us an estimate and three days later everything was done. The only "problem" we had was when we contacted her and left a message it took two days for her to call us back. That left us wondering if we should move forward with another company. However, we are very pleased with what she has done and would definately call upon her again

Overall, I could not have been happier with Dietra's work. From first contacting her to her finishing, I have nothing but good things to say and will be recommending her to the property manager who manages our rental house in the event any of her clients need work done. I found Dietra through Angie's List and chose to contact her based on her stellar reviews as my fourteen-month-old daughter has been enjoying emptying out all the drawers and cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom. While I'm learning to be not as much of a neat freak as I was prior to having children, trying to cook or dry my hair while the little darlin' drags pots and pans and make-up and everything else all over the floor was becoming increasingly difficult. Dietra and I communicated primarily via text messaging to get the details of the job figured out. She provided a quote based on me supplying the childproofing hardware (which I already had) and installing it in 24 lower kitchen and bathroom cabinet drawers and doors. She figured she'd need 10 minutes a drawer/door, not accounting for a learning curve (although she was confident she could get that time down once she put in a few). She was able to come the very next day to install everything, given that she had not heard back from other pending jobs. Although we initially planned to meet at my house at 11:00 or 11:30, I was running late and contacted Dietra to move the time to noon. She arrived ten minutes early, although she didn't charge me until after coming inside, taking a look around, and getting all her materials ready. She childproofed the kitchen first and quickly got into a groove. As I had told her that I had the tools to do the work myself but not the knowledge (my husband normally does minor household repairs/improvements but is deployed right now), she offered to show me how to install everything so I could save money by doing it myself. I thought this very generous. However, after watching her work, I decided I wouldn't be able to work nearly as quickly as she could, so we decided to let her finish. Since I had a cordless drill and she had just brought one, she recommended that another way I could save money was to let her use my cordless drill so she wouldn't need to keep changing drill bits on her drill, thus saving time (and thereby saving me money!). I gladly surrendered the drill and she was on a roll. Throughout the job, my dogs and cats would wander into the kitchen. She was always very friendly with them, no matter how irritating they became (the cats just moved through, but the dogs were intent on watching her work). Through all of this, my daughter was napping. She never woke up once! Dietra averaged around 5 minutes a drawer/door, and this while humoring my dogs and not making enough noise to wake my baby! She finished right at two hours and asked for $90, in accordance with the $45/hour rate she'd quoted me. I chose to give her a little more. I am very satisfied with the work Dietra performed, and she will be the first person I call if I ever need anything else taken care of around the house while my husband's gone.

From the first contact , to Viedo of her past work, to her visit to review the project , all perfect

Dietra is very easy to work with. This was one of those jobs that looked simple but as is often the case with old houses, unforeseeable problems arose. She was able to handle them all and stay on time and close to budget. She is OK with the customer providing some materials and made very helpful suggestions regarding materials and other suggestions of how to get the job done at a reasonable cost. The results look great and we are glad to have this downstairs bathroom back in service before holiday guests arrive! We will definitely use her again. In fact we have already discusssed some other things that need doing.

I have a home staging business and needed a sunroom painted ASAP. I joined Angie's list to find a painter in the Savannah area. I saw Dietra's recommendations and gave her a call. She gave up her weekend to do the job done for me. I would hghly recommend her. She is a true professional. Brenda Key

Dietra started the project on 10/23/2012 which included tackling a 13 x 15 x 12' high bedroom that had previously been painted a horrible "blood red" color. She transformed the room using very pastel colors and the results were amazing. Her attention to detail and precision painting was fantastic - she even took the time to match the ceiling paint to cover where previous painters had left wall color on the ceiling. Now on to the living room / kitchen - once again fantastic results!! I would absolutely recommend and use her services for any additional upcoming projects. Thank you Dietra !!

I was excited after reading reviews of this handyman (woman). A contractor that would actually call back! I sent an e-mail describing repairs that i needed done and received an automated response the same day thanking me for my e-mail and that someone would be in touch soon. Two weeks later I had not received an e-mail or phone call. I called and left a voicemail about 3 to 4 weeks ago and again no contact from the handyman. I hope nothing drastic has happened to this person but my experience is pretty typical of this industry. I won't contact anymore.

Of the four contractors I called for quotes, not only was Dietra the only one who responded, she was here within a couple of hours. I knew as soon as I met her that this was a contrator I could trust and would enjoy working with. Everything went off without a hitch. Some exterior work had to be put off due to rainy weather, but we're looking foward to having Dietra come back for that. The bathroom walls were left smooth and very neatly painted after removing two layers of wallpaper. The molding looks perfect and went down very fast. Trim paint looks professional. I know that Dietra is capable of so much more, including carpentry, plumbing, and electrical. I've already recommended her to friends!

After trying quite a few"craftsmen" to help redo our house, I finally found Dietra. Most of the previous ones were late or did not arrive at all and the work they did was not up to my standards. Dietra showed up on time every day, did wonderful work, was cheerful and professional. She eaven learned my cats' names! I am already planning on having her again.

She and her co-worker were prompt and did the work efficiently and professionally. My paint had peeled from plaster in several areas and there was a lot of patchwork. They worked quickly, the job was done in 3 days, and they cleaned up every bit of the debris from the job.

They were always considerate of the fact that we were still living in the home while the remodel was done. We always had one bathroom available even though it would probably have been much easier for them to complete the same task (e.g. painting or tiling) in both bathrooms at the same time. There were no problems at all.

She does fantastic work. She has just stripped all the wall paper off the walls and is now painting. She is just a little over half way finished. I couldn't be happier that I found them on Angie's List. I don't think I would have found them otherwise.

She did a great job. They quality of the job looks well.

Every aspect of this work was performed with Dietra's keen eye for detail, so my experience was great. How many contractors clean up before leaving each day, knowing that they'll be back the next day? My quality of living was minimally impacted while she was here working, and when she was finished each bathroom was ready for a photoshoot! You can see the work she did in my house on her website. Great job Dietra! You are awesome!

Whenever I wanted her she would come out the next Sunday. She tried to save me money by telling me how to repair it over the phone. If I could do it on my own she wouldn’t charge me but I couldn’t and that’s my fault. She was willing to walk me through it.

aIt went very well and the end result, well, lets just say that I haven't got one critic yet. Everybody is complementing her work.

Dietra was prompt and professional at all times. She was very responsive to questions and I was immediately comfortable with her. We hired her to paint our upstairs hallway and install a stone backsplash in our kitchen. She made recommendations for better ways to do the job (which made better sense to us non-contractor homeowners). She was completely up front about cost and did not hesitate with a number -- as if considering how high we *might* go. (I've dealt with that before.) The results were quick, on time, and fantastic. I wish I had found her a few years ago. I'm sure we will be calling her again. Bottom line, you know exactly what you're going to get and you get it on time.

Dietra did an outstanding job. I had to move in a hurry and kept my house ready to rent. She returned my initial phone call quickly, and set up a date for her to give an estimate. She painted the walls and trim of my 2500 square foot home. Professionalism and quality of work were exceptional. She kept me updated on her progress. You will not find a better contractor in the Savannah area.

Dietra is a hard worker - she gets in, goes to it and gets a lot accomplished each day. I told her what I wanted and she made it happen. This job was bid on by other subs that kept trying to talk me into something else. She would let me know when she would arrive and if she was stopping to get supplies, etc. She always showed up and was very proactive - consulting and troubleshooting any issues with me as she went along. I worked with many subcontracts in interior design myself for seven years and when it came to hiring someone for my own home, it was extremely frustrating and disappointing - subs who didnt give timely bids, showed up late or not at all. Dietra takes pride in her work and it shows. Working with her was a great experience, and I highly recommend Dietra and would hire her again for any renovation work I may have in the future.

Everything went fine. They were very responsive and professional. I just have a wait a little bit to save up the money.