JON NEWLIN

Jon did a great job for us in all ways. He expertly rebuilt our small backyard fence and gate and expertly repainted the new structures. He worked efficiently but took the time needed to do the job with care. He repaired the metal trim around a second-story dormer that had been bent and damaged by a pair of marauding raccoons looking for wasps that lived in the dormer. He inserted screening into the opening of the metal trim to block wasps from entering in the future. He did this work quickly but carefully, after building a small scaffolding platform on which to stand on the sloping roof. Finally, he opened up the wooden trim at the bottom of a front porch pillar to reveal the extent of water damage it had sustained, removed the damaged wood from the pillar, then rebuilt the damaged area on the trim and pillar with a wood-like composition material and repainted the repaired area and all four wood porch pillars. He also similarly repaired water-damaged areas in the porch decking and then repainted the whole porch with two coats of paint. All of this porch work was done carefully and efficiently, using the time needed (but no more than was needed) to do the job beautifully with utmost craft. I occasionally watched Jon without his knowing it while he worked; he didn't waste a minute but never seemed to be rushing. He timed his work so that he could finish priming the entire porch late one afternoon and allow it to dry overnight so that he could apply the finish coat the next day. His carpentry and painting skills are the best I've ever seen. The only fly in the ointment was punctuality. Once Jon came to begin the work, he worked quickly but carefully, not wasting a minute (and he was charging us by the hour for the work). But he had quoted us on the job (and we had accepted his quote) in early October, stating that it might be "several months" before he could do the major work, although he might be able to get to the minor work (dormer repair) sooner. The several months turned into five months, with no phone/email communication to us about the delay for four months after the quote was accepted. We had hoped to have the work done much sooner but also realized that winter might set in before he arrived; it did, and it was a cold one for these parts. Jon basically waited for spring (early March) to schedule our job (which admittedly involved all outdoor work), without letting us know it would be that long. Fortunately, it was not "emergency" work that couldn't wait, and so it worked out OK for us. But we would have appreciated more punctual work, or at least intermittent phone/email communications letting us know the status of our job in his schedule.

My husband and I interviewed Jon Newlin by phone, and he assured us that he was capable and ready to help us with our handyman tasks. I gave Jon a detailed typed instruction list of handyman tasks we wanted him to complete. We also physically walked him through each task. He seemed to be very distracted, unfocused and confused the whole time. He barely completed anything even though he spent 6 hours at our home the first day. I should have fired him after that, but I really wanted to give him a chance. On the second day, he continued to seem bewildered by simple tasks, and I had to physically walk him through the task list a second time. He called my cell phone a couple times to ask extremely basic questions that seemed odd to me coming from a so-called "handyman". The second day he spent another 8+ hours in our home and barely completed anything. He took a very, very long time at each task, went out to buy extra parts (which ultimately were not needed) and seemed to study everything for hours because they puzzled him. I was gullible enough to believe that he would only charge us for the hours during which he was actually completing tasks, rather than the whole time he spent in our house not getting things done. The total bill was for 17 wasted hours and came to over $600 wasted dollars. He was extremely unprofessional and "invoiced" us using a dirty, handwritten piece of paper that was barely legible. I told him that I was very disappointed in his work and was unhappy to be billed for 17 hours of "work" that was not completed. He was not remorseful or apologetic in the slightest. I would never, ever recommend Jon Newlin to do any type of work in anyone's home. It was one of the most expensive mistakes I've made yet. Jon Newlin is akin to a crook.

It wasn't like anything I have ever seen. The work was lousy. I had him work on my kitchen floor to make sure it was level and that didn't get done. The floor is in real bad shape now. I am in a wheelchair and right now, I can't get up to my kitchen table because the chair rolls back towards the refrigerator or the kitchen sink. So, I am having a very hard time with that. He was also supposed to do some paint work for me. He was supposed to paint the windows, and he did lousy work on that too. I left here one day for an appointment while he was here painting, when I came back, it was raining pretty hard and he was still painting. I wasn't sure about that, so I asked him how he could paint with it raining. He said that he was going to dry while he was painting. I noticed the next day that the paint started to wash off of the windows. He actually cleaned the windows and did a good job cleaning them because they hadn't been cleaned in maybe 15 or 20 years. He kind of cleaned the windows and the paint work, so I paid him the cost that he asked for the windows so that he would just go away. I was very dissatisfied with him and told him at the time that he was here that is work was really not that good. I got the point that I wasn't going to pay him, but then I decided that I wanted to just pay him to get him away from my house. His price wasn't bad but the work was lousy. He seemed like he wanted to get the work done. His punctuality wasn't bad at all. He lied to me a lot.

It went great. My husband helped him bring the door here from Home Depot so he didn't have to hire someone out for that. My husband was around for the two day job and was quite pleased. The area where the door was installed is an add on and the house is not perfectly level so John had to work around that. My husband could not believe how thorough he is in his approach to problem solving. He will not let go of a problem until it's done right.

He came out when he said he would. He gave me an estimate to start with, that had a low end and a high end. He called me each time he came. It was done exactly when he said it would be done. The price was on the lower end of the estimate. He did a lovely job of cleaning up after himself. I felt that I was treated very well. The job was well done. I've had no further problems. His attitude was great.