With over 25 years of managing, maintaining and restoring vintage properties, I've seen and dealt with a lot of situations. I've learned a lot from these situations that I put myself in, or got handed to me. It's learning from these experiences and constantly challenging, and trying to exceed, the norm that I strive for.

I've always had a knack for figuring out how systems work, and have always been drawn to the amazing character and craftsmanship of old homes. In my early years, I was often found dragging an extension cord around just waiting to find something to plug it into. From an early age I started working with wood, making weekend projects, and dabbling with electronics. I always had an interest in building, taking things apart and figuring out how things worked, building models and always pushing myself to see how I could do better on the next project I worked on.

The curiosity of how things work and showing off some of the woodworking projects eventually lead to doing side jobs for neighbors older homes. Some of these projects included replacing older outlets, stripping and refinishing wood trim, and odds and ends for several landlords on their rental properties.

This knack of fixing things and figuring out new ways to construct projects drew me into the technical arts field where I spent over 20 years as an Entertainment Engineer, designing and building sets,  designing and engineering machinery for flying performers around in high stakes productions all over the world, and even worked on projects in most of the museums throughout Chicago. Learning and working with these high stakes projects, and tight deadlines has stuck with me along with the drive to always push the boundaries to make sure the right solution is achieved for the customer and seeing their vision come to fruition.

All throughout my time as an Entertainment Engineer, I continued to work on vintage buildings, many of which had been renovated throughout the years. I realized that many of the techniques and materials from larger commercial and industrial projects I worked on allowed for more options, and many times, better results than many of the materials and products available at local stores.  I used these skills and materials to complete more complex restoration projects by engineering the finished look by using some of the few remnants of molding found and some uncovered profiles left on the original plaster walls to replicate trim and details to be the same as the original would have been. Some techniques were modernized using engineered materials and newer assembly processes, while some of the woodwork only allowed for the traditional methods to be used.

I always take pride in the work that's done and make sure that it meets or exceeds the customers expectation. Working to restore and maintain parts of these buildings back to their original condition always has challenges since many of the parts have not been made for many decades.  This is where I usually lean into my engineering background to see how the part in question originally worked, or reverse engineering it to figure out how it had operated before it stopped working. Thinking outside the box to figure out the solution has always been an exciting part of restoration and unique projects. 

Real pride was taken in the building of older homes and multi-unit buildings. Much of that character and detail is being lost to ever lowering prices and a race to the bottom on cost of materials. The systems that were put into these houses and buildings may years ago were designed and built to last well over 100 years. Many of these systems are still working today.

Many companies are set on selling new products or ripping out the old and starting new with what they know.  With a little routine maintenance or taking a little extra time to understand the character and details, the old houses can be kept in tip top shape while still keeping the charm and character originally put into the house.  Let us help you keep that character, or help restore the character while maintaining or modernizing these systems for use in the 21st century.

We are a fully certified Lead-Safe company. Knowing that many homes built before 1978 may contain lead based paint, we want to make sure any project you ask us to look at keeps you and your family safe from these potential hazards. Depending on the project, this may add a little more time to allow for proper layout and cleanup of the work area.