Handyman Matters of West Portland picked the right person for our job. We had a choice of crew-members, and based on the way we had a custom install, not a repair, they sent one guy who has other skills, and we were on the same page from the get-go. It's hard to convey what we wanted on the phone, but as soon as he got here, he knew clearly what we wanted based on the drawing that I had.

When something was not clear, he stopped his work to clarify. There was no need for "rewinding," so to speak, and to me that's a sign of professionalism too: making sure that if there is an impasse, you don't just plod through and make mistakes. I think that was a subtlety that they don't even talk about very often.

We had a very personal project, and he knew what he was doing but was open to tweaks as we went along. He also gave us good ideas that I hadn't thought of before, so it was a good relationship. I was satisfied. There is still some work for us to finish on our own, but that's what he prepared us for in building a substructure so that we could finish the rest ourselves.

My only caveat is expense. We had a time constraint, and others hadn't followed through, so I was a little edgy about what we were paying. I'm happy that it came our better than I expected, though. The premium was a good value for the timely manner in which the work needed to be done.