Fred in the Annex

We have an old home (late 19th century) in the Annex, and had been told that the downstairs floors could not be refinished because they had been worked on in the past. On the recommendation of a very discriminating neighbour for whom he had done a lot of work, we asked Scott for his opinion about the floor (and we wanted our pine staircase stripped down and refinished as well). He said that the floor could indeed be refinished, though some nails might show. We were very impressed by Scott's knowledge, and we hired him on the spot. We are very happy that we did. The ancient floor turned out beautifully, with many gouges and scratch-marks disappearing completely. Yes, some nail heads do show a bit, but Scott had prepared us for this, and the overall effect is great. The pine staircase was a more complicated job, as we wanted the risers to be stripped and refinished as well as the treads. This turned out to be a difficult job, as it had to be done by hand, and there were several coats of varnish and some paint. I suspect that the stairs took more time than Scott expected, but he stood by his original estimate, which he says he always does. (There was one potential glitch when the installer Bibi indicated that scrapping down the risers was going to be too much work, but Scott adeptly stepped in and worked things out.) The stairs look fantastic, as does the new landing Bibi installed on the second floor. We were pleased with every aspect of the project, which is saying a lot because moving around all of our downstairs furniture was a big pain and we were under a lot of stress for other reasons. I can't say enough about how competent and pleasant Scott was. He made lots of useful suggestions all the way through, and he was available on his cell phone throughout the process, and dropped by a time or two to see how things were going. Everything was done according to schedule, and it was all good. From my experience, I would say that Scott Yearwood is a stand-up guy, and I would not hesitate for a moment to use him again and recommend him to friends (which I've already done).