MIKE OLSON CONSTRUCTION

Description of Work: Repaired gutters

Description of Work: Upgraded a basement family room. Included new stairs, new walls (i.e. new insulation, drywall and paint), and new floor tile. We were all-around very happy with Mike's work. He did good-quality work, was efficient, kept everything tidy, and was pleasant to work with. He listened well and had good questions to ensure that he understood what we wanted. He also offered good advice to improve on a couple of our original ideas where appropriate, while respecting the spirit of what we were trying to achieve. There were no surprises: He efficiently coordinated with the subcontractor for the insulation, and his initial estimate served as our final bill.

Description of Work: As a first time home buyer, my son purchased a 100 year old home in Minneapolis that required a complete remodel. We spent over a month interviewing contractors for the plumbing, electrical, new kitchen, new bathroom, wall and ceiling repair and floor refinishing. We were satisfied with all the contractors we had chosen, but had not found a person we trusted to do the walls and ceilings. The previous owners had covered everything with either wall paper or a pop corn texture to hide the numerous cracks and missing plaster. We interviewed eight separate contractors who gave us bids on everything from sheet rocking the ceilings and spray painting the walls with orange peel to completely sheet rocking all the walls and ceilings. We wanted the walls and ceilings to match the character of the house if possible, but until Mike Olson walked in the door, we had been discouraged from doing so. Mike loves older homes and owns one himself which made all the difference in the world when he viewed this Craftsman home because he recognized and valued the custom dark birch trim, the cottage windows, the original light fixtures and the skill it took to create the perlite walls throughout the house. He proclaimed the house a jewel and began to suggest how we could restore it to its original beauty. He suggested that he scrape the popcorn from the ceilings and walls, patch where needed and then apply two to three skim coats. The walls of the stairway were particularly bad - there were over fifty areas with missing plaster due to our removing the old wall paper. He suggested that he patch all the areas missing plaster and then apply several skim coats. Unlike all the other contractors Mike saw beauty in the old perlite walls and said that painting them would be all that would be needed. Mike's knowledge and love of older homes, his communication skills, his depth of experience in working on older homes and his personality were the reasons we chose him . . . we had no idea at that time what a gem we had hired.

Description of Work: Window and door installation, built in book shelves, room expansion, trim carpentry,skim coating and tile installation

Description of Work: Mike remodeled our basement. The work consisted of tearing out old ceiling tile, gutting the bathroom, sheetrocking ceilings and bathroom and doing all the finish work. Mike was very meticulous in his work and we really felt he had our best interests at heart. He Helped coordinate the work of the electrician and plumber even though we hadn't hired him to manage the project.