The exterior of our 1.5-story 1926 bungalow has stucco on the first floor and cedar shingles on the second floor gable ends (including above the front porch). We?ve lived in the house for 33 years. The stucco was painted white before our time, and the paint was now peeling. We (sadly) had all of the exterior wood covered by aluminum 28 years ago. Now we were ready to have the exterior completely restored?stucco sandblasted and re-dashed, aluminum removed, wood repaired as needed, wood scraped and painted, new wooden storm doors front and back, plus some extras (isn?t that always the case?). I bought a kit to test for lead, and determined that the paint on the stucco did not contain lead, but the paint on the woodwork did (as expected). We talked to stucco people and siding people, but could not find anyone willing to take responsibility for managing and contracting the whole job, which required a lot of coordination and cooperation among the crews that did the siding removal, stucco work, carpentry, painting, storm window removal and reinstallation, and rain gutter removal and reinstallation. Finally, I sent an e-mail to Krishna Dorney of Metropolis Construction asking if he would take on the job. I had seen Krishna?s ad in the newsletter of the Twin Cities Bungalow Club, but neither that ad nor his web site indicates that Krishna does exterior work. Fortunately for us, he does, and we hired him to manage the whole job. From start to finish (six weeks) we could not have been more pleased with the professionalism and consideration of everyone who worked on this job. All were polite, articulate, and helpful. They cleaned up well after the work was done, and as we all know, work crews on exterior jobs bring along radios, but this was the first time we have ever heard crews listening to Minnesota Public Radio(!). Krishna always listened to our concerns and ideas, and he always had one or more solutions to offer. We believe that he appreciates the qualities of old houses and really enjoys working on them. He and his team of carpenters did outstanding work in restoring or replacing wood that had been mutilated by the application of aluminum siding or, in a few cases, had suffered water damage. The final step was to fit, sand, stain, and varnish the new wooden storm doors. Scott Nicko (Modern Exteriors, Inc.) offered valuable advice and took the time to make sure that the new stucco color was exactly what we wanted. The sandblasting created a world of dust. Scott minimized the dust infiltration into our house by taping plastic over all of the windows and doors, but one of our neighbors was a bit miffed that he didn?t tape her windows. Scott and his helper also laid down plastic on the ground around the house, and cleaned up well after the job. The final product is excellent. Bryan Alft (Banner Home Painting, Inc.) and his team of painters (Sean and Shaun) also offered advice on colors, and readily painted swathes to show us how the colors worked together. About a week into the painting phase, Bryan left for a long-planned two-week vacation, but Sean and Shaun carried on expertly in his absence. We love the final result.