Phillips Home Repair

Information may not be reliable

It’s been a while since I updated things here. My summer has been quite crazy. If you’ve been trying to call me, I apologize. I haven’t had my phone turned on for most of the summer. My wife and I moved to a new place which had no functioning kitchen and needed a lot of other work to be inhabitable. We’re fixing everything in exchange for rent while we sell our old house. So I had to take some time off to get the new house livable while still making frequent trips to the old house to clean it and take care of the yard, etc. So this summer is pretty much a complete loss on paper, and I am sorry if you had work to do and couldn’t get a hold of me. As soon as the new house is complete and the old house is on the market, I will return to normal once again. In the meantime, you can still contact me through email. I am still taking small jobs here and there, and rest assured that as soon as I am able, I will be running full steam once again. Thanks again for your patience, and I will post pictures of the remodel job when it is complete so you know I didn’t just spend all summer laying on the beach!
Although it is not listed yet, my old house is for sale. There are a lot of pictures of the work I’ve done to it on the photo gallery page on this website. Here is a link to the Zillow page. We haven’t decided on a price yet, but we are always taking offers.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/72-Gleason-Dr-Iowa-City-IA-52240/76764064_zpid/

I am still not taking too many new jobs as of now. I am still booked and it is only 2 weeks until I get married, so obviously I’m a little preoccupied as well as busy. Feel free to keep the emails coming and I’ll try to squeeze things in whenever I have time. Unfortunately, the phone will probably continue to be neglected for a while longer.

I’m back in town and all settled in. I’m about to finish the second of 3 big jobs that have been occupying my time this summer and preventing me from answering my phone or returning phone calls. It really is true that in this business you spend all summer turning away work and spend all winter begging for it. If anyone has any indoor jobs that can wait until cooler weather, let me know now. I can put it on my schedule and I’ll even give you a deal. If you have an outdoor job, feel free to contact me (preferably through email) and I’ll see what I can do. June is pretty much shot and July is full of personal days since I am getting married and moving.
I’ll be getting some pictures of these new jobs up soon, so check back to see those. The one I am most proud of is an entire main floor and part of a basement remodel. I am handling the gutting, door installation, trim installation, and a ceramic tile entry. Flooring specialists installed new carpet in the bedrooms and unfinished oak in the main living space. All the trim I am installing is custom stained oak and is being done in an Arts and Crafts style. No faux-wood ranch molding and 45deg miters here! I also am about to finish a condo in Coralville where I removed ALL the carpeting and installed 35 boxes of Pergo laminate, stairs and all. They also got new ceiling fans and kitchen appliances, including a fridge that was so big I had to trim the counter and the upper cabinet to make it fit.
Thanks to everyone for your continued patience through the busiest summer I’ve ever experienced.

I will be out of town from Friday June 6th through Monday June 14th. Any calls or emails will be returned on or around Tuesday.
If you have called and left a message in the last week or two and never heard back, I am sorry. I have been wrapped up in two very large jobs and I haven’t been able to answer the phone or return any calls in 2 weeks. (Or eat or sleep for that matter!) I plan on working through the huge backlog of messages when I get back into town.

According to my constantly ringing phone, summer is officially here. As of now, I am booked through May and a little into June. I have two large projects that I am in the middle of and every available second will be going towards those. So if you need anything done before June, I am sorry. If it can wait though, feel free to contact me for a June appointment.
As for the contacting goes, when I am busy like this I can’t always get to my phone and can’t always get back to everyone that leaves a message. If you send me an email it will be a lot more reliable and you’re guaranteed a timely response.

Spring is here which means business is picking up. If you need anything done this spring, please feel free to contact me right away. Right now my lead time is around a week, so don’t wait until the last minute to call or email. And please remember that as things pick up and the phone starts ringing with more frequency, there is an increased possibility of me missing calls or forgetting to call someone back. I’m only human and running all aspects of the business by myself, so please be patient and don’t hesitate to call me back or email if you don’t get a hold of me. I’m a much better handyman than receptionist. Thanks, and I hope to hear from you soon!

I just added a new photo gallery of non-house repair things I’ve done. So far it’s all cars I’ve rebuilt or customized but I plan on adding some other things down the road. Check it out if you’ve never seen an AMC Pacer with hydraulics before!
As far as scheduling goes, things have started to pick up and I already have a few jobs set up for whenever this awful winter ends. If you have some outdoor work, feel free to contact me now and I can pencil it in so you’ll be one of the first when the weather warms up.

Since the holidays are behind us I guess it’s time to get back to work. I had my phone off for almost 2 weeks during Christmas and the New Years because I was so busy with family things. Sorry if you called and got my voicemail in that time, but I am back in a position to schedule jobs for new and old customers alike. 2010 is a blank slate just waiting to be filled. If you get my voice mail now, I’m either working on another job or packing and working on my house to get ready to sell, but leave a message or send me an email and I’ll get back to you.Thanks for your patience during what has turned out to be the most hectic winter of my life.
I’ve had a few requests about outside jobs. I am not interested in outside jobs that take longer than 10 or 15 minutes while it is below freezing. I am happy to pencil you in and call you back if we get a warm day or two, or even schedule things for Spring. But I really hate cold weather and refuse to spend much time in it. I hope you understand.
Thanks again, and I hope to hear from you soon!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas/Hanukkah/Solstice/etc. The end of Christmas means I’m a week away from getting back to the old routine. I have my work number turned off and it might stay that way for the remainder of the year, but if you want to set up an appointment for 2010, send me an email or leave a voice mail and I will get you scheduled. Thanks and I’ll see you next year.

My holiday hours are as follows: not much.
Right now I am trying to finish up a few older jobs that I’d like to have finished by the end of the year, I am getting my house ready to sell, and I have holiday-related family things happening throughout the next few weeks. Needless to say it would be difficult to get me out to start a new job before the new year. Also If you haven’t noticed, the weather is terrible. When it dips below 60 I start digging out the hat and gloves, so December and January is pretty much unbearable. If you have any outdoor jobs you want done during the winter, I will have to just keep an eye on the weather and wait for a decent day. When the weather starts warming up and my house is sold, things will be running a lot smoother. Until then, things might be a bit crazy.
Which brings me to my second point, I am selling my house. It is not listed yet, but it will be soon. I love my house, but it is just too big for two people. We’re shedding about 1500 sq/ft of wasted space and moving to a small duplex closer to downtown. Some pictures of my house are in the photo gallery and all the info is here: zillow.com It’s not officially listed yet and we haven’t set an asking price, but if anyone has any interest at all, let me know.

Welcome to the new Phillips Home Repair website. Sorry if you tried to visit the site in the past month or so and couldn’t find it. I got as far as removing the old site, but then had problems getting the new site up. I think next time I’ll try doing things the other way around.
The new site should be a lot easier to navigate and will hopefully be able to answer a lot of questions you might have before calling. I will also be updating things more frequently, so you will know if I am exceptionally slow and can get you in right away, or maybe so busy that I don’t know up from down.
Thanks for stopping by, please come back soon.