If you need someone to fix your screen porch, and you're near Asheville, I may have the perfect person for you.

I went out to look at a job a few months ago and it turned out that the homeowners had a whole screened-in porch under their deck which was desperately in need of some TLC.

For starters, the wind had gotten to the screen panels and they were belling out. You can really see it on the right-hand side of this picture.

Even worse, the contractor who built the home had used untreated lumber for the screen frames, and they were starting to dry rot.

The outside also needed some attention. The homeowner wanted to fill in under the porch with Hardiplank ...

... and part of the porch support was bowing out and needed to be fixed.

To make this job even more complicated, the access to the screen was blocked by a gutter, so it would be a quite trick to remove it without marring the gutter. Whoever put this porch up just wasn't thinking about long-term maintenance.

My schedule was chock-full at the time, and I couldn't fit in such a large job. So after checking with the homeowners, I called Jesse Scott, one of the handymen in our network, and asked him if he could take it on. (Here's a picture of him with his lovely wife Treva and their daughter Nora.)

Jesse hails from Florida, so he spent a large part of his career working on screened-in porches. In fact, he might be the best screen-stretcher in Asheville.

(Is that a category in Mountain Express's "Best Of" issue? Somehow I doubt it. But if it were, I think Jesse would have the title.)

Anyway, he did a great job on this porch, and he even sent us pictures when he was done. Here's the porch from the same angle as my first photo. That screen is as tight as a drum!

At the base of the porch, he added a low knee-wall at the homeowner's request. This was to keep their dogs from dashing straight through the screen in pursuit of a squirrel.

He also re-built the screen system so that the gutters won't get in the way if the mesh ever needs to be replaced again.

And on the exterior, he filled in the bottom of the deck with long-lasting Hardiplank, repaired the bowed-out support, and repainted everything for a fresh look.

The end result is much more maintenance-friendly and looks really beautiful.

If your screen porch is looking a little tired and needs to be repaired, give us a call. We've got some seriously skilled screen stretchers standing by.

I don't have any "before" photos of this project, but I thought you might enjoy it all the same. I recently got a call from someone who needed a really simple closet upgrade.

He just wanted to divide their closet into two parts: one side with a single hanging rod, and the other side with a double rod. At the top he wanted a very short shelf for his wife's purses.

I made a divider and shelf in my workshop, and also cut the closet rods to length. He had me install the divider off to one side because they didn't have a lot of long clothes to hang up.

As usual, I used cabinet-grade plywood with solid wood edging, which gives it more durability than the usual particle-board systems you get from big hardware stores.

While I was there, he had me build a custom cat condo similar to the one I've already featured on here. It's enclosed in hardware cloth to keep Kitty inside while still giving him access to fresh air and sunshine.

I was too busy to take pictures, but soon afterward I got this by text:

The cat condo was kitty-approved!

My client and I got along so well that I'm coming back soon to install a semi-custom kitchen island. The color is still to be determined, but here's our initial drawing.

To keep costs down, we're using pre-made Shaker cabinets, and I'll be installing Shaker-style paneling on the back.

I'll also be modifying the cabinets to allow a recessed kick all the way around, which will make it more comfortable to use.

If you'd like to see more of our custom and semi-custom cabinet work, check out our sister site at Artisan Built-ins. Or just give us a call for a free estimate. We're always glad to chat!