Handyman in Englewood, Colorado

Englewood is one of the metro's genuinely old suburbs — compact blocks of 1940s–1960s bungalows and ranches around a real downtown on South Broadway. Houses that age have charm and good bones, and they also have original everything: the plumbing, the doors, the electrical service, all installed by people who retired decades ago.

The single thing Englewood calls me about most is water heaters — repair, replacement, and the where-is-that-water-coming-from emergency. In housing this age the water heater is often the oldest working appliance in the house, and it rarely announces its retirement in advance. I handle those fast, and the rest of the list — appliances, gutters, fences, doors — batches in right behind.

Englewood's core stock is 1940s–1960s bungalows and ranches, with scattered newer infill. Expect original galvanized-era plumbing meeting modern fixtures, water heaters and appliances at or past their design life, sixty-year-old doors that have moved with the clay, and mature-tree gutters that earn their cleanings. Small lots, established blocks, real workmanship worth preserving.