Handyman in Idaho Springs, Colorado

Idaho Springs is the furthest west I work and the oldest housing I touch. A lot of the town predates 1900 — mining-era homes that have been added onto, re-wired, re-plumbed, and re-leveled by however many owners over a century and a quarter. Nothing is square, nothing is standard, and almost nothing you need comes off a shelf in a modern size.

That's not a complaint, it's just the job. Doors need scribing rather than dropping into an opening. Floors slope. Trim profiles have to be matched or milled because they stopped making them ninety years ago. Work up here takes longer than the equivalent job in a Lakewood ranch, and I'd rather tell you that up front than surprise you with it on the invoice.

Idaho Springs is predominantly late-1800s and early-1900s mining-era housing at around 7,500 feet in the Clear Creek canyon, with pockets of mid-century and newer infill. Expect balloon framing, plaster over lath, undersized original electrical, additions built to no particular standard, and settling that has been going on for over a century. Winters are harder and longer than the metro, which makes winterization less optional than it is down the hill.