My name is Mike Tyler and I remodel houses. Even though I’ve moved from Buffalo, I may be able to help you out.
If you are in a pinch to get a remodeling project done, you can go back to searching google or whatever you were just doing, or you may find one of my friends helpful. I put links below where possible.
My wife Teri and I are off on another adventure. I’m chasing her around the country, following her career path. Fortunately for me, houses are the same wherever we go; makes my job easy! I’ll be back & forth to Buffalo now & then, as we still own a home and have plenty of friends in Buffalo, but I won’t be taking on any new customers in the area; Columbus Area Remodeling is now my gig.
When Teri & I showed up in Buffalo a few years ago, I ventured out into the city and found some of the best people you could meet. A few of them deserve honorable mention. You might know one or two of them and if you don’t, you should.
George Scime, the plumber who was hired to repair the pipes on the house Teri & I were first in, and his wife Jo Ann, gave me some work and eventually sold us the house Jo Ann grew up in. That picture above is the patio I turned into my “garage” (tool room). I insulated it with spray foam (read more below) to take the edge off those December-February Lake Erie winds. I added a second bathroom and remodeled the kitchen in the lower unit, and just recently upgraded the upper unit’s bathroom. In both units I have friends of mine renting from me. George has retired from the business, but if you need a plumber, leave a comment below and I’ll email you the contact info for a competent plumber I know.
John Krytus is the Man Who Makes Buffalo Work! His Construction Personnel Group is Western New York’s only employment agency dedicated to the construction trades. John hired me directly, to work on one of his rental properties for ten weeks or so. His wife Jenny is awesome; she and John visibly work well together creating a successful business, a string of well-maintained rental homes, and a happy family. I spent one extremely pleasant evening with a handful of guests at their home, for delicious food & drinks and great conversations. Send your friends who need to get to work in the trades, or hire trades people, to John.
Mary Nicosia cheerfully deposited my checks at the credit union she manages over on Delaware Ave. She, her husband Jay and I eventually ate a lot of meals together, celebrated the birth of their second son Lucien, and watched their other son Brando turn into the bright little man he is. I remodeled bathrooms in both units of their Parkside area home, put a nice quartz counter top in their pantry, and did some work for them on their other rental house. Jay runs Quality Lawn. Hire him!
My real estate lawyer Anne Evans and her husband Stan are two more pillars of Buffalo. Anne helped us with our home purchase of course; she and Stan had me install an oak staircase, build a new portico and do some general maintenance items for them. We again shared some fantastic meals and drinks and conversations. Contact Anne about any real estate matters.
Mary Hart, the mortgage broker who sent me to Anne was fantastic too. Contact her when you are buying or refinancing.
I couldn’t have been luckier than to have Michelle Mierzwa find the first web page I put up when I arrived in Buffalo. Smart, decisive, and not afraid to invest her own energy into her beloved 100+ year-old home, Michelle introduced me and my best worker ever, Johny Nuzzo, to her dad Dan on our first visit to her house. Michelle and Dan had done a huge amount of work themselves and made this old house absolutely gorgeous. Johny & I did a small ceiling job for Michelle, and then she had us back to repair and upgrade her porch, and later repair her mud-set tile shower. On finishing that job, I walked out with a bag of no-bake cookies and a bottle of wine! Although I’m a skilled trim carpenter and relatively competent at painting, I was a little afraid of picking out super-rich colors to liven up my own, rather non-vintage rental house; Michelle was nice enough to stop over and ensure the house didn’t end up looking like a friggin’ carnival! Buy Silpada Jewelry from Michelle or hire her for her Art Direction, Web Design or Marketing skills. Michelle wrote a super nice article about the original web page I had up back then and why she hired me; she started out with, “I won’t say it was badly designed. It just wasn’t really designed at all. “ HA! Thanks for hiring me Michelle! That super nice article can be seen by clicking that link and scrolling way down the page.
NOT a friend I met in Buffalo, Jimmy Hottum ran his own grading & excavating company in Michigan when the new housing industry was going like mad. I met Jimmy in Battle Creek when Teri and I lived there, and we became fast friends. He & I got trained in asbestos removal so we could do some volunteer work on a church; we later traveled together to Connecticut to do some profitable asbestos removal out there. Never one to let grass grow under his feet, Jimmy showed up in Buffalo and got trained by one of the most experienced insulation and air/vapor barrier installation experts in Western New York. Jimmy took over the production of that company and took my best worker Johny Nuzzo away from me! Jimmy is lucky I’m mentioning him! Almost unforgivable! Nah, just kidding; I love them both like brothers. The company has a quarter of a century of stability under it, and nobody will work harder to make sure things are right than those two right there. Leave a comment below and I’ll email you Jimmy’s personal cell phone. He’ll take care of you.
While I specialize in hardware, I know people who get stellar results in the softer arts of Marriage Remodeling, Family Remodeling, Student and Career Remodeling, etc; services some Homeowners need now & then. You can leave me a message (it won’t post) and I’ll get back to you directly via email.
Oh, and I can’t recommend highly enough the best farmers in the area, Keith and Rae Ellen of Freeman Homestead (you have to scroll down to find them). I have half a grass-fed beef from them sitting in my freezer right now. If you are not familiar with the taste and health benefits of farm-fresh, pastured animals, start here.
Thank you Buffalo, for everything you did for us! I’ll help you out any way I can!