the Cost of a Handyman

Minor repairs and maintenance of some appliances, hanging photos, changing lightbulbs, lighting pilots, checking thermostats, caulking, minor siding repair, some electrical repairs and installation

I will never hire a handyman again. My husband and I hired a handyman to help with some minor things when we first purchased our home. The work was shoddy at best. We purchsed energy efficient light bulbs to be installed in all fixtures in our home, as well as a list of minor repairs and caulking to be done prior to our move-in date of May 21, 2007. Only half of the lightbulbs were changed, and he kept the rest for himself (at 21 bulbs, four dollars a pop, it was ridiculously expensive to buy duplicates of something we had already purchased). The caulking was done poorly, and some broken fence pickets were never replaced. We paid the guy up front, and wish we had waited to inspect the work before forking over the cash. Thank goodness it was only fifty bucks, and not more!

Try to do a lot of the stuff yourself. We hired the handyman for things we could easily have done ourselves, but just didn't want the hassle of driving back and forth between moving and packing and fixing things. I wish we would have asked neighbors if they recommended anybody, as well.