Welcome

I started my business in Berkeley, in the San Francisco Bay Area, in 2009, and moved back home to San Diego, in the Hillcrest neighborhood, in 2017. For the first couple of years I returned to the Bay Area to visit friends and to help some of my favorite clients there, and hope to continue doing so on occasion, but I’ve enjoyed building another great client base here in San Diego. In November, 2025, I moved from Hillcrest to Mission Hills.

I’m an honest, reliable, friendly and conscientious professional, and I love to do those projects that come with home, rental and commercial property ownership – which you may not have the time, patience or inclination to do.

I serve most of Central San Diego County, Coronado, La Jolla and surrounding cities and offer free estimates. My rates ($95 for the 1st hour, with a 1 hour minimum, then $80/hour) aren’t low, but every time I’ve raised them, (reluctantly) within a few months I’ve had clients tell me I should be charging more – so I think they’re fair. And if quality is important to you I doubt you’ll find a better value. I am dedicated to doing a great job and making it a pleasant experience. I hate working with a mess so I try not to make one in the first place, and generally leave the job space cleaner than when I arrived. I have scores of repeat clients and referrals, both residential and commercial.

With a background in banking, customer service and marketing communications, I enjoy interacting with people and am dedicated to keeping my clients happy. I’m also a little obsessive about ethics, so if I make a mistake or need to handle a couple of texts or emails while on a job, I don’t bill for that time – whether or not the client is aware of any unproductive time. And I never mark-up the cost of materials.

I also try my best to make my business as easy on the Earth as possible. Part of that is not replacing things that don’t need to be replaced. Although my customers have the final word, I reduce, reuse, recycle and use environmentally friendly, minimally packaged products and materials whenever possible. I try to donate or resell anything that can be used by others, rather than add to the local landfill, which also saves the expense of hauling and landfill fees for my clients.

I have a 5-Star Rating on Yelp, Google, Facebook, Thumbtack and HomeAdvisor, among many others, and an “A” rating on Angie’s List (now Angi), which twice honored me with their, “Super Service Award,” in 2012 and 2015. (Sadly, they changed their business model in 2017 and no longer disclose which of the service providers in search results pay for priority placement, so I no longer consider them a source for accurate, reliable or trustworthy referrals.) I’ve attempted to add badges and links below, but clearly I’m better working with my hands than web coding, and I’m not comfortable helping Angi by linking to them here, anyway, as I no longer believe them to be an ethical business.

Check out Barney’s Handyman Service on Yelp

Thanks for visiting!