I am AJ. That is me on your roof.

Where this came from

I started Kingdom Custom Co because I would rather work for myself and do the job properly than work for somebody who is measuring how many houses I can get through in a day.

That sounds like a line, but it changes real things. When you are paid to move fast, the first thing that goes is spacing — you stretch the run to make it reach instead of cutting a new length. Then you staple instead of clip, because clips take longer. Then you skip the second storey and tell the customer it looks better without. Every one of those is a decision somebody made because of the clock, and every one of them is visible from the road.

Why it is called Kingdom

I am a Christian. That is where the name comes from, and I would rather tell you up front than have you wonder.

I am not going to preach at you and it has no bearing on whether I will work for you — I will light the house of anybody in Carrollton who wants it done. But it does decide how I run this thing, so it is fair that you know what it means in practice.

• I show up when I said I would. If I am running late or the weather moves me off the roof, you get a call before the time I told you — not after it.
• The price I quote is the price you pay. It does not grow once the ladder is against your house and you are committed.
• If I break something, I tell you. Before you find it. That has cost me money and it will again.
• If I find something that is not my job, I still tell you. Rotten fascia, a gutter pulling away from the board, a downspout dumping against your foundation — I am the one person who gets a proper look at your roofline all year, so you hear about it whether or not there is work in it for me. Usually there is not.
• If a run goes dark, I come back out. In December, in the cold, on a Saturday. I would rather do that than have my name on a house with half a roofline lit.

None of that is remarkable. It is just doing what you said you would do, which is apparently rare enough in this trade that it counts as a selling point.

Why only Christmas lights

This site used to sell lawn care as well — mowing, mulch, hedges, the lot. I took all of it off in August, on purpose.

There is a version of this business where I list everything anybody has ever asked me for and sort it out later. The problem with that version is November. Christmas lights are eight weeks of work crammed into the eight weeks everybody wants them, and you cannot be halfway up a ladder at four in the afternoon and behind on a mowing route at the same time. Something gets done badly, and it is usually whichever one the customer is not standing next to.

So it is lights. Rooflines, gables, porch columns, wrapped trees and shrubs. If you want your grass cut I will point you at somebody good.

Being honest about where the business is

This is a new business. I am actively taking on houses for the season — which is exactly why you will not find a review count, a years-in-business badge or a wall of testimonials anywhere on this site.

I could have put them there. Plenty of sites do, and nobody checks. I would rather you called me knowing precisely what you are getting: a new outfit run by one person who is trying to build something on doing the work right, at a point where every single customer matters more than they will in five years.

The reviews section on this site is built and sitting empty. It fills up when real customers write real ones.