David in Toronto

I have Mul-T-Lock locks on my front door, and the inside latch on one of them broke off during the COVID lockdown (no pun intended). After I sent him some photos, John, the locksmith at Protection Plus, called and discussed likely options, then set up an appointment, brought the necessary hardware to fix the lock, wore a mask (as did I), fixed the lock and gave me advice on how to handle a couple of potential future issues with Multiple-T-Lock, which only a few locksmiths can supply and support (these locks are really good, but expensive - a lot more so than I remembered from the original installation around 1995). He also lubricated the other lock and cleaned up nicely. This was my first experience with Protection Plus - the original vendor from 1995 has retired. I was completely satisfied with John and his work and can recommend Protection Plus.

By all rights, a 28 year old refrigerator freezer should be replaced, but with a kitchen renovation due next year, I wanted to keep ours running until then. A few days ago, the refrigerator compartment starting warming to about 10-12C, no matter how we set the thermostat. I called Joe to have a look at it. Not many repair people ever worked with 1980s refrigerator technology, which is very different from today's circuit-board driven controls. Joe was able to troubleshoot the problem, develop a working theory, apply it - the source of the trouble wasn't glaringly obvious - and fix the problems. Using a hand steam generator, he also fixed an ice-clogged condensate line that another repair person hadn't wanted to deal with a couple of years ago. The cost was a service call - no new parts were required. Everything is working very well now, though I have told my wife that we're not letting the kitchen reno slip another year. Even with Joe's help, we're asking for trouble if we assume this fridge has another few lives.

As a long-term satisfied customer of Avenue Road Roofing, I sought a bid for this work from Avenue Road Masonry as well as another very well regarded company. Avenue Road was the lower bid, and responded faster to my need for an estimate. The job involved covering the front cement steps and landing area with flagstone, the side walls with coping stone, and doing tuck pointing to repair almost 30 years of weather wear on the side-wall bricks. Robert provided samples of flagstone and encouraged us to visit his supplier to check out others, but we went with one of his two samples. The work was exceptionally well done, and has earned us compliments from multiple neighbours. While masonry work isn't cheap, the money invested here has improved the appearance of the house, made the steps more durable and safe - the cement was breaking down every few years and in winter became slippery when painted. I wouldn't hesitate to use Avenue Road again. Our thanks to Robert and his people for quality workmanship and value.