The Steve Ferris Painting Story

            Somebody asked me last week how much experience I had as a painter.  I had to think for a minute.

            I grew up in the 60’s next door to a painting contractor.  His son, Johnny was my best friend.  When we wanted to earn a little extra money, we worked for Johnny’s dad. Working on paint jobs.  During the summer of 1970 Johnny and I formed “The Painters Four” with our buddies Brian and Mike.  Johnny, since his dad was the painter, was our technical expert.  Since nobody else wanted to do it, I was the sales guy.  We decided to call our budding company, “The Painter’s Four” and had business cards printed.  Brian and Mike?  Well they would help with the work. 

            I began knocking on the doors of Kent Woodlands, a ritzy area of Marin County, near where I was living.  It took a lot of knocking on doors before we finally got a job.  By then Brian and Mike decided they didn’t really want to paint any more. 

            So “The Painter’s Four” was really only “The Painter’s Two”. 

            But we were cheap and we did a pretty good job under Johnny’s supervision, so I kept selling paint jobs.  And I began to seriously learn how to paint.

            In 1971 I moved to the Sacramento Valley and started my Freshman year at U. C. Davis.  During the summers I painted houses with Johnny. 

            By 1975 I had decided that my summer job, painting houses, was more fun than pretending I was serious about my Anthropology degree.  So I started Steve Ferris Painting in 1975.  I received my State Contractor's License in 1977.

            I married in 1978.  My wife and I moved to Los Angeles raised 3 wonderful boys, Aaron, Val and Kit and ran a painting company.  We had 30 people working for us and painting everything from skyscrapers to shopping centers.  For many years my wife ran the office.  My boys would spend a day on the job every week or two to learn what it's like to work.    They also learned that they didn’t like to paint!  So they are grown and married now with wives and lives of their own. 

            When the boys were gone, my wife and I shook hands and went our separate ways after dividing all we had created together.  There were a few tears, but no hard feelings.  Sadly, there just wasn’t anything holding us together any more. 

            After a few years of retirement, I fell in love, remarried and returned to Northern California.  By last winter, I had decided that my former life of painting was more fun than retirement. 

            So I have returned to the game, bringing my 44 years experience back to the business.  

            I run the jobs.  Each day I'm there checking on things, making sure the customers get what they want and need.

            We use top quality Dunn-Edwards, Kelly Moore and Sherwin Williams’’ paint, time-tested procedures and guarantee our work for periods of up to ten years.

            Our favorite customers are Home Owners Associations and Property Managers.  I've done over 1000 different associations in my career and over 5000 jobs for Property Managers.  I’ve got a few letters from recent customers that I’d love you to see included with this letter.

            If you need a free estimate, please give me a call at 916-956-9502, fax me at 530-887-1741 or email me at stephen_ferris@hotmail.com. 

                  

          Thanks,

                                    Steve Ferris