Veggie Powered Handyman

Jolyn P.

Talk about amazing! I give Bakari a varied list of tasks, and he just tackles them all with ease and a cheerful attitude. For instance, in just one visit last week he installed stair railings (a rather complex task), installed a cat door, installed a door knob, repaired a leaky faucet, fixed an electrical outlet, cut boards to fit a bookcase, drilled holes for the additional shelves, installed new (stronger and anchored) curtain brackets on four windows, hung blinds and advised me on a larger repair issue.

Suzanne S.

I don't even want to write this review because I don't want Bakari to get so busy that he is not available when I need him, but I have to admit he is my go to guy - does everything and does it well and efficiently. He has worked on multiple and very diverse projects for me and I could not be more pleased with the results.

a b.

Ack! -- I hate to give any business 5 stars! I mean, if a place or person is good enough to be that worthy, then i don't want them to get so much business that they won't be available to me when i need them! But what the hell -- Bakari already has a solid 5 stars from others, so i might as well add my experience.

I needed several different small jobs done here, so of course a handyman was what i needed. (i'm not rich enough to hire several different people, one for each type of repair, & pay the kind of rates licensed contractors charge; & quite frankly i don't want to deal with all that -- it's hard enough to find one contractor who's both honest & competent.... Yeah, i've had some pretty nasty experiences with contractors. But that's not why i'm writing this, except that hiring Bakari was such a relief from all that nonsense, those haughty attitudes & bad work.)

I contacted about 1/2 dozen handymen who were highly rated. Seems most folks who get high enough ratings to get a lot of work lose their sense of courtesy, not even bothering to reply unless you're offering to pay them for a big enough job to keep them fat & happy for a while ...at least that's the only reason i can figure why the majority just didn't even bother to respond; only a couple said they were too busy to get to me or mine was too small a job for them now that they got big jobs. Even the guy who was the highest rated when i needed some work a few years ago didn't respond at all. Bakari did, & he was very straightforward & professional.

But much as lack of courtesy irks me, doing good work in a timely manner is what's most important when one needs repairs. Here too Bakari was excellent.

I'm writing this a while after i hired him, so i'm a bit fuzzy on the details, but i do remember that he seemed to really know his stuff (for a wide variety of repairs & questions about possible future repairs), did all the work efficiently, & his work was well done.

His hourly rate, while higher than some of the reviews from earlier, is still, from what i know, below the other highly-rated people. However, he does charge both time & mileage for getting to & from the work-site, which was new to me, in the limited experience i've had hiring a handyman (in one instance) & getting quotes from others. Since i'm in central Oakland & didn't have any huge jobs, that meant i paid an effective rate significantly higher than his stated hourly rate, for the amount of time spent working here. However, while i'm loath to give five-star reviews to ANY business unless i consider it unusually good in EVERY respect, i'm still willing to give Bakari the 5 stars, both because the bottom line still wasn't more than i would've paid someone with a higher hourly rate and (hopefully) his charging mileage & travel time perhaps means it allows him to still be of service to those of us who don't have all-day jobs, since he doesn't lose any money by going to several places in one day. If so, i'm willing to pay the extra to get his good work & good attitude (& support his approach to business & green-thinking, if you will).

Unfortunately, it also means that for someone like me, who's trying to live on a very slim Social Security ""retirement"" (never planned on retiring; one might say the big banks driving the whole economy off the cliff a few years ago retired me -- left me with no market for my skills, it seems, so i've been limited to volunteer work), i'll have to keep putting off some of the big repairs & have to hold off hiring Bakari until i have a long enough list of smaller items to do that the travel expense is a less significant part of his total bill. But if he's still around & still available to those of us who need to limit our repairs as much as possible, i'll have no hesitancy in looking to him before even considering others. He's worth it.

...But if all of you out there, after reading how pleased i was with his work, hire him for enough long jobs to take him effectively off the market for small repairs that folks like i can afford, then i'll deny i ever said any of this.

Wendy E.

Bakari is all the things you'd want in a handyman/jack of all trades. He is responsive, courteous, resourceful, and prompt. Bonus: He's a super interesting guy. Some nice neighbors gave me their refrigerator which was significantly larger and fancier than my own. Fitting it in my kitchen necessitated widening an alcove by several inches. The more worrisome part of the job, however, involved getting this bigger fridge upstairs without scratching walls and, frankly, getting it through doors. Bakari was unfazed. He removed the doors from the refrigerator as well as my front door and then, in a Herculean feat, got this oversized appliance up my stairs with only the help of a dolly. He also offered helpful advice on how long to let the new fridge sit before plugging it in so its fluids could settle after the jostling of moving it. Bakari also recommended that I let the new unit get properly chilled before I transferred over my food from the old fridge (better for the compressor). I'd work with Bakari again in a second. Great guy with stellar integrity.

Lynn S.

I had called 3 other handymen who had come by or seen the pictures I sent and never followed up. Bakari answered my email by the evening, agreed to do the work, fixed my fence, the porch roof and the fascia boards very efficiently and quickly. Figured out small glitches in quick order. And he is so pleasant! What a nice guy. What good work! You should hire him! 5 stars+

Robert T.

Really positive experience. I had Bakari pick up 4 bales of hay from Biodiesel Oasis and deliver them. I told him he could just place them in my yard and I would get to them when I got home but Bakari went the extra mile to stack them neatly by the side of the house. Really appreciate it, Bakari, and I will keep you in mind for myself and others.

Ed L.

I almost feel like we've found a unicorn. We've been searching for a reliable and competent handyperson for a while and have tried a number of folks before finding Bakari. He installed a ceiling fan, did some interior work on a new skylight, and more. In all of this he was competent, principled, and great to work with. We will definitely be calling on his services again.

Jessica J.

Bakari just resolved years of issues around my place in a matter of 3 hours!! Every single random thing I threw at him, he figured it out in a matter of minutes. Seriously, it was amazing, he is amazing! He even stayed late although he had dinner plans to finish everything. If I ever have a fix-it problem again, I know who to call! Reasonable prices, friendly and quality service - you just can't go wrong!!

Josh N.

Bakari helped us dispose of an old sofa, ottoman, and garage door opener rails. The sofa and ottoman were easy enough, but Bakari really got after it with the rails. They were probably 12-15 ft long, so he needed to bend the metal rails to better get them in his struck. It was quite the sight to see him ""supermanning"" this long piece of metal between the truck bed and our driveway. But he got it done. Quick, efficient, and on time. We will use Bakari again should we need similar services.

Anjali Y.

Bakari first moved me out of a loft in Jack London Square in 2006. Since then, he's been my go-to guy for all sorts of domestic projects. He has installed ceiling fans, fixed fences, re-belted and re-programmed a broken treadmill, fixed a jammed and bent garage door - and that's for starters. He has also hauled away stuff I didn't want/need anymore and has either sold it, donated it, or recycled it; making a trip to the landfill is *always* the dreaded last option for him.

Bonus points that Bakari is a nice trustworthy guy who knows a lot of interesting stuff :)

Above all else, I just never worry when I call him over because I am confident he can figure out whatever I throw at him and that's why he deserves FIVE BIG FAT STARS.