Peregrine Contracting, Inc. Soaring
"Above the Crowd"
By Stephanie Nelson

Tim Frost doesn't have any trouble remembering the first major project done by Peregrine Contracting, Inc., the building and remodeling firm he co-founded in 1988.

After all, he and his partner at the time were living in the structure on Lake Road in Milton Vermont while they rebuilt it - replacing windows, putting in a new kitchen, doing all the plumbing and electrical work. "We were just doing it on weekends and evenings, "Frost recalls, "sleeping in the Sheetrock™ dust at night, sheets of plastic over everything. As we ripped things apart, we decided how they might look good back together. I think it took six years before we finally got all the details finished," he says, smiling. "A lot of memories. A lot of hard work.

"I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing a project progress from beginning to end. It makes you feel proud when you see something done with care, and to think that you've produced that." That first project was the springboard from the smaller remodeling and repair jobs to the larger renovations and high end home construction the company does now. "After we did this job," says Frost, "we figured we could do anything.

The seeds for the company were sown while Frost and his then-partner were attending the University of Vermont and started a window washing business to earn some extra income. "We made up fliers and went around and knocked on people's doors," he recalls. "Then people would ask us to do other stuff, like paint. I really didn't know anything about it, but we figured out how to paint. Interior first, then exterior. Then people would ask us to replace a rotten clapboard, or some trim. And that's how we developed contracting skills."

Then came the makeover of that house where Frost still lives. They adopted the name Peregrine because both men liked the outdoors and admired the peregrine falcon, now making a comeback in Vermont as "a unique being that stands alone."

Shortly thereafter, one of their painting clients, Todd and Mary Lockwood, hired Peregrine for a custom remodeling job on their Burlington Vermont home, involving curved patio doors, among other things. "That was a real complex job," Frost recalls. "They had an architect managing it. It was very detail-oriented. It was a real challenge for our first custom job."

The house was originally built in 1910, says Mary Lockwood, and she and here husband wanted to "bring it into the present" by adding a sunroom onto the kitchen, plus a bath and master bedroom upstairs. "There were things we discovered during the process," says Lockwood, "like missing beams in the basement. And it involved meshing a newer design into an older house. Tim and his crew handled it all very well," Lockwood adds. "The end result was really great. We were really happy. We've used them on a number of projects since then and we would be happy to do that again."

As time passed, Peregrine continued to expand their expertise to include such things as slate roofing -- a rare but handy skill around Burlington, with its preponderance of slate-roofed structures.