Handyman in Skye Canyon

Olympia Companies announced Skye Canyon in December 2013, and its first neighborhoods launched in late 2015. The plan calls for about 6,500 homes, from entry-level to luxury, around U.S. 95 and Skye Canyon Park Drive in the far northwest of Las Vegas. For a Skye Canyon handyman, that means houses about ten years old or newer, built by Pulte, Pardee, Woodside, Century Communities, Toll Brothers and others.

Skye Center and Skye Fitness sit in Skye Canyon Park, and the plan adds other parks such as Eagle Canyon Park and Skye View Park along with bike lanes and walking paths. The community is inside the City of Las Vegas, in the city's Ward 6.

Skye Canyon was pitched to families, couples and active adults who like the outdoors, and the community lists public elementary, middle and high schools nearby along with a charter school. In a house with small children, childproofing tends to come first: cord cleats for window blinds, toilet locks and wall anchors for bookshelves and tall dressers.

After that come the projects that make a new house livable: furniture assembly for the boxes that pile up in the first month, a wall-mounted TV with nothing dangling below it, and custom closets fitted to the way you actually store things. Christmas light installation saves someone in the family a climb up a tall ladder each December.

Even new construction settles. In the first years it is normal to see nail pops, hairline cracks above door frames and gaps where baseboard meets the floor. Drywall repair and caulking take care of these, and it makes sense to let the house go through a full summer and winter before a final round of touch-up painting.

Shower glass is another early target. The water district's own advice for stopping mineral spots is to wipe surfaces dry, since residue only forms when water is left to evaporate. A fresh bead of caulk where the glass meets the tile keeps water inside the shower.