Eason Painting did not start out with investors or a business plan – just a love for house painting. It’s not a glorious or glamorous story, but it is ours. I hope you enjoy, and as always – many thanks to our friends, family and amazing customers for making us who we are today.
Growing Up is Hard
Enjoying everyday as a young adults playing sports, hanging out with friends, and living each day as it came – I did not devote many thoughts to what career path I would head down. Growing up in a single parent home, I watched as my mother worked countless hours to provide for her family, while instilling that strong work ethic into all of her children. There were talks of college and job options, but no real plan set in place. As you know, life moves fast and the time came quickly when high school was ending, and many of my friends were planning their careers to head off to college or work with family businesses. I did not have a plan, but did know one thing – and that was how to work hard. So began my hunt for a steady job.
I could not seem to find a job that I truly loved doing… Although I was making money, I was just going through the motions with no real sense of direction. My mother worried (as most do). She contacted my brother Chuck Walters, who was a Painting Foreman for a large construction company in our area and asked him if there where any openings for me as a labor. This is where things started to change. Thanks to my brother, I was offered a job as a laborer. Since there where no positions working directly with my brother Chuck as a painter’s laborer, I started in the cleaning department and moved up to a head laborer position (while waiting for a opening to work directly with my brother). It was not long before an opening became available to work with Chuck. This was the break I needed!
The Training Begins
I worked with Chuck on a daily basis, and he taught me everything about painting and drywall. He was very diligent in making sure that I completed every task correctly, and pushed me harder and harder to become the best I could be. These days were very trying on his patience, and there were many days he wanted to kill me – as he had to clean up my mistakes. I was truly in love with my job and looked forward to going to work everyday. Another opening in the company became available and my close friend Jason was hired to fill the painting laborers position. He now worked with us everyday. This was great, as we were becoming quite the team. Chuck probably has another view, since he had two monkeys to look after now!
Still with no real plan on what direction my career was heading in. I worked countless hours, all the while loving my job – painting houses and along with the restoration of fire and water damaged structures . The company we worked for however, did not seem to appreciate all this hard work. They continued to break countless promises in regard to pay raises and promotions. Despite this, I kept grinding it out and honing my skills. However, everyone has a breaking point, and I was hitting mine. Not getting paid for overtime along with unkept promises of bonuses, profit sharing and raises finally got to me. That day, against my brother Chuck’s advice, I left the company (which did not settle well with him).
Eason Painting Is Born
Well there I was in 1998 – with very few tools of my own, a Pontiac Trans Am for transportation, no plan, $1,500.00 in my pocket. Now I needed to tell my longtime girlfriend and love of my life, Renee, that I had quit my job. Let me tell you – this did not go well at all. Long story short – she decided to break up with me that day. I could not really blame her… From the outside looking-in, this probably looked like a really bad decision. This was not really how I envisioned it to go, but that just made me more motivated. By the end of that day – I had a plan. Thanks to my brother Chuck, I had all the training I needed! Now my friend Jason and I were going to start our own company – Eason Painting was born!
So with the $1,500.00 I bought a not-so-nice van and some needed tools. Now all we needed was some customers. Thank the Lord for our first customer – my sister Dawn. Not only was she our first customer, she got the ball rolling with her friends as well. We we were in business!
Jump forward a couple of years, and the hard work is paying off! Eason Painting continues to grow, and what started out as just myself and Jason, has turned into two additional painters, two labors, and the addition of my brother Chuck Walters full-time as a business partner. We continued to gain speed and customers with the addition of a couple large contracts from a construction company, due to my good friend Ryan. As our name and quality continue to gain exposure from the local community, we were becoming a ‘real’ business. During that time – I also became engaged to my soon-to-be wife, Renee.
Family Life
It is 2002 and business is good. We expanded our center-of-operations from my house to our custom built barn. We added Fire and Water Damage Restoration with IIRC Certifications in Smoke Damage Restoration and Cleaning to our list of services, as well as a full drywall crew. Things are moving fast. I am getting married to my beautiful wife Renee, together we are moving into our house to start our own family. Eason Painting is now well known around our community with 6 trucks on the road and 15 full-time painters and labors. In 2003 we say goodbye to Jason and now it is just me and Chuck to run the company.
2005 starts with the birth of my lovely daughter Peyton. Then in 2007 the moving of Eason Painting’s location, into our first commercial building. We have at this time built a very strong and successful business with a great group of employees. My son was born in 2008 which turned out to be a tough year, he was born early at 26 weeks old what a scare that was, but no worries he has turned out to be a healthy child. 
About the same time the economy was failing with the worst recession people had seen in years. Paint jobs were hard to come by and we were feeling the pinch. Luckily for us are terrific customers carried us through with repeat business and referrals. We added a large marketing campaign to try and stir up even more business. This was no cake walk but we made it through adding Mold Testing, Indoor Air Quality Testing and Mold Remediation to our list of training and services. Then in 2010, we moved our shop to its current location.
Change is Good
Fast forward to 2014 and we purchased another small painting business to open up our new Pre-Finishing department. This is where we produce beautiful spray and hand applied finishes of wood windows, casing, doors, moldings and cabinets with finishes second to none. This is a huge gain for our Company allowing us to expand our knowledge and offer more services to our customers. Chuck heads up this department and is truly passionate about his work and you can tell just by speaking to him about it.
This past year 2018 we decided to change the logo of Eason Painting to reflect the values for our company and our commitment to quality with a branding we believe represents us best. We are dedicated to our customers and hope to one day pass this love of painting and the joy of customer satisfaction down to a younger generation to continue to grow this family company into a household name.
The truth of the matter is, without the support from our loving wife’s , family and friends Eason Painting would not be what it is today. So a special loving thanks to all of you who helped support and believe in us and make Eason Painting great.
