Hi, I’m Neal LaFrance, owner-operator of Clean Line Custom LLC. I was raised in the small town of Brooklin up in coastal Downeast Maine. I wrote a blog post here if you want a little more information on Brooklin, but suffice to say when I was there it was primarily a lobstering and boatbuilding town of around 500 year-round residents. 

My father is an experienced sailboat captain, shipwright, and construction project manager, among many other things. I grew up learning how to work with my hands and head for my father’s marine supply store and subsequent mooring business.

At 20 I branched out for my first time, signing up to be a manager with one of those (scammy, and now defunct) college painter companies. I got my first taste of running my own business and put some valuable painting and carpentry experience under my belt. After college I bounced around various states working construction and restaurant jobs. In 2017 when I was 26 a couple friends and I opened a seasonal restaurant in the Bar Harbor area that we ran until last year. I also owned and operated a painting/home services company in the area, and then would take the latter operation south during the winter when the restaurant was closed.

This past summer I sold my restaurant business and took some time off to travel internationally As much as I enjoyed the challenges of working in restaurants I’m happy to have recently moved to the greater Portland area to focus on home services and remodeling work full-time. With fifteen years of experience in various trades, a work ethic I’ve been honing since I was a child, and a customer service oriented approach combined with a sense of integrity in my business, I look forward to exceeding my clients’ expectations. 

In my free time you can find me kitesurfing, hiking, reading, cooking, or doing one of about a million other things I enjoy. If it’s winter time and I’m on vacation I’m somewhere warm and international. I’ve been to about forty countries at this point and while my backpacking days are probably behind me I expect I’ll see another forty before it’s all said and done. I look forward to meeting you and helping you with your project!