A Cut Above the Rest...also known as Historic Homes NH.

A Cut Above the Rest, which trades online as Historic Homes NH, is Jeffery Linton working out of Isaac Frye Highway in Wilton, New Hampshire. He repairs, renovates and restores period houses, and the part that sets the business apart is that he duplicates the missing pieces himself — mouldings, trim and custom parts run on antique woodworking machinery, some of it dating to the 1800s and originally water-powered. It is a sole proprietorship, and the Better Business Bureau's file confirms it: business started 28 April 1978, owner Jeffrey Linton, accredited since July 2012 and graded A+. Linton says he spent years working on historic properties in every state between Maine and Florida before concentrating on New Hampshire, and that he is regularly in and out of the historic districts of Manchester and Nashua. What the Better Business Bureau lists lines up with what the site shows: historic home renovations, repairs and restorations, moulding duplication and custom parts, plus historic trim, built-ins and cabinetry. A recent job posted to the site was a set of hundred-year-old windows painted shut, with the broken sash ropes replaced so they open again. The one outside voice on record is a March 2021 New Hampshire Business Review story on the state's contractors, which quoted Linton on refusing to work where homeowners would not follow his safety rules. There are no customer reviews on file at all — not a bad sign, just an absent one for a one-man shop that works by word of mouth, and a reason to ask for references from recent historic-home clients. New Hampshire does not register general contractors or remodelers, so there is no state licence to look up for this trade; proof of insurance and two or three references are the practical checks. The right call for an old house that needs its own details reproduced rather than replaced with stock millwork — and worth asking, before booking, how long a custom moulding run takes and what the schedule looks like, since one person does the work.