She does all our work from ceramics to decks to siding to fireplace to drywall. 

Because we did the majority of the work ourselves, the total rehab budget wound up being around $30,000 (which includes adding a deck, fencing in the huge back yard, fixing the driveway and adding a paver front walkway.)

If the flooring is outdated, replace it with a nice tile... a simple truck to visually enlarge a smaller bath is use a large tile, 16"x16" or 24"x 24", lay them on a bias and use very tight grout lines.Now, the stairway doesn't look bad the way it is, but the baluster and railing look a little cheap, like something you might see on an outdoor deck.

I have a rental in Mount Airy, MD, and I'd like to add some steps down to an existing patio from an existing deck.  

It looks like you pasted the marketing copy of a guru slide deck, removed all punctuation, and the scrunched it together:) I hope you put a bit more effort next time into your writing so that you have a greater chance for others to easily follow your coherent arguments. 

@Matthew Olszak - there is a stairway from the back deck of the first floor apt, down to the basement stairs, so there would be some protection from the elements.

In the short term, I need some deck stairs built to connect an existing deck and existing patio.  

If you're talking about fixing driveways, roofs, and decks, then winter is uncomfortable at best.  

Check the condition of the roof, siding, windows, pavement, lawn, deck, porch, driveway, garage door.....walls, floors, light fixtures, switches, outlets, furnace, AC, pipes, stairs...

They also have various home improvements (replacement windows, repairs to rotted truss in roof, bracing, new decking and shingles in the area among other things) that have no permits.