If the economy is beginning its slow return to normalcy, David Aiken hasn't seen it yet.

Instead, it seems as though Aiken is staring at the bottom, that place where the analysts tell us we've already hit, in a tone that is supposed to signal hope, in an "it can only get better from here" kind of way.

"We had six phone calls this weekend, guys looking for work," said Aiken, who owns Senkow Builders in Quaker Hill with his wife, Diane. "It's tough because I'd love to hire some of these guys because they're coming way down off their salary from what they were making … but there's no work to hire them for."

The company had to let eight men go in January and hasn't been able to hire them back. The five remaining employees saw their hours cut, and during these summer days, in what is typically the busy season, Aiken finds himself looking for ways to keep them occupied and on the payroll.

Last week, Aiken said, he put in a new door, a platform and a couple of retaining walls. Next up is repairing paneling in a basement.

"It's barely stuff that makes the payroll," he said.

It's also the kind of project that a do-it-yourselfer might tackle.

"A lot of times it is," Aiken said, "and then you're competing against the do-it-yourselfer, but you've still got the overhead to worry about. There are still people who realize the limitations of what they're capable of doing and want someone to come in and do the work for them. The reality is there's not a whole lot of work that's going on."

"There's hope," he adds with sarcasm in his voice, "because there's a stimulus package."

There is no real stimulus plan for a company like Senkow. They don't do roads and bridges, there is no cash rebate for a clunker of a house, and weatherization isn't their thing.

Before the recession hit, they built houses and subdivisions. Then they turned to remodeling. And the government isn't paying for any of that: the common man, clinging tightly to his disposable income - if he has any - is.

"The problem is, if the people don't have the jobs or aren't secure in their jobs," Aiken said, "or (aren't) feeling they're gonna keep their jobs, there's no way they're gonna want to spend money they have to spend to hire somebody to get the job done."

Aiken is also among the growing ranks of builders who show up to bid on small city projects, such as the Housing Conservation Program in New London and Norwich, or lead abatement and asbestos removal programs.

Instead of six to 10 bids, he said, there are dozens.

"A lot of them are from Rhode Island and Massachusetts, showing you that it's tough everywhere," Aiken said.

The Housing Conservation Program, paid for through federal grant money, provides loans and deferred loans to low- to moderate-income property owners to correct code issues and install energy efficiency items. The units must be owner-occupied, have a certain amount of equity, and owners must have owned them for at least a year and meet debt-to-income qualifications.

Cara Pianka, the community development/lead coordinator in New London's Office of Development and Planning, said she has seen increasing numbers of contractors show up for walk-throughs in her three years in New London.

The most companies she's seen are 17, Pianka said, though the numbers can appear higher because one firm might send several people. Sometimes, four companies show up. It depends on the program and the work available.

Aiken is asked whether he would have shown up for a walk-through and then bid on a project like this in 2004 or 2005, when the construction market was jumping.

"No," he said. "I'd have been knee deep in somebody's house. … Or we would have been working in a subdivision or something like that."

Still, Aiken hopes the experts are right, that the market is showing the beginnings of bouncing back. It will take several steps until it's good enough to help Senkow, but a step toward recovery is a step toward re-hiring eight laid-off men.

"If the stock market is going back up and people are starting to get a little more receptive to doing things," Aiken said, "who knows."

k.crompton@theday.com