We hired Renee and her crew at Tomboy Construction to do a complete renovation of our kitchen. We live in a home built in the 60s, and our cabinetry was original and the space not functional. We had a pretty strong idea of the kitchen we wanted, and Renee came back to us with an itemized and transparent budget that was in line with our expectations, and was upfront about the reasonable approximate timeline.
Our project work included: complete gutting to the studs, a wall separating our kitchen from the living room was removed and a beam was installed, updated electrical and plumbing, new floors, lighting, cabinets and counter tops.
Renee was attentive and on site frequently to assess the quality of the work being done. We've seen that she's not afraid to have her team or her contractors redo work if it isn't up to her standards. We could not be happier with our new kitchen - it came out exactly how we wanted. It is functional, beautiful, contemporary and inviting. Renee came in on budget, and just shy of the twelve week schedule she'd anticipated. All of her team were polite and conscientious of our space, and we always felt like our project was in good hands.
She and her team also went above and beyond to ensure other parts of the house that were affected by the renovation were left as good, or better than before. For example, with the updated electrical panel, she had her team build a cabinet and bulkhead around the work in our basement, to ensure it wasn't an eyesore. As well, they continued tiling to our back mudroom to ensure the flooring flowed, and touched up paint in our living room and mud room where her team had been keeping supplies and tools.
We were pretty proactive about keeping in touch with Renee during the course of the project, getting on the phone with her regularly to get updates and to bug her with any questions we might have about the work being done. Renee was very good about returning our calls within a day, and if she didn't have an answer for us right away, she'd find out and get back to us. Renee is juggling a million things, so if we felt that something was being pushed on to the back burner, we felt comfortable bringing it up with her. 9 times out of 10, things were all going according to her plan, and the other 1 time Renee was quick to course correct.
We wouldn't hesitate to work with her again, have recommended her to others with nothing but praise. We're very happy customers!
Renee has posted photos of our project on her website:
http://tomboyconstruction.com/portfolio-item/nick-and-lindsay-kitchen-renovation/
And I thought we had, together, come up with appropriate solutions to address the following concerns when you returned from your holidays. So I am surprised to see your comments here considering we are still working on your project. Here is my understanding of where we had left things from our emails back and forth while you have been away.
1. problem- the squeak in the floor in front of the sink
***solution- more screws in the area of the squeak ( this is a 60 year old house with no access to the floor from below...so top screwing is our only option...sub floor has been glued as well and the remaining floor will be stapled every 6")
2. problem- hump in wall where door way was removed
solution*** we tried to feather out this area with drywall mud but the studs are crowning in this area now that the door frame is gone...so we had agreed that we would remove the drywall in this section ( about 1 foot wide and 8 feet high) install a thinner piece of drywall and redo the mudding...this can be done without holding up any other work
3. problem- hump in wall behind cabinet- again another stud crowning.... probably has always been like this but not noticed cause nothing was on that wall but now with cabinets on the wall you can see from the side ***
solution*** normally we could scribe the back of the cabinet to fit or put on a small scribe moulding but the veneer material your cabinets are made can not be scribed and the suppliers doesn't make such pieces. So I have had a custom stain created to match your cabinet finish on a few types of wood so you could pick which one looks best. the other option is to remove that one cabinet and repair the drywall as described above... I was leaving the choice for you to make once you returned from vacation and had a chance to see how great the stain match turned out.
4. problem- I assumed you wanted the more modern led flush mount pot lights because they give off a much better spread of light instead of the inserts that sit inside the old pot light cans
solution....easy fix take off the led flush mount fixtures and install the standard pot light cans with retrofit led inserts...
5. problem- cabinet punch list
solution- park cabinets met with your husband to address the few small issues and have the sorted before we are complete...and of course final payment not due until all issues sorted to satisfaction.
6. problem - ordering light fixtures from Denmark...did you find a supplier with a better price than the $600 who would warranty shipping...sorry I am not comfortable ordering from a supplier I don't know and being responsible for their safe arrival.
Again I apologize that you are feeling frustrated, myself and everyone involved with your project is committed to leaving you with a kitchen you can be proud of. Even though they are hard to hear I appreciate your comments and have taken them to heart and will continue to do better going forward.
Kind Regards
Renee Mulrooney
Tomboy Construction- owner a