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Review 2/1/2008
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Roi was our contractor to completely remodel our kitchen this past november 2007. From a really crummy and old kitchen it has become the kitchen of our dreams. We strongly recommend Roi and his company.
We hired Roi after hearing estimates from 4 other contractors. Not only did he give us the best price but we also liked his personality. In general contractors seem to be pushy and aggressive whereas Roi has a very calm personality and extremely courteous and pleasant to work with.
Overall - the workmanship was excellent. We liked all the crews and workers that came. They were not just great at their work but really nice people - which is as important as they are constantly in your space and you would have to interact with them.
Roi was not just calm to work with but always ready to adapt and give us what we wanted. He responds to crises well and is always ready to make changes and go out of his way to make you – the client – happy. I have heard of others who seem to be this way at the beginning but then it all goes downhill. With Roi – our interaction only improved with time.
Our kitchen went 2 weeks past the initial date given by Roi - mostly because of changes that we wanted to make – differing from the original plan discussed..
If we had stuck with everything discussed at the time of the estimate - the price would have remained locked and we would have gone over by 4 - 5 days only.
This is extremely important - to have the initial date and price remain the same. Everyone I talked to who had had their kitchens done – said that it would definitely go way over in time and money. But this was not the case with Roi. My sister who did it with Home Depot Expo – had her kitchen go on for 6 months whereas ours was under 6 weeks and one third the price!
Roi continues to help us in the present even though he is no longer our contractor. For instance - our house just got flooded because of the recent rain and I called Roi at 6 30am and he immediately organized his roofing guy to come over.
Without a doubt - if we had to do any remodelling in our home again we would hire Roi - and that's saying a lot - because we are super picky!
The one small problem we had – which can be overcome if you are forewarned – is that there were an inordinate number of Jewish holidays in the stretch of time we had our work done and most of Roi’s crew are Jewish and there was one critical stretch of 4 days when work stopped. Though, to give Roi credit, I do know that he had expected his Latino crew to show up in that time but he didn’t and we were unable to speak to Roi as he also does not speak on the phone at this time. The timing was really bad as it was in the week of demolition and we had to live through the dust with no work progressing for 4 days. So it’s just important that you make sure you get the full schedule of these holidays before you start so that you are prepared and plan around it. Our problem was that he wasn’t forthcoming about this and so it took us by surprise. Again this is something completely fixable.
Another thing I would like to warn you about is that you should be fully prepared with every little detail at the time of your estimate.
We had never done any major renovation before and also were not really ready and prepared at the time of the estimate stage - to know exactly what we wanted in the kitchen. For instance - at the time of the initial estimate Roi based it on granite back splash. On thinking about this the next day we realised we wanted tiled backsplash and also under cabinet lighting. Because of these our price went up from the initial estimate.
I am raising these points - to say that while it is very important to be fully prepared with every itty bitty detail and not agree to meet any contractor (who push to meet you) - i also feel that Roi - should have suggested or asked us if we wanted things like tiled backsplash and under cabinet lighting. I feel he didn't as these would have made his quote less competitive. granite versus tile backsplash; under cabinet lighting etc - are more expensive choices. And I also suspect – but I could be wrong – that if we had said these at the initial estimate stage – we would have paid less for them than what we were charged – as this is the time to get a good deal.
Although I am raising this - I feel this would not be a concern if you the consumer - did all your homework and knew EXACTLY what you wanted.
It was ultimately our fault and not Roi’s that we were not clear on what we wanted. And when we made these and other changes to plan – he was very efficient in accommodating these.
Again both these criticisms that i have raised can be fixed and this is why I am raising them – so you don’t make the same mistakes I did. Knowing these things now - I would still hire Roi. One hundred percent!
You won't regret it. You can ask him to give you my info if you need further advice or have more questions.
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