Due North Restoration

It went fair to poor.  When I hired the contractor, I was told I would be sent lots of pictures of the work in progress (I work out of town) and I got only six pictures through the whole job.  I was told I would receive a detailed invoice and all receipts for goods purchased and to this day, I have NOT received them (I only got a vague invoice cobbled together by his former business partner).  I was told that I had overpaid $100 for goods and would be reimbursed, and have NOT received the $100.  I was told at time of hire there would be 3 people working the job and there were 1 - 1/2.  By that I mean it was the contractor and his helper-girlfriend.  The third carpenter-type person promised to work the job was only brought in when I insisted on it.
The contractor arrived late most days (after 11am).
The contractor mis-measured the kitchen counter not once, but twice.  The first time he blamed the kitchen design people at Home Depot (where the cabinets were purchased).  This resulted in a whole new countertop having to be fabricated (I ate most of the cost except for $200 he deducted from his bill.  I thought I should give him the benefit of doubt but then it happened again).  The second time, he caught his mistake before the countertop was fabbed.
Originally, I was going to have him remodel kitchen and both the hall and master baths, but after the experience with the hall bath and kitchen, I cancelled the master bath job.
I will not hire this contractor again, nor would I recommend him.

To sum up the experience, this guy can BS a bird out of a tree, but is inexperienced, extremely unprofessional, and has no time management skills.  He starts to do things right, so clearly knows what should be done, but doesn't follow through. 

The original timeline was two weeks.  The project took 8 weeks to complete.  Before work started, I told him that no matter what, don't damage the well.  He promptly damaged the well, then gave me an estimate of $4,000 to fix it.  I paid because I didn't have time to do anything else, but we still didn't have good water for two weeks, there is still gravel in my water system and he never followed through with the promised filter system.  The waterproofing and insulation was done right, but the drain tile doesn't work, the backfill was not compacted (and has now sunk over 2 feet in places) and the patio is un-useable (much of that settling has occured under the patio).  The parts of the job that were done right were done as I literally stood over him...left unsupervised he cut every corner he could.

The primary purpose of this job was to stop the water from leaking into the basement.  Water still leaks into the basement.  He told me numorous times during the project that he garenteed his work.  As soon as water started leaking, I called him and he would never even return my calls.

I paid this guy a lot of money and I regret every penny of it.  I will have to re-excavate the basement and do it right.

Contrary to the other posts here, our experience with Due North Restoration and its owner, Joshua Ellis, was a disaster. Long story short…we had to terminate the contract after he failed to meet the 3rd promised finish date almost 2 months after starting.  He was barely showing up the last 6 weeks, either failing to show, or working only ½ the day. There are at least 7-10 days left to finish the job, not counting the repairs for incompetent building practice. To be sure, he had a lot of personal problems (we should have done a Google search before hiring him), but there was no excuse for the false promises, failed phone calls, sloppy maintenance of the work site in a high wind area (he was repeatedly warned), and inappropriate worksite conversations in earshot of our underage daughter. The exterior T1-11 siding was fastened with ungalvanized nails and is already marred with black streaks from their corrosion, and the windows were improperly mounted to the outside of the siding, making future leakage in our high wind area virtually assured if we don’t remove the siding and have them installed correctly. That’s just what we discovered the first day after firing him. To top things off, he’s promised to place a lien on our property for not paying him the final payment due when the job was completed!  He received over 2/3 of the total contract value, and virtually all of the change order costs, and leaves us with cleaning up his mess and likely paying considerably more than we would have owed him to finish the job with other contractors. We've heard a lot of smooth talk and apologies for his unprofessionalism, but it doesn't come close to compensating for all this. Do yourself a favor and avoid Due North Restoration. 

See above.

Overall Due North was extremely responsive - getting me a quote quickly (via email which was great), calling me back quickly, and showing up within just an hour of the quote being approved and performing the work.

I don't think it could have gone any better than it did. These guys were great!

Our experience with Due North Restoration was wonderful. Our story started when we purchased an old homestead in Chugiak that while beautiful was in an incredible state of disrepair. We originally were referred to them after having a chimney detached from the home to do the roofing repairs needed. This was a small job, but right away it was evident that not only were they professional, but they knew how to address repairs for the massive amounts of dry rot and collapse throughout this large log home. Since that original meeting they have been working non-stop for the past several months to help completely transform this aging homestead into a structurally sound and beautiful restoration. The work they ended up doing aside form the original roof repair included dry rot repair throughout, interior/exterior wall rebuilding, Polyurethane spray foam insulation, sheet-rocking, taping/mudding/texture, massive deck rebuilds, window replacement, fencing and gating, door replacement and they were even able to totally replace a rotten log at the very bottom of the log cabin, a task that would strike fear into many a contractor's heart. There is nothing these guys can't do, the quality of the work is outstanding, and their pricing was very affordable!