Lonestar West Construction

No remodeling problem is ever completely trouble-free. That's almost certainly the case when complete demolition is involved because there are (usually) secrets that the walls had been hiding and that need to be addressed. Lonestar, however, had taken a worst-case scenario approach in anticipating those possibilities and budgeted accordingly... while making it clear that things could be less involved (and cost less) or, improbably, more complicated (and cost more). Everything wound up on the "less" side, thankfully. Remodeling on this scale also involves multiple tradespeople and outside services (everything from hauling away demolition debris to providing a portable toilet and integrating the alarm system), and the coordination that Lonestar implemented ensured that, more than 90% of the time, everything happened on schedule and everyone showed up when they were supposed to. The only delays involved the city inspector but, having dealt with Santa Monica's Planning Department before, this was a level of annoyance that I was ready to handle (though I must admit that it was a learning experience for Lonestar). The plumbers on the job, who were involved immediately after demolition, leaned on a water supply pipe that probably should have died 25 years ago, and it (finally) crumbled. Yet, within an hour, they had equipment onsite to handle the necessary trenching, made the repair, and replaced the concrete (the line served a rear building on the property). Lonestar's electrician made half a dozen valid suggestions about improving the placement and number of switches and outlets and handled the installation (which involved upgrading wiring and conduit that dated back to the house's construction in the 1930s) without delaying the project or adding to the cost. The cabinet maker may have been the only person who was more of a stickler for perfection than Gary Pavlica, the head of Lonestar, and he did take longer than he promised, but Gary re-balanced the work to permit forward motion while waiting for the cabinetry to arrive and be installed. There were unexpected delays -- Santa Monica's inspector decided to ignore his predecessors' determinations, claiming that the joists added to support a second-floor addition (all of which passed previous inspections) wouldn't allow us to remove an internal beam, even though it carried no weight-bearing load; so plans had to be reconfigured and work amended to retain the beam. Despite my feeling (at the time) that it was overkill, Mr Pavlica was insistent on "floating" the original ceiling to eliminate the uneven surface. It was, I think, a matter of personal pride -- he wanted to be able to feel that the work was complete, not partial, and done to the highest level of quality. There was no additional cost (part of a budget that allowed for contingencies), but it did add another week. Yet, looking back, re-doing the ceiling was the right thing to do. It makes the kitchen look consistent, top to bottom (literally). Our goal was to have a kitchen that functioned with every modern convenience but still looked like a natural part of a 1932 house, and Lonestar indulged us in finding mouldings and decorative elements that matched the originals. That was part one. Part two involved removing sliding doors on the opposite side of the house and restoring the original windows. That, however, also required replacing clapboards that are virtually impossible to find in 21st Century L.A. Yet Lonestar found something comparable, and it's impossible to tell that they're not the original tapered-edge clapboards. A third stage occurred when we had a completely unrelated plumbing failure. Lonestar put us in touch with a plumber who did the work for far less than the big name firms in Southern California, and Lonestar made sure we were happy with the work. That's a level of commitment that I thought had died out with the 20th Century.