All About The House (Ben Smith)

Description of Work: I can’t recommend Ben Smith & his crew at All About The House highly enough. Ben is a firm believer that the heart and success of a business, any business, is through a good relationship between the client and the business owner. And at the heart of the relationship is building a good rapport with clients. Key to Ben’s success is that he listens; he discusses and exchanges ideas & listens; he offers pros & cons & listens; he keeps the client in the loop & he listens!! I hired Ben to do a complete remodel of a house I had bought. The project involved pretty much gutting everything except the exterior brick walls! I had obtained bids from several other remodeling companies, but decided on Ben primarily for 2 reasons. He gave me a detailed break down of what the various tasks were and what the estimated costs for each would be. And he listened to what I hoped to accomplish. We discussed my budget and trade-offs to stay within my budget. The house was over 50 years old and had not had any serious remodeling or updates during that whole time. It really was a disaster of small rooms and an unfinished basement. The project involved restructuring the floor plan, moving walls, finishing the basement, installing new plumbing, new electrical, communications & digital wiring, new ducting & HVAC, new insulation, additional trusses in the attic ... new everything! Ben called in an excellent architect and structural engineer to ensure the structural integrity of the house would not be compromised as we moved walls around. Both the schedule and the cost were affected by unanticipated surprises as we took down walls and dug down for the foundation for an addition. I anticipated this and fortunately could roll with the delays and the additional costs. However, Ben, to his credit, discussed alternative approaches to downsizing the project and the costs and we did make adjustments to accommodate budget and schedule. The end result is a house that suits my needs, is very comfortable, efficient utility-wise, and just all-in-all perfect for me. I loved working with Ben, his crew, and the subcontractors he enlisted for the specialty work. Fortunately I did not have to live in all the mess & chaos. I had another house to live in, but I was on-site every day so I could field questions & make quick decisions as the surprises surfaced!! I became part of the team, so to speak, and came away being very pleased with my experience with Ben Smith and the All About The House Company.