LifeStyle Customs LLC

My husband and I had been looking in a specific location for a home for nearly 8 years. We finally found our "dream" home on nearly an acre in the Lakewood area. The house was a disaster (HUD home) and we decided to renovate. We got the name of 17 contractors, and interviewed 9 of them. Over 1/2 of them told us there was no way they could do what we wanted to do on the home and that we were better off just scraping it and starting over again. There was a great deal of charm with the original home and we really didn't want to do that. The other 1/2 of the contractors told us that it would be way over our budget of $150K to do the renovation. We finally hired a contractor who knew our budget constraints, and yet, they came in at nearly $30K over. We tried and tried to discuss the budget with them to see where we could cut back and get to our original number and got little or no answers or help from them. In an effort to try to decrease costs, we got in touch with a family friend who does plumbing to see if he could give us a better price. I shot the bid over to him to review and he called me immediately, asking if we were set on the contractor we hired. I explained to him that they were a referral to us, but that while we weren't nessassarily "Loyal" to them, we did feel a sense of obligation for the work they had done on the bid. He was adamant that we at least have another contractor look at the bid, as he stated that it wouldn't hurt to get a second opinion, as several items on the bid concerned him. My husband and I reluctantly set the appointment to meet with his contractor that evening. We met with Steve Reser from Lifestyle Customs and he reviewed the bid with us. He told us where he felt things were not "on point". For instance, the contractor stated that he was making a 2% fee on the whole project. RED FLAGS, Steve stated. Not once did Steve try to "sell" us on using him, but only stated that we seemed like nice people and that the bid we showed him just wasn't adding up. We called the contractor we hired and began asking questions: Long story short, they gave no viable answers and instead, got extremely aggitated that we were asking questions at all. We ended up firing them and gave Steve a call to see if he was available. BEST DECISION WE EVER MADE!! We knew that renovating would be a painstaking process. We knew there would be surprises we never imagined, and in fact there were a great many surprises!! 4 previous owner renovations left us with 3 separate roofs, one built on top of the other, to accomodate the new additions. The whole back part of the house had 6' 10" ceilings: This was a problem for us, as my husband is 6"8" tall. Steve meticulously evaluated the situation and was able to raise the ceilings, not only in the back of the house, but throughout the ENTIRE house. He had engineers, archtects, and designers on staff to help us with the challenges we faced and they came through each and every time, ON TIME. We had termite issues and Steve was able to refer us to a guy who had 30 years experience mitigating termites and he gave us a discount on the usual fee because of Steve. Steve's entire crew, from electrical to plumbing to drywallers to painters, have been amazing! Professional, curteous and extremely clean. Anytime we had questions about the next step, Steve would explain everything for us in great detail. When we asked for things he knew would knock us off budget, he would work with us to find items that would fit the bill of our request, but would also fit the budget. When I fell in love with a claw foot tub that I found on Craigslist, I called him and asked his thoughts on installing it: He worked closely with me to make it happen within the budget. The existing hardwood floors in the house were custom made and absolutely beautiful, albeit, in bad shape. Every other contractor we talked to told us the floors were not salvageable. Steve brought in a 40 year veteran of the hardwood flooring business and worked closely with him to find a way to save them, within budget, and they did. My husband and I both work full time, but one of the dreams I had since I was a child was having my own garden to can from, like my grandmother had. We put a garden in early in May, and I went to the property every day to water it. About 2 weeks into that routine, Steve asked how I was keeping the garden growing and I explained to him that I was driving out to the property every morning before work to water. The next day, I came out to water, and Steve had put in a sprinkler system in the garden for me. He never charged us a dime, just said he knew it would help my schedule. We had numerous trees and scrub that had been untouched for 50 years that had to go. My husband and I cut down the trees, removed the scrub and trimmed down countless bushes that left huge piles in various parts of the yard. We were contemplating how to remove it and where to take it, when Steve overheard the conversation. The next day, he brought his personal trailer, loaded it all up and got rid of it for us. He made 4 trips of this nature to get rid of it all. Again, he never asked for anything in return nor did he charge us for it. He is as honest as the day is long, showing us the invoices for the various items he has purchased. He painstakingly goes through each of the draws with us and answers any questions we have. I have heard nightmare stories about contractors and their customers. We were scared to go through this process, having very little construction performed on our homes in the past. Some of the best advice I got about working with a contractor was, "When you interview them, your courting each other, when you hire them, your dating and once they start the work, your married." I couldn't be happier that my husband and I decided to "marry" Steve Reser from Lifestyle Customs. I cannot highly enough recommend this man and his team. There is simply no substitute for experience and this man has it. Our home is absolutely STUNNING and quality crafted all the way through. No one believes it is the same home when we show them pictures. None of it would have been possible without Steve Reser.