StudioPph

Fine.  As mentioned we should have provided more detailed info on what we were shooting for. 

Florin came up with a fabulous layout that kept the room spacious but somehow fit a 7'x4' island in the middle (where there was no island before). My wife and I were thoroughly impressed with the design, and now that we've lived with it for almost a year, we continue to love cooking in it.

The design went through many revisions, and Florin was always patient with us.

Florin worked effectively with our general contractor (Tony Walsh of Mayo Construction), cabinet designer (Cathy Nichols of Mediterranean Custom Cabinets), and subcontractors to get the job done. He even helped us pick appliances.

Disclaimer: Florin is a family friend. This is the second job he's done for us (the previous one was constructing two bathrooms), and we would definitely hire him again.  Sometimes can be hard to mix friendship and business, but with Florin it was no problem.

Florin created the designs for both bathrooms, drew the full plans, and worked with our general contractor to get them built. The master bath had tiled floor and walls, a double-sink vanity, and a large shower. The second bath has tile floor and walls, a large soaker tub, a large shower, and a pedestal sink. The exercise room was a simpler room (basically, a box) and he worked from my initial sketches, not needing to draw up a formal plan. At every step, Florin was full of good ideas, mindful of saving money, and a good advocate for us with the contractors. He has a great instinct for layout, usable distances, etc. In the middle of the job, my family had to leave for vacation, and we had no hesitation leaving Florin in charge of overseeing everything in our absence. He is very responsive both on phone and email. Florin also accompanied us to various stores (like the shower glass store) and used his knowledge to help us pick the right materials and make sure they were of good quality. He is willing to do the legwork to communicate with the various stores and contractors. We'd gladly use Florin again. In fact, he's redesigning our kitchen now. Disclaimer: We knew Florin socially before this: our daughters (elementary school) are friends. We were a little hesitant to hire someone we already knew (you know, never mix business & pleasure...) but we gave him a try and he was a thorough professional. We are VERY picky about quality, and the friendship wouldn't matter if he had messed this up! He didn't -- his plans and his work ethic were top-notch.