First Impressions Entries & Designs

We hired Paul Panagiotidis of First Impressions for a $267,000 basement renovation contract. Paul assured our family of his “35 years of experience” and that it would be an “8-10 week timeframe”. After 30 weeks of patiently waiting and paying the company per the contract, their “work” is unfinished, substandard and not to proper code or customary standards of acceptability and completely unprofessional and needs to consistently be redone. Paul is also full of false promises and his project manager never shows up to the site to supervise any of the work when they infrequently arrive. They are incredibly disorganized and full of excuse after excuse when called to task. We have never seen anything like this unconscionable behavior in our lives. Paul has also stolen substantial sums of our money (wire fraud) and not delivered items we have paid for per the contract. Subs also remain unpaid while he takes personal trips to Greece multiple times with our family’s stolen money and has no focus or care for our family and his contractual obligations. No one shows up on the site and we believe that Paul and his company are compete frauds and we will be reporting him and the company to the Suffolk County District Attorney and filing suit. It is unfortunate that they can treat trusting families in this way with such disrespect, disregard and impunity. I would avoid h*** for your family and stay far, far away from these criminals.

After missing their appointment for a consult, I decided to call. I was told that the owner was supposed to call me to give me the estimate over the phone. There is no way any company can give a proper estimate without seeing the the space. I’m going be be needing a new kitchen next year, guess whom I’m not going to call. Despicable the way people run their companies. I had to organize my day so I can meet with them, trying to give a local company some business.

The company is the worst! They over charged us on everything and even charged us for things we didn't need. Most concerning is that they tried to begin a job in my home without proper containment protocols in place that would have put my family in harms way. They then refused to provide a refund after we canceled. We will be making a complaint with Consumer Affairs.

We had a persistent leak in our kitchen that lasted for 6 years. I called in plumbers, roofers, so-called “leak detectives”, etc. Everyone had a different story, but no one could find the leak or was willing to take a holistic approach to solve the issue. Some people made up outlandish scientific stories – condensation, ice damming, pipe expansion, etc. Paul came in and assessed the issue. He then had his guys calmly open up the ceiling and he dug and dug until he found the leak …. a vent pipe for the sink/dishwasher that was abandoned and purposely hidden with plywood by a prior crooked contractor and never properly capped off. No one went the extra mile to find the leak. No one wanted the trouble. Except Paul. He did a great job – remediated all mold, closed up the ceiling beautifully and fixed roofing issues that may have contributed to the leak.

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I learned of First Impressions after seeing their many projects in my community. Their completed homes always looked crisper and more refined than others and I knew that when it came time to finish my basement, First Impressions would be my first call. Paul, the owner, was wonderful to work with. He takes great pride in his work and in delivering a quality product. He doesn’t take short cuts and only uses the best materials. He also listens to what your budget is and what you want to accomplish. Our basement renovation and bathroom came out beautiful. My only regret is not meeting Paul and his team earlier when we originally built our home. We were particularly impressed with Paul's responsiveness. He visited our job nearly every day and a foreman was always on-site or readily available. Anytime I texted Paul, he responded back immediately (nights and weekends included). He was also very fair in dealing with issues and change orders as they arose without argument (and that's rare in this business). I've dealt with many, many contractors -- both personally and in business -- and Paul is top notch. The crew on our job deserves special praise. They showed up every day at 7:30 a.m. and were trustworthy, efficient, clean and respectful of our home (no cursing, screaming, smoking breaks, loitering outside, etc.). They literally made it very easy to live through an extensive construction project (and my wife and I are clean and tidy to a fault). We would definitely refer First Impressions. Paul is the real deal.