The primary contractor – Desirable Kitchens and Refacing (DKandR). Owner - Jimmy Zoppetti. Project approach - a “value based” kitchen and bathrooms update/upgrade. Scope of project: • Kitchen - reface all cabinets, add light rails on the bottom of all upper cabinets, mount doors with soft close hinges, and add new handle pulls; install all new granite countertops with 4 inch back splash; install new sink with new faucet, new disposal, and new plumbing. By the way, the light rails were a very stylish addition. • Powder room and two bathrooms - reface all cabinets; mount doors with soft close hinges, and add new pull handles; install new countertops with 4 inch back splash; install new “drop in” ceramic sinks (total of 5) with new faucet fixtures and new plumbing. • Coordinate installation of new appliances - refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher; arrange for supply line for ice and water dispenser. Project elapsed time - five days. Original project cost - $22,365; other bids were more than $10,000 higher. Prior to starting the project, we had one addition to scope. We added one full floor-standing cabinet in the kitchen, where a wall-mounted desk had been, at the cost of $400. Approach for customer payment: 1/3 down, and 2/3 after project completion, and total customer satisfaction guaranteed. Completed project satisfaction rating - five stars out of five. Reasons for rating - overall excellent workmanship; honoring 100% customer satisfaction pledge; overall value for total project cost. Now the story, if you care to read on. My wife and I met the Jimmy Zoppetti at the Pittsburgh 2017 Home Show in March. His exhibit was our first of many stops. He made a very good first impression, and was at the top of our list of 3 vendors from which to get estimates. He was the first vendor to visit our home in late March. We described our project approach. We were looking to do a kitchen and bathrooms upgrade on a limited budget. He felt a refacing approach would be appropriate given the very good condition our cabinet and drawer boxes, along with new granite countertops. Jimmy showed us many photos of several completed projects – all which looked outstanding. He invited us to look at customer reviews on Angie’s List, Houzz, and Home Advisor – all with nothing less than the highest rating. He even offered to introduce us to a neighbor, who had employed his services. He came with a limited, but adequate, number of samples of cabinet fronts, granite, and pulls and knobs hardware. Even with the limited samples, we found a combination of cabinet fronts, granite, and pulls that we liked very much – materials and color coordination were just right for us. Jimmy proceeded to work up a project estimate, and a $22,765 bid seemed reasonable for the scope of our project. But we wanted to get other estimates for comparison. After additional visits from other vendors, it became apparent that Jimmy’s approach and total cost of project was the best value for what we were trying to accomplish. On April 11, we signed a contract with DKandR. Initially the project start was scheduled in July, but for a variety of reasons (both DKandR and ourselves), the project did not start until Tuesday, September 5, 2017. For our project Jimmy had three subcontractors: 1. Independent carpenters for the cabinet refacing. 2. Quality Granite for the countertops. 3. Gerard Plumbing for the plumbing work. Jimmy forewarned us that there may be a few complications as the project proceeded, and if any were encountered, he promised to resolve them ASAP, but mostly with 100% customer satisfaction. Indeed, that was certainly the case for us. We will describe the project as it evolved, with the hope it will be helpful: • First on site, were the independent carpenter subcontractors, and they were awesome. After removing all the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, they prepared (primarily sanded) the surfaces of the cabinet boxes. This was the dirtiest part of the job with considerable sawdust. They hung clear plastic sheet barriers to keep the sawdust from traveling to other parts of the house. At the end of each day they removed the barriers and vacuumed the sawdust. On the thrid day, we ran into our first problem. When the carpenters started to install the pull handles, it turned out of the that the handle bases were not the same as Jimmy’s sample. Jimmy quickly came to our house and helped us pick new hardware - this time knobs. When the knobs arrived they simply did not look good on the cabinet doors. We immediately told Jimmy. He directed us to the web site of his hardware’s supplier and we found pulls we thought we would like. Jimmy ordered them. They were very similar to the originals we liked, but the base was a much better size for our cabinet doors. Problem one solved – 100% to our satisfaction. • Friday was the crazy day. All three contractors plus the appliance vendor (for delivery) were in the house, and all working at the same time. A variety of problems happened as the day wore on. First, it was discovered that only four of the five porcelain bathroom sinks had been delivered. Also, the bathroom faucet fixtures for the sinks were not the right ones. Jimmy had to reorder the fifth sink, and had to find the faucet fixtures in local home improvement stores. The granite subcontractor arrived around 9:00 AM, performed their countertop installations, and were gone up by 2:00 PM. The plumbing subcontractor arrived around 11:00 AM, performed hookups in the kitchen, and prepared for the bathroom installs. They started to install the bathroom sinks about 3:00 PM. They discovered the sinks were not fitting properly in the holes cut in the granite vanity tops. After contacting Jimmy regarding this problem, he had to schedule the granite subcontractors to come back and fix the hole sizes, and reschedule the plumber for Saturday. Without creating too much mess, the granite subcontractor was able to correct the hole sizes adequately. To be clear, at one point we were considering a complete redo of the bathroom countertops, because we were still not happy about how the sinks were setting in the granite holes. And to his credit, Jimmy was willing to go down that path to guarantee customer satisfaction. After talking to the plumber some more, he was able to complete the sink installs to our satisfaction; there was some work on my part to trim caulking around the sinks for aesthetic appearance. • As of Monday, September 12, our project was approaching completion with the exception of the fifth sink in the hall bathroom; it arrived during the week, and the plumber finished that install on the following Saturday. • Initially we were displeased with the granite subcontractor, but they did make things right in the end; the plumbing sub was great start to finish. • After the fifth sink was installed, Jimmy scheduled a final walkthrough for Sept. 26. We discussed the project and problems encountered: a. the issues with the bathroom sinks, including my personal time invested. b. the replacement bathroom faucet fixtures were of lesser quality than those originally ordered. and as a result, he agreed to waive the cost of the additional cabinet ($400). And we paid the remaining 2/3 of the project cost. • Subsequent to that, we discovered some additional cosmetic corrections were needed (replace 3 drawer fronts, redo 3 sections of light rail, and additional minor touch-ups). Jimmy scheduled those, and after three visits to address the cosmetic issues we were totally satisfied. • The B rating for Responsiveness is directed primarily at DKandR for not being available immediately for problem resolution on 2 or 3 occasions. The B rating for Professionalism is directed primarily at the granite subcontractor for their lack of responsiveness regarding the sink hole sizes, although they did take ownership in the end. • Jimmy is a man of his word regarding customer satisfaction. His finished product is of highest quality. Visitors have been highly complementary of our kitchen and bathrooms. We would recommend him and his company – Desirable Kitchens and Refacing without hesitation.