TENHULZEN RESIDENTIAL

The service was great. We discussed the original design with Traci and received some rough drawings. I would highly recommend having the lead contractor come out and do a pre-construction walk through. Ours was Rob and he was fantastic. Once we felt comfortable with the plan, construction began right away. Everyone was very professional and worked really hard. I was comfortable giving their team a key to my house and we had no issues. I was very satisfied with the quality of the work done and they were more than happy to come out and talk through any questions I had.

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This was major interior work that involved relocating the bathroom.  Michael was both caring and professional.  While Michael's bid was higher, I felt like a member of the family during the whole experience.  The designer did a really good job at conveying my style.  My home was even part of the annual kitchen tour in this area.

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We are happy to give the Tenhulzen team a rating of excellent for the work they have done at our home. Our total investment over an approximately 10-year period has been in the $175K-$200K range. Their preliminary process begins with a clearly structured design, contract, and drawings phase that enabled us to work out design elements, choose materials and anticipate costs--all within our stated budget.
All of our projects finished at or very near the anticipated project timeline with minimal delays. For the duration of the projects Tenhulzen's management team ensured punctual, responsive and high quality design, craftsmanship, and installation. They worked safely with great attention to the comfort of the family and the neighbors.
At the end of our projects, all outstanding matters were completed without delay. Additionally, if issues came up long after the last check was written, they returned and resolved the problem. For example, when an fixtures needed tightening and adjustment months after project completion, Tenhulzen sent the installer to do the job again.
It is very reassuring to see familiar faces on projects spanning such an extended period of time and significant investment.
Tenhulzen is a multi-generational family business, and many of Tenhulzen's team members are long-term employees of the business, who have advanced skill levels in the trades required for the work: carpentry, electrical, plumbing, painting, etc. Moreover, all the Tenhulzen people--the owner's Mike and Traci and all the managers and craftspeople we worked with--are friendly and well-trained.

During the work phase of two projects, we traveled for weeks at a time with full confidence that the team would move the project along, secure our home, and communicate with us electronically when necessary. Their use of digital photography is particularly helpful for working with traveling clients.

When a minor problem did arise, it was fixed seamlessly, without additional cost to us. For example, as will happen with any remodeling project, occasionally minor disruptions or problems have occurred on our projects--dings, delays, errors in materials delivery. When an entry door was scratched during a project, Tenhulzen immediately arranged for sanding and repainting without cost to us. We have never experienced a major problem with Tenhulzen projects at our home.
Although their bids tend not to be the lowest, the quality of work process and product is certainly worth the additional investment.
With this kind of professional service, we will certainly contract with Tenhulzen on any future remodeling work for our home.

We spent $1200 on the project.

They do what you tell them to do.

Okay. Carpet selection. It was done in super fast one day jaunt. I grabbed a few samples thinking that surely we would take them back to my house and see how they looked in my light, etc. NOPE. TR ordered the carpet. I wanted wool carpet but feared moth damage. I learned later through another carpet person that moth damage is not such an issue anymore because the mfg have figured out how to treat the carpet. Anyway, TR insisted on patterned wool carpet for the front stairs. It is the ONE thing that we really like.

The other carpet fiasco is that I got a call one day from Autumn, the designer portion of this outfit. She was looking at the carpet with the paint we chose and there is no way that the carpet she (already) ordered was going to go with the paint for one of the bedrooms, so would it be okay if she ordered the same carpet as the other 2 bedrooms but in a different colorway? I should have said, fine, but you now own the other piece of carpet that YOU went ahead and ordered without checking it with the paint colors first. Topping it off, it is not the same carpet just in another colorway. It's a completely different carpet. Arrgh.

My carpet is okay but I would have preferred wool. Why didn't they know that it would have been okay? Why wasn't I given more attention to picking my materials? I felt like any time I questioned them that I was personally offending both Brian T and Autumn D. Brian acted pretty arrogant . Let me tell you. He kept mentioning that we probably would not want brick for our back patio. Oh no? We paid $40,000 for that patio. Wouldn't you much rather have some decking material that looks like plastic, like faux wood? Uh, NO. Okay worst of it? I love my stair case. They replaced the hand rail, the balusters and the newel posts. The treads? They are little walnut pieces on the end! The treads are not solid walnut treads all the way across! Brian said that the stairs cost $150,000. It's NOT LIKE THEY BUILT A NEW STAIR CASE FROM SCRATCH. It was a job, but it was cosmetic. They did nothing to the stairs except put new tread ends on them and inlaid carpet. They don't even have solid treads but have INLAID carpet as is done in every tract house in King County. It's embarrassing to me. I kept pleading that I wanted solid walnut treads. My guess is that they would not have known how to have the carpet laid on top of the walnut, perhaps?

Good grief, Brian even wanted to do inlaid carpet down the hallway. Ugh. That would have looked so Las Vegas casino to me. Back to the master bathroom. I told them I wanted one chandelier in the mba and not over the tub. What did I get? 2 funky, cheap lights that are an ugly antique nickel finish that are actually hall and foyer lights. They are going down and we may use them in the laundry room of our 3rd and largest phase of remodeling. I have already purchased 2 chandeliers that are better suited to the master bathroom. It was a real nightmare and fiasco and it should have been easy and straight forward. With tax and the payments to the designer that TR hired, the PARTIAL upstairs remodel cost us over $500,000. Besides the two closets that were outfitted in melamine shelving (big whoop) the only room that was really and quot;designedand quot; and built was the master bath and it was a catastrophe.

I feel that since my house was a mess and dirty when they first met with us that they treated us like we did not matter. Yet another complaint? They NEVER draped off the downstairs while doing any demo or carpentry work. It was not until the painters came that our downstairs was draped off for dust and dirt control. The painters were top notch and they draped and re-draped the downstairs.

We also had Carlisle wide plank walnut floors installed. Those were not protected properly. In fact my big pedestal bathtub was dragged across the bedroom floor after it had been finished. They half heartedly tried to repair the scratches. They also did not finish the floors according to the instructions on the Carlisle site and then they could not figure out why the finish was not drying. It was one thing after another and it seems like as long as we kept paying our bills, they honestly did not care. What amazes me the most is that they thought they had any chance at all after all the snafus that occurred on this job to ever get any more work from us!

Bottom line is that I feel that we did not get what we paid for. For the amount of $ we paid, we should have gotten new secondary bathrooms and new mill work in our bonus room. We will have that done but it won't be by Tenhulzen Remodeling.

I think that people should hear the ugly as well as the glowing reports. Honestly? The only reason we hired TR is that they had done a job similar to our 3rd phase job which will be to expand the kitchen and family room. I saw that on their website and thought, okay, they have done it before, so we will go with them. Nope. They lost any further business from us. Oh and if their profits were eaten into? It was because they came back and did things three or four times that they messed up. We have built 3 houses from scratch and have never seen anything like it. Simple things. They could not drive into Bellevue to pick up hardware but had to wait for it to be shipped. Good grief.

The thing that makes me the maddest is that they acted like a $500,000+ job (with the possibility of much, much more) was really not a big deal. I don't care if it's a $50 job or a $5,000,000 job, to the homeowner it is important and should be treated that way and the homeowner should be made to feel like they are trying to get it right at all costs right away...not wait until they finally might get an inkling that hey, we might not get any more $ out these people. Perhaps they did not want any more of our work? There has got to be some talent that is good, honest, and hardworking that will do a beautiful job and take pride in their work. Not this outfit.

They were very professional and prety much kept to their schedule. They also corrected errors in their work right away.

They do good work, but I found them hard to deal with. They were always punctual. They do quality work. Their subcontractors were usually good, and the end product was fine.

There was about 4 day delay in getting started but once they did start they progressed fairly steadily. Due to a mistake on the measurements of one cabinet, it had to be reordered from the cabinet manufacturer, which meant about 3 days the workers didn't work but over all they were here most days. My orginal existing cabinets were from the same manufacturer and there was a problem because that manufacturer changed its measuring system from metric to english about 5 years ago but never mentioned it to my Tenhulzen contractor. Since my original cabonets were over 5 years old, this error resulted in the new cabinets looking shorter at the bottom near the toe-kick. Tenhulzen offered me two solutions to correct this and I chose the least expensive one. I appreciated the workers making suggestions on doing things differently from spec if it made sense. As an example, the spec called for moving 2 lights but the workers suggested replacing them in the same location with recessed cans instead. An easier and slightly less costly approach. I took their suggestion and love the result. Never before have I worked with contractors that cleaned up after themselves at the end of each work day and never before have I seen a contractor reuse and recycle old materials when possible. After completion I did a walk-through with the lead worker and pointed out 4 minor flaws. He fixed all 4 to my satisfaction the same day. I also like that the company guarantees their work for 1 year after completion.