First Choice Carpentry Inc

- Competitive bidding: from the get go, Max was extremely professional, detailed oriented and punctual. He did not shy from pointing out problems areas we would face down the road (due to water damage over time), which his competitors did not identify.
- Pricing: we specifically identified some statement of work to be quoted separately to benchmark pricing across bidders. First Choice Carpentry was well within the range and therefore was deemed fairly priced. While the project led to change requests and cost increases, we felt reasonably confident prices were fair.
- Work initiation: Max and the team took great care in understanding our household specifics: time of access, start and finish times during the work week, access during weekends. Email and text communications were efficient and straightforward. Work started on time.
- Work progress. As work changes were identified, weather impacted some workdays, and subcontractors became involved, we felt that we exceeded the time window assigned for this project and it became more difficult to "wrap it up". This is to be expected for a small company that does not have the resources and luxury to overstaff and build large margins in its schedule. Having said that, Max remained deeply and personally committed to the project, took full accountability and responsibility, and spent numerous evenings and weekends to make sure we hit our deadlines. In our opinion, this was a clear reflection of his and his team's personal and businessethics.
- Billing and project management: accurate and prompt, one small clerical error was promptly remedied, without any ambiguity. Due to the large number of change requests (driven by the nature of the project, not the contractor), and the split between fixed cost and T&M, complexity grew from the initial payment schedule. We quickly agreed upfront on a revised payment schedule and maintained an ongoing ledger for invoices and payments.
- Finish quality: extremely high. Max and his team paid great attention to design details, execution and trade best practices. The final punch list was promptly completed and we did feel that our expectations were met and exceeded in the end.
- Customer relations: Max and his staff showed great attention the quality of their relationship with our family during the project.
- Would you recommend to a friend? Absolutely.

John and his team (Christian & Adam) did a fantastic job that exceeded our expectations.  After initial project and specification clarification, John met with us twice prior to beginning the job.  He completed the work as scheduled and according to cost agreement.  He and his team communicated with us regularly and professionally.  John's ideas and attention to detail added to the customization of our project.

Let me start by saying that I am a man up in years who has worked with many people in various construction trades. This was by far the most pleasurable and satisfying experience with a builder in my life. For a few years we have been watching the log accents on our front decks deteriorate and knew they would need replacing. At 5:00 AM in January the log belly band on the top deck fell off and crashed unto the deck below, taking out some of the log railing. Needless to say, I swiftly called three contractors for bids, two of whom specialize in log buildings and First Choice Carpentry who I found on Angie's List and was impressed with the reviews and pictures of their work. Max came out and gathered the information needed to present a bid. He had some excellent ideas to correct what was wrong with the decks in the first place, and thus caused the problems. He was very personable and professional. As promised, several days later, he stopped by with the proposal and went over it with us. I advised him that we were waiting for the other bids before deciding on who to use. First Choice was the high bidder, but not by much, and we decided to use them based on the experience of dealing with Max and his competitors when they all were here looking at the project. And that gut feeling turned into a very smart decision, because when Max came out to sign the contract, John was with him for the first time. John took one look at this mess and immediately knew that this project was far more extensive than just replacing the log features. We all agreed that the bid meant nothing, and that the cost of the project was going to be organic, as the extent of the damage reveled itself when the teardown began. John did give me a rough guess, and in the end, he was actually only $300.00 off. We agreed on a start date for late March, as we had a vacation planned, and John was good with that, as it would take some time to source the custom milled log accents and rails. You don't just go and pick this stuff up at a lumber yard. When the work began, I only became more impressed with First Choice, as I saw the knowledge and skill of lead carpenter Christian and jack of all trades Adam. They were always on time, worked tirelessly, were a pleasure to be around and cleaned up every night to make it look like they had never been here. Because we lost use of our garage door on the first day, Christian built a temporary wall with a door that could be secured, to guard the contents of our garage from possible theft. We were apprised of the arrival and departure dates and times of large vehicles delivering the dumpster, porta-potty, and so forth,to allow us to reposition our vehicles accordingly. Being conscious of our desire to keep the costs down with all the unknown work needed, they salvaged as many of the rail spindles as possible to be reused, and painstakingly sanded them before staining to make these 13 year old pieces of wood match the new ones perfectly. This job required John to use several subs, specifically a stone masonry contractor and an installer of acrylic deck surfaces. These subs were of the highest quality and were scheduled seamlessly into the project. John's scheduling acumen was most on display when a crane backed into the driveway to hoist the very heavy log belly band to the second story exactly when they needed it. The crane was here for about 5 minutes. I cannot say enough about how everyone on this job was friendly, engaging, professional and highly skilled. They treated our home as if it were their own, probably better. The work they did is just beautiful, we are absolutely thrilled with the outcome, and although it sounds weird, after having them all here for over a month, I almost miss them. Not really, but for any construction needs I may have in the future, either interior or exterior, I will use First Choice Carpentry. And I highly recommend that you do as well.

I called First Choice Carpentry and told them what we were looking for, and sent pictures of the current state of our back yard.  Within the week, John (the owner) and his brother Max (who would ultimately be a life-saver in dealing with our local home owners association and with the city for permitting) came out to take a look.  They were very friendly and began to talk to us and to each other about what would be appropriate for our space.  
They also suggested ways to make the space better than we originally intended.  We were thinking that we just wanted to cover the patio.  Had we done that, we would have lost some natural light -- we have three windows over the patio space.  So John recommended that the cover have skylights, which turned out to be a really great idea.  We didn't lose natural light in our living room at all. So during that initial visit, they took measurements, started to draw up some rough plans and said they'd come back to us within a week with drawings and with a proposal with a price.  
As promised, Max came back within the week with the proposal, drawing, and final price that was the exact price I ended up paying.  We were going on vacation when the work would start, but when we came back, work was well underway and everything looked really good.  We were really pleased with the final outcome.  All of the workers who came really worked hard, and were very professional.  They let us know when we needed to keep our two dogs away from the project.  They were also really careful not to leave nails and other objects in the backyard that could pose a hazard to our dogs, which I really appreciated.  
The patio looks beautiful, and the amount of time I spend out there -- even in the short time the project has been completed -- has increased dramatically.  I love my new outdoor living space!

We found John Capestany on Angie?s list.  We had the approved building permit when we started the interview process.  We interviewed several contractors. John was one of only a few with experience in both remodeling and new structures.   We chose First Choice Carpentry because John showed the most interest in our project.  He seemed excited to make our dream kitchen come true.
John & his team showed up bright & early the first day, and we passed our first inspection before the end of the first day!  Within a week, we had drainage, and a new foundation.
Shawn, the framer was wonderful.  He asked me where, exactly where I wanted things, like the medicine cabinet, towel rack, t.p. holder, etc, so he could put extra support in the walls, while he was building the walls.  He was very accommodating. Shawn also flared out the sides of the skylight in the kitchen.  It increases the amount of light that comes into the room.  It?s extra nice on raining days.  I know the framing of a house dose not show, but that is where all the design of the house starts.  First Choice Carpentry did a great job with the ?bones? of our house.  
There were a few surprises along the way, which is to be expected when tying into existing structures (our house is 50 years old).  John and his team handled the rotten door ledge, the 3 pieces of soft plywood on the roof, whatever came up.  There were no excessive delays in the schedule.  I felt involved and informed by having weekly meetings with the architect and builder.  John and his team worked well with the architect, and every one was very patient with me, answering all my questions, and I had a lot of questions; because although I watch a lot of DIY tv, I have never watched a house being built, in person before.
Framing went quickly, and we had John?s roofer replace our existing roof at the same time as the roof for the addition.  
Roger, John?s electrician warned us, at our first meeting, that we may need to move and upgrade our electric meter, along with the circuit box; and that did turn out to be the case; however it was kind of expected, and did not cause much delay.  The new meter & panel gives us twice as much capability, so we now have room to add more circuits later.  Roger suggested that we may want more outdoor lighting in the future.  Roger asked me where, exactly, I wanted the switches, & outlets.  It is very nice to have an outlet to plug in the crock pot, waffle iron, rice cooker, or whatever I want to use, in every island.  
The plumbers & HVCA subs were also great.  We put in a tankless water heater.  I love it.  The large soaking tub I picked out is so nice.  The rough in plumbing took about a week.  There was a leaky seal on the tankless water heater, it was fixed the very next day, unfortunately the inspector was there that day, and we did not pass that inspection that day, but the seal was replaced and we passed the inspection next time the inspector was here.  This was the only inspection we did not pass the first time; every other inspection was passed the first time.  
After loud construction in the house, the day the insulation went in, it seemed extremely quiet. It only took a few hours.  but it was a nice break from the noise.  
The drywall seemed to be the messiest, but I am told that is the nature of drywall mud.  John?s crew cleaned as they went, and I got quite spoiled.  They picked up their tools, and even swept the floors most days.  
 
In order to stay within our budget, we did all the painting ourselves, inside and out.  It seemed to take a long time.  When the house needs painting next time, we will hire painters. 
Christian, the finish carpenter, is a man of all trades.  He installed the tub surround, and trimmed around it. We used my old pantry cabinet (from Ikea, many years ago), in the new bathroom for a linen closet.  The doors never worked quite right, but Christian fixed them, and they finely work great. The bathroom vanity from Lowes, needed some assembly.  Christian caulked and sealed everywhere.  
I am still gushing about the custom cabinets.  It was my design, but Christian & Shawn built the cabinets of my dreams.  We used every inch of space we could.  I am so pleased with the results.  
All members of John?s team were on time, professional, courteous, & very skilled.  The team also helped me to coordinate with the wood stove and floor people.  
 
We purchased a wood burning stove, and vinyl flooring from other companies, and the team from First Choice Carpentry worked with me to coordinate all parts of the project so they could blend smoothly.
The project was finished in a timely manner.  It took about 3 1/2 months to finish.
This will be our last house, so we are glad we chose First Choice Carpentry; they did a great job.  We have a beautiful new kitchen and second bathroom to use into retirement.

In early April we asked John to give us an estimate to replace some rotted exterior trim boards and to build a storage shed with a
window, skylight and siding to match our house.   He talked to us about the shed and gave us some ideas on how to make the most of the space. (I was a little disappointed with how long it took him to get us the initial estimate.) Although the cost of the shed was high for a shed it was exactly what we were expecting considering the current cost of lumber and labor.  Once we started working with them we never had a problem getting a hold of John.  The process of building the shed went very smoothly. John and all of his
carpenters are very nice, easy to work with, and always on-time.  We were very impressed with their quality of work and attention to
detail (it may only be a shed but since it is visible from the street we wanted it to have a look in keeping with our house and we also wanted it to be solid and secure).  They clearly take pride in their work.  After the shed we decided to move forward with having First Choice replace our roof and give our house a mini-facelift. They were always neat, they cleaned up at the end of every day and were respectful of our property.
In total, First Choice did 4 projects over a 6-week period.  We are extremely happy.  Everything looks great!  They made whole process as painless as possible.  Now that we have found such a great contractor we are planning to do more remodeling next year.

This went very well.

EXCELLENT!!!!

It was my design and they built it to my specifications.  I love their work ethics and the work they do.  I have used them two or three times since they did the framing on my remodel.  I have recommended them to numerous people.

John and his crew were punctual, professional and helpful. They usually arrived at around 8am and left by 4pm. They cleaned up very well everyday on the job and were very careful not to destroy any landscape. These guys are professional and know their trade. I would absolutely, recommend them and use them on any future projects.

The project went very smoothly from start to finish.  We had First Choice rebuild our very large deck a few years ago.  We interacted primarily with Max on that project, and also on this project.  Max is very professional, great at communicating, and understands what we want him to accomplish for us.

All of the workers from First Choice are very professional,

polite, and conscientious.

The project went quickly from idea to completion, as did
the deck project.

Max goes
the extra mile trying to please his customers.  We really appreciate such rare
great service.

We have had bad experiences in the past with contractors doing poor quality work and not showing up.
It is nice to know you can count on First Choice Carpentry to do an excellent, worrry-free job for you.

I would recommend them to anyone for a project, big or small, without reservation!

We plan to use First Choice Carpentry for other projects in the future.

John and his crew were some of the most cheerful people we've ever hired!  Our original "portico" at the front entrance was massive and spanned the width of the driveway.  The first step was to demolish it.  Although it was showing signs of rot, it was apparently very well-built, and took nearly two days to tear down and remove.  Even though it took longer than they'd planned, they had a good sense of humor about it.  They did a very good job of cleaning up all the debris afterwards. 

To prepare for installing the supports of the porch, they had to dig several feet into our driveway, which has an aggregate surface.  We were impressed with how well they managed to match the original surface. 

The original plan included moving the window above the porch to accommodate the pitch of the roof.  This would have added to the expense considerably and they were able to make it work without moving the window, which was appreciated.

The new entrance has a cedar shake roof (to match the house), and a very lovely radius ceiling.  The craftsmanship was excellent. 

Toward the end of the porch project, we started thinking we'd like to have our windows and trim replaced (since we were having the house painted in a few weeks) and John was able to match a very competitive estimate we'd gotten previously.  In total, 11 new windows were installed, complete with new trim and sills. 

John and his crew were very punctual and professional throughout the project.  While theirs was not the cheapest bid we received, we felt confident that they'd be able to create the design we wanted, and went with them over a substantially lower bid.  We are very happy with this decision and feel it was worth the money spent.  We would definitely hire them again and would recommend them to friends.

John and Max were great to work with in the beginng of the project, but by the end of it the quality of work dropped and they did not want to fix problems with their work or their subcontractors' work.

We primarly worked with Max in the beginning, who helped us work through the final design. They brought in an architect to draft the designs and blueprints. All of that process went smoothly. The permitting was slow, but that was the City of Seattle's fault, not First Choice's.

Max worked with us to keep us in our budget. He let me take on some of the work to save money, and he pointed out places where we might save money by making certain choice.  When construction got started, they did a good job projecting the house. They put down carpet projection, wood flooring protection, and plastic dust barriers.

When it came time for me to do some of the work on the house, Max didn't give me much warning. I told him that I needed time because I work a full time job, and I would need weekends or nights to do some work. In the end, Max was always accomodating and gave me extra time to do my work. However, this was a small example of communication mishaps that I had with Max and John.

First Choice also built a temporary roof (mostly made of plywood) over my house to do the work on the roof top deck. On a really stormy night, we found that there was a leak in the one section that had a tarp over it. John and Max came over at Midnight and worked until 2AM to fix the tarp and they later fixed the area where the leak affected the drywall.

Most of the rest of the project went well.  Progress was fairly consistent, and we checked in on the project almost every day.  We believed that the framing work was great, and they paid close attention to the framing details.

As we approached the end of the project, communication started to go poorly.  I would call Max and he wouldn't call me back, then I would hear from him  week later and he'd say his phone was dead or his voicemail was full.  If I called a number of times or needed to get a hold of John, I could.  Quality started to get worse, too.  For instance, we had our house resided within the last two years, and since some of this work affected the outside of our house, First Choice had to reside some of it.  They nailed the bottom of almost every board they installed, which meant we could see the nails on all their work.  Almost none of our previous siding
had that.  When I talked to John about it, he got really defensive and said it was OK to do it that way.  In the end, we agreed that he would fix one part of the house, but not all of it.

We cared about the details of the project, and we thought John and Max cared about that in the beginning.  When the finish work was done, they installed the closet doors (which are 3 feet apart), and they put two hinges on one door and three on the other.  They also used hardware that did not match the finish of our existing hardware.  When I told Max about this, he claimed that they didn't make the finish of my existing door knobs.  I sent him a link to Home Depot to show that it did exist, and he ordered the door knob.  Had he done a little more research, he would have easily found the knob.  This demonstrated to me that Max and John had lost interest in the project.  Slower response times, and less attention to detail were common late in the project.

The final piece that really didn't go well was the membrane installation for the rooftop deck.  First Choice replaced the whole deck, including the plywood underneath the coating.  When it was done, I could clearly see all of the seams from plywood underneath through the membrane.  This did not make me happy because my previous deck did not have any visible seams, and the house next door (and other similar houses in the neighborhood) had no visible seams either.  I met with John and his sub contractor, and they claimed they couldn't see the seams (every other visitor to my house said they were clearly visible).  John told me there was "no money left in this project", and he told the sub contractor that I "had called them back for quite a bit of purely asthetic work."  The way he said those things was rude, and I think it showed he was frustrated with the project.  John and his subcontractor eventually added another coat to the deck, but seams are still visible and I have no explanation for why they're so visible.

We've spent a long time thinking about what rating to give First Choice.  If you had asked me what rating I would have given them at the mid-point of the project, I would have given them an A+.  On the last day of the project, I was so frustrated I would have given them a much worse grade.  I believe that First Choice did a fantastic job with the first half to 3/4 of the project.The way that they worked with me to make the costs work, to keep us up-to-date on the project, and the way they offered choices in all of the decisions that we had to make was great.  I believe that something changed in the last few months.  I won't speculate on what that was, but it caused their quality of work (e.g. drywall seams are visible and texture is inconsistent) to diminish significantly.  Under the right circumstances, I would consider using First Choice again, but I would probably change a few things, and I'm sure they would, too.

They did really good work.

 Overall the job went as planned with only a minor delay on cedar decking being delivered. They demo'd both the old front porch & rear deck, pored concrete supports, and worked on both the new front porch & rear deck at the same time. They cleaned up job site daily and hauled away all the old lumber from the demo. John, Jeff, Chris, and Christian worked professionally and we now have both a beautiful front porch and rear deck.  We couldn't be more pleased.

The bathroom is beautiful! The work was completed on schedule and professionally. I would hire them again!

I was initially very unhappy with the work performed by the carpenter, but the owner took great pains to resolve all problems to my satisfaction, and I highly recommend this company. I have yet to find a contractor with as much integrity, honesty, expertise and professionalism as First Choice. This is the third time I've used First Choice. The work performed by the carpenter was not completed in a timely manner and the carpenter did a very poor job matching the texture on the walls and was generally very sloppy and unprofessional. I had also requested installation of a new cabinet, which wasn’t completed until months later. Once I brought this to the attention of the owner, however, all was resolved professionally and satisfactorily.

They did a great job on all of the work that they did. They were easy to work with. They were on time and hardworking.

We moved into this new home and realized that a porch would make a great addition to the property. Max was very thorough in guiding us through the whole process and helped to make the initial design phase painless. He thought and pointed out items that we could not have anticipated at such an early stage. Once the building got under way, John and his team were very punctual and professional throughout the job. John was on site most days and kept me informed about the progress and movement of the staff. This was a tough time to be working outside as it happened to be during the two snow falls and of course the floods we experienced in December 2010 and not to mention the holidays that fell into this time period. Even so, the work site was always left neat and tidy and we were even able to use the space to do some BBQs during this time. During construction John made suggestions to further improve the design which brought us the advantage of additional privacy from the neighbors. We are very happy with quality of the work that was done and would definitely recommend First Choice Carpentry to our neighbors and friends!

Weather was Pac NW weather--much rain. Regardless, the crew worked throughout to complete the deck and got drenched at times. There was a light delay after demo of the existing deck and placement of railings for the new deck material to be delivered but that was acceptable. (I wasn't going to use the deck in that weather anyway!) The only complaint that I have is that one or two days when I expected someone to show, they did not. But that is a minor complaint. My new deck is beautiful and even smells wonderful. I am very pleased with the work done and would call them again with another project. Thank you, First Choice!

First and foremost, the craftsmanship on this job was excellent. Bill, the lead framer, is really exceptional in his field -- just watching him work was inspiring for a DIY like myself. All of the mitered corners are crisp, and every cut looks like it was done by a machine. All of the nail holes in the trim are filled, and the cedar shakes are absolutely stunning. They never scrimped on materials, using plywood instead of OSB, 5/4 trim, and high-end paints and sealers. Everyone who has looked at the house is impressed with the quality of the work. Additionally, First Choice took great pains to work around our life. I run a small business out of my garage, and they were able to work with me to move my shelving and tools around so they could do the massive job of putting in 6 22' LVL beams. They even dropped one in from the top of the roof -- not an easy task. I handled the electrical side of things, so they even bored some access holes for me to run wiring through. They also were able to accommodate numerous changes (add a secondary slab for a step, install a new front door, etc.) without adding a lot to the cost of the project. Max made numerous trips to our house to bring by materials for us to look at and select from, including making two trips just for stone samples. There were a few communication hiccups -- a couple of times we needed to scramble, especially on the custom brackets on the front of our house, but this was mostly due to a slow response from the architect on the job. Additionally, we had a few discussions over what should / should not have been included in the original contract, as I believe First Choice somewhat underbid the garage job for the amount of work it ended up being. However, these were negotiated to a reasonable compromise, and I feel good about what we paid for the quality of work that was done. We have another phase of this project (back of the house!) already bid by First Choice for when we have the budget to kick them off. I plan on going with them to do it, and I would highly recommend First Choice to anyone either building a new house or remodeling -- you won't regret it.

Max and Ron came and planned our project with us. At first we were considering building an addition onto the house, but in the end decided that would cost too much. We definitely needed a new roof and double paned windows. We also knew that with the new roof we'd be putting in skylights. Max told us about the solar tubes and we decided to go with 2 of them (1 in the guest bath, 1 at the end of the upstairs hallway). The dumpster arrived on Monday of the first week. On Tuesday the roofing team (John C, John John and Martin) came first and ripped off the old roof, framed in the skylights and solar tubes. Then the new roof went on. We got rid of the 14 year old shake roof and upgraded to a lifetime guarantee, green composite roof. All the old roof went into the dumpster and by Friday the new roof was on and looking beautiful. In the process, John C found some dry rot near our chimney. He was able to repair the damage and The second week, the windows team (Christian and Justin) arrived and the old brown aluminum single paned windows started to come out. One by one they were replaced with double paned Ply Gem vinyl windows. Christian and Justin didn't implode the windows; they cut around the old ones and removed them and then slide the new ones into the hole. Then the pieces they cut out when back in. The cuts had to be covered by window trim which we had not had before. We decided to stain the trim for the windows ourselves and did so on Wednesday and Thursday of the second week. Then that trim was used to finish the newly installed windows. Window (12 windows), sliding doors (2), skylights (4 in cathedral ceiling, one replacing lighted ceiling fan in a bedroom)), and solar tubes (2) went on for three weeks. The gutters came off in the middle of this so that they could go into the recycle pile with the old windows. The exhaust fan was also installed in the master bathroom along with an extra set of outlets midway through the window/skylight process. When they had questions, Christian and Justin were professional and courteous and not afraid to ask rather than guess. After window, skylights, and roof were complete they re-roofed the shed to match the house with the product we had left from the house. Another company then came in and stained and painted the house. We would have had FCC do it, but they don't currently do painting. So two weeks after completing the main part of the job, our new gutters came and took half a day to install. We had ordered a leaf guard attachment, but it didn't come in so the job had to be completed the following week, but that took less than two hours. We looked at rain chain sample pictures and chose the one we wanted near the end of the fourth week. The rain chain was installed by Michael in September. After the roof and windows went in, but before the gutters, we had those 100 degree days and the house no longer got that hot, reaching only 74 degrees at the end of the day rather than 86 to 90. Now that the days are cooler, the house stays warmer and is quieter; we hear less car noise and outside noise with both the new roof and windows. Not one of the windows, skylights, or solar tubes has leaked and all provide spectacular light in the house. With the new window trim, our house looks great. John C and Max were excellent at checking in with us and managing the project overall. They and their teams did spectacular jobs. We'd known that John C was very quality conscious; he put our upper back deck on several years ago and we were very happy with his work then. We are no less happy now, and First Choice Carpentry continues to deliver high quality work at a reasonable cost.

include above written comments.

The crew did an excellent job on the fence. It was done quickly and professionally, including perfect cleanup of the job site and removal of all the old fencing. I will definitely hire them again for future fence repair/replacement and will consider them for all my home renovation work.

Our old upper deck was not built to code (it came with the house that way) and the planking was rotting. John gave us a great quote, came with his team on time, demoed the old porch, built the new porch, and cleaned up when done. The new deck has Trex planking and the railing is built to code. John and his team did great work and we're very happy with our new deck.