Rumann Homes

We are very, very happy with the cabin that Roger built for us.  The quality of the workmanship is outstanding and the feel of the place is exactly what we wanted.  Roger is great to work with - honest, respectful, responsive to phone calls, helpful with decision-making.  The only negatives were time estimation and a few cost overruns.  Overall, though, the quality of the end product outweighs any negatives.
The design phase was a lot of fun - we based the cabin plan on a previous house that Roger had built.  However, we made a number of changes to the layout.  We bounced ideas back and forth until we converged on a very good plan.  Roger was always respectful and took our ideas seriously, but also did not hesitate to point out any potential issues.
Construction went more slowly than we had hoped, and Roger's estimates about when things would be completed were not very good.  There were a number of reasons for this - for one, Roger was using a smaller crew than he normally would.  For another, the pine for the ceiling ended up requiring 4 more coats of lacquer than anticipated - with that much wood, the extra lacquering took forever.  It's to Roger's credit that he insisted on getting the ceiling pine to a high quality finish.  However, I think it would have been better if he could have taken a step back and made a more realistic estimate about when the project would be complete.  His estimates were always far, far too optimistic.
The only other negative was a few cost overruns.  The biggest overrun was with the site preparation (removing trees, excavation, etc) and laying down the foundation (required significantly more concrete than estimated).  That overrun was a bit of a shock - about $7000.  However, Roger reassured me that the site preparation and foundation were the items that were hardest to estimate, and that the remainder of the construction should keep much closer to the estimate.  This proved to be the case.  There were only a few minor overruns with the rest of the project.  Roger did a lot to prevent any further overruns.  For example, there was no additional cost for the 4 extra coats of lacquer on the ceiling pine that I mentioned earlier.  That was a lot of extra work on his part that he simply didn't charge us for.
Communication with Roger was always very good.  He's quick to answer the phone or call you back if you get his voicemail.  Once he actually answered my call while he was hanging off the highest beam of the cabin.  Roger's very honest, straightforward, and easy to get along with.
All throughout the process Roger was very helpful with design and decision making.  There were tons of decisions to make, and we never felt abandoned, nor did Roger try to push us into anything.  It was always a good back and forth, and after we'd hash everything out, we felt really good about the decision, and Roger likewise would tell us that he felt good about it as well.  We were deeply involved every step of the way, and again, Roger was very respectful of our input.  The finished product is exactly what we wanted.  I can't think of anything I'd want to change.
Roger was also very helpful with the DIY projects that we took on, which included painting the interior walls and tiling the laundry room and bathroom.  Roger put up scaffolding to enable us to paint the very tall front wall, gave some pointers about good painting technique, and also helped me find the best heating system for underneath the tile.  This was all for projects that he wasn't getting paid anything for.
Last, the quality of the work was really outstanding, and Roger went the extra mile putting on finishing touches.  For example, he took a few big, thick pieces of reclaimed wood, planed them down and varnished them and made them into a beautiful mantle for the tile surround for the wood stove.  He also built a custom door for our little attic using leftover ceiling pine.  The foam insulation around our sliding door had expanded and was warping the door frame, so he cut it out and reinsulated it.  After working with Roger on this project, I have full confidence that everything was done the right way, and that's a good feeling to have.