Estate Homes Inc

We had a great experience.  I can't speak for the contractors they are using now but we had no major issues at all.  We especially liked their timeline of when things would be done.  They really stuck to it.  Looking now at friends' and neighbors' experiences we realize how lucky we were to find this company.  Their design team was experienced.  While back then they said they had green built experience, we felt that was lacking and we were pushing them to gain knowledge.  We had hoped for one of the certifications for our home but that didn't happen mostly due to lack of understanding the process.  They were responsive to our desires, not to waste any space under the stairs, for example, and to follow some of Sarah Susanka's ideas from the Not So Big House books, which they did have copies of when we first met.The finish work and warmth of wood get raves from visitors.  Our idea to not have a tub in the master or a formal dining room, did meet with some pushback but in the end we prevailed and are so happy with the result. Our dining table tucks under the large island partway and can be brought out and draw-leafed open to seat 10 without an entire room dedicated to it for occasional use.  The only mistakes with any impact day to day was to forget to wire a doorbell and one switch that doesn't do anything.  Perhaps it was wired for a non existent wall TV light?

This company was recommended to me as a good contractor for a remodel.  I met with them at their office and let them know what my budget was.  I continued to meet them at their office....they did not accommodate my schedule and had limited meetings with me at my home to discuss the remodel.  After a number of meetings they came up with the design....over 100% higher that my budget.  When I challenged them they were condescending and made several unacceptable suggestions.   I paid for the design and told them that I had no intention of working with them again.  I fortunately was able to find an excellent contractor who used my design and completed the project and more within my budget.

They finished the job within 1 day of our project estimate and on budget. The results are simply fantastic, I wake up every day and feel like I am in a luxury hotel. I highly recommend using Estate Homes for any of your future projects. My experience with the entire staff throughout my project was great from design, planning and project execution.

We had so much confidence in Estate Homes that if we had the chance to remodel again we would not hesitate call Estate Home Remodeling

Estate Homes has a written process with all the details and steps you will go through if you choose them.  They also will design and architect the remodel, but allow you to go to someone else for the actuall remodel.  We choose to stay with them throughout the process.  The architect came to our home and created multiple drawings for us (which we needed).  It was nice to have options.  Estate Homes also provides a cabinet designer and an interior designer.  We used them extensively to create the changes we wanted.  When the work started, we felt very comfortable having the workers in our home.  Tim, the primary onsite coordinator and cabinet installer was excellant. He did extra work on some items that popped up unexpectantly.  We love our new kitchen and master bath.

The whole Estate Homes Team was a pleasure to work with.
Our remodel started on time and finished on schedule. The quality of the work is excellent.
We would definitely use Estate Homes again.

We met the Estate Home representative at the local home show and was impressed with his presentation. He explained the company philosophy and that even after plans were made and drawn up that we could back out at any time. We then made an appointment for him to come and see our house and discuss our thoughts for the project. It was then recommended that they send over their architect who went though the house with a fine tooth comb checking out the overall structure. 
The previous kitchen and dining room was completely demolished. The ceiling raised and a 20 foot steel beam installed. The laundry room was to moved back toward the bedrooms, requiring additional plumbing and wall reconfiguration. We were also asking that the fireplace in the adjacent family room be moved and mantle and cabinetry designed to match that in the kitchen.
While this was being done, we had weekly meetings with their design team choosing cabinet styles, tile work and kitchen layout. Thank heavens for them. Their knowledge,  advice and professionalism was invaluable. These team meetings went on for several months as we covered all options down to the finest detail. All the while making sure that we kept within our established budget.
About half way through this planning, my husband and I  decided to increase the project to include remodeling of our two bathrooms as well plus having their painter go ahead and paint additional bedrooms. We greatly appreciated the flexibility of Estate Homes. They were happy to do as much of the work as we asked but were also more than willing to allow us to do as much as we felt comfortable doing to cut down on the cost.

I would describe our experience as quite bad. The estimated time from framing start to move-in was approx. 4 months. The construction part of the project started in August 2010 and had an estimated completion of December 24, 2010 but, we are still fighting to get it completed.Estate Homes and Estate Homes Design are both owned by Ken Cornett. It is actually 2 separate companies. Since we hired Estate Homes design to take our ideas and draw up designs and specifications of our project, it seemed that Estate Homes would handle our project nicely. They took our information and had us pick out the decorating and design materials to be used in our project. The first step went pretty well. The normal problems encountered during design and interior layout planning was solved without much delay. My wife and I enjoyed working with the design and decoration folks during this part of the project. Well next phase was the structure framing and construction. The framers and Project Manager arrived at our site and started the tear-out and new framing of the project. The framers were supposed to follow the prints and plans provided by Estate Homes Design and things did not exactly line up and after numerous tear-outs and re-work on both the lower floor and the upper addition, fitting correct or not, it was decided to move forward by the Project Manager. The Manager claimed it would all be corrected by the end of the project. Unfortunately, the framing sub-contractor had several crews of framers quit on him.  According to the contract, during the entire remodel, the original house was supposed to all be protected from damage by the elements and the workers themselves. The protection from the weather and the contractors was not very well done. We had water damage to the living room T&G ceiling, original framing and the downstairs bathroom floor because of poorly covered and weather-proofed protection. The tarps and plastic were not covering all areas of exposure and some lacked the substantial hold-downs to sustain the winter wind and blowing rains of the Northwest coast. The protection was needed for not only the new construction but there were areas that were the sections of the original construction not being remodeled.  All fixtures and finishes were specified by model, color and manufacturer clearly in our design book provided by Estate Homes. Unfortunately, the master bath tub, fireplace, interior paint that were installed and applied were not what was specified and signed for with Estate Homes. We had to battle with Estate Homes owner to have the wrong tub and wrong fireplace removed and get the correct bathtub model and fireplace models installed. The drywall texture was originally applied as we requested. Due to the poor scheduling of the painter, the texture was almost entirely wiped off throughout the house. The painter was told by the project manager to follow behind the texture guy and apply the paint on the molding and walls almost immediately; this application caused the 4 inches from where any walls reached the ceilings and along all the base trim to nearly smear off. So, after multiple requests to correct the finish, the company owner's brother started using spray can texture to attempt a match, with poor results. We had requested not to use the spray cans but, to only use the hopper type texture gun. This was requested so things would match. Since the texture looked so different, the owner of the company and his brother proceeded to apply many coats of paint to the walls and ceiling. Without serious thought, they even used different types of paint (ceiling paint) to make it look better. The effort was poorly orchestrated, the only protection was plastic on the floor and some tape on the floor trim. The ceiling light fixtures and covers were not removed or even taped off, leaving yet another texture to show and deal with. All the attempt did was cause the orange peel type texture to look like it had a dozen coats of paint over it applied by a 18 inch roller. So With little success, we brought in the paint manufacturer rep to evaluate the problems. The rep recognized the wrong paint at first glance and explained this paint would not wear or clean well and that the multiple textures would need to be fixed and the correct paint applied. When the finish carpenters started work, we again had too many crafts in the project at once, causing for much confusion. The pocket doors in our master bedroom have inch gap at the bottoms of the door because the installers did not cut them down to fit properly. The master bedroom's closet door is a pocket door and it scrapes the middle section when opened or closed. Estate homes office manager told us to not use the pocket door until we will get the sub out to correct the problem. We are still waiting for a correction from the contractor. During this entire time, we have not had use of our home because Estate homes contract claims if we use it before it is completed, we accept it as is! In conclusion: the entire house with the exception of the lower level bathroom and the Master bathroom has the wrong paint applied. It is a lower grade than what was brushed out and shown to us for signed acceptance. The correct paint was even raved about by Estate Homes interior decorator and how wonderful it is to wash and care for in her own home. We have nearly all the wall trim joints cracked and separated. The drywall in the middle of our dining room has a crack running vertically up the wall to the ceiling. There are several corners in the project where the corner bead has come loose from the mud and shows a crack from floor to ceiling. The deck drain on our second story covered outdoor deck is 1/4 inch above the grade level and usually has standing water around it on the deck. The gutters do not drain properly to the downspouts because the downspouts were installed several inches uphill from the bottom of the gutters. When it rains, the water pours over the soffits as much as is flowing down the downspouts.The venting for the enclosed wall and ceiling above our kitchen bar per design and building code was never installed and most likely will cause the roof sheeting and rafters above the kitchen bar to rot. After having the missing vents pointed out to us, we spoke with the Island County Building official and asked if these were needed. The county official explained that they were in the prints and should have been installed. I questioned Mr. Cornett about the vents missing and he said that they would install the vents. One more agreement and no correction completed. We have tried to work with the owner of Estate Homes for many months and numerous calls, suddenly he refused all but email communications and the emails offering concessions to resolve the situation landed with no success. The owner has yelled at both my wife and I, he has blamed us for almost every problem that has come up and even the few items he agreed to correct are still waiting for a worker to come out and make the corrections. Mr. Cornett claims we had our walk-through and that a 50 item list was worked on and having only 4 remaining items. The list was made before substantial completion was pushed on us by threats of no more work until it was paid. We had ceramic tile installed in our downstairs enty and kitchen. The tile was installed nicely but, the entire tile batch had flaws running across each piece. After installation, Estate Homes simply covered the tile with paper and moved on. Upon removal of the protection paper covering the tiles, it showed the horrific lines. Estate Homes chose to make us work the warranty issue with the supplier and get the tile replaced. During which, Mr. Cornett refused to continue any further work. I asked to have the exterior work fixed at the least but, no Estate Homes employees were ever sent out. Since the maker of the tile is in Turkey, it took a year to get the tile flaws evaluated and eventually replaced by the tile distributor. It should also be pointed out that while interior finish work was being conducted, our clear finished doors and cabinets were poorly pro

Estate Homes Inc gave us some honest quotes. My husband is a perfectionist, and he didn't think they were living up to the standards that they had promised. So the quality was less than we expected.

Do be flexible.  Weather is always a complication on outdoor project.
Do get exact prices/materials list for any change orders.
Don't freak out over the mess that a project of this magnitude makes on your property.  They will clean it up at the end.

Working with Estate Homes was a great experience. They were very thorough throughout the entire process, from estimate to design and then build. From the architect helping us to decide what we could do with our existing space (we basically gave the kitchen a "facelift" and didn't have too many structural changes) to the designer, who was extremely helpful in picking out cabinets, countertops, paint, flooring, etc., everything was decided and picked out up front before construction started. The construction process went very smoothly, and they were pretty much done within a week of the estimated time frame. All the subcontractors that came in--cabinet maker, electrician, painters, carpenter etc. were very skilled in their trade and were all courteous and nice to have in my home. The project mananger was always available and very responsive to any issues that would come up. Overall, it was a very good experience and I would highly recommend them. The completed work is beautiful, and we are very happy with out new kitchen and bathroom. They were on the more expensive end of the estimates we obtained prior to having the work done, but I really think we got what we paid for with the quality of work and integrity of the company.

From the quote process through the final design, everything went flawlessly. The interior design meetings were most helpful in determining the look of the completed bathroom. We discussed various design options, ending with a design similar the original design. The designer was invaluable in the selection of fixtures, cabinetry, flooring and tile pulling everything together. The tearout and build process started off smoothly. The delays occurred due to materials issues. Grab bars for the shower arrived without attendant hardware as did the towel bars. I've been through similar experiences with DIYS projects I've done around the house and thought it was just me. In a sense it's good to know these things happen to the professionals, but frustrating in that it extended the length of the project. The work crew was exceptional. The mess stayed in the bathroom and not through the rest of the house. There was never a problem working around our dog who stays in the house all day. Any delays were explained to us as well as a estimate of when they'd be back at work. Now, over six months after completion, we both appreciate the care and expertise of the work performed. We wouldn't hesitate to use Estate Homes again for a remodel project and highly recommend all phases of their work.

It was a great experience! The people all became friends and were so patient with us as we tried to make all the many little decisions! They really know what they are doing and are so professional and only hire good contractors; which was very comforting to us. They walked us through everything and were very honest and we really trusted them in our home. They did an outststanding job...our kitchen is beautiful. I would recommend them to anyone!!