Dl Construction

Dave was always on the job very early and worked hard, all day long and left late. Our neighbors were astounded by his work ethic. He never abandoned our project to go work on another job, he kept at our job steadily, day after day. He worked around our living in the garage, we only had to go to a hotel one night when the took all the old plumbing out. He temporarily installed the washer and dryer in the basement so we could use it during construction. We have columns and arches between our living room and dining room that he matched these beautifully when making a new doorway into the hall, and covering a new support post in the living room. He hand milled the trim so it would match the old trim work on the posts. The new construction looks original to the house, except not as beat up. He made suggestions that I would have never considered; we left the "interior" walls of the master suite 8' tall, leaving the vaulted ceiling open through out the bedroom, bathroom and walk in closet, which is one of my favorite features. He kept saying that he wanted to build our dream house, and he did, it is so beautiful I can hardly believe we get to live in it. One of the bonuses was when his wife Lennie came down and tiled our main floor bathroom with mocha travertine marble and the upstairs bathroom floor and shower with Travertine marble, mosaic and rainforest marble. She taught me how to lay tile and I was able to tile the area by the front door and the sliding glass door. It was a lot of fun and the final affect is very luxurious and stunning. He pushed his contractors to do the best possible job, and inspected their work every step of the way. I heard him talking with them, and he was always courteous, but firm. He worked well with the inspectors, making sure that everything was signed off at the appropriate times. He ended up doing far more than the original scope of the job, but was respectful of our budget. We went over, of course, but he made the most of every dollar spent. I knew that there would be compromises due to our tight budget, but you would never know looking at the finished house, it looks very high end and impressive. He was also super tidy, I felt guilty at times, he's a much neater person than I am. He would sweep and clean up every night and kept his tools and the works areas organized. He was very resourceful. Our friends had some 30 year old rusty iron hand rails. He found a sub contractor to sand blast them, rework the handles and paint them with a long lasting power coat saving a substantial amount over having new ones made. We've heard stories about how the relationship between homeowner and contractor can get pretty strained. The one time I was upset about something that wasn't done the way I had wanted, our front steps, he tore them off and redid them to my complete satisfaction. I didn't like the shingles he bought and returned them to get what i wanted. He was cheerful, day after day and a joy to have around. We miss him! We don't miss the dust though. He ended up redoing almost every room in the house, walls and floors, except the kitchen. We are hoping to have him come back next year and redo our kitchen.