A Carpenter Restoration Renovation Remodel

unknown

.

Besides doing an absolutely excellent job, Russel Parks (also owner) provided a very-pleasant working experience.  As he did the work, he explained what he was doing and why.  That was interspersed with professional and personal stories, most of which were humorous.  He and I both have a fondness for Alaska, so we passed to each other our experiences there.  The job took less time and cost  less than the estimate.  The work completed was everything I expected and more, so we are very pleased with the results.  I have more work I need to have done in other places in our home, and when the time comes, Russell will be the man we will choose!

In getting my house ready to put on the real estate market, I had to call on a lot of contractors for various repair work. I honestly didn't know that dealing with contractors would be such a hassle (even using Angie's List it wasn't that easy!). Most of them never called me back, and if they did call me back, most of them had so much work already, they couldn't take my job. Then if I got them to do the work, trying to get them scheduled and show up on time was another hurdle. Yipes.
Enter A Carpenter, aka Russell P. Parks! He was the ONLY contractor that got back to me right away, could take the job even though he was pretty swamped already, kept me updated on progress, DID AN OUTSTANDING JOB, showed up ON TIME......and.......sold me fresh home grown chicken eggs out of the back of his work truck! I'm just super impressed. This is how people should conduct their business. He has a motto: Good work needs no explanation. So very true!
My dad had built a cabinet in the garage that directly covered the electrical breaker box. Big no no. It was attached to other cabinets and had to be skillfully removed. I didn't want a hack job and that's why I called a professional carpenter. As stated above, Russell was the only carpenter to call me back, and I had put calls in to many. I was able to communicate to him what I needed done via email and photos. He showed up a few days later to remove the cabinet. After the electrician came to replace the breaker box, we then scheduled a time for him to come to do the finish work and make it look like that cabinet never even existed. All the way through the project Russell kept in contact and let me know what was going on. My job was a relatively small one, and he was able to fit me in between his other big jobs. I really appreciated that.
The finish work was just beautiful. He saved the trim pieces when he removed the cabinet and used them as new trim to finish off what was remaining. The wall was filled, taped and spackled perfectly. The paint matched perfectly. Everything was freaking perfect. I couldn't be happier. Really. Thank you Russell P. Parks! You deserve all future business you get! I love the eggs too!

moutRussell is the most professional carpenter I've ever worked with, hands down. I'm an attorney, and would say he has a far higher standard of professionalism than 90% of my colleagues. Russell is trustworthy and terrific to work with.
I was bid a "not to exceed" rate for a very complicated carpentry trim job in our kitchen. Russell estimated it would take 40 hours and we agreed he would bill hourly, but not to exceed 40 hours. He ended up spending an extra two solid days on the project and never even hinted at being miffed at the extra unpaid work.. He delivered exactly what he said he would, even though it took almost a third more time than he'd anticipated.
Call Russell. He has a wide range of skills (used to be a captain of a salmon fishing vessel). Be warned however: I was "trapped" more than once by Russell, who had fascinating stories about Alaska and mountaineering while I should have been heading to work :-) 

Russell was the first of 5 from Angie's list to submit a bid. I should have gone with him right away but I waited for the others to submit a bid. One of the other bids was slightly lower, but that guy was psycho - truly - and the others never got a bid back to us. Russell was prompt - arrived when he said he would, completed the work beautifully and in amazingly record time. Very professional and thanked me for the work and for paying promptly! Russell is amazing!

It went well. I learned more than I had thought I would learn.Overall a great experience.

As I mentioned before, Russell was very helpful before we got started with getting an appropriate bid together for the FHA inspector and the mortgage lender. Russell really seemed to care that I understood what each part of the project would entail. He was friendly and finished each aspect of the project in timely manner. The first part of the job was leveling up the kitchen floor. To do this, Russell demolished the floor and replaced the beam underneath. He also had to dig out a whole lot of dirt in the crawl space to improve the access under the house. This was all dirty work, but Russell was very good about cleaning up, even if the kitchen was a dirt hole for a few days. I decided to change a closet in the bedroom to a utility/laundry room off the kitchen. He helped me design that and had a very good subcontractor help with the framing. When some problems replacing with the sewer line came up ( line was buried under 12 inches of poured concrete, instead of a 3 inch slab) he had solutions to deal with that and was clear about what he was up to. He also has a great attitude and a good sense of humor.

The work turned out very well. I really appreciated their overall philosophy and commitment to getting the work done.

He is awesome. He is very trustworthy and his prices are good. He is a nice guy. I spent $25000 on that work. He and his sub-contractor, who is a general contractor, but he does a lot of work himself. He also helped me to rebuild the whole outside of my house, really old house and he saved me from lots of money from another company. He worked with me on my budget and he is very conscientious about the prices and what he is going to do. If anything, he will give me more than my money’s worth. He is a totally awesome guy.

We were in a time crunch to get this work done as soon as possible after closing on our house, so we that could move in. I contacted Russell about these projects, and he came over to give me a bid within 24 hours. In order to get the projects done in our desired time-frame, he sandwiched them in between other jobs he had going at the time, which was very accommodating, I thought. It took two or three tries to get the wall patching done around the light switches just right, but Russell and his assistant stayed with the task until it was satisfactory. All of the work was completed to my high standards. Russell was very conscientious about keeping the house as dust-free as possible due to my allergies and also due to possible lead contamination in the old sheet rock that was being worked on. He put plastic all around the work areas to confine the dust and then thoroughly cleaned up afterward. This made my life MUCH easier! It was great. I wish the electricians had been like that, too. Russell explained that if I had contracted with him for all the work, he would have made sure the house was just as clean during and after the electrical. Oh well, live and learn.

I spoke to 6 top remodeling contractors from AngiesList and 4 gave me detailed proposals. I choose Russell because he was friendly, reasonably priced and was able to start within a few days. The bids ranged from 60,000 to 85,000. Now 10 weeks later, the home is done and it looks beautiful. We loved working with Russell. He was friendly, funny, easy to talk to and was accommodating. I have to say that Russell was a perfect fit for us. Now, if you prefer someone very professional and legalistic, he is not. If you are used to working with contractors who defines everything in their contracts and everything change needs to be a signed change order, he is not for you. We worked together very collaboratively and I met him daily in the early weeks of the project and he answered my many questions and concerns; he never made me feel like I was troubling him. He was on-site all the time. One time, when Comcast bailed on me on cable installation before drywall was installed, Russell came in the next morning and installed the cable himself. Also, he convinced the city inspector that a basement egress window is not needed and saved us money. At the end of the project, the punch list was longer than I like but he corrected all issues willingly and without charge. Areas of improvement for Russell is to be more timely with his paperwork i.e. shopping lists and change orders. Another minor area was you need to work with Russell on the details as he can be forgetful sometimes. Also, towards the end of the project, the project dragged on a week longer than we like, Russell explained that to stay price competitive, he had to do the final few tasks himself. We were OK with his explanation since we are did not need to move in urgently. We would definitely use Russell again. In fact, he is remodeling our other home in Bellevue. In this process, I definitely learned that it is key that you choose a contractor that matches you.

The price was fair. My experience with the company was good. They were okay.

I really liked him. He was on the estimate. He sent pictures every step of the way. He had good subcontractors. He brought in selections of carpeting and tile for us. He cleaned up and did the job on schedule.

Looks exactly like the other posts. A perfect match.

Looks exactly like the other posts. A perfect match.

All work was done on schedule. Mr. Parks has experience with IKEA cabinetry (it's a little tricky). He constructed a table which coordinated with the quartz counter top. Very good carpentry work. I love my new kitchen!

Work was completed in about 3 weeks (delay was because of the granite counter top fabrication-2 weeks). The faucet I chose could not be used because the counter top was too narrow. Mr. Parks found a very satisfactory solution. I am very satisfied with the result.

Russel Parks, contractor, was always there when he agreed and was always on time. His is a creative carpenter and made important suggestions. The project was completed in about a week. Love the results.

The project began mid-April with a target date of June 1st, as we were to have guests shortly thereafter. Russell and crew/subs always arrived as planned or communicated and we only got off schedule a bit when his subs were delayed. Changes and extras were clearly stated - so there were no surprises on the price. The floor smoothing was a challenge, considering we didn't want the expense of removing and replacing the entire thing, but turned out well. The electrical work was challenging as well, but we now have all the power/lights/appliances we need. I could go on about every individual area of the building process, but mostly what I'd like to say is that Russell Parks truly cares about outcomes - and wants his customer to be happy. I would describe Russell Parks as a knowlegeable, down to earth, sensitive to needs, genuine individual - NOT a smooth operator.

It went very well. Everything was on schedule until the plumber flaked out. Russell had some difficulty finding another one to finish the rough in. It delayed the project for a few days, but other than that it went very well. He was very conscious of dust and clean up. His crew was very professional. The cabinets went in very nicely and I am very happy with my kitchen and bathroom.

My old fence was falling into it s self and my large lab was getting out of the dog run. Russell came up with a design that secured my yard and created a wonderful private space.

Started out great with the dining room closed off effectively from the dust from the demo, and the work to install the doors happening quickly with a minimum of disruption. The framing for the balcony also went quickly and the quality was good. However, treated lumber was used when I had indicated (verbally) that I would prefer to not to use treated wood. The balcony features a curve, and issues arose when Russell decided to do the curve work himself, rather than taking it to a mill like he would have ordinarily. He mentioned that the work would take a couple of weeks to complete in his shop, but several weeks passed before I heard from him again. The main thing he wanted was for me to provide the final payment early. He came back to complete the deck, but some details remained incomplete, like a block of wood was holding up the railing, new paint was chipped and not touched up, and the site was not cleaned up. I had to call to ask for this to be done, then asked for additional money.

After a slightly slow start due to some complications with other jobs, Russell's team got to work. There was some miscommunication regarding the amount of prep needed on the first day, but that was quickly resolved. The rest of the prep and the painting itself went fairly quickly, except for some periods of bad weather. The site itself was slightly messy during the job, but was clean at the end of the job. The crew was very courteous and even helped move a large piece of furniture for me. Russell himself was taking care of other jobs most of the time, but checked in at least once (often twice) a day to be sure things were going ok.

When I purchased this old home in Seattle, I knew I was in for some serious remodeling and repairs - but soon became painfully aware that it was more than I had imagined. When Russell Parks, who is quite a character, came on the scene, I was almost in a meltdown! He helped me assess the situation, establish priorities, made suggestions, listened, worked with me on the budget - all the while with a great attitude of creativity and enthusiasm. Prior to finding Russell, I had spoken to several contractors and either they were just not interested in what was a run-down, potentially time consuming can of worms, or they were prohibitively expensive. Throughout the job, Russell and/or his crew members arrived on time, informed me of changes as they came along and completed phases of the job as promised. In addition, as the oddities (surprises) of this old place presented themselves - he was cheerful and we simply worked through them together.