Astonishing Hardwood Floors

The job was fairly urgent (since we wanted it done before moving our furniture in), and of the three hardwood guys, Jon was the only one that was able to meet our time window; his prices were not the least nor the most expensive -- right in the middle. However, this moderate pricing only included 2 coats of polyurethane (the less expensive floor guy would apply 4 coats, but he was busy during the time we needed him); this was not acceptable to us, especially since the douglas fir is a soft wood and I felt it needed at least 3 coats for added protection. He resisted doing so at no extra cost, but said that since he was between jobs and had the time to take the project on, he was willing to do the 3rd coat of finish. They (Jon and an assistant) were pretty punctual in their arrival times and started the job promptly. Personality-wise, his attitude was not the friendliest -- could have been nicer or more easygoing about some things. For example, he said that one payment (deposit) was due up front, and then half of the remainder due at staining and the other half upon completion of project. When he came to do the staining, I didn't have the check waiting for him (I had to head to work before he could arrive) and he got angry about that -- it was ambiguous to me, because I didn't know "at staining" meant "prior to staining", I thought it meant during or after the staining process. There was a hiccup in the process at one point when our heat turned off and thus they could not continue because the temperature wasn't hot enough to finish the overnight process -- this was our fault because we hadn't checked propane levels and ran out of propane prior to the project. We had to wait several days to get a refill, and this made timing stressful because we were scheduled to move our furniture in and the work would have to be done on a weekend, which Jon said he was not available for; thus he charged us extra to have his assistant do the final poly coat alone. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the quality of work: the sanding job was very good (even and not too deep, minimal scuff marks around the baseboards), and he worked diligently with us to make sure we had just the right stains we wanted before applying them (lots of test-stain areas, and he was able to custom blend existing stains into a ratio that worked for us); the yellow pine turned out a bit lighter than I had expected based on the test stain, so that was disappointing at first, but it still looked good and I have grown to love it. The only issues we had were that (a) they wouldn't refinish the kitchen floor (which needed it the most) because he said it was simply too thin/unstable already. My father-in-law, who is a subcontractor, didn't seem to agree with this, but who knows... it was disappointing either way to not be able to fix the most scuffed up area of the house (but no, we were not charged for the area they didn't do); (b) There is an uneven area of polyurethane -- a small "puddle" where it seemed to pool up next to a slightly-exposed (uncoated -- or only coated once or twice, not the third time) in the final coat that was applied by Jon's assistant. This is disappointing because it's really the only blemish in otherwise great-looking (I guess you could say "astonishing") floors. Fortunately it is only noticeable under certain lighting angles, but still a shame. I doubt this would have happened if Jon had done it himself. I would give an A or A- (because of the blemish) for work quality, a B for price (not the cheapest, not the most expensive -- but he knew that and told me upfront when he quoted the cost), but I would give a B- or C+ for professionalism... he could do a better job with communication and general attitude toward things. Overall, a B or B+ job. Would we use Astonishing Hardwood Floors / Jon Iacampo again? The answer is... maybe (but not if he charges his full rate for only 2 coats of finish)