Arnold's Kitchen and Baths

As inexperienced renovators, we were pleased with the level of attention and professionalism that Bill displayed for us and our project. He helped us at each stage, from help with redesigning the kitchen configuration to quickly sending out one of his guys over a weekend to fix a small problem after we moved into the space. We had interviewed other contractors for bids, and Arnold's was least expensive of the options. However, he also most impressed us with his thoroughness during his assessment of our space and we felt like he had a great deal of experience to do the best job. Since we were waiting to move into our new house until the kitchen renovation was complete, we ordered as much as we could up front and the work proceeded fairly quickly. There were some minor delays, but overall, the work was completed in an acceptable time frame. The project remained on budget, with Bill working to find ways to save money where needed. Bill's workers were very polite, hardworking and considerate, and everyone was always willing to answer my questions (in a way that didn't feel condescending at all!). Again, all of the subcontractors were also professional and did excellent work. We were so pleased with the work of Arnold's Kitchens and Baths that we had them do a small bathroom renovation and will likely call on them to renovate our other two bathrooms as well.

Bottom line: The project was done on-budget, on-schedule and we LOVE it! We have built several homes in the past (but have never done a remodel) and Bill and his guys are just great. We got three bids and Bill's quote was the most reasonable in price, schedule, and detailed information. We had a few minor change orders but the charges were very reasonable. The addition of a warming drawer and also the new lights required adding two unplanned circuits to our electrical panel, fortunately there was room. Bill's crew isolated our kitchen from the rest of the house every day, keeping dust infiltration down to a minimum. They spent the last half hour or so of every day cleaning up so that we could use what useable space there was in the kitchen every evening. After only a couple days, demolition was complete and rebuilding started. We were surprised at the speed of the remodel. Because so much of the purchasing was done ahead of time, Bill's crew was able to move rapidly with the rebuilding. We could see great progress every single day.

Had ordered most items several weeks in advance so knew what was going in prior to contract. Chose this contractor based on discussions about how he would do things and when he was using specialists. Paid top dollar and expected top dollar. Work was done well throughout. I had a clear contract and actually reworked some of the legalize my work attorney recommended we change without a fight. Also had a clear and fair payment schedule. I was able to go home everyday at lunch to ask/answer questions and that really helps avoid mis-understandings and allows minor choices to be made without holding things up. I really believe that is key to having a project work well for both client and contractor. Several of the items showed up late including the tub which tended to make their work space out a bit. Had a minor glitch where the tile supplier didn't deliver the requested amount of one of the tiles, but I was able to get the extras in just a couple of days. The biggest mess was the faucet hardware. They were the last things to arrive and then the sample I was shown at the plumbing store turned out to have a misprinted manufacturer finish code number and name - what we got was not what we wanted. Store and Manufacturer agreed easily to expedite the fix quickly, but even still that held up completion. Through all this the contractor stayed calm and fortunately so did I. Contractor's tile guy AcesTile owned by Travis did a really professional job on the tile. All the other work was done very well too, they cleaned up completely each day, and I didn't get any sneak billing surprises for work within the original scope. They made recommendations several times (occasionally even against what I asked for) based on experience and I took the majority of them and am glad about it. When I had strong preferences they accepted without a fight. All in all a very good experience with the usual several project surprises that come along. I would happily use them again or recommend them to friends and family. I'd happily use the tile guy for any tile project I had.