DESIGNfirst Builders LLC

All workers, were on time, all professional, most of the time I was gone and had lock box on door. Always left all clean and sweep floor and carried garbage out of house.

I'm absolutely satisfied with their work. They are great people. It came in on budget other than the things that I changed but I was still with them probably about ten or fifteen percent of the original budget. I really liked working with the designer but she wasn't the original salesperson. I wasn't particularly crazy about him but that was no big deal. The designer really helped me out with picking things because I struggled some much with picking floors and cabinets. She just really helped me out with that. They were so many things that I would have done differently, if I had known better. The final product is beautiful but there are little things here and there that I would have done differently. I think they were expensive. They were here when they said and they cleaned up after themselves. They told me it was going to take about six weeks but it took a little bit longer because it was Christmas time so they were trying to get things done for everybody for holidays. I told them not to worry about me because I'm not having holidays at my house and that's the only reason that took a little longer.

Very, very nice people. Submitted a bid for our remodel project. A little slow getting numbers back to us, but the bid was quite thorough. In the end, we decided to use a different company, but our experience with DesignFirst was for the most part, very positive.

The process went very well. It was supposed to take about 3 to 4 weeks initially, but it ended up taking 6 weeks. Still much shorter than we expected based on stories from others that we heard. Some delays were caused by minor hiccups in the process. (i.e. some materials were not in yet.) Also, to be fair, we added more items to the "to do" list as we went along. It ended up being easier to do some of the items while they were here. They showed up on time every day and worked as diligently throughout the day. I'm very happy with the work that was done and how it was done.

They were receptive and responsive to some of the needs and everything did not go perfectly and smooth throughout the process, but they always made sure that things were corrected and made right. They were professional and they provided good design services and we are happy. Their workers were courteous, nice, and skilled. Pricing was not bad and price to the value was good. I would use them again.

Sean came up with original concept and had many great ideas. Adam was great with cabinet counter and backsplash selection. We picked out our flooring at an outside vendor and Adam was able to to acquire it for us. My husband did a lot of homework on the tankless heater and gave some of the info to design first. Damian did 90% of the construction was awesome. Some people deserve A's some people deserve C's on the responsiveness category.

My wife and I worked primarily with Joe LaBelle, and we would recommend him to anyone. DesignFirst was extremely patient with us, making time whenever our schedules allowed to come over to our house and sketch ideas for our home. They spent over 10 hours with us, at our house and at their location in Itasca, without charging us anything. Other companies that we interviewed for similar work all wanted to charge us $3k to $5k before they would even pull out a pen and start sketching ideas. Our time with DesignFirst included a meeting at their design center where we spent four hours walking through several revisions. They had a great system where they could show us 'live' what the outside and inside of the house would look like after the addition. We spent a ton of time working through material lists and detailed plans for the addition. We put down a deposit for the work (which was estimated at about $120k), but then ultimately cancelled after we decided to move into a different house instead. They gave us a full refund, and they were very understanding. Joe is one of the nicest guys around, very patient at teaching us all about home design and he spent hours helping us think through a number of different options for expanding our house. They have a great team there - we've recommended them to several of our friends, and we'll use them again in the future when we're ready to talk about expanding again.

My renovation started out with needing a new refrigerator. My house is a modest, vinly-sided 4 bedroom home in a subdivision that has between 5-7 different models available. They are approximately 15 years old with high celings and windows, but a traditional layout that included a living room/dining room which I felt didn't get as much use as we could have had if they were more 'integrated' into the main flow of the house.I began my project with the intention of enlarging my kitchen (it made no sense to buy new appliances for a kitchen with one drawer, chipped formica cabinets and very little strorage space, right?) but soon realized that it would involve new flooring throughout the mainfloor and why not move walls while we're at it?! I joined Angie's list for the purpose of finding a reputable contractor or renovation team to do the work- in the past I'd been at the mercy of someone that did work based on a friend or neighbor's word of mouth recommendation. This time, with 3 kids and a dog needing to live in the house while the work was being done I wanted to thoroughly look at my options and make sure I made the right choice from the start. After interviewing 4-5 individuals/firms, DesignFirst's Tony Slade blew away the competition with his thinking 'out of the box' that completely challenged what I thought I had to work with. We ended up working within the footprint of my home due to budget and neighborhood value variables, but Tony has the ability to have a vision beyond what people 'expect' when trying to visualize an outcome. I put Tony through about a year of back and forth and finally committed to D1 because they are a TEAM. I wasn't relying on one individual- in terms of opinion, taste, work schedule, etc (oh, let's include crisis management....when there's a team, a crisis isn't nearly as scary...there's always someone to help!) I was highly conscious of cost, and Tony was very transparent with the costs, payment schedules, and my ability to find opportunities to reduce the cost of certain items when possible. I was able to save money on items that I found, which not only helped my pocketbook but allowed me to have a say in the appearance of certain things. I absolutely needed help when it came to designing of the kitchen, cabinetry, tile backsplash (thankyou, MaryLou!) I completely relied on the 'can-do'/Mr Fix It/Make it Happen Mr Mike Moffit. As a project manager, he couldn't have done anything more...not only managing every aspect of the project, but moving my computer, making sure our 'basement accomodations' were up to par with internet connection, fielding late-night calls about seemingly large problems that really weren't large AND coming up with a custom design to remedy a space problem. It didn't end there! The project took about 10 weeks...well within what was predicted. There was none of the lagtime where the contractor has other projects going on and subsequently is spread too thin to keep things going...we had work going on every day possible. D1 doesn't abandon you when the work is done. I called Mike with concern over a water leak under the sink a full 6+ months after the completion of the work. He immediately sent over the plumber that had done the work on my house and the plumber took one look at my faucet and realized the spigot had come loose from the sprayer hose, allowing water to run down into my undersink area....a very simple solution that I was relieved I didn't have to call a $100/hour plumber to come see! I don't want to leave anyone out of my recommendation , as everyone involved played a key part. Matt McCaw, Director of Project Management made a personal visit when I had some concerns over the layout of my kitchen. He immediately dealt not only with my concerns but changed the position of my refrigerator, requiring the repositioning of cabinetry that had already been installed. He went above and beyond, creating a custom solution to a seemingly impossible layout problem...he has the vision, like Tony, MaryLou and Mike, to come up with creative solutions to design challenges. Last but not least, we want to thank George and Jose for their hard work...the kids looked forward to seeing them there on a regular basis! They always went above and beyond, and left at the end of the day with my house neater than I would have left it. If you are looking for a professional company that will help you through every phase of your project and beyond DesignFirst is the one you should choose.

Overall, the experience was excellent. We had an initial floor plan that we were shopping around to different contractors for quotes. The range of the quotes we were getting was a bit crazy, as much as $20,000 difference from one contractor to another. When we met with Sean Kelly from DESIGNfirst, he did something that no one else did. He took our existing floor plan and improved it significantly. We probably would have hired DESIGNfirst on the strength of that design alone but were happily surprised to find that their pricing was very competitive and backed by a detailed set of plans and cost breakdowns. They handled getting permits with the village and the work started on time. I was particularly impressed by their workers, both in the quality of the work but also in their professionalism and courtesy. Noise was kept to a minimum and great care was taken to minimize disruption to our home and work. Along the way, the DESIGNfirst production manager, Matt McCaw, made several suggestions which further improved the space and the finished office is better than we had hoped for. We have plans to finish the rest of the basement soon and will certainly look to DESIGNfirst first for this work.

We first met with Joe LaBelle an designer for the firm at our home then at the design studio in July/August 2012. We discussed in detail what we wanted and Mr. LaBelle made suggestions and then a made a plan that we could see in 3D. We were pleased with all our decisions. We were to have a chocolate brown oak kitchen by Decora with extras like a tray cabinet, lighted cabinets that reached the ceiling, a refrigerator with matching wood paneling, a bookcase for our cookbooks, etc. It was to be our dream kitchen. Then our plan was passed on to Mary Lou who was the detail person. She redid the plan without the tray cabinet, the bookcase, or the lights in the upper cabinets, mismeasured the set up so that the refrigerator door couldn't open all the way (later the cabinet next to it was replaced to accomodate the door, the replacement cabinet by the refrigerator came in light brown with chocolate brown doors).Mary Lou informed us that the cabinet style we decided on with Mr.Labelle was not available in Chocolate Brown Oak but that Teaberry hickory was a similar color and that we would like it. Not only is this color nowhere near chocolate oak, the cabinets came from the factory with a stain that was multi-colored, had a whitish glaze over some doors, and had different colored drawers. Just awful. But worst of all the company actually installed them and when I brought the staining to their attention, they said that some people like them like that. (Please look at the pictures).They agreed to restain the doors which I logically wanted the color of the the cabinet bases or the wall of the fridge they built but instead the doors came back almost black and do not match the cabinet walls at all. We now have a kitchen with dark doors and drawer fronts and cabinet walls that are at least 4 shades lighter. The so called tray cabinet came with a shelf in it rather than a tray divider; glass shelves were lost, then new ones were mismeasured and a third set had to be made. Completion times were promised: first before Halloween, then by Thanksgiving, then while were gone for Christmas vacation...the job was completed at the end of February. Their were other quality issues like a stone back splash that was installed in such a way that you could see the white wall behind it; doors that were reinstalled after restaining in such a way that you coould see inside the cabinets and with one lower that the other adjacent to it and restained doors that had to be done yet again because the stain? flaked off. The fact that Design First did no quality control and left it up to us the customer to notice the details that make a quality kitchen, is outrageous. My expectation is that the kitchen would look like one they would love in their showroom. They are evidently satisfied with how it looks. Mr.Slade the CEO has since visited our kitchen and promises to make it right. I have two bathrooms that are to be remodeled. It won't be with Design first.

Excellent professionalism. They never failed to deliver and correct any design flaws we noticed. Even with the redesign of the basement kitchen the job went very smooth. Jack Labetz and his crew have to be complimented on the way the jobs were coordinated. He was always on top of even minute things. Mary Lou Rogers was an excellent coordinator in both the design and selection of materials with us. Tony Slader was also able to correct any errors in the basement design. Matt McCay was excellent in performing all final inspetions. Finally Aaron was excellent in breaking down the pricing to us and gave us an ideawhen we needed to pay as both jobs progressed. We would recommed this company to anyone looking for quality work.

3 bedrooms had sliding closet doors, and we need them changed to swing-out doors. Nick Simms was the estimator, and he was very good. He came on time, measured all the rooms, and took photos. He went back and put a price quote together for me. He was very professional. I did not use them because I found another person. Their prices was competitive at $2200. I'll certainly keep them in mind for future projects.

They were real professional. They did an excellent job. They were very informative with the time frame they were going to perform the work in. They provided a lot of barriers through out the house to keep the rest of the house clean. They stayed on schedule as far as time, and that was good. There were no unnecessary delays and the price they quoted me at was what I ended up paying. I highly recommend them.

They were not particularly responsive. They weren't horrible but they were just slow to respond. They didn't seem all that interested. Their price and punctuality was okay. When they were here, they were very good.

Bottom line: the end result is gorgeous. Seriously, absolutely, no-holds-barred gorgeous. That said, we had a real roller-coaster to get here. I was really impressed with these folks from the start and even through the rocky parts I *wanted* so badly to give them another chance, the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps some will say that I gave them too many chances. Now that it's all complete (and beautiful), I can look back with a bit more peace of mind and say that hopefully I just fell through the cracks. They were big cracks, and the PROCESS here totally screwed up: indisputably, inexcusably, quite ridiculously screwed up. But in all fairness I really do want to give credit where credit is due: the end result is fantastic. We chose DesignFirst based on Angie's List reviews, and while everything went beautifully initially (Nick came out to see the project--turning a small staircase cutout into a mini-mudroom--and designed gorgeous plans), things shortly fell apart. As soon as I started following-up with the "next phase" contact person, Rebecca, the whole thing stalled and went into tailspin. I went out to the studio to make all of the detail choices, then waited for her phone call confirming everything and scheduling the final detailed measurements. And waited. And waited. After a few more rounds of emailing her supervisor I learned that she was no longer working with the company; he volunteered that our project was "not the first" she'd had trouble maintaining. So, fine--let's start over and give them another chance. We were reassigned to a new person and started over. A month has now gone by. I spoke to the supervisor AGAIN to voice my intense frustration that a project which was supposed to take less than 30 days start to finish has now taken 6 WEEKS and still wasn't out of the design phase. I told them I'd give them one last chance--honestly, only because I want to support local, small businesses and because they really did come up with a great design. I asked them to give us a discount as recompense. They offered a measly $125 off a $5000 project. (Seriously?? That's all their apology is worth??) Still, we were 6 weeks in, with the design ready and our deposit already submitted, so I let them try again. The new person seemed to be reasonably adept at keeping the ball in the air, we had the final measurements done, we approved the next phase of drawings, and we went out to the studio AGAIN to choose materials. Fine. Two months have now gone by. A bit closer to our target date, I drove out to the granite showroom and picked out the countertop material. So now here we are, barely a week away from our scheduled date of completion, and then I got an email saying (and I quote) "The cabinet hardware and coat hooks are not included in the price quote." But, we can PURCHASE these items and have them installed at the same time. Really. REALLY?? So they're building & quoting me for building CABINETS...but not the hardware? They'll give me shelves, but not the pegs to put them on?? No knobs to open the doors & drawers?? At this point, I'm so tired of being jacked around by these guys I'm just about ready to forfeit my deposit and go find someone competent. But, it was a hefty deposit ($1500), and the plans look amazing... One more round of phone calls and emails with the company and with our original designer, Nick, who stepped in and said that yes, actually the hooks and knobs ARE indeed included and it was all a miscommunication on their part. Pieces ordered, everything ready to go for a completion date of 1/16. So, January 16th arrives and I was promised the job would be done by noon (8am start time). The installation guys were on time and worked hard...but noon comes and goes. Fine, whatever. By 4pm they're still not done. AND THERE'S NO HOOKS, NO KNOBS, AND NO GRANITE! We scheduled a final COMPLETION, touch-up appointment for today, 1/18. Nick came out this morning to take a look--it's gorgeous--and promised me that they guys were right behind him with all the materials to complete the project. I gave him my check. The installation guy arrived, he finished the tweaks, installed the knobs and hooks...but guess what. NO GRANITE. I called everyone I could possibly get in touch with, and was finally told, "Oh, yeah, let's schedule the measurement date for that." Excuse me? Why did we call 1/16 a "COMPLETION" date if it's nowhere near completion!?!? At this point I called the owner of the company, Tony. I gave him my side of this 4-month rollercoaster, and informed him that I've placed a stop-order on the check I gave Nick this morning. So, a summary: Original design work began in early October and I signed the contract then. Original target date for completion was mid-December, very clearly before the holidays. Now it's middle of January, the cabinetry is installed and yes, it looks spectacular...but today on the date of "completion" I'm not being informed that they still have to come out and measure for the granite before it could possibly be installed. ***UPDATE*** I had a long conversation today with the owner of the company, who acknowledged all of these complaints and apologized; he also scrambled to get whatever personnel he needed, and actually got the job done today. Yes, the granite too. So the project is now DONE. I can only imagine what he had to pull together to get the granite measured, cut, prepped, and delivered/installed in less than half a day. Yes, it looks awesome--literally, just like the original plans Nick drew for us in October. Tony has offered to come over to my house ASAP to see the final project, to listen to my story & my complaints, and to figure out a resolution. I appreciate this greatly, and it's restoring my original faith a bit. As more and more of the pieces of this puzzle come out, it's sounding like we really did just get completely lost in the cracks of communication left by the gal who left the company; everyone else has been in a tailspin trying to pick up the pieces. I appreciate these upcoming efforts to restore my sanity following this disastrous process, and as I said to Nick this morning, thank goodness we have a truly beautiful product to end with.

We put down our initial deposit in late December 2010. There was a "rush" for us to place the cabinet order to take advantage of a "discount," so we had to make another large payment a month later. I am not really quite sure if we received the benefit of the discount as it was somewhat transparent to us. Then we waited about another 1-1/2 months to get on the project calendar. During this time, Mary Lou was very helpful and patient in helping us make our design decisions. When push came to shove, we were pretty clueless about what would work in our small space. Many of the pictures I had pulled out of magazines were very designs for much larger spaces. When we were stuck making a decision, she was not afraid to give her opinion, which was always right on target. If it wasn't for her, I think we would still be day dreaming about a new kitchen, afraid to take the plunge, because of the overwhelming number of decision that need to be made. Once the work commenced, we saw substantial progress every day and the job proceeded very quickly. We even gave permission for the craftsmen to work on Saturdays and later into the evening, as necessary. We had an electrician show up at 8 AM one Saturday morning and there were several nights when the gentlemen installing the floors worked well past 6 PM. The job site was kept as clean as it could be considering the room was completely gutted and the crew was respectful of our home. Jacek as a good project manager -- that man can really multi-task! I don't believe he was on site every day, but when we needed him he was there and gave us his complete attention. Like Mary Lou, when we were stuck on making a decision, Jacek as also willing to give his opinion. This was very important to us . . . we looked to them as experts and they delivered. In the final days of the project, things moved much slower and it was much more hit and miss when someone would be on site to complete the work. We got our final permit in mid-April. There were just a couple of mistakes made during the project which were fixed immediately -- no questions asked. We still have a few remaining warranty issues that need to be addressed, which, quite frankly, I have not fully addressed with the DesignFirst team, so it remains to be seen if the excellent job performance follows all the way through.

We went to their showroom and we discussed different possibilities. He had also been out to our house. One of the things he was suggesting was taking out a pantry and coat closet to make our kitchen bigger. After about a week of thinking it over, both my wife and I didn’t want to go with that plan. We called him the day before he was supposed to come out to tell him, but basically he told us that if he came out, it was to sign the contract for the plan that we had discussed.

The project went very smooth and for the most part, remained on schedule. Mary Lou was very patient as we worked through the cabinet layout and selection of countertops and flooring. The demo work was done very quickly. The workers were always on time and cleaned up before they left. Since the remodel involoved the entire first sloor, design first was very accomidating in making sure we could use our kitchen & laundary room or some area of our first floor with as little interruption as possible. Jack kept me informed of the work that was going to be done on a daily basis. All of my questions/concerns were promptly addressed. The outcome is beautiful!

My wife and I have been wanting to get the basement finished for several years, and we finally decided that 2011 would be the year. We got ideas and estimates from a wide range of contractors, from local small contractors that we knew all the way up to full-service design + build firms. DESIGNfirst was one of two design / build firms that we talked to. Joe from DESIGNfirst worked with us on our design ideas and on budgeting, and he was excellent to work with. On his first visit to our house, it was clear that he was familiar not just with newer construction, but also with the 1950's-era homes like ours and the ones in our neighborhood. He asked good questions to find out what we were looking for in a basement, how we'd be using it. And he also shared lots of experience and insight about what challenges we might find in remodeling an older home like ours, as well as what experiences he's had in remodeing similar homes. Throughout the early design process, we really felt comfortable that he wanted to help us build a basement that would be a good fit for us, and fit well into our existing home. When Joe produced some early budget estimates, the costs were higher than we had expected. But we appreciated that Joe wanted to show the costs as clearly and thoroughly as possible. During our discussion, he made it clear exactly what parts of the project would generate the most cost, he identified certain things we asked for that were actually much more expensive than we had anticipated, and he was proactive in offering several options to reduce the cost while still remaining focused on creating a basement that would make us happy for years to come. In the end, because of personal finances and concerns about the recent economy, we decided to go with a lower cost local contractor with whom we've had very good experiences before, and I'm doing much of the design work, some of the physical work and shopping myself for some materials to save on costs. It's going well, but much more stressful than I imagined since I need to come home from my office job and then work into the night with my own staining, running cables, etc. so I keep up with my part of the project and I don't fall behind the contractor's guys.. And so in the future I would again consider DESIGNfirst to do the design / build work, especially if my full-time job would prevent me from being able to work "hands on" with some of the labor of the project. My wife and I felt confident that the DESIGNfirst team would listen to us to design and build a basement that would be a great fit for our needs, and they had a strong team to manage the project from start to finish. So bottom line: Even though we couldn't use them for this project, our early design experience was great with them, and we would definitely ask DESIGNFirst to bid on future remodeling projects that we will have.

Tony brought and drew up a fresh new functional kitchen plan. Matt was a perfectionist and good general manager. Jarek was the gem of the job. Exceptional craftsmanship and attention to detail.

There was a break down in communication at times with the company, but overall very pleased with my project. My shower turned out better than I had envisioned.

They gave the best estimate so we went with them. Everything looks good and I would say they did a good job. I don’t have any complaints. Sometimes they were a little late, but I would consider using them again.

They were very nice and on time. He was very courteous and gave me a good evaluation of what needed to be done. The price was too much.

The person who gave me the quote was very good. They were a little expensive than what we wanted to pay. We did not have any other issues with him. I liked the person quite a bit.

Tony immediately understood our need for space and picked up on the little quirks of our current layout. He was able to provide a substantial amount of space within the limits of our lot and at a very reasonable price. I liked that we could do the entire job with his company from start to finish and didn't have to deal with outside designers and architects. The demolition of the existing seasonal porch and deck went quickly and provide our first surprise when we discovered that the porch had been built on a solid concrete pad over a foot thick. There was a few days wait while they schedule equipment to take it out, but the dig out and framing went very quickly and professionally. The next slow down came with installing temporary electrical service with the city permitting process. Once that was cleared up, work began again. Anything that was done by Designfirst was done quickly and well, but we did have to wait for the skilled trades to find time to come do the job. If I had to fault the company on anything it would be that they did not give me much warning when the time to break through the existing wall came. There was the usual dust and dirt to deal with but they did their best to minimize it. I made the mistake of making a change to the plan with the company designer, thinking that it would be communicated to the work crew, which resulted in some rework being done, but that was my fault for not communicating with the project manager. They handled the mistake with aplomb and made the change to the work being done. There were some cost overruns, but nothing excessive or terribly surprising. We chose to do some upgrades to the master bath which increased the price over what had been originally quoted, but general they held to budget. Overall, I think they did a good job for us and we are very pleased with the resulting addition.