DESIGNfirst Builders LLC

Just a note to all callers to this firm. The gal who answers the phone just gives a written sales pitch and doesn't really know this business. You have to get past her to someone who can really help you as she is reading canned info. I wanted to actually SPEAK to someone on the phone who is on the ground on an actual project but instead I get a canned speech about the company from someone who assumes I know nothing about home improvement. Annoying at best, but beyond writing this warning to other potentials, I didn't have time to spend with her on the phone looking for the RIGHT person to speak to. Frustrating.

Overall our experience with Design First was fantastic. The project finished on time and almost on budget. All of the trades that came in were on time and polite. Our project managers were always available and responsive to any issues that arose. After watching other family members struggle through similar (and even smaller) projects, we knew we made the right choice with Design First. We know that there is a premium for their service, but we would happily pay it again for how smooth the overall process was with our family, including two preschoolers, living in the house during construction.

In September, 2015 I contacted Design First about remodeling my kitchen. ?We used them for another big project in 2013. ?Stacey came out and measured and took photos of the kitchen. ? She asked for my wish list and said she would put a design together. ?We met again and she presented a plan for our kitchen - layout, rendering, an estimate ($ and time frame- 4-6 weeks), etc. ?My husband and I signed on with them in October but we didn't want work to start until January, 2016. ?In the meantime, we worked with Kim to choose cabinets, colors, tile, sink, etc. ?After selections they ordered all of the materials needed for the project. ?Design First took care of submitting the plans to Elk Grove Village since we wanted a permit for the job.? Work started on 1-4-16. ?It took about 20 work days to get the job done, including a couple of Saturdays which was fine with us. They took care of scheduling the proper trades (plumber, HVAC, electrician, drywall, flooring) to come in accordingly to get the job done. ?I know we paid a premium so we didn't have to chase a contractor around to get our job done but, for us, it was worth it. ?Gerardo was the project manager and he made sure the guys showed up at the proper time to get the job done efficiently. ?Any time a new trade was coming in to work Gerardo would meet him here at the house and explain exactly what needed to be done. If we had any type of problem or question, Gerardo was completely available and took care of it. ?The job was finished in early February, (around 2-5-16) besides a few punch list items. ? I feel like Design First took care of most of the small details so we didn't have to worry about it. ?Any obstacles were quickly overcome and anything we didn't like the look of (cabinet door size, backsplash not rectangle enough) was fixed. ?We love the kitchen and if we had another big job we would definitely consider Design First again.

I called to get a basement remodeling quote. Before I could even discuss my desires, and ask my questions about the process, the person (cannot remember her name) in a rushed voice asked for what I was looking for in the basement. I stated that we were not fully sure, and we wanted to have a quote to determine items, and she noted that she still needed an idea of things involved because the company wanted to find out if we were a 'good fit' before any quote was scheduled. She noted that they were only interested in servicing people that were able to spend at least $15,000. I mentioned that our project may be above that price, and still in a rushed voice, she then asked for my information and scheduled me for an appointment. Within 10 minutes, she called back, stating that she scheduled at an erroneous time, and that she needed to reschedule; so we went over additional dates, and after settling on another date, she back-tracked and said that the new date may not work either. I already was iffy after the first phone call with how she treated me, but decided to give the company the benefit of the doubt since they had good reviews; but after the scheduling issue and overall tone of numerous conversations, I just cancelled altogether when she couldn't come up with a new date for a quote. Maybe this company is good; maybe I just spoke with someone new and rushed, but their attitude toward customers needs to improve.

DesignFirst exceeded expectations on both the design consultation process and construction.? I was impressed by their professionalism throughout, willingness to work with us on both large and small details, ability to anticipate potential?challenges,?and the overall quality of the finished construction.

This is billed as a one stop shop to cover your remodel needs, and for the most part they deliver that. Sales - We got quotes from 5 different firms. ?This was the most thorough and professional. ?They caught issues in our original design that 3 of the 5 firms did not. ?As such their quote ended up being pretty accurate with the exception of the mandatory fire sprinkler system that my town required (none of the people bidding mentioned it, even the one located in my town). Design - We had a couple selection meetings that went smoothly. ?The Designer had some good ideas. ?Their prices however are not the cheapest, but they do allow you to go elsewhere for things like tile, faucets, etc. ?Though if its not there when their guys show up it will cause delays. ?It also affects the type of warranty they provide however. Permitting - ?They handled most of the mundane permitting issues, but if they get any real push back from the building department they will ask you to deal with it. ?I tried to get out of the fire sprinklers, but failed. ?They were willing to sub that out, but I decided to hire that contractor myself. ?They made it easy to?coordinate?this additional work. Construction - ?From start date the whole process took 4 months. ?This was 1 month longer than their initial estimate of 3 months, which is pretty good considering the extent of the work. ?Other than an issue with the plumber, I didn't have any problems with substandard work, and that issue was corrected. ?Most of the subs were pretty good and showed up when they were supposed to. ?The subs also provided some solid alternatives to the design that made it more functional (a?trapezoidal closet to increase?accessibility, better placement of lights, etc).??Tom the finish carpenter and Nic the tile/floor guy did great work. ?Don (the project manager) was also able to accommodate most of the in field changes we made in short order and had plenty of good suggestion of his own. Responsiveness - ?Never had an issue getting a response from anybody involved within 24 hours, and it was almost always within a couple hours. ?I started to feel bad for the project manager because I would get e-mails at 5am, 11pm, middle of the day Sunday. The one area where I think Design First could use some improvement is in communication between their sales/design staff and their production staff. ?The only real delay in our project was the result of us being unsatisfied with the production staff's proposed ductwork which halted construction for a week while we sorted it out. ?Had the sales/design team conveyed the importance increasing airflow to the second floor, I feel we could have sorted things out before work stopped. ?So if you decide to hire these guys, don't assume that just because you conveyed how important some aspect was to one person on your project they will tell everybody. ? Finished product - We are pleased with how everything turned out. ?It looks great. ?And we will be soliciting a bid in a few years when we get around to do the rest of our house.

Stacy Carsello was a fantastic designer. She spent time measuring and really understanding our unique situation. She then did several suggestions for a new bathroom. Through no fault of Stacy's the designed we liked however involved more cost and construction than we were willing to do at this time. I will contact Stacy in the future when we are ready to more forward with the plans. I sincerely and whole heartily recommend Stacy and DESIGNFirst Builders.

In general, we are not happy with the construction part. While the planning and design went well, the construction was terrible. Delivery as promised is late. The company even reimbursed us for extra months for the our rental place. Up to now, we are still experiencing problems issues with the work done. Our floor squeaks all over the house and all we get is excuses not to fix the whole issue. Our gutter is not sloped correctly, we experienced ice build-up last winter and now water issues. We feel like the money we paid the provider is not worth it - for the inconvenience stepping out of our home going to a hotel and continuous cleaning. During the process, I learned from their workers that the provider is taking on too much projects that the company is stretched and performance is suffering. I recommend using another provider.

We went with DesignFirst for 2 reasons: They were recommended by a friend and their "A" rating on Angie's List. We're going to try to be as fair as possible with this review. The end result - a new fireplace & mantel along with a cabinet/countertop and floating shelves looks very nice. However, the process to get there was long and painful. Brace yourself, this review is going to be a tad long. We want you to be well informed before deciding to go with these guys ... It started with the project proposal and budget process in the summer of 2014. (Note: The salesman/designer we were assigned is no longer with the company.) After a couple of meetings with our salesman/designer and a few follow-up calls, my husband and I signed the contract in early September 2014 and were told our "small project" would take "2-3 weeks, tops." We couldn't get a straight answer on our start date, which got switched from late September to "early or mid-October" and they finally didn't start the job until November 7. We also were assigned a new designer - fresh out of school. Since this was our first major home renovation, we thought we were going to get someone a bit more experienced. Needless to say, we were very nervous at that point because we had already given them our down payment. Also, the fireplace they were replacing actually heats our addition, where one of us works out of a home office. We were crystal clear - and repeated this fact - from the very first meeting with our salesman, all the way through to our meetings with our construction manager and construction coordination manager and our designer. From the start, our construction manager made it clear he wasn't happy that I'd be working from home and needed to be informed when any DesignFirst crews were planning to work. I had relocated my office to our basement during the project. Also worth mentioning ... our salesman assured us from our first meeting that DesignFirst was top-notch at communicating with its customers and even had a detailed calendar on their customer website where we could track our project and see exactly when our work would be scheduled and what they would be doing. To this day, that calendar is COMPLETELY empty. Not one time did they use it. We also had several issues with the work, which often seemed rushed, and then needed to be redone, causing major delays. There was confusion from the beginning between the work crews and our construction manager. For example, the carpenter who framed out our fireplace, partial wall, doorway and staircase was looking to me (the customer) for guidance and confirmation on the design plans. He needed to confirm some measurements and I suggested he talk with the construction manager. They talked on the phone and proceeded with the framing. When the construction manager showed up the next day to check the framing, he discovered there wasn't enough room for our cabinet - and the partial wall needed to be moved over several inches So the carpenter had to come back and reframe for the cabinet and doorway, which delayed us by several days. What struck us as particularly odd was the fact that our salesman had done some initial measurements and then a team of 4 people (including our designer) had been to our home to measure and take photos from every angle - and the measurements were all included in the design. Since measuring and designing is what they do, we couldn't believe the number of mistakes made in that area. And our design was pretty simple and straight forward - no weird angles and they were even using the existing chimney opening for the new fireplace. Also from the start, we made it clear we wanted a "modern, clean" design for the fireplace. Our designer insisted on including "corbels" under our fireplace mantel. We had never heard of corbels before. We understood from the designer that they were necessary for supporting the mantel. Turns out, that wasn't the case. She also had a hard time choosing corbels to fit because our fireplace was on the smaller side and the corbels would be practically butting up against the top portion of our fireplace/metal frame. We had asked if they were absolutely necessary and she said "yes." When our construction manager supervised the installation of our mantel, he took one look at it and said, "you really don't need those corbels - it looks better without them." We completely agreed because the floating mantel was the clean, modern design we wanted. We asked if the corbels could be left off and he said "yes - they're just decorative." We asked if the company would take them back since they obviously didn't fit the design and weren't necessary and he said "no - they're yours now." From there, we continued to have multiple delays. Another example of a delay that could have been avoided ... At the very beginning of the project we had asked our salesman if they would pull the proper permits. He assured us they would. Again, we asked the construction coordination manager to confirm that they were pulling the proper permits for our project. Instead of the resounding "yes" we thought we would get, he said, "Oh, you want us to pull a permit for this small project?" We said "Absolutely!" Again, another cause for concern. When it came time to get the permit, our construction manager told us they would receive it in a week and could proceed after that. He waited about 4 days to tell us, "Sorry, we won't have the permit by the date we originally told you." We had asked how long that would delay the project. He said it could take a week or more. We asked if there was anything else he could do to move along the process - especially since they're experts at this stuff - and he shrugged (he did that a lot) and said his hands were tied. One of us called our local permitting department and asked if they could assign our permit earlier. They worked it out so we could get the permit on the original date DesignFirst had promised us. When we told DesignFirst the great news - that we could stay on schedule, they told us they had already assigned the crews to other projects. We thought we were paying DesignFirst for project management ... One more example of shoddy work that needed to be redone: when the crew installed our cabinet doors, there was about a one-half inch gap between them. When asked if they would fix it, they said "It's fine." We could see into the cabinet when the doors were closed, so it wasn't fine. We asked our construction manager to fix it and he said he'd look into it. After a few days, it finally got adjusted. Here are a few other issues we encountered and needed fixed: - they threw out matching trim they were going to re-use, which matched our knotty pine ceiling and walls. When we asked them to replace the trim they lost, including finishing it to match, they said we would have to pay for that. After several heated discussions with our construction manager, we finally got them to agree to replace the trim and finish it to match. - installed our old yellowed light switch into the new partial wall, instead of replacing it with a new switch/plate - caused major dings in the walls (AFTER we had hired a painter to paint all the new wallboard) when installing the fireplace mantel and granite counter. Our construction manager had told us to go ahead and have the painters paint the new wallboard BEFORE installing the granite. We asked if they would ding up the walls and he said "no." They ended up finishing construction on December 12 - 2 hours before we were hosting a holiday party we had told them about several weeks in advance. Again, they had assured us they would finish well before December 12. We ended up meeting with Tony, DesignFirst ownery, at our home in mid-December. We asked him to refund us for the corbels and discussed all our issues throughout the project. He proceeded to argue with us repeatedly about the consistent lack of communication, project delays, poor attitude of the construction manager, etc. When we asked for a refund for the corbels (which weren't itemized in the budget proposal), he said we were stuck with them because they were "custom designed" and we had asked for them as part of the design. Definitely not the truth. He said "That's what my designer and construction manager said and I believe them." We eventually received a credit of $350 for the corbels. We also discussed the issue of our delayed construction permit. Tony said his designer and construction coordination manager both said we had waited until after our project start to request a permit. We told Tony one of our mom's was with us at the project start when we were choosing our finishes at the DesignFirst showroom, and she could confirm our conversation with the construction coordination manager that they were definitely pulling a permit. Again, Tony said he believed his staff over us. We were floored, to say the least. We also brought up all the miscommunications, delays and argumentative behavior of our construction manager. Tony didn't want to hear it. He also told us he "isn't in this business to make a lot of money. Our margins are very tight." Who says that to customers? He repeatedly told us we were "intelligent people" but our expectations were not in line with the construction business. We asked, "What about all the promises you make on your website, on Angie's List and in the sales process? Don't you stand behind those promises of great communication, expert work, etc.?" He didn't have an answer. We let Tony know our carpenter (John) was awesome and answered all our questions & the majority of the work crew were nice and did good work. After comparing notes with our friend, we discovered that no one from her design and construction team was with the company any more. In the end, we would not recommend DesignFirst and we will never use their services again.

Designer and her partner were communicative, punctual and professional. Even though on the phone we had determined that the project might be below the scope of their range of work, they still came out to discuss it, which I thought was generous of them. They provided some good feedback on the project, and gave me a "ballpark" figure, which was in-range with some other quotes I'd gotten, but was in fact, above my price point. Largely because they are a full-service firm, and this was a straightforward smaller project for which I can't afford the luxury of handing it off to a project manager. The discussion was positive enough, though, that when I do have a project with a higher budget, I will certainly consider this company to do the work.

I was VERY pleased with Design First! I had found them via Angie's List - I read every single review that was on the list at that time. So going in I had some concerns based on previous customer's experience - primarily communication issues - which I voiced in our early interactions. I felt all of my concerns were listened to and attended to 100%. WHAT WAS GREAT *Project Manager. I was SO fortunate - the project manager I had, Gary Polcyn, was AMAZING! He was one of the two people who totally made this project shine. He is highly talented - used to run his own construction company and can do much work himself. I'm an IT project manager so I know what a well run project is like - and Gary exceeded even my expectations. GREAT communicator, kept project on or ahead of schedule most of the time - and when there were weather or other delays he tightened things up - we finished slightly ahead of schedule thanks to Gary. He was gracious and explained things to me in a friendly, non-condescending way (trust me, I am NOT good at things like construction!). Gary suggested improvements that really made a difference and yet was not pushy, respecting my budget. He actively looked for ways to save time and money (and found them!). Design First has many fine professionals, but it was Gary Polcyn who made this project shine! *Design. They named the company aptly- a lot of effort is put up front to get a good design before anything happens in the physical world. The initial sales guy, Sean Kelly (who is no longer with the company) worked closely with me to come up with a design. He came up with the overall architectural plan and with one exception (see below) it was very good indeed. He added my very favorite part of the project - the book nook (I'm a major reader) and lots of interesting details. The interior designer, Megan Sokolowske (also no longer with the company) was phenomenal!! She was the other super-star, along with Gary. Her bathroom and kitchen designs are truly what makes the house. She was innovative, creative, respectful. I felt like she "got me" even though I suspect our tastes were not similar. She made lots of concrete suggestions, and again helped me save money on things that weren't crucial so I could do the splurges I wanted to do. She left after the original design was done (not having to do with my project) and her assistant Kathryn Gaines Hoffman took over. Kathryn did a great job on helping us with color selection. Design First doesn't do painting, so this was really a value-add to have the help of a good designer with colors. *Process. They have a clearly articulated process and back office systems to enable a smooth process. I spent 30 years doing IT management and I know the importance of having a structure and a back office that works. The process was explained to me at one of the first meetings and the software they use allowed me to clearly see where I was in terms of the timeline (a detailed calendar is provided), budget (totals are provided), change orders (in software - tracking the changes I'd requested and signed off on with cost), etc. There were some hiccups as they transitioned from one software system to another, but none that impacted me negatively. *Quality. Pleasant people and well organized companies are nicer to work with, but at the end of the day, what I was paying for was a new house (for that's what I got - a very changed and improved house such that it feels brand new!). Design First subs out most of the trades and with one exception (see below) the crews they had were great. The quality of workmanship was superior. Design First had several guys out that are in-house who were particularly good - Marchin and Stanley (work as a team) and Jacek and Ted. Marchin and Jacek both did many extra things and were truly 'jack of all trades'. The trades worked well together overall (from friends in the trades I know this is not always the case). The house is stunningly gorgeous. There was GREAT attention to detail. Several of the trades were outstandingly good - the floor guy, tile, and while I struggled with the drywall guys my painter told me they were exceptionally good. The siding guy was also extremely good, providing several extra touches. *Stand by their work: There were a few loose ends (which is what they are doing today) but also a few things that happened - as things do - during the project and they have fixed what needs fixing with no hassles. For instance, I wanted a faucet from my old kitchen re-used. They broke it in demolition and gave me a credit for the entire thing. I am confident that should I encounter issues post-construction that they will stand by their work THERE WERE A FEW GLITCHES *ORDERING. There were several misses in the ordering process. Gary told me today that they got backup guys for the guy who does the ordering and that he had been swamped. This didn't cost me any money, but it cause some delays and compared to how air tight the other processes were this area seemed weak. *ONE DESIGN FLAW. I repeatedly told Sean, the original architectural designer that I am not a visual person - like at all. When we were working together on the master bedroom I told him I wanted a lot of light. He had one window facing east and I wanted 3. So he designed it with 3 double hung windows. The problem is that that looks out over my roof. In my mind, sitting in the showroom, not being visually oriented, I was looking at his design which basically showed a view of my back yard. Now I have 3 big windows looking out on a roof. Sean should have suggested clerestory windows. *BUILT IN BOOKCASE. The bookcase is beautiful. that's not the problem. I think it was overpriced ($1400) but a friend in the industry said that sounded about right. The problem was that it took FOREVER to get a design and pricing on this. I was befuddled at the long delay. I had repeatedly mentioned that I was spending $200K and most excited about the book nook - this was important to me and more attention ought to have been paid - I felt like it was almost an afterthought. Perhaps it doesn't matter as it turned out great, but it was one of my major annoyances. *ELECTRICIAN. As noted above, most of the trades were great. I passed electric inspection so I'm sure the important part is working - but man this guy was not great. His name was Eddy - make sure you DON'T get Eddy. Some of the issues - receptacles put on willy-nilly - some vertical, some horizontal (corrected - but even ***I*** know not to do that). Sconces put up very visibly not even (come on!!). But the two big ones: Didn't put in electric for the A/C int he panel (seriously???). And took a U-pipe out from under the sink to do something, didn't tell the other trades working that day he had done it, didn't replace it. But it gets worse - one of the other guys turned on the sink and when it made a huge mess, the painters jumped in and fixed it and Eddy just shrugged it off. I was standing right there (by chance) and he had a real "F-you" attitude. It DOES make me worry about what is behind the walls. SUMMARY: I know this is wordy, but this is the most money i have ever spent in my life and I wanted to provide useful feedback. I am VERY pleased with the beautiful results. Wish I could post pictures here - the design just shines. I highly recommend Design First. If you can, get Gary Polcyn for your project manager - he's not only the nicest guy you'll meet but also incredibly talented! The whole project was a great success!

met with one of their sales people. He was very pleasant and professional but seemed to get impatient when we were not willing to immediately sign the contract when given the proposal. The plan they proposed was nice but it seemed like all the parts that I know are expensive appeared to be cut back. Example, they had 1 cabinet for a giant bathroom/dressing room (over 200 sq ft) that ended up with 7 cabinets when done by someone else. Hard floor surface was cut way back to use carpet instead.... may have been a good way to save costs but I did not feel that savings was reflected in the proposal. Also, while I understand they do not want to "give away" their creative ideas I found, as someone who has never done remodeling before, it was VERY difficult to picture how it would lay out after only one quick look at a drawing.

Without getting into every detail, our project was terrible. DesignFirst was great with sales and the design they came up with. Meeting with Sean went great and we were confident in our decision to hire them. One of our biggest concerns was how long the project would take to complete as we didn't want the front of our home torn up for too long. We were told 2 weeks, and it took over 4 months. Some weeks nobody showed up at all. We had two pallets of cinder blocks sitting on our front long for a full week before anybody touched them. There were a lot of half-days, and responsiveness was a joke. Our "project manager" Matt came by once in a while, but never stayed for long, and it was very difficult to get in touch with him. The entire job was one problem after another (not just regular renovation issues that you always run into-but mistakes made by their company). One of the biggest mistakes was their failure to order the stone we had picked out. I ended up having to call the company providing the stone to get the REAL story on why our order was WEEKS late. One major problem we had was water leaking through the stone on our porch into the cellar below it. This problem went on for weeks, probably over a month before it was resolved. We stopped trying to get anything done through Matt and had Tony Slade, the owner, come out to talk about our concerns. While the porch was NOT being fixed we decided to withhold our last payment. Tony Slade did not come out to address our concerns and come up with a solution. He came to our home to collect our last payment. We did not feel comfortable giving him the full payment with the faulty work that was done and he assured us, in so many words, that our porch problem would not be resolved unless we paid in full. The main thing he stressed was that final payment was due upon "substantial completion" according to the contract. We would NEVER recommend this company to friends or family. The finished product looks great, but it was absolutely not worth the 4 months of stress we were put through. I'm writing this review now, a year and a half later because we were sure our poor review would guarantee no help from the company should our porch start leaking again.

Amazing. Their communication was fantastic. They were honest, decent, reliable and offered advice on making it make sense. In the end we didn't use them because we didn't use anybody and decided to save more money and do more. We will go back to them when we are ready. They are great.

Our project with DesignFirst did not go as planned or promised and left us with quite a bad experience. DesignFirst is definitely good at one thing - sales. We first worked with Nick on the architectural design of the kitchen. He listened to us and after several changes and drawing revisions we were happy with how the project was planned. Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of Nick, though he had indicated to us that he would be checking on the project throughout the duration. Our initial timeline was projected to be 6-8 weeks. We were doing significant demo work, moving and rebuilding stairs, etc in addition to new cabinets, countertops, appliances. The project dragged through the design and drawing phase even before any demo started. Some of that can be put on us and the changes that we made in the planning phase. We had some red flags against Design First during the design process. For one we wanted to have some modern steel and glass stairs made. Nick showed us some photos of a project they had done in a loft in the city, but once we were with the design team they clearly had no idea what they were doing. They came back to us with another contractor doing the job, stairs we didn't like at all and a price more than 3 times higher than they had quoted in the budget. We eventually found another local artist to do the stairs, one of many aspects of the project that we took away from DesignFirst when we didn't feel they were capable of doing what we wanted. Before we started any work we sat down with the design team and the owner, Tony, to voice our concerns. We were prepared to walk away from the initial deposit we had given DesignFirst, but they reassured us that they could handle the project and we would be very happy in the end. In hindsight, we definitely should have walked away then. There was absolutely no oversight on our project, no project manager to make sure things progressed smoothly. Matt, our project manager, was clearly overwhelmed with too many projects. He was rarely here, and when he did show up he would be here for about 15 minutes in the morning and then he would be gone. There were times when we had multiple calls in to him for days without any response. It was just unacceptable and this was the main reason we had so many issues and the project dragged on for so long. There was no one overseeing the big picture aspect of the project. DesignFirst obviously uses multiple subcontractors. A few of them were good, did good work, and cleaned up every day. Most, however, were not so good. They rarely showed up when promised, seemed rushed and often left the house looking like a pigsty. The electrician, for example, barely remembered the work he had done here when he returned to finish, incorrectly wired our thermostat, left a lot of debris in our basement, and also left the circuit for our sump pump off when he left one day. Luckily I discovered this before our basement flooded. Their plumber roughed in pipes for a new corner sink, but didn't tie those pipes to the main supply line. We didn't discover this until months after the plumbing work was done (sink went in later), and had to pay $900 to finish this portion that DesignFirst should have completed and we had paid them to do. The project manager okayed drywall to begin before all of the electrical was completed. DesignFirst refinished our floors, but then refused to move any heavy furniture back (which they had moved out for the floor work), citing that they weren't furniture movers. Their employees and subs were at the house and watched as I hired a moving company to move the furniture they refused to touch. These are just some of the myriad of problems, delays, and ineptitude we experienced with DesignFirst that led us to tell them not to return to our home after 16 weeks of work and no completion or end date in site. We then had to become the designers, subcontractors and general managers of our kitchen renovation, the jobs we had hired a design/build company to handle. As I write this review at week 30 I cannot believe we are not finished, though the completion is very close. Beware to any members before hiring DesignFirst. They talk a great game, but cannot follow through on their promises. Their prior reviews were positive, I even called some of their references, and you can see the experience we had. I do not think they are trying to rip anyone off, I believe they were gravely understaffed and overworked, but in the end that left us with a terrible experience.

all I will say is I love my new space but I couldn't recommend them.

I played email and phone tag with Kristy G. in trying to schedule an appointment with one of their senior designers. I was finally able to schedule an appt. and had Nick C. come out and talk to us about our basement remodeling project. Nick was very informative, honest, and trustworthy. Unfortunately I don't believe we will be selecting DESIGNFirst simply because their prices include overhead for other services we will not be utilizing (interior design, showroom, etc). At this point we are simply looking for an architect to see what we can do about the columns that are currently in the basement. We are trying to create an open concept in the basement and remove the columns that currently support the entire housing structure.

Overall it went very well, and make no mistake they were very good. But since everyone could stand some improvement, I will be forthright about what went well and what needed improvement. The initial design phase for the space was a great experience and they were very patient with us. We went through three rounds of various ideas before we settled on the final plans. When we met with the architect, he had some extremely helpful suggestions and as the building began, my husband and I often commented to each other how glad we were for the architect's ideas. In particular, he suggested that we move the whole room so that the new roof line could be centered between two of the upstairs windows. It has become one of the things we like most about the addition. We found that their interior design staff was not very much help. Although, we have strong ideas about what we like (both of us have some art background), and we ended up just going our own way on the bathroom ideas. We found that their tile prices are too high, so we bought the tile on our own. They told us from the beginning that we were not obligated to buy all our materials through them--and that is a big reason for recommending them. We liked that about them. And they have a particularly good tile installer who really created a work of art in our bathroom. We had some trouble with the installation of the ceiling in the main room. When the drywallers put up the ceiling, it was very obvious that it was wavy. My husband was very unhappy with it, but Design First called back the drywallers back and they took it all down, shimmed the ceiling joists and put the drywall back up. The carpenters also were very accommodating when one of the windows was not centered on the wall. My husband wanted them to move the window and they did not complain at all. In fact, the carpenter encouraged my husband to tell them whether we were happy or not. They moved the window without much trouble and without any griping. In general, once the building work began we felt that we were not left for very long without someone showing up to work. We never felt abandoned; they worked pretty steadily. We also were pleased that they had a port-a-potty on site for the workers. We thought that was very professional of them. We were also very pleased that they were able to match two brick colors that are in the original part of the house--a white brick and a red brick, from 1963. I wanted a fireplace whose brick would match the white brick in our entry hall because from the entry hall you can see straight back to the fireplace. And the white brick in the entry way is original to the house. And I wanted the outside chimney to be an exact match to the existing, original brick on the front of the house. They were able to match both bricks, so from the inside and the outside the addition feels very much a part of the original house. I also wanted the mantel finish to match the wood in our entryway--also original to the house. The interior designers were very helpful on this score and their shop carpenters created a lovely modern maple mantle. Over the white brick, it's gorgeous! We were also pleased that they cleaned up after themselves. We had some misunderstandings over some of the electrical requirements, and my husband was a little annoyed but we did manage to get things clarified. One thing to note: my husband was very careful about watching all the line items in their cost reports as the project went along. It's a good thing too because he found two errors which would have cost us about $1700. They were very obliging and fixed the line items without any fuss. One thing that surprised us was some stalling that occurred over the permits: we were being required by the village to upgrade our electrical service when it was clear to the electricians that we didn't need to. Design First told us that they had had trouble with this office before and did not think that we would be able to get around this. But my husband was having none of it: He went in to the village office, talked to a couple of people, wrote up our request for a variance, and got the requirement waived. It saved us $3000. We were surprised that Design First was not able to do this; however, we chalked it up to lessons learned. Just because you have a contractor doing a lot of work for you does not mean that you don't have anything to do. Whether Design First should have been able to get this waiver for us or not, we really don't know. But they were honest with us and encouraged us, as the homeowners, to do all we could do to get it waived. I also want to say that their project manager did a good job interfacing with all the workers. There was some miscommunication here and there, but that seems all par for the course. He was even tempered and seemed well-suited to his work. There were two other instances that did not pass the plumbing inspection and Art, the plumber, came back twice without delay to fix things. Overall, we were very happy with them and we love the finished product! We love our new space! And we would definitely recommend them to others.

From the very beginning the design team was - extremely professional - !!!! I had a basic design of what we wanted to accomplish , and how it should function ; but the design team ( Diana ) offered the actual elements to put it all together . The costs were kept within budget by our working together . The only surprises were unforeseen ( rotted subfloor/ pipe in ceiling where soffit had been). Communication - daily E-mails, a list of jobs to be performed - and when-( calendar format), phone calls (and prompt return calls), - by (Mike) the Project Manager ( & Matt & Aaron) - was excellent !!! Any and all issues that arose were immediately addressed. All said , I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND Design First Builders !!!!!!!!!

Great! ?Any project this extensive causes a major disruption in your household but Design First allowed us to stay in the home and set-up plastic walls for us to stay contained in the non-construction area. ?The work throughout the project was timely, professional and all of their carpenters were very experienced.

Our kitchen needed a facelift, but I didn’t want to do a full remodel so we settled on counters and a tile backsplash to update the look. Tony offered many helpful suggestions on how to achieve our desired results and set up an appointment with the stone fabricator. The nice thing is that we were able to pick out the granite, the edge, and the sinks all in a short time on a Saturday. For the backsplash I met Tony at his showroom so that we could go over some different design options, I appreciate his design sense because this is something you will live with for a long time and you have to love it. They have a great tile installer who takes a little longer because he is a perfectionist, but the extra time spent is definitely worth it. Everything turned out great, the counters and backsplash gave my kitchen a whole new look and even made the cabinets look better. We loved everything so much; we decided to update all the bathroom counters as well.

From start to finish this company was a pleasure to work with, I needed a wall of French doors removed from my family room, but could not decide what to replace them with. Tony sat down with me and presented several great design solutions and then also helped me redesign the layout of the room to maximize my wall space. We signed with him, the crew came the following week and were on time, courteous and cleaned up at the end of each, they did a great job. I have to say that I was very pleased with the cost, efficiency, and expertise of this company. From start to finish everyone involved was a pleasure to work with, and I have referred them to all my family and friends for their remodeling projects.

I called Design first to schedule an appointment, they schedule it weeks after my original quote. On the date of the appointment, July 22, Nick showed up on time.We talk about my project, I explained what I wanted to do. I wanted them to build a new detached garage with roof top deck. Nick said that he was going to be able to provide an estimate on August 1. I though that a week and a half for an estimate for a garage was too long. I asked if he could prepare the estimate sooner than that, he said that he was going to try. He asked me if I had a plat of survey, which I had and emailed the same day to him. He never provided the estimate and never called to follow up. I don't know what happened. Very disappointing.

DesignFirst did a great job, and I would highly recommend them. This was a major job, and we decided to live in the house during it, which was not ideal(two young kids and two dogs), but Tony and his team were willing to do what they could to make it happen. They worked as efficiently as they could and were able to get the job done in just a few months...which was amazing..( I have seen much smaller jobs get dragged out much longer then that)! With a job this size, things happen, but the important thing to know is that They do what they can to address anything that may come up and work on an alternate solution that will make you happy. They really care about making sure their customers are happy. I feel they go above and beyond what other contractors might do. We love our new home. It is open and bright and we now use every inch of it! The kitchen is beautiful and is where we spend most of our time! Tony has great ideas, I would have never thought that moving the stairs from the front of the home to the middle could make such a difference to the flow of our home, but it does! He listed to our needs and provided solutions to get us there. I would highly recommend using them.

Against our better judgment, my fiancee (now wife) and I decided to tackle a kitchen remodel project the spring before our summer wedding. Thus, going into this project, we stressed to all of our bidding contractors our timetable and were reassured by all that we would be done well before the June wedding - we started planning in the winter and were quoted by all bidders a timeframe of 4 weeks or so for the project - therefore, we anticipated about 6 weeks, knowing that things always happen in projects like this. In the end, the project came out well - there were some minor design flaws and issues along the way, but when picking a contractor for a project like this, the process can be just as important as the final project. Not all was bad: I'll start with the pros: Pros: -Nick - our initial project consultant was fantastic and essentially sold us on Design First - he came out to look at the space, came out with a number of different layouts, and we felt he really listened to us. He presented us with nice computerized 3-d renderings of what the space would look like and a very detailed line item quote for the project. -Worked with city well to get our permits through in a timely fashion -Very efficient with demolition process -Good overall design process, good variety of cabinet and countertop choices at what seemed like a wide range of price points (note, though, products are significantly marked up - probably not unique to this design-build firm) -actual final result of remodel turned out pretty well and so far, no major issues since using the kitchen (minor issues only - sink had a small leak at the time of install, appliance install fine and cabinetry solid -Have a cooking school at their design center with free access to their classes. -when issues came up, they were fairly responsive; however, I felt like these were issues that should not have come up in the first place.... -nice online dashboard that tracks project schedule, fixture selections, etc. (see caveat below) Cons: -project communication - had a plethora of communication and planning issues: -our designer Kim, we felt like didn't really communicate well with us - this resulted in delaying the start of our project by a week or two, she cancelled a meeting with minimal notice, and also in the end designed an L-shaped kitchen counter where the corner of the "L" was designed to be completely unsuable storage space (eventually sort of fixed) without really informing us. -our initial project manager Jon decided to tell us he was going on vacation *2 days* before he left for a week. Ultimately, the handoff to the new project manager was *AWFUL* and I ended up having to leave work early multiple days just to get the new team up to speed. We found out much later that Jon was in fact, let go from the company. -Despite their well designed online schedule, there were numerous times were scheduled events didn't happen as planned - electrician didn't show up one day, flooring didn't get done, no one was on site when deliveries were supposed to be made (twice) appliance install kept getting pushed back, etc. Explanations eventually happened with various reasons ranging from reasonable (design process) to absurd (electrician was found sleeping on another job so they had to let him go and scramble to find other electricians) Of note, it seems like they do subcontract most of the labor, which I think is probably the norm for a design-build firm like this -Tried to coordinate the project with a flooring contractor to get flooring done as part of the project (at about 1/2 of the cost that D1 was charging) - despite my best multiple attempts to get D1 and the flooring guys to coordinate with each other, D1 did not keep up to schedule to work with them to get the flooring done, also resulting in numerous lengthy delays for us (and essentially wasting days with the other contractors) In the end, the project, which at the beginning was supposed to start in late February/early March and take 4 weeks, ended up starting in mid-to late March and took over 10 weeks to complete, despite our constant pleas to get the project moving ahead (I think without our pleading, the project would have taken over 3 months). I'm not saying they were completely unresponsive, but it also sounded like they had a number of projects going on at the same time, and just didn't have the manpower to respond to a lot of the issues that came up in a timely fashion, particularly at the time in our project when our PM took off for Mexico. I had numerous contacts with Tony, the firm's owner, who was appropriately empathetic, but it did not seem too much was done to really push the project forward. UPDATE: Of note, this *REVIEW* is not a claim that they breached contract or did not perform the work as stated, as this is simply my first-hand account of the work performed and the process through which we lived it. We certainly did create some obstacles by ordering some items outside of their firm - some tile (unique and not attainable by Design First), flooring (to match flooring throughout the rest of the house, again, not attainable by Design First), and a counter top (Design First was able to get us a similar but not the same counter top, and we found a trustworthy brand at a very significantly reduced price with a vendor that we have been dealing with for years). However, the flooring issues were mentioned above, and the tile and countertops were delivered at an appropriate time in the project not to cause any significant delays. So yes, we created some headaches, but that would be a comment in that if you are looking to bring in specific materials from other places that are not provided by Design First, they are not extremely accomodating in that sense. In the end, they performed the work, and in the end, we are very happy with our kitchen.