Lifestyle Group Residential Remodeling

Had great remodel ideas for kitchen, pricing seemed fairly reasonable, showroom is nice. Very professional, appreciated the ideas provided -- not sure yet if we're going to remodel at this time but good to get the estimate and measurements for a very reasonable price.

Scheduling the appointment went smoothly.  I feel the price for the plans was a good value for the money.  We were happy with the plans and are considering having the work done at some point in the future.

They were very cooperative and gave us a good plan. I would recommend them to anyone.

Geoff met with us at our home (September 6) so he could see the kitchen, talk with us about our preferences and what we hoped to accomplish with the remodel. He listened attentively, took notes and pictures, and talked us through some immediate recommendations at this first visit. We then met him a week later (September 13) as follow up to the earlier meeting, and here he presented his design in multiple printed layouts corresponding to the images he projected of our existing layout.  He talked us through every choice he made and his reasons for doing so. Working with him during both visits was a complete pleasure. No hard pressure to act immediately, in fact, he reassured us to take the needed time to think through his designs and to use them as a starting point should we have questions or prefer to make adjustments. I came away feeling completely comfortable working with him, that he would manage the project with great care and professionalism.  Once we talked through designs and ideas, he provided us with a cost break down, itemizing all aspects of the project. 
My experience with Geoff & his Lifestyle Group was exactly what I needed to better understand the various parts of this kitchen project -- what can be done within our small space and what must be done in order to remedy the current problems we are now facing with a very old and outdated kitchen.

For the $60.00, we got a visit to get pictures and measurements of the area, and then a consult with presentation of proposed floor plan with measurements and a price estimate of job costs. I hoped for a list of possible products/fixtures with cost estimates. I did get suggestions for types of tile, cabinet, and counter finishes that would be included in the supplied estimate. The designer was friendly and not pushy. It was a good value for the money.

He was respectable, professional, and just the type of person you would like to do business with.

Very professional.  High quality.  But I was a disappointed that their suggested design went well beyond the scope of what I asked for and didn't offer options that matched up with my requirements and, ultimately, my price range for the any remodel work.  Also, the vendor never followed up with me following the presentation of the design to see if I was interested in proceeding with any of the work recommended.  Months later, when I was ready to proceed, I used another vendor.

Lifestyle contacted me the same day I purchased the "Big Deal" to schedule appointments.  Geoff Horen, CEO of Lifestyle, visited our home to discuss our objectives for the project, and then met with us one week later at his office to discuss his proposal.  Geoff was friendly, professional and knowledgeable in working with us.  We especially liked his approach for providing middle-cost options and explaining where the variables were in his proposal.  We never felt rushed in discussing options with Geoff, and he effectively took our vague ideas and created a clear plan that was consistent with our objectives.  Everything promised in the "Big Deal" was delivered in a timely, professional manner.
We are continuing to work with Geoff and Lifestyle to expand the proposal to our bathrooms and expect to move forward with the remodeling project with them.

We had purchased a big deal for the service, and it was fine. I thought they did a really good job, everything seemed to make sense.

The service went great. I haven’t finished with them but I was impressed with the selection that they have. They have all the things that I can go around and pick of what I want to put into my bathroom. It was a big deal purchase. I wasn’t expecting it to be so expensive. 

This is our second remodeling job with the Lifestyle Group (LGI).  LGI remodeled our master bathroom, and we were so pleased with their work, we asked them back for our kitchen remodel.  LGI did a really nice job for us on the kitchen, too.  Since they start from the ground up (they remove everything down to the wall studs), they are not limited by current applicance hook-ups or other limitations of the legacy room layout.  LGI started with a complete redesign of the kitchen that moved our appliances to optimal positions for total kitchen utility.  The remodel planning included drawings of the finished kitchen that left us really excited about our remodeling project.  LGI uses only top-quality materials.  Our cabinets, flooring and countertops are gorgeous.  The cabinets included two huge lazy-Susans and soft-close drawers.  The backsplash tile gets a lot of positive comments for its design and attractiveness.  They also laid carpet for us and painted our living room and hallway.  The carpet is some of the nicest-feeling carpet I have ever walked on.  The Lifestye crew members were great.  All of the LGI workers were friendly, quiet and respectful of our home.  LGI has become our "go to" firm for home remodeling.  We highly recommend them.

The service turned out well.

we had hoped to remodel our only full bath, but were intimidated by certain tasks specific to this area of the house and had no idea what to expect as far as cost goes.  so when we saw the coupon offer on Angie's List for a proposal, for only $60, we grabbed it.  being a visual person, i had hoped the proposal would include visuals that would help us to see what the finished project would look like.  and though the proposal had some visual specs for the cabinetry, it really fell short of my expectations.  however, in fairness to the company, this was a $60 proposal, not a $300-$400 proposal.   also, i felt that there could have been other, perhaps more creative, alternative layouts for the cabinetry.   though i am sure Geoff would have been only too glad to work with us on further modifying the plans.  this was only a preliminary proposal, afterall.  the bulk of the proposal was limited to a breakdown of what to expect as far as potential cost to complete the project.  i found this very helpful.   not being familiar with what is a reasonable cost for most areas of bathroom remodeling, i had no idea if the proposal was fair.  i assumed it was, based on the company's excellent rating.  also, our contact with the company office, and with Geoff, personally, was very positive and very professional.  the one kaveat to that is that we are very familar and comfortable with drywalling.  my father was a spackler.  also, we had drywalled and spackled the entire second floor of a previous home.  so, when we saw the estimate of approx. $1,800 to drywall a full bath measuring roughly 8' x 8' , we did question that.  sometimes it's hard for DIY'ers to appreciate the added expense of having someone else take over the headache of planning and implementing one's wishes. unfortunately, the concern became moot as, in the end, a more immediate home improvement project loomed over us, which forced us to delay the bath remodel.  to sum it up, our initial impression of Life Style Group is very positive.  and when we are finally able to initiate the remodel, we will seriously consider hiring  LSG as our contractor.

It was great. I didn't pay anything more than the deal and they helped me with my ideas.

The plan was very thorough and the time spent was more than expected.  Unfortunately at this time the budget has forced up to put this project on hold.  None the less, the plan will remain viable.

Appreciated his honesty.  We decided not to have the work done.

It worked out fine.  I didn’t have any work done by them but I was happy with the design they gave me.  The people were pretty professional.  I got the value for the big deal purchase but the estimate was too high for the actual work.  I didn’t like that price. 

The guy came out and he really didn’t give us any ideas. We had to give ideas. We met with him here at the house. He looked at it and really didn’t give us any ideas. A week or 2 weeks later we were supposed to go to the office and meet the designer. We thought his sister was the designer. We looked through some books and it wasn’t a big deal. We picked out some products. He gave us a printout and he was supposed to resend us another one with changes. We never did get that. We weren’t really impressed with him. The reason we called him was because we wanted ideas and truly, he didn’t give us any new ideas. He just did what we were thinking of doing. So we weren’t really that thrilled. We probably wouldn’t use him even with the little changes. The changes were something to do with some tile. We picked out some changes instead of the tile. He was going to change it all, tell us what the prices would be and send it to us. He never ever did that. We had already decided then that we wouldn’t use him anyway. It was a big deal purchase. We made an appointment right after we bought the deal. We saw him within a couple of weeks. He came out to the house and 3 or 4 weeks later we went down to his place of business. That was the last time we talked to him. He never got back to us. He was on time. The reason we spent the money was to get ideas. He didn’t give us a single idea.   

Lifestyle did a great job -- Jeff came to measure my sad kitchen, then later presented me with two possible new layouts. He showed me cabinets, flooring, counters, and more -- all the while respecting my financial constraints.  I appreciate the creativity and friendliness of the staff and the integrity of this company.

I liked Lifestyle Group Residential Remodeling, but their price was too high to go ahead and do the remodel with them. They listened to what I wanted. They did a schematic. We reviewed it and they gave me prices. I ended up  meeting with them three times. I liked them a lot. I was very happy with their design. They were nice and did a good job with the drawings. They really helped me to start thinking about what I wanted. It was a really useful process. It served my purpose.

The service was fine.

The service was fine; they did a very good job. We were pleased with that. We were looking for a design and so that was very good. They were very helpful and we sat down and talked with them then. That whole part was fine. It was a very positive experience. They were friendly. It was a bit pricey and more than we wanted to spend. We did not like the cabinets that they had. In general, there is nothing negative. We probably would not use them again.

It was an Angie's List Big Deal that I purchased. It went fine. They were very helpful. They had some great suggestions I hadn't thought of before. They were very professional and very friendly. I thought they did a good job.

They did a really nice job. What they gave me was very pretty, I cannot afford to do the remodel at this time.

I interviewed, or attempted to interview, 6 general contractors before hiring Lifestyle Group. Even though Lifestyle provided the highest estimate, I decided to contract with them because they seemed to know what they were doing.  They seemed knowledgeable and professional.  In addition, at the time, Lifestyle had a good Angie?s List reputation. 
I gave Lifestyle an overall rating of D.  The rating would have been higher if it had not been for two major incidents:
(1.) They finished 4 MONTHS behind schedule.  (The contact was signed on Oct 3, 2012 and they started work on Oct 12.  They were supposed to finish by Dec 31, but they didn?t complete the project until mid-May 2013. (Final payment was made on May 21, 2013.)
(2.) They were very careless with my property.  Twice (that I know of) they left the front door of the house unlocked.  Once (that I
know of) they left the garage unlocked and during this time, a brand new pressure sprayer and other items were stolen from the garage.  Lifestyle took no responsibility for this. 
I can best describe their remodeling work by breaking it down by sub-contractor?
Carpenters & general work:  Grade C: The carpentry work was sufficient.  Some things they did very well? for example
the installation of the new kitchen island is very nice, but other things were not great.  For example, a gap existed between
a baseboard and newly installed wall. When I pointed this out, I was told I should fill the gap with caulk before I painted because this was the ?painter?s job?.  (Really? What if the baseboard was to be stained instead of painted?)  The new heating duct into the new bathroom had a 1-inch gap on two of the four sides where it attached to the floor.  (Brian, the plumber, fixed it for me.) Another irritant was that I requested that all metal hardware to be satin nickel or an equivalent finish but they installed
shiny brassy hinges and handle on the crawlspace entrance.  The crawlspace door is also sticking, but I can sand or plane it myself.  There were many, many more little things like this but since they were so behind schedule, I decided I would rather fix them myself and finish with Lifestyle.
Electrical:  Grade C.  The electricians would have received an A if (1) they had not broken a ceiling light fixture cover and tried to hide it and (2) failed to pull out the old abandoned phone lines like they were supposed to.  The dead phone lines were
inadvertently connected to the newly installed phone system which caused it to short out.  It took ATT three attempts to
fix the problem because they they thought that all of the lines pulled into the phone box were NEW, active lines.
Plumbers: Grade A:  A seemingly perfect job.  I would definitely recommend the plumbing company individually.  The
company name is WaterWorks and the owner is Brian Morton.
Drywall: Grade D:  The basic installation of the drywall and tape was fine.  However, the mud wasn?t smoothly sanded
(there were waves in the dried mud and thousands of finish nail-sized holes in the dried mud that I had to fill with plaster because they were too large for the paint to cover.  The existing plaster walls are finished with sand paint and the drywallers filled nail holes using a 6-inch spatula and in doing so, smoothed out the sand texture.  This meant I had to re-texture every nail hole that they filled so the patches would match the existing walls.  In two places there was mesh wire that was not covered by mud that I had to patch.  And lastly, there were globs of mud splashed everywhere that I had to clean before I could paint.
Floor Refinishers:  Grade A: The existing oak floors were not it great shape.  There was some minor water damage, scratches, some deep stains and a few broken boards.  Where walls were removed, the floor had to be patched (or ?feathered-in?) to match the existing flooring, which this company did perfectly.  The refinishers did a great job.  Except for some existing stains the floor
color is now uniform and beautiful.  The workers applied three coats of oil-based polyurethane.  I am sorry that I don?t know the name of this sub-contractor because if I did, I would recommend them.
Project Management: Kiersten Morton was the project manager.  She is personable and reasonably competent.  However, she would forget things if we had a verbal conversation instead of communicating in writing via their website.  Two examples:  (1) We talked at length about the wall between the walk-in closet and the master bedroom. I explained to Kiersten that the wall had to be at least 6 feet in length. (The length of the wall could be changed by adjusting the sliding closet door widths).  This was necessary because the wall had to be wide enough to accommodate a large dresser that I have.  A few days later I discovered that the wall was framed 5 foot wide.  I made them change it.  (2) In a detailed face-to-face conversation I asked Kiersten to have the shower fixtures install on the right side of the shower.  Instead, the fixtures were installed on the left side. By the time I saw this mistake, fixing it would have meant a major re-do of the plumbing and since it wasn?t a horrible problem, just my preference, I let it go.  One last thing about Kiersten?s management style? If I complained about something, Kiersten tended to defend the workmen instead of trying to fix the problem.  I found this very irritating, especially when I wanted something minor fixed.
In conclusion, if you choose to use Lifestyle, I would recommend that you have a clause in your contract that states an exact project finish date.  Include in this clause that if the job is not done by that date, Lifestyle will pay a substantial per day
penalty for each day they are late finishing the job.