1st Choice Painting and Carpentry

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This was great.

Well coordinated effort, efficient hard workers, pleasant to have working in the house.

I singed up for discounted painting. From the beginning it was clear that Mr. Rabner wanted a larger job than what was paid for. He quoted an additional $3500 for the job we wanted. Finally we agreed to reduce the job to the $474 that had been previously paid. He said he would arrive at 8:30 AM to start work. He later called to say he would arrive at 9:00 AM. He actually arrived at 9:20 and immediately started to complain that he could not finish the very small job in 8 hours. I informed him that he had agreed to do the work, which he had fully inspected beforehand. He then said that he would not be spoken to "that way" and wanted to leave, but would not return the $474 previously paid. He then left and called a half hour later saying he would return the money, which he did. It was totally clear that Mr. Rabner was not interested in doing a small job. If he could not make the job into a bigger deal, he wanted out. Instead of honestly saying so, he used the absurd excuse that I was verbally abusing him, which was totally false. I would never use 1st Choice. They are dishonest in my opinion.

Please see narrative under Services performed.

professional, neat and did a great job. see above details

John Rabner's initial response to my purchasing of the daily deal was immediate. He was quite informative, and I found him extrmeely helpful in selecting the primary and trim colors for my house. He did the carpentry work replacing the wood trim that had received water damage. His crew was professional, punctual, and did a wonderful job. They showed up on time and left on time, with no time wasted while they were onsite working. The work was done quickly and cleanly - no smudges or smearing was noted. The trim paint color matched perfectly with the existing shutters and window trim. The crew cleaned up the area around the house every night, and when they left, no one could tell that any workers had been there. I was quite pleased with the finished product.

The experience did not go well overall. It was a strange outcome--an experience I've never had with a contractor. Our meeting was very cordial, although we had some concerns during the meeting and it had a very unexpected outcome. When we moved to the outside painting job (painting the back and two sides of our home--we had the front painted about a year ago) John spent a long time talking to us about what needed to be done. He appeared to be knowledgeable about painting and some of the issues we had with the exterior of our home. Towards the end of the meeting, he asked when we would make our decision. When we stated we were going to get other estimates and it would take about a week to make a decision, the meeting became very strained. It was clear John expected us to make a decision that day, without any written estimate. He gave us a verbal quote of $1500 for carpentry, for sills that were rotting, and another estimate for the painting. We then asked for a written estimate, and he indicated he did not expect to be asked for anything in writing. He also at some point stated that the job would be based on "time and materials." This statement indicated to me that he would not base the job on any written estimate for the work, but that the job price would likely increase as the work was done. After we requested the written estimate (very politely) John said he would write something brief in the car. His car was blocked in our driveway by my house cleaner's supervisor, who was in our home, checking the cleaning job. John seemed in a rush to get in his car. When he got in his car, we turned around and he was quickly driving away. We did not receive a written estimate for the job or any further explanation for his behavior. My husband and I were concerned during the visit, as John asked many pointed questions, about details concerning our last painter, how long I had wanted the interior project done and many other questions that were off-topic concerning the quote for the painting job. In addition, the time we spent seemed to exceed time necessary to give us a written quote on this job. We felt his verbal quote was extremely high and that he was not going to properly apply the coupon we had from Angie's List. We've since had other quotes for the same job from Angie's List contractors. Other contractors have approached the estimate process professionaly and showed us where we could save some money--indicating what can be done to complete the project and providing us with written estimates.

I found three contractors on Angie's List; each one came out precisely at the promised time to give estimates. I chose First Choice based in part on the rapport I developed with the owner. He was professional, friendly, open, & honest. We already had selected colors & the style of chair rail we wanted. Unfortunately, that style was no longer available, but John found one we liked as well. We signed the contract, scheduled the work, and then enjoyed the results, as described above. When they were finished, John contacted me again to make sure we were satisfied. We were. I will be using 1st Choice again in a few weeks for exterior painting & some handyman stuff, and I hope to use them on a regular basis we remodel, paint, fix up, etc.

This person is my neighbor. I have known him for years. The work was done quickly and efficiently. I was surprised at how fast they were able to do it. No paint was spilled. It looks very professional. He also had to replace a lot of things. I like the way he followed up and kept me informed. He could've just sent the crew out for it instead of coming out himself. I was very happy with the work. It seemed pricey to me, but I didn't have a lot to compare it to.

John and his crew did an excellent job. He was very attentive during the estimate process and willing to engage in multiple conversations about the work to be done. Everything was executed exactly on schedule, and the quality of the work was generally very good. The carpentry aspects of the project were performed by John himself, but all of the other work was done by his three person crew. While they did a good job, I did find that they needed some direction and supervision from John, and on a few occasions I had to point out some minor mistakes to be fixed. The overall neatness was not perfect, but in general I think it was good. I found the price to be higher than average, but I was willing to pay a little more to get quality work. All in all, I think it was worth paying extra. I also felt that for that money I was getting more personal attention than I would have received from some other companies, so in that respect I believe the price was fair. My one complaint about the process was that the written estimate was not as clear as I would have liked, and this did lead to some confusion about what was and was not covered in the agreement. I should have been more assertive in clarifying things, but a more thorough estimate would have prevented a misunderstanding.

The owner refused to provide a quote for our exterior paint job. After he came to our home, he was more interested in getting to know me, my needs, my home, then just giving us a quote. I think he was more interested in more than one project, then just painting our home. We sat and discussed what I wanted for about 40 minutes, but he kept wanting to know what I wanted, how I felt about hiring a company, what I was looking for in a company, etc. I think he was looking for a long term relationship, as opposed to just painting the home. That's fine, but I just wanted my home painted. I was not looking for a company to do any more than that. (Caveat, I did tell him over the phone before he came that I had a leaky bathroom window, and I would be interested in possibly replacing just that one. But I explained to him before he came out that because we had a large number of windows, I would only be interested in fixing or replacing just that one).

From start to finish, John (the owner), was professional, clear, and communicative. His work was amazing. He brought in a great plumber to do the pipe work, and the end result was fantastic. I couldn't recommend 1st Choice highly enough.

I recommended 1st Choice to a client of mine based on their reviews on Angie's List. The client called me this morning and RAVED about how great they are, never an issue, bathroom was done in the estimated time frame and within the budget. John was apparently easy to work with and the bathroom looks great. I would recommend this company again in a heartbeat.

I was very pleased with them. They came in on time and on budget. Their work was excellent and they were pleasant to work with. I was very satisfied. They were pretty good all around. I have already planned to have them come back in the spring for more work.

It was getting a little late, about to storm like crazy, but John came over late, cut some plywood, and got it secured well (even a decent seal) and didn't ruin any of the trim on the house. He was responsive, caring, professional, and reasonable. We will certainly be using John for more projects.

Very pleased with the result. The owner and his team were very professional, timely and competent.

John Rabner took a lot of time discussing the project and talking about how he liked to do business & what my expectations were. We worked together well, because his interests were the same as mine, getting a thorough understanding of what I wanted so that he could do the best job possible. His crew was on time, careful, professional, & meticulous. John followed up regularly--including weeks later--to make sure I was satisfied. He's the kind of contractor I want to business with, and I will, on our next project.

Our experience with John Rabner was uniformly excellent. From our first meeting, John was always on time, listened closely to our plans and concerns, and proposed ways of getting to what we wanted that made sense and, often, improved on our original conception of the project. We got a written estimate that matched the final cost. John and his team started earlier than he'd first estimated (with our assent - he didn't insist), his team came and went politely and on time, and we were very comfortable having them in our home. When a couple of very small issues cropped up in the following weeks, he returned promptly and made sure we were satisfied. On the whole, working with John was a pleasure, and we would turn to him again for projects.

1st Choice Painting & Home Improvements provides the highest quality workmanship and best choice of materials of any provider we have worked with in this area. We recommend this company wholeheartedly.

The contractor (who is a general handyman service and painter) was very prompt in responding to an inquiry about removing the ice dams and came to our home to conduct this portion of the work very quickly (the next day during the snow storm). This was wonderful and prevented further damage on the interior of our home. When removing the ice, one of our gutters fell off and the other was bent. This was not the fault of the contractor. While on the roof, the contractor did drop a fairly large pick ax/hammer that could have been very serious if our dog or a person was in our back yard. The clean up was fair but not great. We found a few large screws/nails in the backyard after the gutter fell. This is pretty dangerous as our dog visited the backyard via dog door. So I had to scour the yard to be sure I got all loose objects/metal. We were awaiting home insurance approval before getting the gutters replaced. What was odd was that the contractor arranged to come to our home to give the estimate on the gutter replacement in the evening when it was dark out and then told me he couldn't give an accurate estimate until daylight. So I sort of wondered why we even did the evening estimate. Once we decided to move forward, the contractor was pretty persistent in scheduling the gutter repair and wanted us to proceed with the work when he was in our neighborhood doing work on another home. We wanted to do so before our home insurance was approved and we did wait for this approval before proceeding. The day the work was to be done, there was then some confusion over what portions of the gutter were to be replaced. The contractor was going to replace all but a small portion of our gutter, which would have looked odd. In the end, he did replace the whole gutter at the price quoted. There was also some, what I believe to be innocent, errors in the estimates. The math was wrong between what we had paid for the ice removal and the gutter replacement. The contractor remedied the errors without any questions and apologized for the errors. In the end the work was completed. We do have some gaps between our roofline where the gutters are attached. We asked the contractor if the wood where the gutters were attached should have been replaced, given that the gutter ripped off the back of the house. He said no. However, he never looked inside our attic. I am not sure whether or not this is an accurate assessment. A family member who is quite handy indicated that these gaps should not be there and is the result of the gutters getting torn off. In the end, we are going to have a roofer come check things out.

Worked with us on paint choices; arranged time; came as arranged; excellent preparation of walls; crew well-supervised and respectful of our possessions. Fine clean-up.

Came out on time, very prompt, very professional. Highest quality of work. Cleaned up after work, very good about calling you to make sure everything is to your satisfaction and make sure that there are no problems. Would suggest to others to use them.