Stowe Contracting -Transformative Innovations

Not only was the requested work done efficiently and to exacting standards, but suggestions here and there made by Gene and Miguel greatly enhanced the finished look beyond what I imagined on my own. After the nightmare of the sewer line replacement, I was impressed with the care taken by Stowe Contracting to keep the dust and debris from collecting in the unaffected areas of my house. The workers cleaned up after themselves every night so that I could walk through to view progress without risk to myself or to the unfinished work. On several occasions as work was underway I requested additional services (see installation of new water heater and washer/dryer) and they did not unduly affect the project completion date. I am extremely pleased with the finished product and have already referred Stowe Contracting to two friends who asked about my recent experience.

Eugene / Stowe Contracting were great. First and foremost, Eugene and his team were always available if I had any questions or thoughts. And if there was a design element that I was not sure about, Eugene went out of his way to make sure the final product was exactly what we wanted. Just as important, Eugene was always on time (if not a few minutes early), finished on schedule and on the budget that we initially discussed. My wife and I are already discussing what we are going to have Eugene do next in our home.

The person answering the phone stated that the contractor will not be available until September 2014 (date of call 7/12/14).

I am not done yet so I am unable to grade the price category.

Working with Eugene was fantastic. He is extremely responsive and very easy to work with. We have an older house and our shower was leaking into the room below. He worked with me to only re-do the shower and maintain the rest of the master bathroom and at no time did he pressure me to tear out the entire bathroom as other contractors had. Eugene matched the tile with the existing tile in the bathroom, and added a few extra details in the trim to really complete the look. Every day I came home to a clean house, barely knowing that his team had been working there. The finished product is exactly what I wanted, and the price was very reasonable and consistent with other quotes that I received. This was our first "big" project in our home and working with Eugene made the process so much easier. I highly recommend him!!

Gene and his crew remodeled one bathroom down to the studs and gave the attached closet a face lift. While working we found that the house needed an electrical upgrade. Gene brought in an electrician and was able to get it done quickly, so it only set us back a few days. After they completed the first bathroom they started on the main bathroom taking down some outdated mirrors, painting, new vanity, and new fixtures. Shortly after they finished this project my mother passed away and I needed to get the house on the market quickly. I called Gene again. We took a waik through the house and discussed what needed to be done to sell the house. He was able to help me decide what things needed to be done and which were most cost effective. He suggested ways to update the kitchen without spending a fortune.(he painted the cabinets) He even found a inexpensive piece of granite for me. I was schedule to be out of the country for several weeks, and didn't have time to move everything so they could work. The guys moved everything, all the furniture and decorations. I gave Gene keys to the house knowing it would be in great hands. He kept me updated with pictures and texts. I even let him chose the granite and carpeting. Gene and his guys were great. I felt completely comfortable leaving Gene in charge while I was away. He's very conscientious and wants his clients to be happy and will go out of his way to be sure they are. They were really a great group of guys, friendly but professional. Always cleaning up after themselves. I have only one complaint, Gene spreads himself thin on occasion but he gets the job done and to the clients satisfaction, on schedule! I'm looking forward to my next project with Gene:)

Very professional. Plumber had a plumbing emergency that delayed scheduled appointment. He called in advance with estimated rescheduled time. Followed up again to let me know when he was on the way. Pleased with the consideration to keep me notified. Plumber reviewed work to be done. We wanted the outside faucet replaced, but also wanted the faucet moved to a different location with new shut-off valve and install new copper pipe. He gave quote upfront for the additional work in addition to the special offer for outside faucet replacement. The pricing was very fair for the work to be done. The plumber took off his shoes when entering house. He covered work area with canvas sheets. He did a careful job of re-routing pipes to new outside location. I was very pleased with his care and concern about keeping area clean and cleaning up after his work. The faucet, shut-off value, routed copper piping and soldiering was done very nicely and professional. I was very pleased with the quality of the workmanship.

They have a wonderful response and were very courteous. The plumber, Brian, really knew what he was doing. He troubleshooted and found other issues. He was able to fix those as well within the coupon. The work was done very well, and he explained what he was doing. He also said that they don't usually service my area, but they were still happy to come out.

A friend at work showed me pictures of her new bathroom. She "loved it." Her bathroom had that custom look to it. You know, instead of the shower curtain, she had a hinged glass door over her bathtub. She gave me Stowe Contracting-Transformative Innovations phone number. A picture is worth a thousand words. When Gene from Stowe Contracting showed up for our free estimate, he proudly showed me pictures of their work. After his team of professional employees replaced the bathroom tiles, mirror, medicine cabinet, light, faucet, vanity top, sink, bathtub plumbing, and bathroom paint, I was happy! My bathroom could be in the Signature Kitchen and Baths magazine. Do people get paid for their pictures? Speaking of pictures, Gene took a bunch of them. I told him I'd only charge him $ 25.00 for every picture of my new bathroom. But most importantly, I put him on a plan. He could pay me for the pictures whenever he could. What goes around, right?

Showed up on time, made a professional inspection of both inside and outside of house around the faucet area. Did a wonderful job with professional outcome.

Eugene came to our condo to provide an estimate and was punctual, professional, and made my wife and I feel that he would do a great job on our project. This was the 5th proposal we'd received for the job, but decided to go with Stowe almost instantly. The price was also very competitive to the other bids, and better than most. My wife and I went on vacation for a week and left Eugene with the keys to our condo to do the work, which involved tearing down parts of two walls, electrical work, lighting, flooring (carpet) patching, and trim. When we returned, the result was exactly what we wanted and the house was clean and tidy. Everything went very well and we love the new closet space. Since we were so pleased with the results of the closet project, we wanted to hire Eugene for another project to build a wall and create another bedroom, however after reaching a soft agreement on the price and a start date Eugene told me that he would be unable to do the job for at least another 4 months. If I had to mention an issue it is that agreeing on a date and receiving a formal proposal didn't happen quite as smoothly as I would have expected. This required multiple back and forths and following up multiple times via phone, text, and e-mail. Ultimately, this was a small inconvenience for the high quality of work that was performed on the first job, and likely contributed to the second job falling through.

This is the second bathroom they have done for us in a year, which tells you right away we loved the work, price, and professionalism. They took the bathroom all the way to the studs and completely replaced everything from the floor to the ceiling. They helped us choose new hardware that was in our budget that provides a great new look. This was especially helpful because we do not reside in the property and worked this project from pretty far way. They worked well with our tenants for both projects. While I hope I don't need bathroom work anytime soon, I would call Eugene right away if I did!

Absolutely great! The owner, Eugene, took personal interest in the project from estimating, kick-off and final inspection. He controled quality and made sure the scope of work was clearly understood by the crew. The crew was highly skilled and focused. I am a happy customer.

Water was backing up from the pipe where the washing machine drains. I called Gene. He passed my info to his associate, Dave Martin of D.H. Martin Plumbing Heating and Drain Cleaning. Mr. Martin was at my house by early afternoon. He determined that the backup was most likely being caused by a clog in the main sewage line between the house and septic tank. Dave arranged for the septic tank to be pumped out the following morning. He had to uncover the top of the tank, which required digging 3 - 4 feet down and around the tank. The tank had not been pumped in way too long, so it contained a great deal of sludge, which was what was causing the slow draining and backup. The tank was cleaned out and the pipes snaked. The hole was refilled, and the bush which had to be removed was even replanted. Problem solved! A condensation pump from the air conditioner and the drain from the water softener, which were being emptied into the same drain as the washing machine, were rerouted to drain outside. Mr. Martin also repaired a leaking kitchen faucet, replaced the ice maker in my freezer, and installed a line from a dehumidifier to a drain. It is so nice not to have to empty that water twice a day! I am very pleased with the work done by Dave Martin. I would definitely call him again and refer him to others. Gene Sibley/Stowe Contracting has a team of qualified and reliable people working for/with him.

I got three estimates, but chose Gene because he was 1) very easy to work with 2) willing to let me manage the parts of the project that I wanted to and 3) competitively priced. It took me a long time to make my selections, but Gene was patient & gave me useful suggestions as he took the time to listen to what look I was going for & helped steer me in the right direction. He would touch base with me regularly, but wasn't overbearing & was making sure I knew he was ready to work with me. Once everything was ordered, he & his team quickly gutted the old bathroom and set to work. His team was efficient & professional. Like others have said, they kept the rest of my house very neat & cleaned up after themselves each night. While his team was good, some of their work did not meet Gene's standards. For example, I didn't notice, but Gene said the two recessed medicine cabinets were not level and were set too low. He proceeded to take out the light fixtures & the medicine cabinet, raise them up a few inches, level them off and replace the lights & the cabinets. In addition, he now had to drywall the "mistake", which took a lot of time for something I probably would not have noticed, but it bugged him and he wanted the work to be good. When I had some leftover tile from the shower, he suggested I add it to the wall above the sinks, which turned out AWESOME! I selected a countertop that would take 4-weeks to come in, but he found a top that not only I liked better, but cost less & came in in 4-days! Overall, I am very pleased with the way the bathroom turned out and will contact Gene when I'm ready to do my master bath!

He did a great job. He came out, gave us an estimate. He was timely. He was very professional. He kept the floor covered when he went back and forth throughout the house. A good crew. I would definitely recommend him again.

All work is very good and made sure there was no problems before leaving. My complaint is taking so long and taking so long with so many people working on this project. 5 weeks to complete which seems very excessive.

I sent a few emails and left phone messages and it took at least 10 days to get a response to set up the appointment. But he had good reviews on Angies (for the most part) and only lived 2 miles away, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Glen estimated he'd be there between 4 and 530 pm. I called at 530 to see if he was still coming, and we arranged for him to come at 7 pm. It took at least 2 weeks to get his estimate, which again required phone calls and emails. It was 2 sentences long giving a quote of $3000, but didn't state exactly what he was covering nor was it broken down as to the different jobs so that perhaps one could be accepted and another declined, as I would have expected. The quote was emailed back within 30 minutes of my email (I had called previously called and left messages). Since it was so short, he could have knocked it out and emailed it to me without my prompting, in my opinion. When I emailed back to decline, he said he was super busy, which is undoubtedly true, but given the lack of responsiveness and unprofessional, detail lacking quote, doesn't bring in new business. After posting this review, Gene contacted me to complain about the negative review, since it was posted several months after the initial contact. He stated that he doesn't have time as a small business owner to write detailed contracts for each proposal. After declining Gene's proposal, I subsequently contacted other small business owners for the work, who were able to provide detailed work descriptions and were more responsive, so I opted to use them instead.

Gene is a one of a kind contractor that we were lucky to find. We solicited bids from 4 or 5 other contractors and decided to go with Gene not because he was the lowest bid (although close), but because of his personality. I was looking for someone that I could work with not someone that would come in and do only what they bid to do and have to write up change order after change order. I believed that I could be honest with Gene and that he would not rip me off. This turned out to be absolutely true. I work in the construction industry and decided to contract the job out to save me the hassle and extended time of doing a lot of the work myself or sub contracting it out. We just had our first baby, Grace, (sorry for the late review) so it was imperative the job was done on time. We got going in February and the job was done by the end of May. Just like we wanted. The subs that Gene used were a blessing. Some very good, sincere hearted guys. Gene really runs the business well. He is surrounded by professionals and when the job calls for some in depth knowledge he doesn't hesitate to bring in experts with lots of experience to solve some of the more difficult problems that are encountered in remodeling. Our house was built in the 1890's and had extensive hidden termite damage that required major structural work that we hadn't counted on. We had to rebuild an entire supporting wall and add a steel beam in the basement. This wasn't a restoration project, but we did have some old aesthetic details matched like the wood siding. We also kept the original porch ceiling in the pantry/mudroom/bathroom. Inside the house, we totally re modeled the kitchen. The only thing that remained the same was the size of the room. The plumbing was reconfigured, old galvanized pipes were replaced, some of the original windows were removed and installed in different locations (I'm a window purest to the disdain of many contractors). We moved some stained glass from interior walls to exterior walls so the light accents would be more pronounced. The kitchen was designed by one of Gene's subs and we are delighted by all the small things he was able to think of that we wouldn't have. The tile work was also done by one of Gene's subs. Solomon was the lead sub on the job and is one of the best subcontractors I've ever met. Gene is lucky to have him. We finally have a bathroom downstairs!! This is by far the most useful part of the project. We can wash the dog, wash ourselves when the other bath is in use, elderly guests don't' have to traverse the old staircase, the added value to the house will speak for itself going from one bath to two. We went with an old style tile pattern that was difficult to say the least, but it looks great and is exactly what we envisioned. In hind sight, the shower is oversized and a bathroom closet might have been a better use of the space, but who ever complains that the shower is too big?? The pantry more than makes up for the lack of storage space in this old house. Some of the extras that we didn't count on in the original bid inflated the price, but we knew this was going to happen with the age of the house and all the unknowns. Rebuilding the support wall, adding the beam, removing and re installing an original window, adding a booster fan for the range exhaust fan. We also splurged a little on the materials like a copper kitchen sink and the bathroom tile work.

Gene was prompt and called me back originally within a day or so to set up an appointment for an estimate. He came by later that week on a Friday as scheduled and took a look at our bathroom. He was very nice and had a good understanding of what we wanted and gave me an idea how much the job would take and cost. He said he would get back to me in a couple of days with a written estimate (this was early September). About a week later I inquired about the estimate, and one was received after about day or two via email. I liked what I saw on the estimate and I wrote Gene in an email that I would like to move forward with the job. He told me it would be late October or early November until he could get to me. This wasn't a problem. It seemed reasonable for a good contractor that had good reviews on Angie's list for the quality of his work to be busy. It also gave us some time to purchase the finished materials that we needed (lights, tile, vanity, etc.). I again had to contact Gene late in October to see what his status was for our bathroom. He informed me that he was unable to get to our job until late December or early January because of some knee issues. I sympathized with his dilemma and again had no issue waiting until he was able to work, figuring the outcome of the bathroom would be worth the wait. A few days before Christmas I called Gene again to check his status. He asked that I give him a call after the holidays the following week. I did as he asked and we agreed that the end of January was looking good. This also gave me a couple of weeks for the vanity to arrive (we made a last minute change and the order took 3 weeks to arrive). I called Gene 2 weeks later on Wednesday to set up a firm date. On Friday I finally got in touch with him and he told me he could start the following Wednesday. He said he would call and come by on the weekend to pick up the key, sign the contract and go over any last minute details. He never called nor ever showed up on the weekend as he said he would. I even called and left a message Sunday asking if he was still planning on coming by. Didn't hear anything back. Obviously we have decided to move on to another contractor. I found myself always having to call Gene to check to see where we were on starting when it was getting close to our proposed starting time. I understand Gene is very busy but no-shows or even no-calls after all this time waiting is not acceptable. I am very surprised how this happened considering all the great reviews on here. Gene did finally send me an email a week after he was supposed to drop by, apologizing that he was not in contact as he was out of town. After little explanation he asked if he could start in the upcoming week if we were still interested. We were not. It's unfortunate, it sounds like Gene does good work; however, after all that has happened we felt it was better idea to go with someone more realiable.

I met with several contractors for estimates and ultimately chose Gene because of reviews that he was a perfectionist and because he had a similar taste in bathroom design as I do. Gene was helpful in helping me decide what fixtures and tile to use. Gene said he could replace my water main shut off valve without having to remove my kitchen counter--which most contractors said was necessary. His quote was also cheaper than others. He brought in a plumber who did the work quickly and efficiently. He also cleaned up afterwards. It took a while to start the renovation in my bathroom from when I first met with him in the summer because both of our schedules were very busy. Once the work started, Angel and Javier did a great job. They are very detail-oriented and did beautiful work. They daily kept me updated on the progress of the work and consulted with me on where exactly to place the medicine cabinet and layout of the floor tile, etc. Gene was also available to help me make decisions through phone calls and texts. He also stopped by to make sure everything was going well. I especially appreciated the fact that Angel and Javier always cleaned up after each day and listened to my concerns and addressed them. They went above and beyond what I asked for.

Nice attention to detail and very pleasant work crew.

I can't praise Gene Sibley enough. When I met Gene, I explained I needed this bathroom done before I started a huge project at work, particularly because my baby was due right on the heels of the project deadline. My bathroom (consisting solely of a bathtub and toilet) had been shut down by the condo because it was leaking into the units below. I had no time to shop for exactly what I wanted so I just explained to Gene that it had to be nice enough and neutral enough for resale some day, and that there were certain items I had to have (like a heated ceiling fan and a really deep bathtub). Gene did the shopping for me, coordinating with the plumbing company build.com to send me some choices for fixtures, and going to Home Depot taking photos of tile and emailing them to me, and leaving me paint chips to look at and choose from when I got home from work. He even went to Ikea and picked up the medicine cabinet I wanted recessed above the toilet. Gene also had to work around condo restrictions on parking, turning off water, and hours of loading dock use. He selected materials that were affordable and just in line with what I wanted, he was passionate about his project, prompt, neat, and created a simple but perfect bathroom just along the lines of what I wanted. It felt so great to get rid of my 1986 fiberglass tub/shower "unit" and replace it with a real bathtub, subway tile, and a glass tile accent. I highly recommend Gene - he will respond to your messages, his prices are reasonable, he is flexible and truly wants to help you get your project done the way you want it done.

Working with Gene in the planning and strategy was fantastic. He was really knowledgeable, thoughtful, creative, and really listened to what we wanted. He's an incredibly friendly, approachable guy. He was pretty responsive and patient with us as we figured out appliances, etc. (the cost of which are not included here--only the work and installation, just to be clear). We are a gay couple and Gene was really comfortable and worked well with us. When the work got underway, a crew that worked for Gene did most of the work; he was around less. This was ok for the most part although at times we felt the work was moving a little slowly. There were a couple of mistakes that his crew made that, when we explained and pushed for correction, they were a little resistant to doing, and Gene had to step in and tell them we were right. That was a little annoying. We appreciated his authority but wish we had felt ours a little more. On the whole, we wondered if it might have all gone a little more smoothly if Gene had been able to be more present. All in all it was a great experience, and perhaps most importantly, the kitchen turned out beautifully. Gene's crew were (other than the couple of mistakes in the installation of the microwave and the molding) VERY detail oriented, spackling and painting cracks and seams in the cabinets for a very finished look. That Ikea kitchen has never looked better. Having additional lighting and outlets makes the kitchen much more flexible.

We live in and older home with a concrete bathroom and were very worried about the whole demolition process and the mess it would cause, but Gene told us not to worry and had suggested scheduling the remodel around a vacation so he could keep our home prepped which would make life easier for him and his crew and speed things up. We were somewhat hesitant at first about having work going on in our home with no one around, but after speaking with a few references which Gene had suggested we do our worries were put to side and decided to begin to work while we were away for Thanksgiving. Let me tell you from day one Gene was sending us pictures of the progress and explaining step by step what was happening which made life and the vacation wonderful. When we arrived home 2 weeks later our bathroom had been transformed into a work of art. Gene and his crew (Angel and Javier) had just a few more days of work left to do which was great. He had estimated 3 weeks ,but it took only 2 1/2. All I can say is that our house as clean as the day we left and the bathroom was perfect. Gene even walked my husband and I through the bathroom and pointed out the straight grout lines and flat clean tile surfaces he and his crew had created. Gene also discovered that our main water shut off valve was not working very well and was leaking, so Gene had it changed out with a new ball valve which works great! Gene is a perfectionest, easy to talk too and a good communicator. If you are looking for a wonderful contractor Stowe Contracting is second to none. Thanks for the wonderful work and sorry for the late review.