Stone Cottage Construction

Our house build, from planning and pricing to construction and adding the finishing touches was both fun and made easy by Stone Cottage. The core team of Troy, Brian and Nancy made every step personal and special and we're delighted with the quality of the finished home. We never thought we'd be able to afford to build our own design and while it provided some challenges to the team, they helped us figure out each and every step in order to make our home "just right". Sometimes, responses took a little longer than I wanted, but that was usually because of my own excitement. There were just as many times we'd receive a response late at night or on the weekends, even when they weren't expected. We couldn't be more excited about our home and are happy to answer any questions for prospective customers of Stone Cottage. Thanks Troy, Brian and Nancy for your great work! Amelia and Andy, Lakeville

We had an extremely stressful and frustrating experience working with Stone Cottage Construction. Our initial meetings with them went well enough, they are actually very nice people. However, once our project started it became clear that our path to completion was not going to be smooth or quick. Communication. Extremely poor communication was really the crux of the vast majority of issues encountered during our project. There are far too many examples to list here, but suffice it to say that truly successful projects, where every party walks away satisfied, revolve around efficient and effective communication. It was not uncommon to send an email asking for a simple update on project status, and wait a week or more for a reply. No matter how many times we asked for answers, there was always a significant delay in response. This key component of the project, communication, was missing from the start and unfortunately we, the customer/client, bore the brunt of the result. Subcontractor delays, ineptitude and price manipulation. Starting with the architect, this project quickly veered onto a bad path. Poor communication, lethargic approach to the work, and resistance to creativity highlight the struggles we faced dealing with the architect. Moving on to our contact at Al's Cabinets, we were incredibly disappointed with poor communication (a recurring theme), little to no guidance and a general disregard for what we were trying to accomplish. Lastly, the admitted price manipulation by the plumbing subcontractor (i.e. extra labor cost for an upgrade despite no additional labor required) was appalling and brought into question all subcontractor pricing. How could we possibly trust the value of any services provided? Lack of attention to detail. There were a number items during construction that were either missed or not executed properly. We identified these issues quickly and brought them to the attention of Stone Cottage immediately. In some cases, the issues were addressed appropriately. In most cases, however, we needed to provide constant reminders to complete work items and/or constantly ask for updates on the work items only to find they weren't in progress. A few specific examples - after our electrical work was being roughed in, we asked that a light switch be moved in one of the bathrooms. We asked for this to be completed well before drywall was hung, but it didn't get completed until days before closing, delaying the painters - and ultimately not to our satisfaction. While this may seem trivial, it was an issue that kept being ignored over the course of months - just indicative of the poor communication and poor project management. Another example was sod for our yard. We had some discussion with Stone Cottage about where sod would be placed, were very clear with our decision, and gave them over a month of lead time to arrange for sod installation. Fast forward to 1-2 days before sod could no longer be installed and we found that sod had only been installed in our front yard, not our full yard. When confronted with this mistake, no apology was given and we were told it was now too late in the season to install any more sod. Unacceptable and completely avoidable for non-inept project managers. Since we've moved in, the poor communication has continued. We've repeatedly asked them to address issues with ground settling due to improper back-filling/grading, as well as a few other issues, and the only response we've received boils down to "we'll get to it sometime... maybe". Meanwhile, our plans for landscaping and sod installation are on hold until they address the issues we've raised. Overall, the concept of customer service and professionalism seems to be lost on Stone Cottage. We truly believe that had we not provided the project oversight and direction we did on a constant basis, the project would have derailed completely, the already delayed timeline would not have been met, and we would still be addressing and correcting mistakes in the construction process. While we're likely to eventually be happy with our new home, we are extremely dissatisfied and disappointed with the path we've endured to reach this point - I sincerely hope no one else has to experience the same.

We recently built a home with Stone Cottage Construction. I have to say that we really loved them during the building process. Prior to the start of construction we did have some difficulty getting responses from the office, but once the construction started Brian, who was the building manager/coordinator was very good about getting back to us. Sometimes I even got responses that showed he was working in the middle of the night. Nancy at the design center was EXCELLENT and very, very helpful, and overall, Stone Cottage was very flexible about letting us customize their plans (prior to the purchase agreement). They really worked hard to get our house built in a short amount of time as they knew we were living with relatives over the building process. There were just a couple of very minor mistakes made during construction which is to be expected, and they fixed the ones we wanted fixed. After moving in we have noticed some things like seams showing in the ceilings, paint splashed EVERYWHERE. Since closing though it has continued to be next to impossible to get them to come out and fix the things that need to be fixed, some of which are hazardous, like concrete that has shifted causing a tripping hazard on our front path. After having such a great experience with them during the building process, their customer service after closing has been really disappointing. It's sad that when we are out talking with neighbors and they hear that Stone Cottage was our builder they all look at us with knowing looks like they've heard lots of other stories as well. A total shame as the people that run the company seemed so nice during the building process.

My original builder was Manley Bros., and several former staff from that now-defunct company are working at Stone Cottage. I had their GC, Brian, come in back in January, and about a month later he came back with a bid (we were both on vacation for a week during this time, so some delay is understandable on the time for the bid). The numbers looked great and I accepted via email on Feb. 16. Hearing nothing, I wrote back on Feb. 24, accepted the bid again, and asked for some information about lighting and speakers and asked, ?what now?? March 6, he responded with some info about speaker installers and said ?he?d wait to hear what [we] decide as far as having us work on your basement.? On March 6, I AGAIN accepted the bid, and said ?let?s do it? and just that we?d want to pay in installments. Brian wrote back again that day, said installments were fine, that?s how they do it, he?d send over a contract, and he thanked us for choosing Stone Cottage. Weeks later, I finally got a call returned from Brian after I left a voicemail, saying they could do the work, but they were really busy with new construction. He suggested that they could do it if we were flexible on when each portion of the project got done (say, framing one week, electric another, etc). We were fine with this at this point since Stone Cottage had the connection with our original millwork guys. Brian said he was sorry he hadn?t gotten back to me and that he would send out the contract. Fast forward another few weeks, no contract and not a word or call from the company. Brian returned my final email this week with the explanation that they are no longer doing any remodeling work as they are attempting to keep up with their new construction projects. He hedged on outright saying that they didn?t want our business, but that they ?couldn?t expect [me] to wait for [them] to get started, and [he] couldn?t promise when that would be.? The lack of professionalism in failing to contact us, leading us on, and just outright not telling us they couldn?t do our project is appalling. There are some talented people from Manley still working at that company, but prepare to harass and fly-speck everything if you somehow get convinced that they actually want your business. I would have given them a "D" if not for help in getting some contact info for other contractors. As I said, there are some talented people there, but business management/judgment is lacking.