They did a beautiful job for a very reasonable amount.  There were some time issues, but it had to do with transporation of their sub contractors.  They also did a beautiful tiling job and also the drywall was well done also.  They  replaced a bathtub with a bathtub shower combination.  The new sauna went where the old shower was, which is something they had not done before.  Overall I am very satisfied.

Overall we are extremely pleased with the entire process and team Barb has, would highly recommend them and use them again for any additional work we may have done in the future (kitchen next!). 

The flooring company installed a beautiful travertine floor after a very clean rip out. The custom cabinets were installed. Excellent job. Finally the sinks and faucets.

It was an excellent experience. Work was completed with minimal disruption to our household.

We liked the product we got but the road to get there was really painful.  The lady who owns the company is a pretty good designer but as far as a business woman trying to schedule construction goes, she wasn?t good at that.  The project maximum was for five or six weeks but she turned it into a ten week project.  She would have one workman out here in a day and she used handymen rather than licensed contractors.  I would like people to come out and give me an idea as to what each day is supposed to be.  She would never give me a mile stone schedule.  Her guy would show up at nine or nine thirty.  If he had to pick up materials, he would turn up at ten thirty and he?d be gone at three o?clock.  She told me to give him an advance to pay for his travel.  If he doesn?t leave at the right time, he gets stuck in the traffic.  I told her that half of what she said was not right because whether you choose to pay for his travel or not is between him and the contractor.  He?s a handyman and not a union guy.  So he?s not under any union rules.  If there?s a problem, she gets really emotional about that.  After we got the work done, we had two major problems.  One was, the shower valve had a control range from being hot at six o?clock to being completely on and hot at twelve o?clock.  It doesn?t get hot though till around ten thirty.  So I told her about that and the problem was with the valve and she didn?t know about that.  She made every effort there to correct that.  She put some nine inch upper cabinets in the bathroom and it was our opinion as a customer.  They took ten weeks to complete the job when it should have been just five or six weeks.  Her price was the lowest but she should have been lower because she used handymen instead of licensed contractors.  They would call me back but getting the resolution was a problem.  We will not use her services again in the future.

RESPONSE TO CONTRACTORS COMMENTS:
If you will look at the tone of the Contractor's response, it supports many of the complaints in my original report that she personalizes everything and lacked any degree of professionalism in dealing with problems.  In addition to her reply, the nasty phone message she left me expressing her displeasure further supports that contention.  As I said in my original review, we were not dissatisfied with the final product only the journey we had to take to get there.  I have repeatedly tried to explain that to her and she still fails to comprehend the difference as is evident in her response.  However, it does not take long before she begins to misrepresent the facts in her response.  I am a retired project manager and gave her a detailed timeline of what other activities would be going on concurrently from the date we moved in until she started and completed work realizing that she needed to anticipate the obstacles she would be facing.  As such her contention that we changed our mind at the last minute and moved in was completely untrue. My schedule also clearly stated we would move in, have the house painted , then have new flooring laid, and then she could begin her work.  So her contention that she did not know she would have to deal with the flooring is simply untrue. She further misrepresents the truth about the back yard landscaping contractor as we were very happy with his performance (see our review of Living Water on Angie's List).  We never blamed her for dirt in the house, only the poor efforts of her workmen at containing the construction dust.  With years of experience in the construction business, I know that remodelers know how to contain such dust and full well consider that part of their job. She includes more misrepresentations as we have used several contractors over the years and for the most part have always been happy with them. The contractors we used to re-build after Katrina were subpar but that is irrelevant to this issue and another example of her emotional responses.  With the exception of her cabinet maker and tile guy, her qualified craftsmen were two people that did framing, sheet rock, electrical, plumbing, and painting .  Maybe we have a different definition of craftsman but my definition is that a worker specializes in one area not five or more.  As far as the nine inch cabinets, we were talking with the owner and advised her that for her future reference we would recommend against installing nine inch upper cabinets which have only six inches of interior space. We asked her to give us a price for replacing them with twelve inch cabinets since she knew where to go to match what was there.  I simply told her to give us a price and we would decide if we wanted to spend that much to replace the nine inch cabinets.  At no time did we ask her to cut us a deal and did not know until after the fact that she had used a credit to lower the price.  While we appreciate what she did, it in no way changes the other shortcomings of her performance.  The job took almost ten weeks to complete not the six weeks she claims and as she said before we began the job.   Furthermore, we never added any doors to the project.  We can only assume it was an oversight on her part from our initial  discussions which she said she was prone to do.  But the real issue was that the doors should have never delayed the project if she had ordered them early on as we requested.  As far as her representation that we told her superintendent the job was completed on time, that is simply a complete falsehood.  You will also note that her inability to remain professional in the face of conflict is demonstrated in her reply with the personal attack on my wife as well as her completely false representation that I told her Superintendent my wife was difficult to live with.  I would have considered advising people to use this contractor with sufficient awareness up front.  But given the continued lies and personal attacks demonstrated in her response, I would strongly recommend against anyone considering the use of this contractor. I sincerely hope that if Angie's List allows the contractor's response to remain public that they will allow this additional input since her response is so full of falsehoods and misrepresentations.

One of the guys who came in to do the tile work did subpar work. I had a handy man who did the tile work on the floor that did a much better job than the other guy. The vanities turned out very nice. It was supposed to be done in a few weeks and the job took close to 3 months to totally finish the job. The main sales guy was like dealing with a used car salesman, he would lie straight to your face. Barbara, the owner, is straight up and I did not mind dealing with her. It was not a great value but it was not bad.

I called to get an estimate and made an appointment with Barbara to see my kitchen (this was right before Thanksgiving). She met me on my lunch hour both to give me the estimate and later to choose materials. She was always very accommodating of my schedule and very easy to reach by phone. I had a general idea of what I wanted, and she offered excellent suggestions that added to my vision. She gave me the estimate a day or so after visiting my home, and I scheduled the work immediately (I wanted to have the work finished before Christmas). The first step of the process was meeting Barbara at a granite yard/tile showroom to choose materials. Even though I have builder-grade oak cabinets, I did not want the expense of replacing them. I also wanted to keep the current flooring and paint. She insturcted me to bring samples of the paint and flooring and a drawer so that the granite and tile would compliment the existing finishes. We then walked around holding up the drawer to various granite slabs. I so appreciated her eye because I'm not very good at visualizing how a finished project will look. She immediately knew what was "too gold" or "too yellow" and steered me to a beautiful piece of granite. It was even cheaper than what her estimate had allowed, saving me $400. She then helped me choose the travertine for the backsplash and the pencil rail that would frame a square over the cooktop. I had told her I did not want a stainless steel sink, and she suggested a Blanco Silgranit sink. I had never heard of Silgranit (a granite composite material), but she directed me to several stores in the area that carried it. I took my granite sample (that Barbara had the granite yard break off my slab) and travertine tile sample with me to select the color. Barbara then called the store to order the sink in the style and color I wanted, allowing me to take advantage of her discount. This cost was added to her initial estimate (which had not included the sink). And let me insert here that this is the greatest sink ever -- big and deep and so easy to keep clean! The actual work was scheduled to begin on 12/13/10. I was very grateful that the special-order window and the sink both arrived on time! Barbara scheduled the work very well, and every worker arrived on time and did excellent work. The demolition of the old countertops was the first step (day one), followed by the removal of the old window, reframing the opening, and installing the new window (day two). Day three was a short day (I can't remember exactly what was done). They could have actually installed the granite that day, but the granite guy was booked. The granite countertops, sink, and cooktop went in on day four, and the travertine backsplash was installed on day five. Day six was Saturday (when her guys generally don't work), but because we got a day behind on the granite, she had someone come over on Saturday morning to do the backsplash grout. I really appreciated this because I had taken a week off from work and didn't want the renovation to spill into the following week. I was very impressed with every stage of the job. Barbara was so pleasant and easy to work with, and I loved having just one person who was my contact for everything. She kept every step of the process on track. I will definitely call Designer Kitchens and Baths if and when I want to renovate my bathrooms.

I'm so agree with the report on 3/5/2010. I had her for the estimate at my master bathroom. She showed up on time. She did all the measurement of the things we needed to be done. I had bought things for the bathroom for fix before she got here. She wants me return some for them (some of them I got them long time ago). She wants to use her things beacuse she has connection with the company who can make them, maybe better quality. I also asked her about the coupon in the angieslist--free sink. She said is only for the kitchen, but she will give me one. During the time I was with her she answered few phone calls, I had to wait for her to be finish. At the end, I asked her how she's going to give me the price. She said she will call, won't do it at the email, will takes about a week. She called the next week the price was about $9500. Two weeks later I hired a company who is willing to use all the things I bought. The total I had spend was $5500 (included the things we got before).

When we decided to remodel our kitchen, we were very anxious about hiring a contractor. We've all heard the horror stories. After doing our research and speaking with 3 contractors, we selected Designer Kitchens and Baths ("DKB") to do the job. We're very glad we did. I should note that we did not change the layout of our kitchen (demolition only was required, no new construction), and our kitchen was completed in under 3 weeks. We purchased custom cabinets, a quartz countertop, porcelain tile for the floor, a new sink and faucet (which required a little plumbing work), and pot lights (which required a little electrical work). DKB handled every aspect of the remodel. Barbara Turns has an eye for detail and made several design suggestions, which we liked and incorporated into our new kitchen. Throughout the remodel, we found Barbara to be responsive and knowledgeable. DKB's subcontractors were courteous, professional, and their workmanship was excellent. We're very happy with our new beautiful and functional kitchen. When we're ready to remodel our bathrooms, we won't have to spend time researching contractors ? we'll call Barbara Turns at DKB.

I had a good experience with them. They were very helpful and they helped me pick everything out. Everything turned out very nicely and the price was reasonable.

Barbara responded quickly for the estimate, giving appropriate suggestions and design help. They didn't start right away, but I wasn't in a hurry. Once they started the kitchen was completed quickly. The bath took longer and the renter sat home one or two days in the process when no one came. They tried to keep me informed of the work schedule, but I did call them a couple times to see if they were coming. They were responsive to questions and problems. Barbara was very easy to work with.

I got information on the phone.

I chose to go with another company. She was very professional and I liked her very much. The bottom line was that it would have cost me twice as much to go with her than it did with the company that I went with and I think I got a better product. She was selling a whole package. She was the decorator and acted as the general contractor and wanted me to turn it all over to her. I acted as my own general contractor because I knew what I wanted. Rather than $13000.00, I spent a little over $7000.00. That is a huge difference. Her estimate portion was wonderful and her follow-up was great too. I told her I was shopping around and she called back several times to find out what the status was. She was always very professional and polite. I also believe she was probably very talented. For me, it was purely a money thing. I would not use her in the future only because I think that I would always act as my own general contractor.

I had to decide between A and B (there is no A-/B+); I went with A because my bathroom is beautiful and quality is excellent. Designer worked with me to bring the price down by choosing some less fancy faucets/finding a countertop (granite) that was less expensive than the Caesarstone we were going to initially use, and applying a coupon I had from Lowe's for the plain shower tile. She found a beautiful glass accent tile for the shower that was exactly what I wanted ( a little splurge, but well worth it). Installer was quite punctual - if he said he'd be there at 8:00 a.m., he was. Project took a little longer than anticipated. There was a glitch in that the designer miscalculated the necessary height of the shower door (I have a step down rather than the normal 4 inch raised lip), so my head hit the top rail. They fixed the problem and I had my new door in a few days (I had to pay the $100 upcharge for the custom size, but would have had to anyway if had been properly measured in first place). Be clear on whether painting is included in contract - during estimate designer had talked about the type of paint they would use, but installer said painting was not in his contract (I should have noticed/clarified when I signed it), so I had to do it myself.

It was excellent. They were very professional.