Handy Mike's Custom Remodeling

3 years later we are replacing this floor, due to completely incompetent installation. The hardibacker was screwed down using dry wall screws, screw heads are sticking up everywhere, the thin set isn't even stuck to the tiles, bad the grout is brittle and weak, probably due to being over watered. Our new contractor was able to pull the majority of the tiles out whole, with his fingers. Never have seen such horrible work. If this guy is still in business, stay away!

Last fall, while reviewing Angie's List listings for a contractor who does kitchen remodels, I saw Handy Mike's Custom Remodel listing but didn't called since I assumed custom cabinets would be exorbitantly expensive and out of our price range. My husband and I decided on another Angie's List contractor who offered prefab cabinets; we had chosen maple since the cherry wood option was too expensive. The contractor insisted we needed to shorten a wall by 4" which I assumed was necessary in order to fit the modular cabinets along it without gaps, or something like that. This involved replacing a structural beam with a longer one - a costly, messy undertaking. The contractor's final quote was steep, much more than his initial estimates. I decided to call Mike Bedwell after all and he came the same evening. When I told him about shortening the wall, Mike said all we needed to do is build the kitchen out to the length of the wall - one of the many advantages of custom cabinets. He gave us a quote on the spot. Instead of getting an anticipated 'sticker shock' figure, it was quite reasonable, especially for what he was offering: a custom-designed kitchen (with no unnecessary structural alteration) complete with installation, and the cabinets would be built out of cherry wood, too. It was a no-brainer - we signed Mike on to do the job. Our move-in date was looming, so Mike and his crew had a tight turn-around. In spite of this, Mike built a gorgeous kitchen that we are thrilled with. I've been using my kitchen for almost a year now and love everything about it. - the functional design which Mike drew up by hand, and the beautiful cabinets built from high-quality materials, expertly hand-stained by his wife, extending to the ceiling with matching crown molding. The knobs and handles Mike helped us select are well-made and go perfectly with the cabinets; the interior cabinet hardware, hinges and such, are of the same high quality. Mike never cut any corners by using mediocre materials for any part of the project. Mike designed and built for us all the amenities a modern kitchen can have: a pantry, a spice cabinet, a cookie sheet drawer, two Lazy Susans, an extra wide, two-tiered 'gadget' drawer (which I especially love) for spatulas, vegetable peeler, etc; a microwave cabinet, a broom closet with an outlet inside it for recharging batteries, base cabinets with pull-out shelves and wall cabinets with half-shelves for easy access and deep storage, pull-out garbage can cabinet, matching paneling on the dishwasher, a fridge cabinet, under-cabinet lighting (Mike recommended the electrician who did the work), and gorgeous granite countertops. (Again, Mike recommended the company to use for this feature who did a terrific job using quality granite at a very reasonable price.) Mike even designed and built a cabinet specifically for my big, bulky dehydrator. And, unlike prefab cabinets where an installer strings together a bunch of single boxes, Mike's custom building involves constructing in one piece an entire section of cabinets - much harder to do and requires real skill and craftsmanship. (Please note the first photo. The man pictured is Mike.) In addition to his artisan craftsmanship, Mike was great to work with. He was very flexible and responsive to whatever requests we had; he worked on weekends in order to make the tight deadline (which impressed us a lot); he promptly returned calls; and he just made things easier for us. For instance, since we didn't have a truck to haul our newly-ordered dishwasher from the warehouse, Mike graciously picked it up for us, saving us a delivery fee. Mike may not have come to work exactly at the time he said he would every single time, but he and his hard-working crew always showed up and would sometimes worked late in order to finish the task of the day to stay on schedule. Coincidentally, the original contractor we were about to sign a contract with installed a kitchen at my husband's place of work. It's nice enough - the prefab cabinets seem to be of fairly decent quality, but, really, its nothing special. On the other hand, everything about our kitchen is special: beautiful custom-designed, hand-built and stained cabinets of superior craftsmanship with high quality hardware; and its very functional and efficient. Mike is truly an artisan, and we would definitely hire him again. In fact, we plan on doing so for other remodeling projects in our house.

They came out on one visit, but I never received anything back. I was not impressed with their responsiveness. The gentleman that came was not here that long and was done in about 30 minutes.

He was never on time, he was never there when he said he would be there, he did a lot of work for me, and it dragged out forever. I would like to improve his quality of work, and the time of his arrival. He would say he would be done this week, and then not show up for two weeks.

After several months went by without hearing or receiving anything from him, I contacted him, and he said he had been busy and would get my design to me right away. After reading reviews online about this business and his unprofessionalism, lack of responsiveness, and not getting back to people when they contacted him, I just decided to ask Angie's List for my money back. I didn't want to wait any longer, and I wasn't going to have him do the work after all based on my experience thus far. Angie's List has taken him off of their Big Deals list, so he's no longer eligible. Nice guy but cannot manage his business effectively. Steer clear.

In my opinion, Michael is a true craftsman who settles for nothing less than perfection. If any portion of his work is not satisfactory to him or his client, he "redoes" it to reach complete satisfaction with the finished product. Any time delays were due to him perfecting his cuts or finishes in his cabinet shop. I do not hesitate to recommend Michael and his work to anyone. The cabinets are beautiful, the double layer flatware drawer, the shelves he installed on the pantry door, the cutting board vertically partitioned cabinet, , and many other extra features are efficient and attractive. The cabinets are beautiful! Good job, Michael!

Mike did and excellent job for us. He is an extremely talented individual who I would recommend and use again.

We bought the $49 coupon for custom bathroom plans. After several appointments for him to come out with him never showing up, and multiple attempts to contact, we were issued a refund from Angie's List. He was overbooked and a poor time manager.

Mike and his employees did a fantastic job tiling our shower, trimming the bathroom, and finishing the ceiling. We were super pleased. Our only complaint was that we ordered a granite counter top and there were many delays without good communication as to why and when we would receive the counter top. We pretty much had to initiate all of the communication about this. We liked this company so much we had some additional work we wanted an estimate on but they never got back to us with a price or time frame. These guys do fantastic work, but communication can be an issue.

My experience with him was fine. We didn’t get in touch with each other afterwards.

He canceled the first time due to caught up on the other side of town. That was fine. The next day he showed up as planned. He looked over the two bathrooms and wrote down the measurements. We looked at his portfolio and he gave me some ideas. He said that he would not be able to get with me for about 7 - 10 days. I have not heard from him since. My husband and I ended up doing the bathroom ourselves. We had to be complete by the 4th due to we had over 100 people coming to the house. The $100.00 that he charge and he really did not go a alot. I was suppose to get a drawing and designs.

Good quality for the money but didn't come when he said he would and didn't call us back. We were on a deadline so we ended up doing alot of the finishing work ourselves. He also told us he would give us some paint for touch up and after 5 calls and him not showing up when he said he would we just went to Home Depot and had them match the paint.

We had to reschedule the appointment, but once we worked that out I enjoyed meeting Mike. He was a nice guy, and the work he showed in his binder looked really good. I also like the simplicity of his "flat rate" pricing for a total bathroom remodel based on size (although of course the cost can go up depending on materials). The only negative I have is that I'm not really sure what I paid for with this Big Deal -- our entire interaction seemed like exactly the sort of thing a service provider does for free by coming out and giving an estimate. Mike never mentioned the "rendering" promised in the Big Deal (and we never got a rendering), although in fairness to Mike I really didn't press the issue. In the end, this experience makes me suspicious of Big Deals in general (especially after one service provider for a different Big Deal told me that he didn't get any of the money from the Big Deal anyway), but I don't pin this on Mike. We haven't gone through with the remodel yet, but Mike is definitely on the list of people we will talk to when we get serious about it.

They work they did was good, after everything was completed it look good. The only problems I had were they were too slow and they were messy. I had new floors and appliances that they did not cover when doing the work. But the work turned out great.

Start was delayed. Went slower than what we would expect (1 month for a basic remodel small bathroom). Work was a average. Had to constantly monitor as certain things were not as expected. For example tiles uneven , seat in shower too big. ceiling not matching rest of ceiling , faucets in backwards, color of vanity not dark enough. The vanity and medicine cabinet were nice custom work . The granite was very nice. The job came out fine but only after myself monitoring and doing part of the work. Mike needs to pay better attention to details and listen to the customer. He was specifically told the vanity was to match our furniture in the bedroom but it was not dark enough for example. Needs to do work with more urgency as it was inconvenient for us not to have use of the bathroom for 1 month. He was a nice person and responded to our request when something needed to be change.

After a lot of pestering, the job was finally done, quite a while after it was originally promised. The quality of the tiling job and cabinetry is very good, the finished project looks beautiful. However, there are some issues with the final details that could be better. Also, Mike agreed to do some interior painting, which was a mistake. The quality of the painting was, overall, very poor. I would hire Mike again, but only if I had no deadline to have the work finished and if the job did not involve painting.

I purchased a rendering for a remodel to my bath off Angie's list from Handy Mike's remodeling. I called set up an appt for a saturday. He didn't show at schedule time and I called to see if he was coming and he had forgotten about the appt. Rescheduled for the next week and he showed, took measurments and asked about what we wanted done. He said he was busy and it would take a few weeks. No big deal as we were in no hurry but wanted to see the cost of doing what we wanted to our bath. Never heard back and I emailed and he had been busy, still no big deal so we let it ride longer. Finally I emailed and said we needed to just get it over and done with so we would know the cost of doing the bathroom remodel. I was told he would give me a refund because he wasn't going to be able to do what was purchased. Not sure what had happened. I had to email again about the refund and was told it would be soon. I feel something happened out of his control and that is why we never got to finish with the rendering. Like I said I wasn't in a big hurry just wanted to know the cost so we could see if we wanted to go forward.

The job was a nightmare. We found him at a homeshow. We will never trust homeshows again. They do not screen companies.

The shower removal and tiling took about 3 days to complete and went smoothly.

Our ETA was longer than expected, but the end result was worth waiting for.

-It never came about. complete no show.

The first meeting with MIke went very well, he was on time and very professional. We loved the ideas and estimate he provided and would havce gone with him IF he had ever followed up. He promised a full quote and estimate with in the week but nothing... We followed up with him and he assued us he would have it for us the next Monday. More than a week later and still not a single follow up or response from him. Too bad, we really did like him when we met him and would have gone with him for a $10k remodel... Now its back to the big brand stores where at least we know people will call back and respond professionaly. Judging by the other reviews he has this seems to be his new MO.

Not impressive. I expect more from Angie's List vendors.

All he had to do was give me a call to say he was going to have to reschedule, and I would have been fine. Follow-up and follow-through say a lot to me, and I expect that from any professional.

Ecellent experience. Mike is pleasant and easy to work with. He is detail oriented and insists his work meets our expectations. Don't waste time with the home improvement stores where the subs and the store are never on the same page about anything. Mike gives you what you ask for at a fair price and if needed, will make suggestions based on his years of experience. I have already asked Mike to assist with my next home improvement.