I wish I had gone with M&M. I know the job would have been done right, without me having to feel like I was the general contractor of the project.
Description of Work: My wife and I moved into a large, old house in River Oaks last year, and one of the big projects we knew we had to undertake was to remove all the old wood on the sides and back of the house, replace it with Hardiplank, and repaint the entire house (including the garage apartment). The house is about 6,000 s.f. so, it was a decent-sized project. I got a bid from Bernard Contenello at M&M and a bid from a smaller company. The bids were both in the $33-34,000 range. I was torn as to which bid to go with. Bernard was very nice, very informative, and very responsive in answering my questions. The other company was as well. At the end of the day, I decided to go with the other company. Why? The only reason was that they were a smaller company, and I assumed a smaller company would be more responsive and give more attention to my project. I regretted that mistaken assumption. The project with the other company started two weeks late, they failed to get the necessary permitting (which delayed the project even more), and for about five weeks, I felt like *I* was the general contractor on the project. I would find flaws and tell the contractor that he needed to re-do this or that. The project turned out fine in the end, but the process was so incredibly frustrating. It required me to watch the project like a hawk, question everything, and be very forceful in making the contractor re-do a fair amount of work. Which only prolonged the project. Here's where Bernard and M&M really impressed me. During the project with the other company, I would periodically e-mail Bernard to get his opinion on what the other contractor was telling me. Even though Bernard had every reason in the world to ignore my e-mails (because, after all, I didn't give him my business), he was very helpful, informative, and patient in answering my questions. He never once tried to leverage my frustration into a solicitation by trying to get me to switch contractors mid-project. Instead, he allowed me to pick his brain on certain issues. I really was so very tempted to switch to M&M during the project, and the only thing that stopped me was the fact that I had already given the other contractor a deposit of $16,000 and would be facing a headache in getting that money back. In hindsight, I made a mistake by not going with M&M and Bernard. I know that Bernard would have done a good job from day one, been on schedule, and done the job right. In sum, I should have gone with my initial instinct and hired M&M and Bernard. It was my mistake that cost me five weeks of peace of mind and caused me unbelievable frustration, stress, and headache. Believe me, the next time I have a project on my house, my first phone call will be to M&M and Bernard.