First Choice Carpentry Inc

I had a very similar experience to another reviewer: I called their number and spoke to John and he did not want to come out and give us a quote. He disliked that we found them through Angie's List and he disliked that we are acting as our own general contractors on our basement remodel. Briefly, his experience with Angie's List is that too many people want free quotes and that the ratio of time spent on quotes to actual scheduled jobs is too high. I appreciated his frankness. He told me that their rate for two guys to come out and spend a full day is about $900. When you factor in their travel time, payroll taxes, and insurance this is not really that high. However, all I need done at this point is a handful of small odd jobs and it's not worth that much money. I recommend calling these folks if you have a discreet project that is already completely planned. If you have the drawings/photos and all the measurements I think it's worth seeing if you can email that information to them to get a quote.

I?m sorry to say that my experience with First Choice Carpentry was not positive. I needed to have carpentry done on the deck and other areas of the house exterior before painting. The first week of June everything was organized, John told me that he would start the work on July 8th while the painters were scheduled for mid-August. John's bid was in the $6,000 range. In July, he sent me an email to postpone the job to July 10th. Then on July 9th, the day before he was going to start, he sent me another email to inform me that he could no longer do the job. At my request he gave me the name of one of his carpenter friend who was able to start the job three weeks later, and finished just barely in time before the painters were supposed to start. This raises is grade from F to D. The bottom line is that if you schedule a job with John, you'd better have a back-up plan...

I struggle to understand how someone can determine if they are interested in a project or not when I hadn't even finished explaining the project. John told me that he worked on 10K minimum projects (which mine would qualify) and when I went to further explain he interrupted me and said he wasn't interested and hung up. It's unfortunate that I was treated like this as I felt that I was very courteous to him during the conversation. At the end of the day I'm just looking for someone reputable that can do good work It's unfortunate that my experience was so negative with John as it seems as though he does good work given his prior reviews here on Angies List. With the way I was treated John lost a customer for life.

- Competitive bidding: from the get go, Max was extremely professional, detailed oriented and punctual. He did not shy from pointing out problems areas we would face down the road (due to water damage over time), which his competitors did not identify. - Pricing: we specifically identified some statement of work to be quoted separately to benchmark pricing across bidders. First Choice Carpentry was well within the range and therefore was deemed fairly priced. While the project led to change requests and cost increases, we felt reasonably confident prices were fair. - Work initiation: Max and the team took great care in understanding our household specifics: time of access, start and finish times during the work week, access during weekends. Email and text communications were efficient and straightforward. Work started on time. - Work progress. As work changes were identified, weather impacted some workdays, and subcontractors became involved, we felt that we exceeded the time window assigned for this project and it became more difficult to "wrap it up". This is to be expected for a small company that does not have the resources and luxury to overstaff and build large margins in its schedule. Having said that, Max remained deeply and personally committed to the project, took full accountability and responsibility, and spent numerous evenings and weekends to make sure we hit our deadlines. In our opinion, this was a clear reflection of his and his team's personal and businessethics. - Billing and project management: accurate and prompt, one small clerical error was promptly remedied, without any ambiguity. Due to the large number of change requests (driven by the nature of the project, not the contractor), and the split between fixed cost and T&M, complexity grew from the initial payment schedule. We quickly agreed upfront on a revised payment schedule and maintained an ongoing ledger for invoices and payments. - Finish quality: extremely high. Max and his team paid great attention to design details, execution and trade best practices. The final punch list was promptly completed and we did feel that our expectations were met and exceeded in the end. - Customer relations: Max and his staff showed great attention the quality of their relationship with our family during the project. - Would you recommend to a friend? Absolutely.

Didn't use this contractor, but they did provide a bid on a deck

John and his team (Christian & Adam) did a fantastic job that exceeded our expectations. After initial project and specification clarification, John met with us twice prior to beginning the job. He completed the work as scheduled and according to cost agreement. He and his team communicated with us regularly and professionally. John's ideas and attention to detail added to the customization of our project.

Let me start by saying that I am a man up in years who has worked with many people in various construction trades. This was by far the most pleasurable and satisfying experience with a builder in my life. For a few years we have been watching the log accents on our front decks deteriorate and knew they would need replacing. At 5:00 AM in January the log belly band on the top deck fell off and crashed unto the deck below, taking out some of the log railing. Needless to say, I swiftly called three contractors for bids, two of whom specialize in log buildings and First Choice Carpentry who I found on Angie's List and was impressed with the reviews and pictures of their work. Max came out and gathered the information needed to present a bid. He had some excellent ideas to correct what was wrong with the decks in the first place, and thus caused the problems. He was very personable and professional. As promised, several days later, he stopped by with the proposal and went over it with us. I advised him that we were waiting for the other bids before deciding on who to use. First Choice was the high bidder, but not by much, and we decided to use them based on the experience of dealing with Max and his competitors when they all were here looking at the project. And that gut feeling turned into a very smart decision, because when Max came out to sign the contract, John was with him for the first time. John took one look at this mess and immediately knew that this project was far more extensive than just replacing the log features. We all agreed that the bid meant nothing, and that the cost of the project was going to be organic, as the extent of the damage reveled itself when the teardown began. John did give me a rough guess, and in the end, he was actually only $300.00 off. We agreed on a start date for late March, as we had a vacation planned, and John was good with that, as it would take some time to source the custom milled log accents and rails. You don't just go and pick this stuff up at a lumber yard. When the work began, I only became more impressed with First Choice, as I saw the knowledge and skill of lead carpenter Christian and jack of all trades Adam. They were always on time, worked tirelessly, were a pleasure to be around and cleaned up every night to make it look like they had never been here. Because we lost use of our garage door on the first day, Christian built a temporary wall with a door that could be secured, to guard the contents of our garage from possible theft. We were apprised of the arrival and departure dates and times of large vehicles delivering the dumpster, porta-potty, and so forth,to allow us to reposition our vehicles accordingly. Being conscious of our desire to keep the costs down with all the unknown work needed, they salvaged as many of the rail spindles as possible to be reused, and painstakingly sanded them before staining to make these 13 year old pieces of wood match the new ones perfectly. This job required John to use several subs, specifically a stone masonry contractor and an installer of acrylic deck surfaces. These subs were of the highest quality and were scheduled seamlessly into the project. John's scheduling acumen was most on display when a crane backed into the driveway to hoist the very heavy log belly band to the second story exactly when they needed it. The crane was here for about 5 minutes. I cannot say enough about how everyone on this job was friendly, engaging, professional and highly skilled. They treated our home as if it were their own, probably better. The work they did is just beautiful, we are absolutely thrilled with the outcome, and although it sounds weird, after having them all here for over a month, I almost miss them. Not really, but for any construction needs I may have in the future, either interior or exterior, I will use First Choice Carpentry. And I highly recommend that you do as well.

I called First Choice Carpentry and told them what we were looking for, and sent pictures of the current state of our back yard. Within the week, John (the owner) and his brother Max (who would ultimately be a life-saver in dealing with our local home owners association and with the city for permitting) came out to take a look. They were very friendly and began to talk to us and to each other about what would be appropriate for our space. They also suggested ways to make the space better than we originally intended. We were thinking that we just wanted to cover the patio. Had we done that, we would have lost some natural light -- we have three windows over the patio space. So John recommended that the cover have skylights, which turned out to be a really great idea. We didn't lose natural light in our living room at all. So during that initial visit, they took measurements, started to draw up some rough plans and said they'd come back to us within a week with drawings and with a proposal with a price. As promised, Max came back within the week with the proposal, drawing, and final price that was the exact price I ended up paying. We were going on vacation when the work would start, but when we came back, work was well underway and everything looked really good. We were really pleased with the final outcome. All of the workers who came really worked hard, and were very professional. They let us know when we needed to keep our two dogs away from the project. They were also really careful not to leave nails and other objects in the backyard that could pose a hazard to our dogs, which I really appreciated. The patio looks beautiful, and the amount of time I spend out there -- even in the short time the project has been completed -- has increased dramatically. I love my new outdoor living space!

We found John Capestany on Angie?s list. We had the approved building permit when we started the interview process. We interviewed several contractors. John was one of only a few with experience in both remodeling and new structures. We chose First Choice Carpentry because John showed the most interest in our project. He seemed excited to make our dream kitchen come true. John & his team showed up bright & early the first day, and we passed our first inspection before the end of the first day! Within a week, we had drainage, and a new foundation. Shawn, the framer was wonderful. He asked me where, exactly where I wanted things, like the medicine cabinet, towel rack, t.p. holder, etc, so he could put extra support in the walls, while he was building the walls. He was very accommodating. Shawn also flared out the sides of the skylight in the kitchen. It increases the amount of light that comes into the room. It?s extra nice on raining days. I know the framing of a house dose not show, but that is where all the design of the house starts. First Choice Carpentry did a great job with the ?bones? of our house. There were a few surprises along the way, which is to be expected when tying into existing structures (our house is 50 years old). John and his team handled the rotten door ledge, the 3 pieces of soft plywood on the roof, whatever came up. There were no excessive delays in the schedule. I felt involved and informed by having weekly meetings with the architect and builder. John and his team worked well with the architect, and every one was very patient with me, answering all my questions, and I had a lot of questions; because although I watch a lot of DIY tv, I have never watched a house being built, in person before. Framing went quickly, and we had John?s roofer replace our existing roof at the same time as the roof for the addition. Roger, John?s electrician warned us, at our first meeting, that we may need to move and upgrade our electric meter, along with the circuit box; and that did turn out to be the case; however it was kind of expected, and did not cause much delay. The new meter & panel gives us twice as much capability, so we now have room to add more circuits later. Roger suggested that we may want more outdoor lighting in the future. Roger asked me where, exactly, I wanted the switches, & outlets. It is very nice to have an outlet to plug in the crock pot, waffle iron, rice cooker, or whatever I want to use, in every island. The plumbers & HVCA subs were also great. We put in a tankless water heater. I love it. The large soaking tub I picked out is so nice. The rough in plumbing took about a week. There was a leaky seal on the tankless water heater, it was fixed the very next day, unfortunately the inspector was there that day, and we did not pass that inspection that day, but the seal was replaced and we passed the inspection next time the inspector was here. This was the only inspection we did not pass the first time; every other inspection was passed the first time. After loud construction in the house, the day the insulation went in, it seemed extremely quiet. It only took a few hours. but it was a nice break from the noise. The drywall seemed to be the messiest, but I am told that is the nature of drywall mud. John?s crew cleaned as they went, and I got quite spoiled. They picked up their tools, and even swept the floors most days. In order to stay within our budget, we did all the painting ourselves, inside and out. It seemed to take a long time. When the house needs painting next time, we will hire painters. Christian, the finish carpenter, is a man of all trades. He installed the tub surround, and trimmed around it. We used my old pantry cabinet (from Ikea, many years ago), in the new bathroom for a linen closet. The doors never worked quite right, but Christian fixed them, and they finely work great. The bathroom vanity from Lowes, needed some assembly. Christian caulked and sealed everywhere. I am still gushing about the custom cabinets. It was my design, but Christian & Shawn built the cabinets of my dreams. We used every inch of space we could. I am so pleased with the results. All members of John?s team were on time, professional, courteous, & very skilled. The team also helped me to coordinate with the wood stove and floor people. We purchased a wood burning stove, and vinyl flooring from other companies, and the team from First Choice Carpentry worked with me to coordinate all parts of the project so they could blend smoothly. The project was finished in a timely manner. It took about 3 1/2 months to finish. This will be our last house, so we are glad we chose First Choice Carpentry; they did a great job. We have a beautiful new kitchen and second bathroom to use into retirement.

I called to talk about the work we needed done on our remodel. John answered when I first called and immediately sounded unhappy to be taking the phone call; he said he would need to call me back a little later becuase he was too busy at the time to speak on the phone. When John called back 1 hour later I explained that we are completely renovating our downstairs. We had already gutted the entire space, had plumbing done and were working on the framing ourselves when we decided to hire somebody. I explained that we needed the framing finished and there would be potential for more work, i.e., drywall, flooring and trim work, in the future. John immediately said that he "doesn't like working with do-it-yourselfers" because they don't typically want to pay someone much money to do the work for them. He then goes on and on about how he has such a busy schedule and doesn't want to squeeze us in for a quote if it won't end up resulting in business for them. He also said that he assumed I was an "Angie's List caller" and that he's received poor reviews on Angie's List from people who called him and said he was rude to them on the phone as well. Needless to say, I did not continue with the conversation and will never refer them business. Poor attitude and customer service. Assuming he knows exactly what the client is willing to pay before giving them a quote is foolish.

In early April we asked John to give us an estimate to replace some rotted exterior trim boards and to build a storage shed with a window, skylight and siding to match our house. He talked to us about the shed and gave us some ideas on how to make the most of the space. (I was a little disappointed with how long it took him to get us the initial estimate.) Although the cost of the shed was high for a shed it was exactly what we were expecting considering the current cost of lumber and labor. Once we started working with them we never had a problem getting a hold of John. The process of building the shed went very smoothly. John and all of his carpenters are very nice, easy to work with, and always on-time. We were very impressed with their quality of work and attention to detail (it may only be a shed but since it is visible from the street we wanted it to have a look in keeping with our house and we also wanted it to be solid and secure). They clearly take pride in their work. After the shed we decided to move forward with having First Choice replace our roof and give our house a mini-facelift. They were always neat, they cleaned up at the end of every day and were respectful of our property. In total, First Choice did 4 projects over a 6-week period. We are extremely happy. Everything looks great! They made whole process as painless as possible. Now that we have found such a great contractor we are planning to do more remodeling next year.

SINGLE WOMEN WHO NEED LITTLE ODD JOBS DONE...... BEWARE!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT CALL THIS PERSON!!!!! Find someone else to help you out. I told him about one thing that I would like help with and the first thing out of his mouth is "not interested yet.. got anything else to do?" - quite rude. I was totally taken aback by that remark but decided to give him a few more details of things that needed done in the house. Told him my situation... single working mother with a special needs daughter. He then mentioned that he was getting a lot of calls from single women who needed help with little odd jobs and he didn't know why husbands and boyfriends couldn't step up to the plate and do the work. Again.... quite rude. He then proceeded to say that people have become so 'wacky' or something along those lines that he needed to interview people to see if he even wanted to work with them. Now I am one of the most easy going people in the world and if I get offended and annoyed at what he said, then it must have been bad. If he was not interested, that is fine but, holy cow, he needs to learn some communication skills. His attitude just stunk - I just wasn't willing to 'beg' to pay someone my hard earned money so I would never use this company.

to be fair, this is a complaint about the estimation process i experienced with First Choice Carpentry and a warning to Angie's List members. the work was never done, so i cannot vouch to the quality of their work. i can, however, share my experience with their professionalism and character in the estimation process... when i first contacted this company, the man I spoke with--John Capestany--told me that he didn't want to come out and do a full estimate until he knew the project was something i could afford. he mentioned being overwhelmed with calls from Angie's List members who wasted his time on estimates and never actually signed deals. in fact, i recall more than one complaint about the amount of gas he'd wasted driving around to potential clients who never signed. but seeing he was highly rated by members, i decided i'd work with him by phone and email initially. his initial quote of $4100 for a 9x6 cedar porch and 6 stairs seemed high, but it was within range and we agreed he'd swing by to do a more formal estimate. when he arrived the next day, he seemed a bit more interested in the work, but again complained about the number of inquiries from Angie's List members and the amount of time and money he'd wasted. in our previous conversations, his complaints struck me as unprofessional; now i was getting the sense that he was simply not interested in smaller projects like mine. but he insisted it was a good easy job and said he wanted the work. he called later that day to to revise his estimate down to $3100 (we decided to keep the porch and just replace the stairs and railing) and told me he could start the next day. i told him i needed one more day to get another quote back. when i called him the following morning as promised, he informed me that i'd taken too long to get back to him, and he now had several huge projects and wouldn't be able to get to me for several weeks. so in 24 hours we went from him being able to start next day to him not being able to do the work for a month. when i expressed frustration with being led on, he was unphased and hung up promptly. it is clear to me that Mr Capestany was never interested in my project and was only entertaining the work in the event his bigger projects fell through. in any other instance, i'd just assume that taking 24 hours to get a second quote back simply cost me the better deal, but knowing that Mr Capestany had complained about smaller jobs and seemed less than enthused about the work suggests to me that he was really only looking for fill-in projects 'just in case' and was never really interested in the work. more to the point, i am still kind of shocked that someone whose business has benefited from glowing reviews from Angie's List members would so consistently complain about them. final note--this guy is the ONLY general carpenter listed in the advertising section of the catalogs. and that is why he's getting all these calls. there should be other vendors as well, especially since this guy CLEARLY doesn't want the work!

It was my design and they built it to my specifications. I love their work ethics and the work they do. I have used them two or three times since they did the framing on my remodel. I have recommended them to numerous people.

John and his crew were punctual, professional and helpful. They usually arrived at around 8am and left by 4pm. They cleaned up very well everyday on the job and were very careful not to destroy any landscape. These guys are professional and know their trade. I would absolutely, recommend them and use them on any future projects.

Max came to our home to provide a free estimate for a new deck we had professionally designed. He was personable, but insulted our designer (in a cordial sort of way, but one that was easy to read between the lines). He seemed detailed in his approach to our deck and had some good, specific questions. I asked specifically when we could expect a bid--he said about five business days. The following day, I sent him an e-mail answering the questions he had while here to bid the project. Six days after that he followed-up with an e-mail saying it would be closer to the weekend before he could get an estimate to us. We received the estimate after business hours on Tuesday. Of the four bids we received, First Choice's bid was 70% higher than the next highest bid. Perhaps we caught them at a bad time as this seems contrary to other reviews. At any rate, our experience didn't measure up.

The project went very smoothly from start to finish. We had First Choice rebuild our very large deck a few years ago. We interacted primarily with Max on that project, and also on this project. Max is very professional, great at communicating, and understands what we want him to accomplish for us. All of the workers from First Choice are very professional, polite, and conscientious. The project went quickly from idea to completion, as did the deck project. Max goes the extra mile trying to please his customers. We really appreciate such rare great service. We have had bad experiences in the past with contractors doing poor quality work and not showing up. It is nice to know you can count on First Choice Carpentry to do an excellent, worrry-free job for you. I would recommend them to anyone for a project, big or small, without reservation! We plan to use First Choice Carpentry for other projects in the future.

John and his crew were some of the most cheerful people we've ever hired! Our original "portico" at the front entrance was massive and spanned the width of the driveway. The first step was to demolish it. Although it was showing signs of rot, it was apparently very well-built, and took nearly two days to tear down and remove. Even though it took longer than they'd planned, they had a good sense of humor about it. They did a very good job of cleaning up all the debris afterwards. To prepare for installing the supports of the porch, they had to dig several feet into our driveway, which has an aggregate surface. We were impressed with how well they managed to match the original surface. The original plan included moving the window above the porch to accommodate the pitch of the roof. This would have added to the expense considerably and they were able to make it work without moving the window, which was appreciated. The new entrance has a cedar shake roof (to match the house), and a very lovely radius ceiling. The craftsmanship was excellent. Toward the end of the porch project, we started thinking we'd like to have our windows and trim replaced (since we were having the house painted in a few weeks) and John was able to match a very competitive estimate we'd gotten previously. In total, 11 new windows were installed, complete with new trim and sills. John and his crew were very punctual and professional throughout the project. While theirs was not the cheapest bid we received, we felt confident that they'd be able to create the design we wanted, and went with them over a substantially lower bid. We are very happy with this decision and feel it was worth the money spent. We would definitely hire them again and would recommend them to friends.

John and Max were great to work with in the beginng of the project, but by the end of it the quality of work dropped and they did not want to fix problems with their work or their subcontractors' work. We primarly worked with Max in the beginning, who helped us work through the final design. They brought in an architect to draft the designs and blueprints. All of that process went smoothly. The permitting was slow, but that was the City of Seattle's fault, not First Choice's. Max worked with us to keep us in our budget. He let me take on some of the work to save money, and he pointed out places where we might save money by making certain choice. When construction got started, they did a good job projecting the house. They put down carpet projection, wood flooring protection, and plastic dust barriers. When it came time for me to do some of the work on the house, Max didn't give me much warning. I told him that I needed time because I work a full time job, and I would need weekends or nights to do some work. In the end, Max was always accomodating and gave me extra time to do my work. However, this was a small example of communication mishaps that I had with Max and John. First Choice also built a temporary roof (mostly made of plywood) over my house to do the work on the roof top deck. On a really stormy night, we found that there was a leak in the one section that had a tarp over it. John and Max came over at Midnight and worked until 2AM to fix the tarp and they later fixed the area where the leak affected the drywall. Most of the rest of the project went well. Progress was fairly consistent, and we checked in on the project almost every day. We believed that the framing work was great, and they paid close attention to the framing details. As we approached the end of the project, communication started to go poorly. I would call Max and he wouldn't call me back, then I would hear from him week later and he'd say his phone was dead or his voicemail was full. If I called a number of times or needed to get a hold of John, I could. Quality started to get worse, too. For instance, we had our house resided within the last two years, and since some of this work affected the outside of our house, First Choice had to reside some of it. They nailed the bottom of almost every board they installed, which meant we could see the nails on all their work. Almost none of our previous siding had that. When I talked to John about it, he got really defensive and said it was OK to do it that way. In the end, we agreed that he would fix one part of the house, but not all of it. We cared about the details of the project, and we thought John and Max cared about that in the beginning. When the finish work was done, they installed the closet doors (which are 3 feet apart), and they put two hinges on one door and three on the other. They also used hardware that did not match the finish of our existing hardware. When I told Max about this, he claimed that they didn't make the finish of my existing door knobs. I sent him a link to Home Depot to show that it did exist, and he ordered the door knob. Had he done a little more research, he would have easily found the knob. This demonstrated to me that Max and John had lost interest in the project. Slower response times, and less attention to detail were common late in the project. The final piece that really didn't go well was the membrane installation for the rooftop deck. First Choice replaced the whole deck, including the plywood underneath the coating. When it was done, I could clearly see all of the seams from plywood underneath through the membrane. This did not make me happy because my previous deck did not have any visible seams, and the house next door (and other similar houses in the neighborhood) had no visible seams either. I met with John and his sub contractor, and they claimed they couldn't see the seams (every other visitor to my house said they were clearly visible). John told me there was "no money left in this project", and he told the sub contractor that I "had called them back for quite a bit of purely asthetic work." The way he said those things was rude, and I think it showed he was frustrated with the project. John and his subcontractor eventually added another coat to the deck, but seams are still visible and I have no explanation for why they're so visible. We've spent a long time thinking about what rating to give First Choice. If you had asked me what rating I would have given them at the mid-point of the project, I would have given them an A+. On the last day of the project, I was so frustrated I would have given them a much worse grade. I believe that First Choice did a fantastic job with the first half to 3/4 of the project.The way that they worked with me to make the costs work, to keep us up-to-date on the project, and the way they offered choices in all of the decisions that we had to make was great. I believe that something changed in the last few months. I won't speculate on what that was, but it caused their quality of work (e.g. drywall seams are visible and texture is inconsistent) to diminish significantly. Under the right circumstances, I would consider using First Choice again, but I would probably change a few things, and I'm sure they would, too.

Overall the job went as planned with only a minor delay on cedar decking being delivered. They demo'd both the old front porch & rear deck, pored concrete supports, and worked on both the new front porch & rear deck at the same time. They cleaned up job site daily and hauled away all the old lumber from the demo. John, Jeff, Chris, and Christian worked professionally and we now have both a beautiful front porch and rear deck. We couldn't be more pleased.

Contacted this contractor through Angie's List but never heard a rsponse back. It was not a big job and if they don't deal in jobs under $5000 or so, then they should at least respond to the inquiry.

The bathroom is beautiful! The work was completed on schedule and professionally. I would hire them again!

I was initially very unhappy with the work performed by the carpenter, but the owner took great pains to resolve all problems to my satisfaction, and I highly recommend this company. I have yet to find a contractor with as much integrity, honesty, expertise and professionalism as First Choice. This is the third time I've used First Choice. The work performed by the carpenter was not completed in a timely manner and the carpenter did a very poor job matching the texture on the walls and was generally very sloppy and unprofessional. I had also requested installation of a new cabinet, which wasn’t completed until months later. Once I brought this to the attention of the owner, however, all was resolved professionally and satisfactorily.

Max was very well prepared when he came to see our project. He brought pictures, drawings from past projects, show us what would happen at each step if we choose them for this project. We like him and first choice. But the final decision comes down to the price. First choice is a bit expensive compared to the other contractors we interviewed. Also we feel like first choice has less experience for the type of project we want to do. But we would definitely consider them in the future for sidings, porch, exterior of house, on which first choice had done quality work.

They did a great job on all of the work that they did. They were easy to work with. They were on time and hardworking.