Fine Design Interior Remodeling

Wow! Where do I begin? Fine Design Interior Remodeling is a class act. Wanting to upgrade my large-footprint first floor with tile, carpet, and mostly hardwood, I contacted Patty at Fine Design. (I had good experiences with her several years ago for some dishwasher and water softener installations, and she had also helped me with a drywall repair and repaint needed after my roof had leaked.) This time, the project involved more planning. In fact, it became much more complex than either Patty or I could have expected. For starters, as her guys were taking out the existing flooring in the kitchen, they discovered a wet subflooring. It was carefully determined that rainwater had recently and substantially flooded the crawlspace, due to the builder's not having properly graded one side of the house's soil and by not installing the vents according to the building code (the vents on the affected side of the house were installed partially underground, allowing any heavy rainfall from the roof to flood into the crawlspace). This required her to rework her schedule around her other customers while I was getting an excavator to trench and install a French drain (and she never once complained about the need to reschedule her workers). She made sure that my crawl space was cleaned and dried, and that a new moisture barrier membrane was installed to replace the one that had been cut by earlier workers, possibly by the builder's personnel. Since my work schedule required this project to be completed by a certain time, and yet we had to wait for the subflooring to dry, Patty had to find a different floor installer to put in the hardwood. When my original choice of hardwood became unavailable, she quickly found a different hickory flooring that I actually liked much better and which was less expensive. Patty and her workers were very flexible with my schedule, always considerate and courteous, and she continued to maintain a keen eye toward the bottom financial line. In my experience, she has consistently aimed at keeping the jobs within budget, and I have found this quite refreshing, considering the off-putting intentions of some of my previous contractors and service providers (including the builder of my home). Without continuing here with my "Summer of 2014 Saga" (there were other upleasant developments originating from sources not related to Fine Design that we had to address or work around), I must say that flexibility and careful planning to stay within the customer's budget are just a few of the hallmarks of Fine Design Interior Remodeling. Patty is particularly careful to follow up and personally inspect the ongoing project frequently. She monitors her customers' satisfaction and clearly intends to provide a professional touch. Her ethical approach to fulfilling her customers' needs has been so exemplary. Patty's employees are likewise very caring and knowledgeable. I could continue with more hosannahs and hallelujas, but suffice it to say, I will be using Fine Design Interior each time the need arises. The organization has such dedicated employees, and the lady is one awesome contractor!

We really wanted to make a creative, elegant statement with our powder bathroom and master bath, and were willing to spend the budget to make it happen. They gave us a very competitive bid. However, we also wanted some extremely custom elements such ... things that are not typically included in a low-cost bathroom remodel. They advised us on low cost options where possible and gave us a complete control over where to save money vs. where to invest. My sense is that they could definitely create a budget bathroom that looks great, but they were able to scale up and do a very custom, elegant job too. The design process exceeded expectations - our designer listened to us and studied the rest of the house, took our suggestions but made recommendations that were sometimes counter to our ideas. Their expertise about the practical side of design choices and their expertise around color choices was invaluable. We love everything that came out of it. Project management was excellent and they were very responsive. They came back frequently to inspect work and once or twice had their contractors re-do things (at no charge to us) because it didn't meet their exacting standards. There were some elements that took longer than expected due to unforeseen circumstances, but they were always proactive and up-front about what was going on and managed their vendors very well. I felt that these delays were related to some of the highly custom things we were doing. All the straightforward things were just that ... straightforward. They also took great care to protect our house (protective runners along walkways etc.). Their contractors were all great, very friendly, competent and trustworthy - we never felt leery of their contractors coming into our house.We love our bathrooms and would definitely use Fine Design again.

Patty responded promptly to my email requesting a bid for a complete kitchen remodel. She and Carla came to the house and made useful suggestions while respecting choices I'd already made for cabinets and counters. I felt they listened well and asked relevant questions. It was not a difficult decision at all to go with Fine Design as I liked their plan the best and felt the price was reasonable and within my budget. We spent some time fine-tuning design choices, and ultimately went with floor and backsplash tile Carla picked out. I greatly appreciated their help with coordinating colors and patterns and, admittedly, would never have pulled it together as well without their expertise. I changed my mind a couple times on how much wall to remove and never felt pressured to stick with the original plan. Patty's recommendation to have an engineer inspect the house before beginning the remodel gave me peace of mind that portions of walls could be safely removed and likely helped with the permit process later. The project started on time and proceeded as planned except for a couple delays beyond their control. The discovery of asbestos in a deep layer of the old floor and the subsequent lengthy permit process through the City of Lakewood slowed things down as did a defect in the counter slab, which then had to be reordered. Patty was professional throughout, communicating clearly and responding to my questions quickly. She gave me options to keep the price down to counter the increased costs associated with asbestos removal and brought out an electric grill during the delay to give me alternatives for meals beyond microwave and toaster creations. I was pleased with the quality of work and appreciated Patty's willingness to make a change to bring the cabinet crown moulding up to the ceiling. On her final walk-through, she zeroed in on things I never noticed and made written notes on the final touches that were needed. These were taken care of the next day. The workers I met were professional and hard working. Subcontractors were available at times on weekends and stopped by after their workday to correct problems. I love my new kitchen and have received a number of compliments on it. I would not hesitate to hire Fine Design again.

We used Angie's List to identify three potential contractors in our area. All three came to our house and discuss our expectations. We liked all three teams but Patty and Gail from Fine Design impressed us the most, made some helpful suggestions that would provide better utilization of the space and therefore we were hopeful that they would have the best price. Fine design did provide the best price and also were able to start immediately. Their schedule for complete tearout and rebuild of our kitchen, including door, window, ceiling and electrical changes was five weeks. Work progressed smoothly with frequent visits by Patty to check on the work. Patty required the workers and subs to make corrections and changes which were handled with no fuss and in some cases her standard was beyond our expectations. As all projects go there will arise some unknowns and issues but with Fine Design resolution of any issues was handled with professionalism and courtesy. With some changes and adds to the contract that we made the project was completed in six weeks which exceeded our expectations. We have a beautiful new kitchen. Thank you Patty, Gail and the whole team at Fine Design!

Fine Design was too busy to do job, but referred me to a tile installer who worked for them. Tony did a nice job.

Patty was very responsive, calling back promptly to set-up a site survey. On the next appointment, I met Patty and her assistant Carla at their office in Graham to pick finishes (counters, cabinets, hardware, etc). It was very enlightening to see the range of options available for my job. The bid she provided was very cost competitive. Although I didn't pick Fine Interiors to do my remodel (there were additional construction things I wanted to do), I would highly recommend checking them out---they are very responsive and professional.

The remodel of my Kitchen and master bathroom was a very generous budget of $80,000.00 and I alreadhy had the new appliances. Service were not provided for the following reasons: The person Jemma I contacted to do the work left the company and they did not even feel it important enough to tell me until I inquired directly. I feel they should have told me, in addition Jemma is the person I felt understood what I wanted and the company should have been upfront with me. The cost of the project in our opinion was too high in labor costs, and the material I was being offered were of a lesser grade than the middle range budget they were given. To get what I wanted the up charge was constantly growing. Just look at the price ranges listed on Angies's List for Fine Design and you can see my budget should have gotten me great quality products. It's really too bad I felt Patty's design would have been awesome. In the meantime we are still looking for decent bids.

They were making appointments for bids a week out so it was a long wait for them to come out. I had originally scheduled for 1pm on Monday, but the Friday before I discovered that my daughter's class needed a chaperon for a field trip. I asked if they could push it out until 3pm and they had no problem. Carla was punctual, though taken aback that I had purchased my tile and some other items already. We talked about my ideas for the bathroom and in the course of the conversation, she asked what my budget was and I told her $10,000 (at this time I already had 2 other bids well under $10k). She left and told me she would have the quote to me by "the end of the week". Here is where things went south. First, "end of the week" to me means by Friday. By Sunday I still had not received a quote and sent a message asking if they were planning to bid the job. they sent a message back saying I would have it by Monday. I got it at 2:09pm on Monday. The "quote" was typed into the body of an email (not an attachment, no company letterhead). It had items listed, but cost not broken down, which I though would have been very useful considering it included purchasing cabinets, fixtures, and a toilet. The real jaw dropper though, was that even though I had stated that my budget was $10k, their bid came in at $14,200. Because I couldn't see the broken down cost, I couldn't tell why their bid was SO much more -- almost 2x's more -- than all my other bids. I was, frankly, shocked. I really wanted to support a woman owned firm, especially in a field dominated by men, but the lack of professionalism in getting the bid to me and the large price differential really took me aback. I have 2 other bathrooms that will be remodeled in the next 5 years. I will probably not be calling Fine Interior Designs to do them.

It was a total gut job! Dirty, dusty but all in all it went better then we expected. All the guys from all of the trades we're great to work with, we enjoyed them all and they did a great job. Jemma was wonderful to work with she had a lot of great idea's for the space that we had to work with! Many thank's to her and her knowledge of what she does! Thank you Jemma!! and thank you to everyone at Fine Design your all great!

Have not done the work yet. It will be done this spring.

I work in a busy office Monday - Friday. For this reason I attempt to do all my personal business by email or text as making/accepting personal phone calls in this office environment is awkward at best. Fine Design refused to move forward with an appointment unless I voice called them during my work hours. The only explanation was because it was a policy for their designers' safety. No explanation was offered as to how a voice call provides a greater measure of security than an email or text--both of which provide far more verifable information than a voice call from a work phone. A company this unwilling to compromise even on this small matter probably lacks the customer service orientation to trust with a potentially expensive job.

Fine Design did a update so we could sell our house. They did a good job, our house sold in one day, the second people to look at it called right after they left with a great offer. R The realtor listed it as one of a kind hours and the stager who has won many awards said it was beautiful. They painted, did carpet, counter tops and tile, vinyl floors and more.

We would not hesitate to highly recommend Fine Design to anyone we know.

We subscribed to Angie's List, read reviews and from there we interviewed 3 local contractors. We chose Fine Design and were so happy we did. Other contractors wanted to take out an outside wall expanding the space and changing the roof line which would also increase the cost. Patty and Carla came in and right away saw what the possibilities of the space could be. They had good design ideas and a different perspective from the other contractors. Choosing colors, styles and products can be an overwhelming task. Carla was able to narrow our choices so we could make decisions much more quickly than we ever could on our own. Work started in late October and was completed in January. Fine Design employees gutted the space to the outside walls, created new interior walls, put in a new window and reorganized the space. They moved plumbing and electrical, installed new wall board, painted, created a beautiful tiled shower, laid tile and heated the floors, tiled the double vanity mirror wall, installed new lighting, cabinets, accessories and painted. All work was permitted and inspected. We thought the project went very well. The bathroom is beautiful!!! As with any remodel, things don't always go as planned. Anyone undergoing a remodel should be patient and understand the process. Workers were in the house almost every day when we weren't waiting for inspections. Patty kept us informed about the construction timeline and promptly answered our questions. Workers showed up when they were suppose to and we found them to be friendly, respectful, hard working and professional.

With the decision made to stay in our current home there was no doubt the bathrooms needed some remodeling. A few updates had been done through the years but Orange was not back in style yet! We contacted several companies for quotes and Fine Design Interior Remodeling really jumped out at us from the start but because of that we also thought it would probably be way over our budget. It was Patty at Fine Design who contacted us within a day via e-mail and by phone to schedule an appointment. A few days before another contacted us and two weeks went by before we even heard from another contractor. The process seemed so easy as Patty listened to our wants and must have's and gave great suggestions. When we received our estimate Fine Design was right on target, we were so excited, but waited another two weeks for the other contractor quotes. Right from the start Patty took over and we are thankful for that. With my lack of design and dislike for shopping she made selections and narrowed down the options making it less overwhelming. Taking on one bathroom, no we jumped right into all three. Patty was great in communicating what was taking place each week and sent a schedule to keep us informed. It was great especially for our schedule and our dogs as some days they were left in the garage. We were a bit concerned about workers in and out at first but everyone we met was so nice and they were very friendly to our pets. I think they even miss Patty stopping in to say hello! Complete remodel of the Master Bath and Powder Room began with complete tear out and removal of everything including the bathtub in the Master Bath. Care was taken to cover all of the carpet from the mess and ongoing traffic that would continue for weeks. The bath tub now replaced with a walk-in shower, beautifully tiled walls and floor. The vanity was replaced with double sinks and granite counter tops. The Powder Room not very large but remodeled with new drywall, paint, new vanity and a beautiful vessel sink. The fixtures Patty recommended look great and the mirrors made and framed by Fine Design look amazing. When we had a concern that the vessel sink was too high for the vanity Patty didn't seem frustrated and offered a great solution. Flooring in the Powder Room and Entry was replaced with hardwood. In fact we liked it so much we asked for it to be extended into the Dining Room. Again, Patty was great and extended the project at the last minute. As soon as we could use the Master Bath work on the Main Bath began. In the Main Bath, to help with costs Patty suggested we keep the vanity and refinish it. It sounded great to save a bit and we are so glad we did as it looks great. With new vinyl flooring, tile replaced, new paint color, fixtures, and another beautiful mirror it's hard to remember that 70's Orange! When we thought the towel bars were too high they were very accomodating to be certain we were happy. Patty took part in the final walk through and with only a few concerns and/or changes had everything taken care of promptly. There is no doubt it was tough jumping right in and doing three rooms at once but there is also no doubt that our choice of going with Patty and her crew at Fine Design was the best. Our Bathrooms Are Beautiful!

We are actually waiting for them to come out and probably within a couple of weeks they will be starting. I actually have a couple of people that worked with and everyone has come to the house was really pleasant to deal with. I'd love to get information and they have compassion to what they're doing.

From start to finish it was a delight to work with Patty's team. Patty, would send out schedules and updates and they would always be correct. If there were changes she would call to let us know. She listened to what was important to you and than would add her expertise. She stuck to the budget. If you decided to change something she immediately had solutions and prices ready. Her team of experts were easy to work with, always on time and always cleaned up after themselves. This is a awesome company. Our bathrooms are beautiful and we will always use "Fine Design" in the future.

This was a marvelous job. The ladies of Fine Design were so competent and professional. Their subs showed up on time and completed their jobs efficiently and skillfully. I am so pleased with the results. There are just a few finishing touches to be completed.

Patty and her people were responsive ,professional, courteous and outstanding workers. A few minor glitches which were supplier caused and not by Fine Design folks. We all rolled with it and all was completed to full satisfaction. Floor and finishing are extremely nice and professionally installed. They are a busy business and I can see why...right in our kitchen. We will be pleased to use their services again if needed in the future.

We had some water damage in the bathroom due to a roof leak which had to be repaired. At the same time we decided to do a partial remodel/upgrade. All the workers were professional and not only did top quality work, they were on time, cleaned up each day, and took great care with the existing fixtures. We are very happy with the finished bathroom and would use Fine Design again.

Patty Mattes is an excellent general contractor and design consultant. She helped us get the plan down, set up the subs and kept us informed daily. The subs were excellent and came on time. We used Fine Design previously for a complete bathroom remodel that turned out great. We are using them again for another bedroom remodel come September. Our home was built in 1977 and we are updating room by room. What I particularly like about Patty is the great communication she has with us. It is speedy. We always know what's going on. Also, the painter she uses is very good. We wanted quality, and we got it!

We received several estimates for our kitchen remodel. Some were fair, some were crazy. Fine design was very reasonable. When we first met Patty and Jemma, we were very impressed. They were friendly, professional and very helpful. They gave us several suggestions on things we never thought of. When we decided to hire Fine Design,they were prompt and professional. We were amazed by how friendly and skilled all the workers were. We were given a written schedule, that was followed to a T. The entire project was started and completed on time. We would definately recommend Fine Design for any remodel jobs. And we will be using this company in the future. We love our new kitchen. Jan and Curt

I highly recommend Patty's team and will use them again. We bought a 30 year old house in late 2012 that came with three very small sinks in the bathrooms. They were so small and the faucets so poorly positioned that even the most responsible user ended up with a counterful of water after washing their hands. I found Fine Design on Angie's List and Patty came out right away for an estimate. I thought she did a great job of describing options without trying to twist our arms or upsell us. We liked the more comprehensive options, but our grander plans for the bathrooms did not pan out when we needed to spend money on more pressing maintenance issues. It was several months before I was able to engage Patty again. She resurrected the estimate and quickly reworked it to address the specifics of our downsized scope. Even though it was a much smaller job (still big to us) there was no hesitation to continue with the work. The gent who did the work (Randy) hit a snag with the job prior to ours. He did a great job of communicating and giving us options. We decided to go ahead and start the work in the afternoon rather than in the morning based on the commitment that the job would be completed. It went great. Randy even brought two slightly different versions of the same sink (oval and round) to be sure to have the right materials. The work involved cutting into a wooden counter, removing the old small sink and faucet, then enlarging the hole for the new sink and faucet. The pee traps were replaced as well for all sinks. Randy worked methodically but briskly and did a great job cleaning up. We actually ate dinner downstairs with the kids while he worked upstairs. Randy assessed the angle stops and determined that they were fine (saving us money) and then walked us through the specifics on the hardware so that we knew how to remove stoppers and clean the sinks. Randy was a total professional and did a fantastic job. We love our new sinks!

Jemma and Patty were fantastic to work with. We have three young kids and needed some additional storage near our entry way for coats, hats, jackets, etc. In additional to being functional, we also wanted a stylish solution that fit the character of 1891 home. Fine Design worked with us from concept to completion, never missing an arranged meeting, and ensuring we were 100% satisfied with the finished product. We would give them our highest recommendation and will be working with them on future projects.

Patty worked with me for over a year communicating back and forth via email and telephone (over a year because my expected funding fell through). Once the work got started it was less than a week to get it complete - installation of a new sink and repair of countertops and backsplashes.