Janet DaCosta
I will tell you a bit about our foray into the world of renovation and how our brilliant contractor helped us through it. There are very very few people I would recommend without reservation. David Generali is one of them. He is a contractor with a degree in engineering and a fantastic eye for detail and esthetics ... he is both analytical and artistic ... in other words he works from both sides of his brain. To top that he is personable, honest and really cares about the work he does and the final product.
We interviewed quite a few contractors and received quotes including Castelton Homes, other Design/Build firms and a few independent contractors. David's attention to detail and his impeccable credentials and references made him stand out by a mile. We found the others a bit sloppy in terms of costs and detail. His initial costing took into account everything we asked for so we weren't living with ambiguity. He also provided detailed timelines, weekly change orders and gave us lead time on any decisions we had to make.
These are a few of the things we were impressed by during this time and distinguished David from the other contractors and renovation processes we have observed in the area.
1. The renovation was finished on time. (unheard of in most renovations) We asked to be in the first week of September....... and we were. All our neighbours commented on the speed at which our renovation progressed. When David works on a project of this nature ...... he takes on nothing else so that you have his one hundred percent commitment.
2. The site was kept impeccably clean and all our neighbours were happy. (In fact a number of them hired him to do work for them after.) David himself could be seen on the street sweeping at 6 p.m. ensuring that our reno did not impact our neighbours negatively. He also introduced himself to our immediate neighbours and initiated a number of measures (boarding up their fences) to make sure they were not inconvenienced.
3. There were workers on site everyday. Because he is an independent contractor with his own staff, he has things scheduled meticulously so that if one of his outside trades were delayed...... his own workers would continue with other work. This was key to keeping us on schedule.
4. He was available to us ... phone calls, meetings on a daily basis. There was no juncture at which we were unclear of our progress and could not contact him.
5. His attention to detail is impeccable. I am very very detailed and his standards exceeded mine. He offered fantastic suggestions and was receptive to all of ours.
6. He has been absolutely amazing at follow up (the most common weakness of the best of contractors) ... there are things that go wrong. He immediately made them right at no incremental cost to us. In fact if we have any problems in our home now even unrelated to the reno, we immediately call David and he
has come back a number of times to help us out.
7. Last but certainly not least his staff are wonderful people. Trustworthy, kind, hard working and skilled........ every good adjective you can think of could be used to describe them.
We felt extremely fortunate (lottery win lucky) to have met David. He is a remarkable man who completes his work with an unmatched level of integrity and pride in his work. I hope you will have the same extraordinary experience we have had.
Cheers
Janet DaCosta