General Contractors

http://www.jmaconstruction.com/

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I have waited until Week Four to post the information about our General Contractor. I think I did that so I could tell if we like them or not. I think it is safe to say: We do. We had several people come out and give us estimates on the kitchen and we liked John and Lorri Azar the best.

The price was in line with all the others and we just felt comfortable with them. I liked having Lorri there to help me through some of the steps. It is nice being able to call her with questions. Paul got their number through an ad in the Acorn Newspaper. When they first came out they told us they had done our neighbor's addition, kitchen remodel about 19 years ago. The funny thing was that John remembered Darcy from that time!! He said she was around 13 at the time and she brought cookies over for the workers. She doesn't remember anything about that and I sure don't!! She was friends with the neighbor girl that was her age. Check out the funny tv ad on the web page!!

Both Paul and I wanted to go with a General Contractor instead of trying to manage the job ourselves. Neither one of us felt that we knew enough about what had to be done to do it ourselves. I think we are both very, very happy that we went this way!! There have been a few minor hiccups but we just had to call the Boss (or the Boss Lady) and hear "Don't worry, we will fix it!" They set up for the plumbing and the electric and drywallers and painters. They planned when people should be out and what needs to be done first, second etc. There is no way I would have known what to do and in what order!! We still question some of the order of things but it seems with talking to other people that have had their kitchens done it is the order that everyone goes with. See, we would have done it differently and everyone knows that differently isn't always better!

http://www.1creativewoodworks.com/

The only subcontractor that we didn't go with was the cabinets. The company that JMA usually goes with came in several thousand over the estimate and they finish the cabinets in the house after they install them. I'm sure that is great for most people but with my fumes "issue" we didn't think that would be the smartest idea. We saw his work and it was very, very nice but we went with another company that has a spray booth so they finish at the company. Christy had them several years ago and she had been very pleased with them so that was good enough for me! They were very helpful in the design stage walking us through several different problem areas. I wanted a semi-walk-in pantry and they talked me out of it. Now that I am looking at what they did come up with I will have to say they were correct!!

When we first went over to meet with Steve Hull, the owner he walked us through their new workshop area. Wow, they have massive machines to help with the building and spraying and drying. It is a new shop for them and it is very impressive. This is not your neighborhood handyman doing the cabinets!! The quality of the cabinets that they are installing now shows that also! We are very pleased with them.
This is the fourth day they are here and they should be finishing up most everything today. There will be a couple of things that they will have to come back and finish but almost everything will be done tonight!! How exciting!!

I will try and post some pictures of the cabinets in the next couple of days. Paul thinks everyone must be getting bored with my day by day posting but I figure you can read what you want and skip the rest!! At least this way I have a record of everything. With my memory that is very important!!!