Let me preface this by saying that Chris and I went to high school together back in the 80's. That's not to say we hung out or anything, in fact we hardly knew each other, but I knew of him and knew him to be from a good family with integrity.
I've known that Chris was in the home remodeling business for about the last ten years, and based on the photos he's posted on various social media and industry sites, along with his own website, I knew that when the time came, I wanted Chris on my project. I really like to support friends and local at every opportunity. The reviews I read lead me to believe that Chris would be the right choice. The question was, for what?
My wife and I are never really afraid to jump into our own home improvement projects, replacing floor tile, upgrading a bathroom, rebuilding a deck or three, or residing parts of the house. But when she said she wanted to remove walls, upgrade the kitchen and replace some ugly LVT with hardwood, I knew we'd found the project for Chris.
Chris has watched my wife and I do our own home improvement projects from my posts on Facebook and knew that we knew our way around a hammer and pry bar. My wife and I did the majority of the demo on the house - at least the interior work, and also did all the painting inside and out. This helped on cost control and also gave us a great deal of ownership in the project outside of just paying the bill. Chris would give us suggestions on how to handle certain situations or ask us to take care of certain tasks which would also help keep costs down. Working with a general contractor that gives the homeowner the free reign to do this is really a great way to save money and have some pride in the project.
When we first started talking about the project, it didn't really seem all that major, but I knew it was more than I wanted to take on by myself. As on thing led to another, we found that the walls we wanted to remove were indeed structural and would require some significant reinforcing and some pretty serious creativity to get there. Enter Chris' engineer. The design he came up with instantly struck us as perfect for the house. Chris admitted this level of structural work was a bit more than half a step outside his wheelhouse. But like a true professional, he called on friends / associates in the industry for assistance and suggestions and made it happen.
Like any construction project, this one was not without its share of hiccups; in fact there were more than any fair share, but again, Chris' professionalism and years of experience came through. Permit delays, cabinet delays, flooring delays, birds in the walls delays, surprise plumbing & electrical delays....
I could write on and on, but I only have 3000 characters for this review. Suffice to say, I would recommend AAI to anyone looking to take on a kitchen or bathroom remodel. Chris and Nicholas are true professionals and were true pleasure to work with.
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