Nearly hundred year old home needed a facelift and a whole lot of body work
I love architecture, always have, always will. This combined with an unhealthy fixation on HGTV's flipping shows led me to purchase a true fixer-upper in a historic neighborhood. I truly didn't realize just how much fixing up my nearly hundred-year-old home needed. This realization dawned on me right about the same time I realized I wasn't a carpenter and neither was my fiance. The gutter backing up and flooding directly into my mail slot one day really helped drive this point home. We sought out and interviewed a few contractors with zero success before stumbling upon Legacy Builders on Angie's List. We liked the aesthetic portrayed on Mr. Louis's website and we obviously loved all the glowing reviews. I really appreciated the first contact, we both interviewed the other for fit. This really made me feel like I had someone genuinely interested in the project and that I wasn't just a paycheck. At the start of the quote process, Mr. Louis took excellent notes, many photographs, and accepted my written list of expectations. He arranged interviews with window subcontractors and offered his advice on what questions to ask and what I should be thinking about long term. There was never any judgment and I was never made to feel dumb or even worse, cheap. It was important to me that all the new work fit the old work and Mr. Louis really took that to heart. Numbers discussed, contracts were signed, and the work began. When everything was said and done, we had all of our windows replaced, the entire house scraped, siding replaced, soffits, replaced, house repainted with two accent colors, gutters replaced, porch screened in, shed torn down and replaced with a custom build that was painted to match the house, carport was essentially rebuilt, subfloors were shored up, the front room where the flood occurred had the wall torn out and rebuilt, wainscoting added, wallpaper added, and decorative accents added. We also had light fixtures changed in a couple of places. That’s a whole lotta work and a whole lotta time to be seeing someone and their crew. It says a lot about Mr. Louis and his crew that we all still like each other and the fiancé and I are planning our next project for a few years down the line (bathroom renos). Throughout this entire process, Mr. Louis was exceptionally conscientious and communicative. I personally am not a micro manager and I really appreciate that the job was done well and executive decisions made when necessary without the project stopping to wait for my opinion. Touching base and checking in is one thing but I don’t like to revisit the same conversation over and over. Mr. Louis was well deserving of my confidence and the house is amazing. Now the sordid topic of coin, despite little surprises coming up here and there, our final numbers were almost exactly what we were quoted! Like, within a couple of dollars. How often does that happen? And our house was transformed from a rotting, haunted mess into a truly beautiful and unique piece of architecture that stands out in our neighborhood. We are proud of our home and looking forward to the next phase of our life (wedding bells and kids). It makes us happy to know that we have someone like Mr. Louis and Legacy Builders to get us through all the changes that will come and the updates that will need to be made as our lives go on and our family grows.
