When my husband's job relocated us to the Chicago area from California, we were under a tight…read moretimeframe to find and buy a new home. Quite by accident we found the community of Hawthorn Place by Icon Building Group located in Hawthorn Woods. Right from the start, we were impressed with the quality of the homes built by Icon. We looked at three different homes that were available at that time and fell in love with the first one that we originally walked through. We met Charlie Murphy, the owner of Icon that first day. Lucky for us, his office just happened to be located in the model home in our new neighborhood. We did our research on Icon, and discovered they have at least 10 new home communities throughout the Chicagoland area and also specialize in new custom homes and remodeling. Their homes are hands down gorgeous - whether new builds or remodels. From start to finish, Charlie was super to work with. What really made our experience great was his availability. He would answer all of our calls, texts, or e-mails no matter what time of the day. The whole process felt very personal. While our new home was near perfect to what we were looking for, there were a few things on our wish list that we wanted. Right from the start, Charlie put us in touch with his Design Center manager, Angela, who started the process while we were still back in California preparing for our move. Our project included adding a basement bar/kitchen with an island, a feature wall w/floating shelves (Charlie's idea) and a built-in electric fireplace in the great room, crown molding throughout the downstairs, and extra cabinets in the laundry room. What we liked most about working with Angela is that she helped us make decisions that kept the rooms in harmony overall - especially the finished basement. Sometimes it was hard to visual the finished look, and she helped us by showing us pictures and different samples as we decided on tile, cabinets, backsplash etc. She was also very patient when we had a few changes along the way. Rachel, our lead project manager, was invaluable during the entire project. She was always courteous, on time, helpful and above all resourceful. Rachel did an excellent job of communicating exactly what was going on the entire time. She stayed in constant communication with all of the contractors, and addressed any issues that came up regarding scheduling, materials, etc. What we liked the most was that she would stop by nearly every day that work was being done, to make sure everything was on track and give us updates. We know we weren't her only project, but we sure felt like it. As with any projects, a few hiccups came up along the way, but anytime this happened the Icon team was quick to respond and resolve the issue. We would like to especially thank Joe, Icon's VP of Purchasing & Design who came to the rescue several times when we needed to make some last-minute changes on a few design choices and clear up some miscommunication. He was very fair and reasonable with his solutions, and we were happy with the outcome. Lastly, we want to give a shout out to Sandy, our Service/Warranty manager. While all of the exciting upgrades were happening, she was available to resolve any issues we identified during the original walkthrough. She was responsive and professional. Everything on our list was followed up on and resolved to our satisfaction. We love our new Icon home, and the upgrades we had done turned out better than we even imagined. If you are thinking of buying a new home, building a custom one or remodeling we highly recommend Charlie and his team at Icon Building Group. We promise you won't be disappointed.

We considered ICON but upon viewing their very cookie cutter type homes, elected to go a different…read moredirection. Also, ICON was advertising homes for just under $1M in one of their communities. However, once we expressed interest, we were told that the build would be about $200k higher. Be sure to do your homework before getting to far along with ICON / Charlie. There are a lot of other, very reputable builders out there.

The crew did an amazing job with total bathroom remodel, new flooring, driveway and other repairs…read more Highly recommend!

We had a small fire on Father's Day and we were in search of a contractor for weeks. Tommy was the…read moreproject manager and came by the next day for the initial consultation. He was very responsive and great to work with. Mike was assigned to our project and did a phenomenal job! He was very professional and kept us in the loop with progress every step of the way. We were very happy with the final result.

After exhausting and many frustrated interviews trying to find a GC to tear down our old garage and…read morebuild a new Coach House and garage, we finally hired MK Construction. Yet we were not sure how the experience would be but I am happy to share we had a wonderful experience that exceeded our expectations. The Project Manager We worked with Greg S. who has been very responsive since day 1, via text, phone, email and in person meetings, as needed. Constantly updating us. Workers and Partners Very professional team. Excavation, electrical, cement, hydraulic, carpenter, installations and others. They are all very knowledgeable, respectful, polite, and focused on what they were doing. They were working constantly even on snowy days and unbearable low temperatures. Budget It was top-notch. MK has met timeline and budget with fair pricing on any extras, which is extremely rare in constructions. Materials. High quality materials, and I could choose what I wanted as brands and models for siding and interior finishing. I am still and denial my project went so well. MK Construction is a very serious company that I highly recommend for your project. See before and after pictures.

Update Nov 2021, over a year after the projects were finished and we're still very pleased with the…read morequality of the work. Our architect recommended and specified a fair amount of detail that MK did very well. Work included adding new bathroom, relocating and rebuilding the kitchen, adding new windows, new electrical, water and ductwork, structural including steel and LVL beams, new columns and joist reinforcements, a 2-car garage, a second bathroom remodel, floor and wall tile work, electrical, new flooring... whew I can't write it all. It's a completely new house! This 100 year-old house is an absolute delight. (Here are some process photos to show some of the things we appreciated)

We hired David and his team to remodel our kitchen. It was a significant remodel, including taking…read moredown a support wall. David and his team were so easy to work with from start to finish. We never had to wonder if they would show up or meet the estimated timeframe and budget. They took care and pride in their work. Highly recommend.

I hired Blue Sun Construction for a condo renovation. It has been a pleasure working with this…read morecompany from start to finish. They were thoughtful to my budget. They listened to my needs and wants and created a magnificent update to a dated condominium. Their attention to detail is outstanding. Their creative problem solving was a huge help. They work on time and even cleaned up after themselves! When I needed help selecting finishes they were spot on with suggestions. Punch list items were attended to immediately. I highly recommend Blue Sun Construction and I have no doubt I will use them on future projects.

Watch Out Sub Contractors! Nea Maya does not pay or…read morenegotiate change orders. As a Plumbing Contractor in the Chicago Land Area, Nea Maya stuck us with over $20,000 in unpaid change orders. This cost was generously adjusted after we took into consideration of his undocumented grievances just so we could get paid, only to still not get paid for requested work performed. Nea Maya has problems with developing a schedule, understanding their own drawings and designs and trade scope of work. When issues and follow ups on change orders were requested for months went unanswered until time of final payment we were presented of back charges and suspect labor that were not backed up by invoices tickets or warnings. Just vague photos. In 20 plus years of being in this business, Nea Maya and Zach Joseph as the worst general contractors to do business with. If zero stars was an option I would choose a zero. 1 star gives them too much credit.

READ!!! IT MAY SAVE YOU A GREAT DEAL…read more If you need peace in your life, avoid Nea Maya business in general. I bought a home worth more than half a million dollars from Nea Maya but it has been the worst experience of my life. They are completely unprofessional. Once you close on the house, they will stop responding to you. They advertise luxury homes but used cheap products. We have been here since September of 2020 and they still have not completed our punch list. They will lie and give excuses about covid but covid is not stopping them from building new units beside our unit. They will tell you some of the items such as countertops that we chose have life time warranty but we noticed a crack in the countertop and notify them and they came back with it is not covered. This is my fault because we did not inspect before moving in. We just trusted Nea Maya blindly and we learned the terrible lesson from trusting this company. We live in phase two but one of the occupants of the phase one hard to get a lawyer involved before they could respond. First winter in the house, the whole house started leaking. I first noticed the leak on the third floor and notified Nea Maya in December but as usual, they did not respond until February when the leaks has gotten to second floor and first floor and the walls and ceiling are already saggy. Even the floors are bumpy. They blame bad weather and I understand but wondered how other houses did not leak even though they are older. Truth came out when a public adjuster came to inspect and showed us the cheap materials that they used to do a terrible job. Please see photos attached. They installed HVAC system wrongly and did not leave room for contractors to correct their terrible and they will argue with you even though instructions are clear from the HVAC manufacturer. After getting an HVAC company to inspect, they were clear when they said the HVAC system that is supposed to last 20 years can barely last for 5 years with the way it was installed. Your HVAC insurance will also not cover the damage because the builder did not follow the installation instructions. Finally, I am putting this out here in an effort to protect another American from going through this but if you think that this is from an angry customer, take some time to go and talk to other occupants of the so called luxury home that they built on Lincoln and Floral ave Skokie, illinois. If you are buying a property that expensive, I think proper investigation will be a wise thing for you to do. Don't make the same mistake that I made. Think about it, there is a reason that they are not a BBB accredited business.

Thom and Dan designed a gorgeous porch for our 1892 farmhouse. It completely changed the look of…read moreour home to add timeless beauty to a rather boring facade. Thom listened to what we wanted and incorporated design elements according to our preferences (even when he had a different initial idea). We highly recommend this architectural firm.

We worked with Greene & Proppe for a whole house renovation project that included: finishing the…read moreattic, adding an HVAC system, restoring and adding doors and trim work, remodeling the kitchen, painting, and finishing the basement. We ended up terminating our contract with Greene and Proppe halfway through the project. Here are the pros and cons: Pros: - Responded in a timely manner - Nice - Nice office and location was convenient - Creative designs for kitchen that incorporated our aesthetic ideas Cons: - They designed a kitchen with 9" square cabinets. The blind corners were non-functional, as well as many other aspects of the cabinet designs - Knowing the timeline and scope of our project, they casually mentioned to us 2 months before our anticipated completion date that our custom kitchen we had created with them could not be built by their cabinet makers, who were 3 months out from taking any new projects. They wished us luck on finding another custom cabinet maker ourselves so late in the game. This was the first that they ever discussed this with us. Our custom kitchen plans we created were useless and we spend thousands upon thousands of dollars creating them with the architects. - There are no actual measurements on our plans. When we want to look at our plans to get a better idea of our space, and ask ourselves questions like "how big is this room and what furniture can fit in it?" there are no actual measurements on any of the plans. - The basement bathroom vanity was designed to be a size that was unconventionally long and difficult to find. The plumbing was designed to be all the way on the left of the vanity instead of in the vented of the vanity, like most vanities are. We had to pay the plumber extra money to redo the plumbing for the vanity because of the architect's design. There is nowhere convenient on the wall to put a toilet paper holder or to hang any towel bars. - The office in the basement is much bigger than the bedroom. We didn't say we wanted this and would have assumed the bedroom would be a bit bigger than an office room, as they typically are. It will be difficult to even fit a queen sized bed with two nightstands in the room. - The light switches in the basement are in such awkward spaces that you literally have to wrap your hand around an entire wall corner to turn on a light as you enter a room. It's an annoyance every time we have to turn on the lights. - We strongly expressed that we did not want any spray foam for insulation in our home. Their response was to use soy based spray foam. When we said we did not want that either, they did not provide any further suggestions or recommendations. Overall, we feel that we paid far too much for the services that we received (or didn't receive). I'm writing this review because I thought it would be helpful for someone considering to work with the company to know about these details before signing on with them - I wish that we had this kind of information beforehand.

My dream office was made possible by On Point Design-Build…read more I sought bids from 3 other construction firms and On Point was by far the leader in the group. From the initial conceptual and design meetings to the periodical on-site status meetings, I felt that they always had the project under control. I could not have asked for a better team to partner with than On Point Design-Build. Having never been through this process, I was naïve to many of the details involved. From day one, each member of the team- from Lisa, Jenny, and Ron to Max- all displayed professionalism, transparency, and the attention to detail that I wanted for my project. For me, one of the most important aspects was their ability to complete the project within the given deadline, which they accomplished. Now that we are open, we are already getting compliments from the people walking in who are noticing the fine design and details around the office.

We highly recommend Kevin Sherman for building and home remodeling projects. Kevin was in charge of…read moreour a total tear-out of 2 baths, installation of 2 pocket doors, 2 regular doors, baseboard, electrical outlets on our terraces, several ceiling light fixtures, sound-proofing to some walls, reclaiming lost space in a closet wall, plastering, customized electrical and wall frame out for our flat screen TV, and assuring proper installation of all fixtures including a floor-to-ceiling framed mirror on a wall. He is a top-notch project planner and detailed architect providing drawings and able to incorporate changes and revisions while being vigilant on how one change would impact the rest of the job. He exceeded our expectations and wowed us with his attention to detail and preciseness. We had worked with Kevin a few years back on a smaller job in our 1960's high-rise condominium. Our project was complex and the bathroom construction very precise as we wanted our large horizontal tile to align with our vanities, mirrored cabinet, plumbing, etc. Kevin had excellent top-of-mind knowledge of Chicago building codes, understood the dynamics of a condominium building (and became friends with all our maintenance staff which was quite helpful throughout the project). At times when we were introducing the use of new products to Kevin he was very open to using them and researching them on-line to better understand the science. Kevin is respected and respects fellow craftsman. He was an excellent collaborator with our tile installer and decorator and other sub-contractors (flooring, customized vanities, and painters) that we brought in based on prior relationships, but Kevin can provide these services through his company. Since the completion of the main phase we've had Kevin back to our home for several additional mini-projects. His work continues to be stellar in execution. We can not imagine how our major project would have went without Kevin's involvement.