We asked Oliver to completely remodel our kitchen, we are so thankful that he was available for the…read morejob! The kitchen came out beautifully, I can't believe it is the same space. From day one, Oliver was mindful of our budget, communicative/easy to reach, kept us up to speed with each step of the project, involved us in all decisions, and guided us when we didn't know what to do. We also wanted to work with a contractor who could design and make suggestions on how the space should look, aesthetically - Oliver has impeccable taste! When issues arrived with two of our vendors, Oliver always had alternative solutions or pulled a rabbit of a hat and simply made it happen. He and his team arrived on time each day, were respectful of our space and treated it like their own home. I have to give a special nod to Oliver's team as well, Eddie and Jamie. Jamie has such a pleasant demeanor, worked alongside Oliver and Eddie on everything, and no job was too small. Eddie is truly a master carpenter, and gave our kitchen a magazine worthy finish - not to mention he had a smile on his face every morning (even at 7:00am). We can't stop singing their praises to our friends and family and we are excited to have Downtown Abbeys work on our next project (and hopefully more after that). Do not hesitate working with Oliver and his team - you will not regret it!

Unresponsive. Oliver came by to give an estimate for a bathroom renovation, but never sent a…read moreproposal for the work as we had agreed as the next step. I followed up several times. On one occasion, I followed-up and was told he would send a proposal later that night, but I still never received anything. After following up a few more times with no response, I sent a message asking if they were interested in the project; and if not, to just let me know. I never received a response.

What a gem! I own a couple of properties, so I deal with a lot of contractors. As a rule, I'm…read moreshort on time, so if I can get a job done without babysitting the workers, I'm happy. Niall and his crew are as good as it gets. Niall got me a quote for rebuilding my back porches within a couple of days. The quote was significantly less than the other guys. They said they would start on Monday morning and they did. They said they'd finish on Friday afternoon and they were done by noon on Friday. The new porch is beautiful, well build and sturdy (they actually went a little overboard on sturdy). And they went the extra mile -- extending a cement step when they saw that the new porch stairs were going to hit in an awkward way, completely cleaning up the back yard when they were done. The whole project took up less of my time than I spent getting my front door replaced. The crew are fantastic -- professional, polite, cheerful. Niall responds to phone calls and emails promptly. This was one of the easiest home-improvement experiences I've ever had. Yay!

Hanley Carpentry is a perfect example of a general contractor that puts getting paid and moving on…read moreto the next job ahead of his reputation and having pride in his work. Niall comes off as a nice guy and is undoubtedly a good salesman, but once the work begins things change fast, especially when issues and challenges come up, with which any decent size remodel, they usually do. Here is a top ten list of things that I had to deal with while working with Niall. 1. Niall sold himself as a "premier renovator of Boston Back Bay condos", but it turns out Niall was not even aware of the fact that many condo associations have by-laws that relate to qualifying or restricting renovations. It was his assumption that I could do whatever I wanted in my condo without getting permission from anyone. In fact, after work began and complaints began to roll in, he told me to tell the trustee of the condo association to f*** off and to mind their own business. He also threatened to pull his team out if things got difficult for him. To make matters worse, the trustee is an elderly women that lives right below me, who happens to be recovering from cancer, all of which Niall knew, and didn't care, about. 2. Niall has absolutely ZERO project management skills. The project lasted three months and Niall showed up on the job site at most 8 times, four of which were only to pick up checks. In fact, the first three weeks of the job, which I considered the most important, Niall was laying on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean. Niall conveniently forgot to tell me about this planned vacation before the job started. Niall also promised weekly status reports along with a weekly invoice. This promise was not kept. 3. During the course of the engagement, FOUR of his employees literally walked off the job, just got up and quit midday. Despite that, Niall expected me to pay their day rates as if they worked a full day. 4. Most of Niall's workers are capable and hard-working. However they are given virtually ZERO direction on what needs to be done. Not surprisingly this resulted in quite a few mistakes, which naturally require redoing the work twice and sometimes three times, all of which Niall expects you to pay for. 5. Niall refused to pay for significant damage that his crew caused to a neighbor's apartment, so those repairs ended up being my responsibility which I had to pay for. 6. Whenever something would go wrong, which was quite often, Niall was quick to blame the other contractors that were working on the project. Niall never once accepted responsibility for a mistake that he or his crew made. 7. Niall conveniently and consistently forgot agreed to scope of work. He then tries billing you extra for things that are already included in a project based fee. 8. Niall does not treat his workers well. This manifests itself with some workers moping around, kicking boards, and generally being inefficient. Regardless, Niall expects you to pay for these inefficiencies. 9. Shortly after receiving the last payment from me, which totaled over $70,000, I emailed Niall a punch list of things that I expected to be fixed. Not surprisingly, Niall never responded to that email, never called, never texted, in fact I never heard from him again. Essentially he took the money and ran without finishing the job. 10. I had to call in additional contractors to fix his shoddy work. Each of them commented on the poor craftsmanship and could not believe that another GC could act so irresponsibly. Fortunately I was able to find a few qualified contractors that were able to repair his sloppy work and loose ends. This is the first review I have written in my life. I am normally so busy with work that I wouldn't take the time to go through the trouble of writing something like this, but I think people need to know that there are some really bad, disingenuous contractors out there. I will be posting this review on Angie's list and Yelp. Hopefully it helps spare someone all the trouble that I went through.

I heard GREAT NEWS about Novicki Painting Business and I have seen a few places his company has…read morepainted BEAUTIFUL work

Steve and his team painted our kitchen cabinets and did a great job. When I first reached out to…read moreSteve about the job, he came very quickly to look at the kitchen and provided a free, reasonable estimate the same day. We were able to start the project fairly quickly, and once started, his team was done within a few days. While on site, his team was friendly, considerate, and kept the work space tidy. Steve was easy to communicate with before the project started, and during. The cabinets look new after their work was done. I would highly recommend Steve and his team for any painting project.

Carl had done a good job for us back in 2014 but after I contacted him for another project in late…read more2018, he provided a quote, I accepted it and... nothing. No contract, no certificate of insurance, his original completion date came and went and he did not respond to emails, a letter and several calls. Disappointing.

Carl Carpelo (Affordable Home Improvement) did right by us! I had other contractors bid the job and…read moreCarl was very reasonable. His crew was efficient, courteous, and cleaned up the whole area, taking precautions beforehand as well to minimize the impact. I would not hesitate to recommend Carl Carpelo or Affordable Home Improvement to my friends and family.

I do research for a living, so I thoroughly vetted six roofing companies and got on-site estimates…read morefrom four for a nearly 3000sq ft new roof (bids were 17K to 23K). Baron Home Improvements came in the middle price-wise, but my experience with Brett and his team made it worth it and not just going with the "bargain basement" contractors. Brett was incredible about communicating with me in advance of, during, and after the job. He explained everything, was upfront about how to cut costs when possible and also offered advice (without any pressure) on where I should not skimp. He was honest, knowledgeable, fair, and really cared about the job. Even after, when I had a question, he stopped by the next day to talk with me and added an extra bit of protection in an area I was (admittedly, probably overly) worried about. Roofing is an incredibly expensive undertaking, but Baron Home Improvement is fair and professional I would absolutely use them again for any type of work based on the level of trust and professionalism Brett exhibited.

Bennett Painting Plus did not do anything agreed upon, did not work professionally, didn't even…read morehave a drop cloth. The business is now a woman and her daughter, Bert Bennett past away several years ago. Clearly Bert was the one who knew how to work. Walls were not prepped. Dust was not removed from the walls before painting and left rough spots like 40 grit sandpaper all over the walls. Nail holes from pictures and other imperfections were not filled and sanded. Paint was applied improperly. It was applied much too thinly and the walls were not rolled out horizontally first and then vertically to even out the paint. Corners and around trim was not cut in evenly at all. The previous paint was visible where ever you chose to look except for where there was paint on the oiled custom made woodwork which I had to clean off. Never finished the job. I was supposed to get two coats on two rooms of one color and my kitchen painted another color. Only three quarts of paint were used on the two rooms. Paint was thin and streaky, uneven roller marks. Never even started the kitchen. In the end, there were several lost outlet and switch covers made of cast brass that I had recently purchased, other covers in plastic just missing, paint spatter to clean up from floors, scratches on the floor from moving furniture, a new CO/smoke detector was missing(?!), smoking on the job when told specifically I have a nonsmoking property, no vacuuming or final clean-up, delayed and delayed again, just terrible, unprofessional all the way through.

They did an excellent job coming back to do some additional work for me and as usual they were…read morepunctual and did a great job- very professional and neat--