The Pine Nuts Woodworking And Renovations Ltd.

We got quotes from multiple contractors to renovate our kitchen which included new cupboards, backsplash, replacing an island, sink, etc. Colin was not the cheapest but he was down to earth and didn’t try to upsell so we chose him. The reviews for PineNuts on Homestars were great so we thought we wouldn’t have any problems since there were other satisfied customers.
The reno started out okay but we soon came to the expected completion date and there was still quite a bit of work to be completed. We were seeing less and less of Colin at this point and we were having to follow up with him every few days to make sure he was coming back to work on things. We were now a month over schedule with a half-finished kitchen and Colin was less and less responsive. We started having to leave concerned voicemails/emails because regular messages weren’t getting returned. He would eventually get back to us with an apology and that he was going through some things personally. We felt bad so we gave him more time, but he would just go absent again. We started to worry that he was going to disappear but luckily we hadn’t made the final payment, just the deposit and mid payments.
Colin eventually installed the custom built cupboard doors which were the last stage, and we paid him the final payment. But we quickly noticed about half of the doors had imperfections where you could see cracking, bubbling and drips in the paint. These were our main cupboard doors at eye level so the imperfections were not ignorable. He came by and looked at the issue and agreed it was not acceptable and he would refinish or replace those doors. But he asked that we wait a month or two to see if any of the other doors started to show the same imperfections so that he could do them all at once. He then asked if we would leave him a positive review on Homestars and reminded us that he would personally warranty any of this work for 2 years. It was almost like he was saying if you give me a positive review I’ll fix the issues but if you don’t I won’t. I didn’t like how he was handling things and had a bad feeling that if I left a positive review we would never see him again, not to mention after the last 2 months of chasing him my review was not going to be great. Well I was partially correct because I told him we would leave a review once the work was done and we still never saw him again. We have left him multiple voicemails and emails over the last year to get him to come and fix the cupboard issues he agreed to fix. We have given up any hope of him ever fixing the issues and judging by the other most recent review on Homestars it appears we aren’t the only home owners he screwed over. We paid quite a bit of money to get a high quality kitchen installed and are now left with cupboard doors with very large cracks on almost all of them which are getting worse and will eventually have to be refinished/replaced on our dime once again. Not to mention some of the cabinet hardware was installed crooked, some cupboards are now sagging and the paint color he used on the cabinet doors does not match the paint he used on cabinet molding. Our new kitchen looks sloppy and like it’s been beat up for about 10 years. Absolutely poor quality work that looks like it was done in a hurry. I’m sure Colin will close down this company and reopen under another name to avoid dealing with the customers he screwed over. I’m not sure what personal issues he had going on in his life but there is no excuse to completely disappear and not finish the work you were paid to do.
I would highly warn against using the Pine Nuts or Colin. Don’t be fooled by all the old positive reviews like we were, because the owner is clearly in a different place where he doesn’t care at all about customer service or his clients anymore. Based on the recent bad reviews on Home Stars it sounds like he was still taking jobs while still not returning our calls or finishing the work we paid him for. Stay away!