Saba Ahmad from Toronto

Our second project with Dorian, Marcello and their team. Again they pay close attention to detail, with perfectionist eyes. We notice a lot of little changes that Dorian even forgot to mention. Like removing an ugly smoke stack and rebuilding the roof in that section, or sinking an electrical outlet. My favourite thing about Dorian is that he will make the suggestions of what's needed, so I don't have to think about how to update an old, drafty house. His expertise is valuable and appreciated by us!

Rob once serviced our furnace for no charge and gave us tips to avoid buying something new. Then when it was time, he gave us a great new furnace - good pricing - and hooked us up with Pierre to do the duct work - also reasonably priced.

Of course I would recommend Jeff. He's a perfectionist. A licensed architect with way too much energy to have a desk job. So he left that world and started building. Jeff is passionate about all aspects of construction - but especially plumbing and structural work. But even painting walls is a form of art to Jeff. He makes great recommendations and is super smart. There were so many times we were glad to have a smart contractor throughout the renovation. Like when I told him on the fly that I wanted a postless basement. He was able to quickly re-work the plan to give us what we wanted. He works with Sam - an amazing carpenter. As I write this, I am looking at some of Sam's carpentry work - he used some neat tricks to blend the kitchen cabinetry with the existing extension - so we didn't have clashing styles. Jeff is pleasant to work with. I never heard him raise a voice or utter a critical word to his workers. And he was super quick.

Emad at Goeman's Mississauga has been very helpful. And when he was busy, Carl stepped in to answer our questions. Very hard to find Dacor or Monogram elsewhere. Patient listening and good pricing is of utmost importance in a sales rep. In the end, Emad kept track of the best deals for me and helped me time my purchase to take advantage of rebates. He even answered my questions by email and cell # since it was not easy to come into the store! Incidentally, now that my Vent-a-Hood has been installed and I have used it while roasting on high heat, I can advise that it is not as powerful as I expected. I had a Zephyr in the past, which I long for. Honestly, my Panasonic microwave had an exhaust which was pretty amazing now that I am comparing it to a supposedly "professional" hood. I do not think Emad could have acquired my specialized knowledge on exhausts so I don't fault him at all.

EDIT: I am happy with the cabinets and was not pleased with the installation. I have edited my review to be more measured to reflect that the company did try to remedy my dissatisfaction. My transaction started with Jasmeet. She was very helpful when I entered the store. No nonsense. Not receptive to my attempts to get a better deal - but fair. It's a family-owned store, so I wasn't expecting them to sell at a loss to earn my business. She was able to get a Native Trails sink and price-matched a competitor. She had a bain ultra tub on clearance - sure looked like a great price to me! Well below list. I also bought a small vanity and Jasmeet spent a lot of time with me to find a pull-out bar faucet that suited my nit-picky needs. I'm happy with all purchases except: now that the bath tub has been installed, I realize that the product was not right for me and not worth the price. First, installation was very tricky. It took multiple attempts and replacement parts to get it right. That increased labour costs. Bain ultra sent parts over quickly. But now that it's all in, I note the "bubbles" are very loud and strong, even on the lowest setting - so we never use the feature. The heated back rest is kind of a joke. You heat it up by running the bubbles on maximum for 5 minutes. The noise is no way to relax. Still we like having a big tub with lights. We like that. If we got it with no bubbles though, we'd have saved a mint. After buying the tub, I went over to check out the cabinets. Obviously great quality on the showroom. The cabinets arrived and were beautiful. Sadly, the installers were not competent. They scratched my floor (refused to protect floors) and failed to give me a level surface for quartz counters, even after a second attempt. Quartz will break if the surface is not level. I retained my own carpenter to fix their work. The installers blamed my un-level floor. But the slight slanting of my floors is typical of an old Toronto house. A professional (like my carpenter) would know how to deal with that. I dealt with Gagan and Grigori, both of whom had been patient with my requests up until installation. They made amazing shop drawings and 3D images of the completed kitchen. I was impressed by their attentiveness and ultimately accepted their attempts to rectify the installation errors. I would suggest hiring someone to monitor installation if you proceed with this company. So all in all, I would go back to buy merchandise.

Have you ever known a service man to refuse an $80 tip? He refused all of it. I wanted to pay him extra because he fixed every new problem he uncovered as he explored our furnace. Apparently our thermostat wasn't wired properly. He fixed that. (We weren't surprised because every bit of wiring in our new home seems to have been poorly done). He noticed the holes venting humidity were too small. He fixed that. Something about a gas gauge was wrong. He fixed that. He went out and bought a vacuum to get rid of an insane amount of debris - he didn't want to use our nice vacuum. He's coming back to replace some worn rollout switches. And he fixed a few other problems too I can't recall because it was too technical. Our furnace was never maintained - and the previous owners had cats - so it died prematurely. Robert Latour - skilled, professional, competent & generous!