Tony from Treasure Valley Kitchen and Bath did a good job on our kitchen. We did have to work with…read morehim quite a bit, but having done a kitchen in a prior home we were ready for that. His first design for our kitchen was unworkable, but with help from my wife the design ended up being solid. I offered to write a review on his site, but he didn't take me up on it, I think because I had a few reservations about the project and wanted to discuss them as well.
He was unavailable any Friday after about 11:00 AM. Period. End of that story. It became kind of a joke between my wife and me.
Attention: Be sure to see samples of cupboards before you buy them. The outsides of the ones we selected are very nice, and when one of them was cracked, he did a good job of replacing it for us. The cupboard depth is barely adequate however, and that's on us. We didn't measure samples or carefully look at specs. They are shallow. We even had to get special-order Lazy Susans for spices because a standard size won't fit. In our floor cupboards, our platters only fit if we place them in just the right spot or the doors don't close completely. Again, our bad. Measure your dishes and don't assume they'll all fit. Even bags of fatty salty snacks have to go in just the right way or the doors don't close.
His contractors were hit-and-miss:
* His wallboard guy was amazing. He was fast and his work was impeccable.
* His electrician was good, but we had to clean up after him.
* His plumber I had to stay on top of.
* Although his granite company had great stone, the installers did a pretty amateur job. One of them was a real pro and did a great job on his half of the granite. The others were absolute rookies. When grinding down a seam (which if it were installed properly in the first place would have been perfect, needing no grinding) they ran cooling water all over our brand new cupboard doors, as if it didn't matter. One can still feel where that seam is, and that is not really acceptable. Then, when installing the water features on the sink portion, they cut the holes so close to the size of the fixtures and on such an angle that the escutcheons barely covered the openings. I mean: by maybe two millimeters. Maybe. I was panicked, because the stone was so beautiful and they were so close to just butchering it that I could hardly stand it.
The designing of the stone (how it was cut) is beautiful. Unless you know exactly where to look on part of the job you cannot find the seam. The stone has a lot of movement in the grain and one would think the seam would be hard to conceal. It is almost invisible.
* The fancy sink we bought came cracked (or was damaged by the plumber) and this didn't get caught until install time. Disaster. This set the whole project back three weeks, because the company he was working with would not expedite the delivery unless I signed off that I was responsible for any damage in shipment. Are you kidding me? That was outrageous, and I wish he could have put a little pressure on them to do a better job but he either couldn't or wouldn't. So: inspect your purchased components as soon as they arrive.
* His floor guys had to come back and redo the finishing on the wood because it had several problems. In the end, in one of our closets, the varnish looks like someone spilled a can of Coke on the floor and never cleaned it up. It's varnish, but it has that look. I decided to let that and several other small issues go because it's just a floor after all. It will get beaten up over time, and I didn't want to make a huge deal over it at that point. The worst part is in a closet and nobody will see it anyway (except me every time I open the closet).
Having said that, they did a floor-match on part of the floor that previously was carpeted, and they put in new wood flooring. That part was outstanding. It looks like it was part of the original install. So they were part excellent and part just ok.
* His cabinet guy was terrific, and did a beautiful job.
* His appliance company was great. We bought Wolf components: a 36" gas cooktop, a standard convection oven, and a steam oven. The steam oven is amazing. Get one.
I think his problem was that there is so much construction going on here that reliable contractors are hard to secure.
Overall I'm satisfied with the job, it wasn't cheap, and all in all we could have done much worse. Thanks Tony.
Thumbs up.