In the spirit of transparency, let me say that my husband started working at Neil Kelly a bit more than a year ago, so naturally when we decided to remodel our kitchen Neil Kelly was going to be our first choice.
Nonetheless, I wouldn?t be writing this review if I wasn?t completely happy and able to recommend Neil Kelly without reservations.
Martha Kerr has been designing remodeling projects for over 40 years and she really knows her stuff. When we first met with her, we told her we were only interested in resurfacing our kitchen cabinets and counters. Thank goodness she didn?t limit herself to our thoughts!
Martha submitted a proposal for what we asked for, but she also drew up plans for a few alternatives. It was exciting to see how she had looked at our kitchen and saw possibilities we never imagined. It takes a sharp designer to come into your home, ask a lot of questions about your lifestyle and the way you use your space, and then start creating ideas for reconfiguring things that would never occur to me in a hundred years.
Neil Kelly is a big company, but it's organized into small teams. That means we had our own Project Manager who oversaw the entire project once we got started on the demolition and construction. Paul Louis is the Project Manager who works with Martha Kerr's team, and he's great. He had a tight schedule and really kept to it. I could anticipate what was going to happen each day, because I had a copy of the schedule too. He also stopped by to check on progress nearly every day. The Neil Kelly team has two carpenters who always work together on a project, which made it nice for me. Within the first day I felt I had an extended family re-creating my home. I knew their faces, I knew all about their families, I knew how they liked their coffee. And they are very, very picky about the work they do. Every evening my husband and I would wander through the work zone, expecting to find little mistakes or overlooked details. We never did. Within a couple of days we gave up trying and just enjoyed the feeling of confidence that comes when you have experts working for you.
The final result is incredible. We had a limited budget, and between Martha Kerr and Paul Louis and the carpenters, they squeezed every bit of value they could from it. The materials are beautiful and earth-friendly (an important feature for us), the overall design looks like it came out of a magazine, and Martha's ideas to take out part of a wall and rearrange the counter placement has resulted in a big kitchen fitting into the same space where our previous small kitchen used to be! I know that sounds impossible, but it's true.
Because Neil Kelly contracts a 'guaranteed price' the project came in exactly on budget. We even got a few little extras we hadn't expected along the way. The dust protection kept the rest of our house almost dust-free (some sneaks through the zippers in the plastic walls), the place was clean and tidy at the end of every day, and the Neil Kelly guarantee lets me know if something comes up in the year ahead they?ll be back to take care of it.
Some people say that the Neil Kelly bid is often higher than the other guy's. The question to ask when you hear that is, ""Yea, but what was the final price of the other guy's project?"" We never had to worry about cost overruns because our price was guaranteed.
We know we added immensely to the value of our property, but more importantly we simply love our home more now than we did before. Our 18-year-old kitchen was a sea of white tile and stained grout and the space was cramped. All that has changed, and now I love walking into my new kitchen every morning and starting my day.
I would highly, highly recommend Neil Kelly for anybody who is considering remodeling any part of their house. They've been in business for more than 60 years and their reputation for quality and integrity has certainly been proven true in my new kitchen!
Pros: Friendly professionals
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