Local company- local resources
“Vickie did a wonderful job explaining the whole process and any additional costs that we may encounter, and we LOVED the idea of this company being a local company that used many local resources.” Read on to learn how the Shenandoah difference is all in the details:
We have nothing but wonderful things to say about Shenandoah Furniture! We moved into our new home and loved everything but our kitchen. It was small and had a cook top on the tiny island and had very little storage. We wanted to blow out a wall and expand our kitchen into our unused dining room. We got several bids but decided to go with them because for custom cabinetry, they were in a similar price range as other companies that didn’t provide the same quality. Vickie did a wonderful job explaining the whole process and any additional costs that we may encounter, and we LOVED the idea of this company being a local company that used many local resources. Our counter top is thirteen feet long and is oak from the floor of a barn that was being torn down. Vickie gave us a realistic time frame and told us how their focus is on doing things the right way, and they certainly did! We had to patiently wait a few months to have our turn with our remodel but that actually gave us time to prepare freezer crock pot meals and a makeshift kitchen in our living room.
We absolutely LOVE how our kitchen turned out and it’s even better that what we imagined. I truly never realized how functional a kitchen could be when it was done the right way, but Vickie had some amazing suggestions that have made my life so much easier. The reclaimed wood island counter that she suggested not only saved us money, but it also has become our favorite part of our kitchen and people coming to visit almost always point it out. Vickie also handled every aspect of our kitchen herself so she ordered our handles, appliances and counter tops. It was wonderful to have an expert deal with those details and to not have to worry about things not going right. She’s great at what she does and although we expected more problems, the only glitch (if you can even call it that) we had was working our hood on properly because our exterior wall is a tad lumpy. That wasn’t the fault of anybody but our builder and the gentleman working on our house, Rob, worked hard to come up with a solution that looked beautiful! My husband and I both commented several times how we expected more issues to arise but I’m pretty sure we had the smoothest kitchen remodel in history. I should also point out that Vickie was at our house every Monday making sure everything was okay and was also there if we needed her for anything else. We always felt confident with the progress going on and loved how she was hands-on and offered suggestions as we went along that really were really helpful! At one point, we told her we picked out a marble countertop and she mentioned that with three young kids, the maintenance might be a bit high. She recommended a gorgeous granite that looks almost identical to marble that’s definitely more durable and we absolutely love it! People always think it’s marble too, so we definitely got the look we were going for!!
The gentleman (Rob) who does most of the work is absolutely phenomenal. He had a small crew when needed them for demo or anything else that requires more manpower but for he most part, it was just him. Rob is just a great guy and is a brilliant jack-of-all-trades. I know he’s been with Shenandoah for years and they are very lucky to have him! One of the hardest parts for me about having such a long project done in our house was trusting who would be with us all day for eight weeks. Well, we met Rob and our worries disappeared. He was a pleasure to talk with and have in our home and our kids (and dogs!) loved him! When you use Shenandoah, you may not get your kitchen done as quickly as someone who starts their project the same day as yours, but they will do it the right way. That, to us, was more important. Rob is very thorough and proved to us many times that he wasn’t there just to breeze through our kitchen, but to get it done the way it should be done. At one point, he noticed something off in one of our tiles that we NEVER would have noticed. Instead of moving on, he tore up that tile and fixed it to make sure we wouldn’t have issues. Other big companies would have hoped nobody noticed and just moved on to something else.
One last thing I’d like to mention is how tightly Shenandoah works with the other companies, like the electricians, appliance, and counter top people. The communication is great and I never realized before how crucial that part would be. Rob stays there when the electrician comes in so they can all brainstorm and make sure everything is being put in the best location for functionality. I will add here that I had a friend in Michigan who was having her master bath done at the exact same time as our kitchen and she chose a bigger company with lots of sales people and it was a nightmare. She had problem after problem because the tile people, sales people, and electricians didn’t communicate and she said she would never choose a large company again because there was just more room for miscommunication and error. I never would have thought about the importance of all of that before this remodel but I realize now how pertinent it is for a successful project. We were told our kitchen was going to be done in 6-8 weeks and it took seven so we were happy with that, and the different teams of people that moved in and out to add their own parts to the project all worked together wonderfully.