Trinity-Bellwoods

In the spring of 2016, I finally decided to do a complete, top-to-bottom, long overdue renovation on my old mid-town condo which I confess had gotten fairly run-down. As always, I revisited Homestars to search for a competent and licensed contractor with high ratings. I was absolutely thrilled to find Doru, through his company, Heptagon, to take on this renovation project. At the outset, Doru was unbelievably patient in explaining to us the proposed renovation process, the anticipated timeline and, after seeing my budget, was able to take my wish list of what I wanted and break down the tasks and the associated costs involved. He also provided me with a number of trade references for licensed electricians and licensed plumbers for the electrical work and plumbing work that was also needed to be done. Doru took the time to meet with me and the trade references at the condo to make sure that I got the best price for the required work to be done and to ensure that the tradesmen understood exactly what was required to be done. Doru showed up at the condo and worked virtually every business day from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm and during the weekends, he sourced out, for our approval, the tiles, the flooring, the paint and everything else that was needed for the renovation. He kept us up to date by phone and by text message on a regular and ongoing basis of what had been completed that day and what the next steps were. It was very reassuring to me that he always had everything under control. Doru (i) handled the complete demolition of the old tiny kitchen, old bathroom, old parquet flooring, (ii) took down one of the walls between the kitchen and the dinette area, (iii) removed the popcorn from the ceiling throughout the condo, (iv) created a drop-down ceiling in the kitchen to disguise the electrical work that the electricians installed, (v) installed handscraped engineered flooring throughout, (v) installed a beautiful glassed-in shower and vanity (in place of the old tub and shower), (vi) painted the entire condo (ceiling, walls and trim), and (vii) installed crown moulding throughout. He patiently and carefully put together the Ikea kitchen and despite all the missing pieces that Ikea “forgot” to deliver (which required Doru to return to Ikea on a number of occasions), created a beautiful and customized kitchen to fit a very small space. Doru is an extremely professional, very honest, hard-working and very skilled renovator. We had so much faith and trust in his work ethic, his eye for detail and his aesthetic (he has a background in art history). He was very generous with his time and treated the renovation as if he were renovating his own home. Nothing was left undone. He single-handedly turned an old run-down condo built in the 1970’s with cement walls into a beautiful showpiece. I was so happy with the work, the way it turned out and, overall, the entire renovation process. Honestly, beyond what I ever expected! Thank you so much, Doru, for all your excellent work! We appreciate everything that you did for us. It was a perfect renovation from beginning to end and completely on budget. I will wholeheartedly refer you to friends and colleagues who are looking for any renovation work to be done.

I was at the tail-end of an extensive renovation on my small mid-town investment condo. Based on the testimonials on Homestars, I contacted Gary of Jade Granite & Quartz at the end of May, 2016 to install quartz countertops on my new kitchen cabinetry. Gary responded immediately by phone to my email enquiry and made arrangements to meet with me at the condo the next business day with samples. The quartz countertops were just installed on June 24, 2016. Just beautiful! I'm extremely happy with the service, the responsiveness and the gorgeous countertops! Thank you very much, Gary!

I love the Garden Girls! Plain and simple. They work very hard and always do such a wonderful job in sprucing up, weeding and overall tending to the upkeep of my tiny front and backyard downtown urban garden. I am always really happy when I come home from work and see the beautifully manicured front and back yards after the Garden Girls have done their thing ... and their prices are very reasonable as well. THANK YOU VERY MUCH, DARLA, AND KUDOS TO YOUR FABULOUS TEAM!

Ross and Erik are the very best at what they do. They have helped me on a number of occasions over the past 2 years (the last being on November 18, 2015) with various projects around the house including caulking around windows, fixing toilet handle issue, hanging up large clocks, mounting dressing mirror, replacing pot lights, installing rubber windstopper to backyard fence and even fixing my Dysan cordless vac). They are just that good. As well, a few weeks ago, Ross and Erik also helped us with some small projects around my small downtown office including installing keyboard trays, replacing keyless doorlock, removing overhang doors and aligning AC connections. I have great faith in Ross' experience, expertise and overall know-how. He simply knows what he is doing and it definitely shows in how he handles each task. Both he and Erik have a very strong work ethic and great integrity. It is such a pleasure to work with both of them. They really are my go-to-guy!

Darla and her team are the best at what they do! I am so glad that we found them on HomeStars! All the accolades posted on HomeStars from their clients are true! They showed up on time and started tackling the work right away. I could tell that this was a team who work well together, enjoy what they do and care about doing an excellent job! Darla and her team spruced up and made my somewhat "neglected" urban front yard and backyard look so beautiful! They removed all the old dead bushes, raked up the dried leaves, moved some overlooked shrubbery into better spots and WEEDED! Hallelujah! When I came home that night, I was so happy to see how gorgeous both the front yard and backyard looked! Boy, what an amazing difference! They look just like they did when they were first landscaped last year (minus the *ahem* dead shrubs I inadvertently killed from lack of water). The Garden Girls will now be my go to team for my fall and spring clean-ups and for regular maintenance. Thank you so much, Darla!

I wish I could provide Clean House with a stellar review; however, I was a little disappointed in their work. As a first-time user of Clean House's services, before I retained them, I spoke with Alex and requested a "deep cleaning" of my small (1,300 sq ft) semi-detached house (2 levels) and asked for the first floor windows to be washed and for the bedding to be changed (for which I agreed to pay their deep cleaning fee of $300.00). I acknowledged that the window washing and changing of the bedding was not standard and was a one-time service but Alex agreed to include it as part of the "deep cleaning". Although I clean every week and my house was pretty neat and tidy, I wanted the house to have a good thorough overall dusting and cleaning. Alex and his 2-member team came to my house to meet with me at about 10:45 am and, before leaving for work, I walked him around the house. When I came home that night, I walked around to check everything out. At first glance, everything looked clean but as I walked around and looked more closely, I noticed that the shower stall doors were a little streaky; there was still a little dust left on my desk that had been overlooked; one shelf in my family room had not been dusted; and there were crumbs left between the sofa cushions. I also noticed that in each room a few things had been moved to clean (which I appreciated) but that they had been put back in different places so I spent about 30 minutes walking from room to room to put everything back to where they were originally. The cleaners kindly took out the recycling which was in a blue recycling bag in the kitchen; however, they also mixed in some non-recyclables and then tossed everything into the grey garbage bin outside (which I had to fish out, separate and then place into their respective proper bins). If I had retained Clean House for a "regular cleaning" and not a "deep cleaning", I probably would not have been as critical; however, for the price that I paid for such a small house, I expected more...and I was disappointed.

OMG! Ross and his son, Eric, are an unbeatable team. After an extensive renovation to a 100 year old home, I started looking for the right person to help me with a number of sundry items around the house. I found Ross on Homestars and after reading all the glowing reviews, I was determined to work with him. He did not flinch when he saw my long laundry list of things to be done as well as things on my wish list. Everything that his clients have said about Ross and his son, Eric, are absolutely true! He is so knowledgeable, professional and experienced. They showed up for work bright and early, committed to work the entire day and tackle the laundry list which involved: Painting the staircase leading down to the basement, installing a keyless lock in the front door (love it!), installing outdoor solar motion detector lighting, installing area carpeting and underpadding, installing pull-out wire drawers in the pantry and shelves in another cupboard, dismantling a hall closet and spackling/painting the wall behind it, hanging clocks and hooks throughout, fixing a computer desk and on and on.....and that was all in one day! Ross utilizes his time well by making the replacement baseboards, crown moulding for the bookcase and a new handrailing (leading down to the basement) off-site at his home workshop which he will bring with him on his next scheduled visit for installation. I cannot believe how well Ross manages their time and how efficiently they are working through the long laundry list (which I keep adding to because everything on my wish list now seems so do-able). He keeps me apprised of the outstanding items, emails me pictures of suggested products (such as the different keyless locks, newel caps for the bannister, lighting, etc. and the corresponding prices), buys them and then installs them on his next visit. There is absolutely nothing that I need to do. Ross and Eric have worked at the house for one and a half days and will be coming back to the house next week to install the railing, crown moulding and replacement baseboards and continue on with the rest of the laundry list. I am so impressed with everything they have done so far. They have surpassed all of my high expectations. I highly recommend Ross and his son for virtually anything that needs to be upgraded, fixed or installed around the home!

I am really grateful to Dale of High Definition Installations for helping turn our 100+ year old newly renovated house into a smart home. I cannot say enough good things about Dale. He is professional, patient, hard-working and extremely knowledgeable about all things electronic. He breaks down the computer and electronic vernacular into something that I, as an average lay person, can understand. Dale is just very good at what he does ... and, by the way, the other Homestars reviewers are not kidding....he is extremely punctual. Dale has accommodated my heavy work schedule by coming over to the house during weekends. He always quickly responds to emails, late into the evening, and for that I am very appreciative. Dale purchased and installed the Samsung TV over the fireplace and very amiably pulled out he fireplace a number of times to get behind it in order to run the wiring and eliminate ghastly cords and cables from showing. The modem, router and speakers are all very neatly stacked on the bookshelf beside the fireplace, with no exposed wires. His prices are very fair and affordable. Dale is next going to install Lutron roller blinds on the front windows and master bedroom windows so that both the lighting and the roller blinds will be timed to go on/off and up/down without me even being there. I am really excited about this next stage and can hardly wait Thanks so much, Dale! You are the best!

We are incredibly thrilled with the excellent work that Neil and his team from Apex Window Films did on our windows. Our downtown Toronto 100+ semi-detached Victorian house was just renovated and we needed to find a creative solution to address the privacy concerns we had with a few windows in the house. One window is in the bathroom and the other window faces directly into the window of our next door neighbour. Thank god I stumbled across Apex Window Films' extensive website which included a large number of samples of all different kinds of window films for residential and commercial uses; both for privacy purposes as well as security purposes. Neil came to the house for an on-site visit and we discussed the various options. He was very knowledgeable and was able to provide valuable guidance, based on our needs. For consistency, we finally selected the fading blinds privacy film for the 2 windows which lets the light in but maintains our privacy. We also installed transparent security film on our new French doors leading out to the deck which is strong enough to discourage attempts at breaking and entering. In addition, to avoid having our bay windows in the family room totally exposed during the day time, we also had a transparency film installed with a 20% mirror effect that addresses this issue. You can't even tell that there is anything on the windows but the 20% mirror effect is just enough to provide us with a modicum of privacy during the daytime. Rather than installing the window films ourselves, we arranged for Apex Window Films' installers to handle that. They were very polite, professional and efficient and did an amazing job. I was pleasantly surprised that Apex's quote was so reasonable. It was truly great value for excellent work that only enhances our house. We are very grateful to Neil and the Apex team for doing a top-notch job. Neil followed up with me afterwards by phone to ensure that the installation went well and to confirm whether we had any issues. Now that's great service!

Andrew and his 2-person crew did an extremely thorough and meticulous top-to-bottom cleaning of our house which had just been renovated. We were very impressed with how hard-working they were. Most of us can clean and do a pretty decent job of it; however, Andrew and his crew CAN REALLY CLEAN, right into the crevices, ledges, inside cabinets and other places which showed how detailed they were....and we appreciated the green fresh-smelling products they used. After they finished, the entire house just sparkled. Thank you so much for all your hard work. It was worth every single penny!

It took us quite a while to find the right renovation company that we felt we could trust to do a complete top-to-bottom renovation of our Toronto home. It took us no time at all for us to realize that Bravehart was perfect for us. From our very first meeting with Laura of Bravehart, we knew that we were in good hands. We respect Bravehart’s methodology in developing an inspired, yet functional, renovation plan for our home. Bravehart understands that a comprehensive up-front space plan, lighting plan, cabinetry layout and detailed finishes list translates into a very accurate final construction quote that serves to keep us on budget. They are like a Renovation Advisor firm and a Design and Permits firm combined into one company, for the price of one. Bravehart provided us with comprehensive pricing from the very beginning, on a category and item-by-item basis, so that we always knew where our money was being spent at the construction stage of the renovation. With Bravehart, there is no guesswork involved. They are more organized, skilled and detail-oriented than any of the other renovation firms. We have always received expert guidance and advice from Bravehart, at both the design and construction stages, and they have always welcomed our questions and comments. Thank you very much, Bravehart!

Simply put, it is an absolute joy to work with Jay Charendoff at House Calls Renovation. Jay has skillfully guided us through and has kept us on track as we have worked on the perfect design layout for our 100 year old downtown house. He keeps us posted on the status of ongoing matters as they progress, responds quickly to our emails and diligently follows-up with us for feedback. With Jay’s professional expertise, skillful design and continuing patience, we now have a very well thought-out and very functional floor plan which I know will work well for our small house. We are looking forward to starting construction in early 2013, with Jay project managing the entire construction phase. Jay’s rates are extremely reasonable and well worth the money. His help is invaluable.