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.