Dianne in Oakville

We discovered that our single car garage door was broken last Thursday. It turned out that the single centre spring had broken away from the wooden joist holding it in place and the two cables had come off their track. I spent alot of time on the phone Friday trying to find someone to fix it. I was given Altwood Garage Doors number by another homestars company. They said Altwood had more trucks on the road and might be able to come faster. I booked an appointment for the following Wednesday (today) but I left a message with them on Saturday since it turned out my hasband was home on Monday. I received a call Monday morning saying they could come that day between 9:00-3:00. I called just before 5:00 and was told someone would be there around 6:00 or so. We were thrilled when John showed up at 7:00 since we just wanted the door fixed. He replaced the 2 x 4 spring pad, serviced and lubed the track system, re-attached the cables since they were okay. The door has never ever worked as well as it does now. It takes much less force to open it. We think Altwood did a great job and I would definitely hire them again or refer them to friends or neighbours. We appreciate them coming early to fix the problem.

My husband and I checked out Frontier's showroom based on reviews on this website. Frank was our initial contact then everything switched to Angelo for some reason. We were very impressed with the information Frank initially gave us when we checked out the hardwood brands in the showroom. We maybe spent 1 1/2 hours there and we were given some samples and brochures to take home. Peter came out to measure our main floor. He was very thorough and he answered all of our questions. He recommended 2 1/4" hardwood since we have a long, narrow house. I did alot of research on the internet and we ultimately decided on the Mirage brand and we went with the 2 1/4" Red Oak in a Vienna cashmere (matte) colour. I can highly recommend the cashmere finish if you go with a darker colour of stain since it doen't show dust, marks etc., as much, even though their semi-gloss is much less shiny than other brands. We also had them score and remove the baseboards, underpad and carpet which is well worth it. It took Peter and Bob a couple of hours to do but it was worth the extra money. We couldn't believe the amount of dust etc., underneath from our builder. My husband spent four hours vacuuming it up. We had 520 square feet of flooring put throughout the main floor, other than in the entranceway, powder room, kitchen and breakfast nook. The Mirage brand seemed to be very straight and true. Vitaliy was our installer and he did an amazing detailed job. He is very old school in attention to detail, workmanship etc. We had one front stair tread, 2 risers, a nosing, plus a step down into the living room that required 2 nosings and risers underneath. The nosings, stair tread and risers were all custom made and they look amazing the way he installer them. Due to a mis-communication with the custom company the front stair tread was too short and had to be re-made which was no big deal. Vitaliy did an excellent job on the entire floor overall as well as the special areas just mentioned and we are extremely pleased with the quality of his work. Our tile areas were abit higher and he slightly angled the horizontal pieces next to the tile in the kitchen and bathroom, while also creating grooved edges to feed the individual boards into. He told me this is more time consuming so not alot of installers take this step but he takes great pride in his workmanship. It took him 2 1/2 - 2 3/4 days over two visits due to hold ups on some material. We also got flushmount wood floor vents stained to match which I can highly recommend. Vitaliy also used an industrial sander where necessary to sand our floor so it was level. Angelo was very good at answering questions but we often played phone tag. One board has a minor crack which Frontier will fix down the road when stock arrives. I did get another quotation for comparison from another authorized Mirage dealer and apples to apples their price was about 18% higher than Frontier. They are a smaller dealer though so they probably don't get the same volume discount on product, I imagine. The time frame from ordering to installation was about two-three weeks. Overall, our main floor looks completely transformed. We are thrilled with the final results and we would definitely hire Frontier Flooring again and I can highly recommend them!!!

We hired Gord from Oakwood Painting along with his team of Brian, Jimmy and one other painter to paint the exterior of our house. It had been seven years since he last painted the exterior. There was some minor wood rot on a sill which Gord fixed with wood filler and he replaced a rotten piece of fascia. They scraped off the peeling paint, sanded down to bare wood and power sanded to make the surface smooth, caulked open gaps in wood joints etc. We had quite alot of prep work that had to be done since we had too much time pass from the previous painting. They primed and then painted the windows, doors and frames of the house and garage, siding, fascia etc. with 2 coats of latex paint. Gord has been a painter for 25 odd years and Brian and Jimmy have about 50 years experience between them. Gord properly removes any windows that open before painting them. Apparently alot of painters skip this step to save time. Gord also sanded, primed and painted 2 small stair stringer sets. The difference is markedly better in the appearance of our house. Gord and his team were very meticulous, diligent and detail oriented. We are extremely pleased with the results and I would not hesitate to hire Oakwood Painting again or to refer them to friends!!!

We found Darren on the internet and had him come in to do a maintenance home inspection on our 12 year old house. He belongs to the BBB, NACHI, has errors and omissions and general liability insurance plus he completed the Certified Home Inspection programme through Mohawk College. He was very friendly plus he didn't complain when I peppered him with questions for 3.5 hours while my husband and I followed him around. He thoroughly checked out the outside of the house, garage, grading, drainage plus all of the electrical, plumbing, furnace, A/C, attic (he actually went up into the attic and walked around), roof etc. He left a binder with useful information and then he e-mailed us a 14 page report with lots of pictures the next evening. This was very useful because we learned quite alot and we now know what general maintenance issues have to be dealt with in the short and long term. He also gave us general pricing on home repairs in his report plus more detailed ideas of costs for the issues that need to be looked after. I know he also does inspections for buyers and sellers of homes as well as mold testing if it is required. He was very patient and thorough while inspecting everything and it was very useful and informative. He said we could call or e-mail if we have any questions as well. I would definitely hire him again or refer him to friends or neighbours!

A neighbour recommended Fog Free to me since they took care of 9 of her windows a couple of years ago. I had Phil from Fog Free come out last week to quote me on removing the inner condensation from 3 windows. He came yesterday to do the job. He was very professional, efficient, friendly etc. The kitchen window had been badly fogged up for about 3 years and 2 bedroom windows failed this past winter. Phil drilled 2 small holes in each window, got the moisture and condensation out, sealed up 1 hole and left a release valve in each window so the problem doesn't happen again. I can now see clearly out of all 3 windows so I am very pleased with the end results. I would recommend Phil to others looking to improve the condition of their windows, without having to replace the glass or windows. I also get a 20 year warranty as well.

We originally hired Gord to paint the exterior of our house 7 years ago. We found him to be very meticulous and thorough. He did a great job and the house looked great compared to before. I recently hired him to paint our entire main floor, powder room, 2 storey upstairs section, upstairs hallway and the main upstairs bathroom. This included the bathroom and kitchen ceilings, all doors, trims, baseboards, all prep work etc. I initially struggled with colour selection and he was very patient with me. I didn't like the original colour he painted so we re-selected while I went to the paint store with him. The paint job has completely transformed our house. I absolutely love the new colours which are very warm, yet neutral. Gord was very nice not to charge me extra to paint the 5" crown molding we had installed recently or to paint three coats instead of two up the 2 storey area or the upper hallway . He was originally supposed to paint the flat ceiling edges near the stippled areas. He did two coats everywhere and he used oil based paint on the crown molding and all the trims, baseboards, doors etc. Latex was used on all of the walls other than oil in the main bathroom upstairs. Gord did a drywall repair on a phone jack he removed in the kitchen. He also repaired a hole in the front closet ceiling from a potlight installation. You would never know the areas had been repaired. Gord has liability insurance and he gives 3 years parts and labour guarantee. There is a very minor imperfection in the bathroom wall which he has made an appointment to come back to fix. Overall, Gord takes pride in his workmanship, he is very thorough and meticulous, he has done an excellent job and our house now looks amazing! I can highly recommend him! I have also hired him to paint the exterior of our house later this year.

I wasted alot of time looking in furniture stores for a well made solid wood bookcase. I discovered Penwood Furniture through a local newspaper ad. Within one minute of entering their store I knew I was in the right place. Everything is made by Mennonites and the workmanship is exemplary. They make bookcases, bedroom sets, desks, dining room tables and chairs, hutches etc., in Pine, Maple or Oak. Products are properly dovetailed etc., where need be. You can pick from a variety of stains or pay extra for custom staining. The prices seemed reasonable for the high quality of materials and workmanship of the furniture. We ordered an extra shelf for the bookcase and the bookcase itself looks fantastic! The quality of construction is excellent other than for a very small slight imperfection at the bottom right edge where a curved (probably hard to do) edge meets the vertical side part and for a slight rough sanded edge under the top horizontal detailed edge. Otherwise I would have rated them as a 10. It took 9 weeks to get the bookcase when we were originally told 4-8 weeks but it was well worth the wait. The bookcase looks wonderful and we will definitely order from them again. It looked like they had alot of orders on the go when we placed our order so people obviously know about Penwood Furniture. Our salesman was very helpful. The store isn't fancy but who wants to have high overhead incorporated into the price of what you are purchasing? I just wish I had found them sooner and I can highly recommend them.

My husband and I discovered Trimwork by Design and the Homestars website when doing an internet search. We went to their showroom in Vaughan and were very impressed. Fred answered all of our questions and then came to our house to take measurements. We have an open concept house and he recommended installing the 5" cornice molding (8' ceilings) throughout the entire main floor, powder room and upper hallway (including a 2 storey tricky segment). Ray showed up at 7:30 and spent 11 hours installing all of the cornice molding. He said it was straight forward but time consuming because we had 34 additional corners over the allocated quantity. Ray was very friendly, organized and meticulous. He re-measured everything, cut the molding on our driveway, installed it, spackled the nail gun holes and caulked above and below. He had a special protractor type gadget that calculated the degree of angles at all of the corners and programmed the cut angles into his miter saw. It looks absolutely amazing, the rooms look more spacious (especially the powder room). Doing the upper hallway and 2 storey stairwell really impressed us as well. We now have a painter working on the house (he is very impressed as well) and I definitely recommend having the molding painted afterwards since it does make a difference. This is our first time using Homestars to find a service provider and we will definitely use this website again. We were extremely impressed with Trimworks by Design, Fred and Ray and they did an excellent job and our house now looks amazing!!!

We had Ed, along with his apprentice John (now fully licensed) run the wiring when we had our bsmt finished 2.5 years ago. He ran all of the electrical wiring and installed 15 potlights, 1 bathroom light, 14 electrical outlets including improving the laundry room lighting, adding new separate outlets for the refrigerator and washer etc. I have since hired him on 3 separate occasions to install 3 bathroom light boxes, install new smoke/carbon monoxide detectors upstairs, to install 11 potlights in the living and family rooms, replace/expand some plate covers and wiring, install a light timer etc. Ed is very professional, meticulous, shows up on time etc. He did an amazing job on everything in the bsmt and the rest of the house (especially the potlights). We would definitely hire him again and I can highly recommend him.

I discovered Home Sweet Linens through a newspaper ad in the summer of 2007. Their store is deceptive, as is their website since they carry much more than what is listed. They were extremely helpful in helping me select complete bedding ensembles with bed skirts, sheets, pillowcases/shams, neck rolls, comforters etc., for our daughter's room and our guest room. The quality is amazing for the price. I compared their prices with an on-line Canadian retailer and Home Sweet Linens prices are better. The service is exceptional along with turn around time to order. I love everything and I will definitely be back in the future. I have also purchased a bath mat, bamboo towels and sheet sets and they are exceptional. I spent alot of time looking at other high end bedding retailers and I couldn't find anywhere else that compared in quality, selection or price. I can highly recommend them.