carrie4000

Thanks to an introduction from the architect of our modern waterfront cottage, we found Modern Komfort. I came to them with a tall order: new furniture appropriate to the modern Scandi-Japanese materials and vibe. Beds, a couch, dining table and chairs, and a large rug were all perfect for the space. W worked together to come up with the best delivery timetable for this relatively remote location. Probably my favourite piece was the dining: a retro kitsch table in a dark faux woodgrain and lighter grey "easy to clean" dining chairs. The effect didn't look cheap, but was the opposite of pretentious. Great fun vibe. Also they were mindful of the layout so the table wasn't too big for the space.

Moved to a newly-renovated semi-detached house that had built up a year's worth of fine construction dust. And I don't have time to keep up with the regular cleaning. The deep clean by the Maret's crew went above and beyond. I could not find any areas they missed! Beautiful job throughout. The regular cleaning was of the same high standard. Courteous, nice people who also made sure to be nice to my cats. (Did I mention the rugs and furniture were completely free of any cat hair by the time they were finished?) Highly recommend.

We had chosen Madawaska Doors for a particular wooden door model we wanted installed for our front door to replace the old creaky ugly version. We also needed the "transom" to be part of the installation - that's the little window above the door. The price was a little higher than we'd like, but with an older home like ours, the installation quality and guarantee are essential. I also didn't much care for them asking for 100% of the purchase price up front. There was some delay on scheduling the install date, but not nearly as long as we had feared. In the end we are very satisfied with a solid job. The installers were friendly and professional. Madawaska Doors gets props for a great product, also.

Our backyard furniture set was nearly complete, with a bench, lounge chair, ottoman, and side table, as well as large dining table, all in teak. However we had held off on the teak dining chairs because our U.S.-based supplier was asking too much for them. We found a good selection at Deck & Dock in Toronto. The store seemed a bit ragged and disjointed given the price of much of the inventory, but when we managed to get some service, the help was very personal indeed. The owners helped us track down a set of very solid chairs that we are still pleased with after much wear - and were willing to give us the pros and cons on different types. I don't recall the exact price, but it was solid value and cheaper than we had expected. The delivery people arrived at our west end home before we did!

The comfortable showroom is near our home and while the price was certainly "full price," we felt we got great service, great advice, and no hassle delivery. The tendency for mattress stores to sell softer mattresses does baffle me a bit. We bought the firmest one available and yet it doesn't feel rock hard or anything like that. One downside was that the "free" mattress cover they "threw in" was useless because it was designed for a thinner mattress. It didn't fit. That was a lot of wasted chatter about dust mites and such.

Great product, stylish look. Slightly difficult to assemble, but reasonably clear instructions. Waited four weeks for product to be in stock. Delivery price was fair. Overall good value. Salespeople are always helpful in the King St location.

Our basement drain was backing up. Mr. Rooter's technicians determined that it was basically an outdated trap on the outside of the house, common to older houses. The job required digging out eight feet worth of soil and replacing our trap with a modern one (pure Greek to me, but this is the general idea). And cleaning out the pipe. The quote of $1,900 sounded high to me so we immediately went online and did some searches. There was one Global TV horror story about exactly the same job by this company, so we said we'd think about it. They didn't pressure us unduly. We did a further search including here on Homestars and satisfied ourselves that this company does thousands of jobs like this and does them well. There was one minor snafu where they left the cap off one drainpipe that could have allowed sewage to go everywhere. Other than that, the job was well done and I have noticed that a major change is that our bathroom sink drain no longer backs up, and we are talking about the second floor of a very tall Victorian, so that's a long way from where the major problem was. I guess things were pretty clogged. It's pure Greek to me, as I said, but they finished the job quickly in one day and did not leave a mess, so we're glad we went with this company.

The sum is greater than the parts here. Overall we were very pleased with the product knowledge and selection available at Caplan's. It was convenient to buy and the installation was particularly impressive. Their recommended installer (Nick) showed up quickly, was friendly, and offered a good price for installation plus hauling away our old dishwasher. In comparison with a store like Sears, Caplan's seems to truly give you a choice of all price ranges and models. We became interested in Bosch's quality but found that most stores (like Sears) seemed to overprice the few high-end appliances they carried, perhaps in an effort to make their competing Kenmore product look better. Anyway, Caplan's came through on price, selection, and service. We bought during their boxing week sale so saved a few bucks - although it was a bit inconvenient to wait over the holidays as they closed the store for several days.

I've lived in the west end of Toronto for 3.5 years now. Since stumbling on Plant World at Royal York & Eglinton, we've been regular visitors. This is a nursery with a "premium" approach - a wide selection and knowledgeable staff. My Japanese Maple habit is well satisfied by the selection here. Plant World is well known for its one-year guarantee on some plants such as roses and trees. So for example, as long as I take decent care of the Acer Palmatum "orangeola" recently planted, if it comes up dead in spring I can get a replacement. Prices are certainly not cheap here but if you want quality, selection, and service, Plant World has it all.

Couldn't hold my tongue any longer on this one. We are currently in possession of a high quality much improved outer storm door for our back entrance. However, the installation process was nuts. Rona had our cash in full for the door plus the install. There was a need for the installer to come and measure. Coordinating these things took forever. Then, calls to have him actually come and do the work bounced back and forth among the installer, and various people we dealt with at this Rona store. Manager A would promise that Manager B would call us back in ten minutes. Then, they would not. This tragicomedy of them not installing the door, and then not even calling us back to discuss their lack of installation, went on for about 6 weeks for Phase 1 (no progress) and 4 weeks for Phase 2 (runaround phase when demanding progress). All the while, we were already out of pocket for the expense. Totally unprofessional given the fact that they actually seem quite eager to sell the doors.