We had a three-bedroom rambler, just shy of 1,200 square feet, and North Star added 1,000 more. They tore off the roof, added a second story, and also remodeled the vast majority of our first floor. They added two bedrooms, a family room, and two baths on the second floor; and on the first they removed our master bedroom and the living room, and gutted the kitchen, turning that into a kitchen and great room.

We had talked with another contractor previously, who walked in and without even looking started throwing around some numbers. That wasn’t really the approach we appreciated. We got a referral to North Star, so we called Jerry Okerstrom. He came out, took photos, looked in the attic, and talked to us about our options. Basically, he walked through the process with us, which we appreciated because he didn’t present the first number off the top of his head. Rather, he took a look at the space he had to work with and our goals. He was willing to talk to us about our budget. After we talked to Jerry, we were comfortable. We didn’t bother to get other bids. Everything he was doing was in line with what we were talking about, and we felt comfortable that he would give us a reasonable estimate and understand what we wanted.

Work started mid-July, and though it rained a week or two at the start, North Star was done within three months. They always showed up in the morning, on time, with a good crew. There was never a moment where they said they had to wait a couple of weeks because of a subcontractor delay. Since they do just about all their own work, they don’t have to wait on subs. We had heard lots of horror stories about disappearing crews, including a friend’s story about going into litigation with his contractor, who gave a low bid to get the job but then had tons of overage charges and still wasn’t getting the job done. So we were pretty happy!