Why remodel? We had a very small kitchen and just one functional bath. The old double-hung windows were leaking like crazy. The electrical service in our house, built in 1924, was very inadequate. And, in the winter, when the ice was on the driveway, we had to back up and take a run up the hill at our one-and-a-half-car garage in the back.

North Star took just five months to add a garage and dramatically increase the size of our house, from about 2,200 square feet to 3,500. First, they tore down the old garage in the back and the small lower- and upper-level sunrooms. Then they built a nice three-car garage in the front and added two full stories, including a large family room and atop that a three-season porch with a gas heater. They replaced the crawl space beneath the sunrooms with a 30-foot long basement. In addition, they built three decks.
With the two new bedrooms in the basement and also one on the second floor, we went from two bedrooms to five. We also went from one and a half to four bathrooms.

Why did we hire North Star? Ellen got a good referral from a neighbor, who’d used their services and had their sign on the lawn. Then, we were talking to different construction groups, on both the upper and lower end of the price scale. We checked North Star out, and they were great. First, their price was reasonable. Second, they gave us a 16–18 page document with complete specifications, detailing everything including water faucets, toilets, and hardware. With this document we could refinance and get a fixed-rate mortgage on the remodeled home. We wouldn’t have to gamble with interest rates down the road or take out a construction loan.

The North Star crew worked around us as we lived in the house. Dave, the lead carpenter, was so easy to work with; he told us what he needed next and was most accommodating, keeping the bath and shower going, for example, until the workers needed the space. They showed up when they were supposed to. They said they’d be here every day, and they were. It’s astounding: we’d heard so many horror stories about construction companies. We’d recommend North Star one hundred percent to anybody.