As we approached retirement, we thought about down-sizing our home and considered a lot of options for our future housing. However, after looking into a number of ideas, we realized that to get the home we wanted, we would spend more for a smaller place and still have to remodel the new house to make it what we wanted. Other than being a bit outdated, there was nothing really wrong with our home…it just wasn’t very exciting to come home to. We had already created a little paradise in our back yard and knew we would really regret giving that up. That situation led us to consider a major remodel of our existing home.
We interviewed four contracting companies, all referred by friends and people in-the-know. The three other firms were certainly qualified, but when Avi and Sheri Azoulay (owners of Regal American Homes) toured our home and listened to our ideas of what we wanted to accomplish, we had a very different experience that set them apart from the others.
As we walked our house and showed them what changes we were thinking about, rather than only focusing on walls, paint, surfaces, lighting, etc. Avi and Sheri asked about us, our lifestyle and our long-term outlook for living in our home. They also expanded on our ideas with creative suggestions which clearly demonstrated to us a big difference in their capabilities versus the other firms we were considering. Once we discussed all the changes we wanted to make, they gave us a ball-park idea of the costs involved, and it was a relief that their numbers were within a few dollars of the other contracting companies.
In the next step of the process, Avi and Sheri prepared a detailed proposal summarizing all the work along with a thorough breakdown of the costs of each element/phase of the project. From that point forward, if a change was made to the scope or design, we were given an updated proposal that incorporated all those new elements. We always appreciated knowing exactly what the project would cost and were never surprised about where we stood. We’d heard horror stories about clients having issues with their contractors, but we’re happy to say that throughout the entire remodel, we never got sideways with Avi and Sheri.
A number of factors gave us great comfort working with Regal American Homes; the most important was having one person (Marty) who supervised our project and was on-sight every day. He kept us in the loop, addressed any concerns, and over time, Marty sort of felt like family. We also appreciated the long-term relationships Avi and Sheri have with their subcontractors, and it was apparent that their subs worked hard to do a quality job on a timely basis.
From a client’s standpoint, it’s always an effort to keep within the budget; consequently, there were times we didn’t consider how not updating some element of the house might clash with the new look. It was at these times when Avi or Sheri would point out where “old” and “new” would meet each other and that it might not flow as well as it could. On these occasions, they always made every effort to avoid these mistakes without breaking the budget. Now that the house is done, we really appreciate that we followed the old adage “Buy best first---cry once.” We’re extremely satisfied with how everything looks at what seems to have been minor cost increases.
Finishing work is a critical element of remodeling. As our project wound down, Avi personally walked the house several times and studied every detail of the work. He and Marty carried rolls of blue painter’s tape and wherever they saw something that needed to be smoothed out – a piece of blue tape would appear. We were introduced to their finishing team (Miguel and Jesus) who specialize in cleaning up the details, making sure all the elements of the project are completed and done correctly. Avi and his crew perform to a higher standard than the homeowner…there were times we saw them working on something we had not even seen or requested. Avi’s response: “you may not see it now… but in two months you will, so why not correct it now and keep that from happening?”
We’d heard myriad stories of how stressful remodeling a home can be and how difficult it can be on a relationship. We have to admit that other than the inconvenience of being out of our home for several months, we truly enjoyed the process…and can attribute that to the quality of communication and confidence we had with Avi and Sheri. They always took our considerations seriously and gave us help when we needed it. Both of them made themselves available to go shopping with us for the design elements of the project. We became very familiar with stores like Floor & Décor, The Stone Gallery, Ferguson and other providers…and when we couldn’t bear to make another decision, Sheri would come to our rescue with the perfect solution!
We are completely thrilled with our beautiful, modern “new“ home and are impressed with how well our remodel turned out. We are grateful to Avi, Sheri and their entire crew for making this a very enjoyable and successful project. We whole-heartedly recommend Regal American Homes for a remodel, a new build or whatever your construction needs may be.
