Grand Home Solutions Inc.

Grand Home Solutions Everything in me wants to give the Grand Home Solutions (GHS) team an A+ for the home they built from the ground up for us. The honest truth is an A-, that place where there are so many good things but a few areas of improvement. Pros: Personable yet professional, highly skilled tradesmen, cost effective Cons: Timeline management Details My husband and I decided to build a house from the ground up. It was a challenging project as we both use manual wheelchairs so we wanted full accessibility without the hospital feel AND we bought our land in the middle of a historic district in St. Louis. Translation: challenges and red tape. We had several local contractors bid on the plans our architects drew up. Grand Home Solutions (GHS) came in on budget and after meeting with Scott and his team, we felt he understood and was excited about our vision. After a few months of meeting and tweaking (that historic district thing) we broke ground in June 2014. The projected date of completion was 7-8 months but we did not move in until July 2015 (a year). This was a combination of issues outside of GHS control (weather, city red tape, unexpected whole houses buried in our land) and controllable issues. At times, it felt like GHS could have improved on planning the next steps to have the right material or the right sub ready to go. Some of this is the nature of subs and their schedules but some is communication. It also seemed that GHS, as a company, was growing at this time and this may have been part of the growing pains of managing more projects. However, during our project, organization and communication in this area did improve. Our project presented a LOT of challenges, a custom home with lots of accessible design features. GHS never tried to push me to an easier solution or option in regard to merging function and design. They were always willing to brainstorm and go for the option which would best suit OUR needs. Overall, GHS did a great job of communication on all levels. The owner is approachable and reachable. I was also able to reach support staff by phone and email with quick turnaround times. I communicated regularly with the foreman on our project. GHS gets a solid A for communication. Budget was super important to us and there were a variety of difficulties in staying within that budget. A zero entry house, an elevator, some custom accessible cabinets, that unexpected underground house I mentioned all equal more $$$. The GHS team worked diligently to keep cost down and to find quality, affordable subs. This is another area which delayed our timeline but was worth it for the cost savings. The best example is that the original concrete (we have finished, stained concrete floors) contractor was injured and unable to complete our job. Most of the new quotes where significantly more expensive and would have killed our budget. The GHS team worked so hard to find a good concrete sub who would complete the work for the same price. GHS does have room for improvement on how and how regularly they are communicating where the budget is but was always open when I asked questions regarding our budget. Quality of work is top notch. GHS showed high attention to detail and the foreman was more than willing to answer my questions and explain things I did not understand. The entire team has been responsive even after moving in to answer questions or provide solutions to typical home owner issues. GHS values high quality work and maintain a budget and will sacrifice some timeline in order to achieve this, which, now that we are done, I appreciate. Overall, we enjoyed working with GHS. Sure there was some challenges and tough conversations, but that’s building anything for ya. The quality of workmanship, attention to detail, dedication to budget, and customer service where so good that we are already planning to have GHS add a screened porch on! The A- is a result of some time management/organization challenges throughout the course of the project. If you are looking for a local contractor who will treat you as a lifelong customer, then I would recommend GHS In reading reviews, I often want to be able to ask questions of the reviewer. So if you are considering GHS and have questions, I would be happy to share more about my experience with GHS and the building process. I’ve been through the “making a contractor” process and it can be super stressful. You can reach me at jhatfieldhelps@gmail.com just mention GHS in the subject line.