Amber Valley construction

We worked with Amber Valley for nearly 3 years on a huge house project, so we know their business fairly well. Even with all that time, we only ended up finishing a small basement project. Some of that was due to the pandemic but some was due to what I see as three drawbacks working with Amber valley: 1. Unclear or slow communication 2. Inability to retain employees and contractors 3. High prices This will be a very balanced review, so I will share what we loved about working with Amber Valley as well. We got an initial quote in the summer of 2018, plenty of time to add three stories to our house in summer 2019. Derek's quote was just slightly higher than two other construction firms, but we liked him so much more and appreciated his process that we decided to sign on. The project development system, where we pay a bit up front and make all the decisions before actually signing the final contract, seemed like a great system because then we wouldn't be constantly making decisions throughout the project. The trouble came when we just couldn't get to the end of the project development and get that final quote. We really should have been breaking ground in April 2019, but we didn't get the final quote until mid-June. Part of that was definitely our responsibility because it was difficult to go to all the vendors and make every single decision in a timely fashion. However, we also found that Amber Valley was inflexible when we requested that we at least get something down, some final number, even if it had a range of $10,000 or so so that we could move forward on schedule. When the quote came in, it was a solid $50,000 more than expected. We couldn't just hand wave that away, and besides, we were already 2 months behind and knew the project would never be finished by the start of school. We decided to finish two basement rooms with Amber Valley as a sort of test run. It took halfway around the calendar, until January, to get that started. Part of that was because anytime Amber Valley loses a project manager or designer, you kind of have to start over explaining the whole project because although the project development structure is very firm, there aren't enough organizational systems in the company to keep track of everything that happens in meetings with clients. We were satisfied with the work Amber Valley did in the basement, and Chris is a wonderful project manager. If he's still with the company, we can't recommend his attention to detail and care about your project enough. There were a few dangling details like doors with too much space underneath between finished/unfinished portions that allow for serious heat leaks and the clean-up crew doing a terrible job, but over all "satisfied." We also may be difficult clients to work with, because we try to choose eco-friendly materials which can be complicated, but more importantly, we sought materials that were non-toxic for humans. That meant we might seek out alternate suppliers, and Amber Valley was reluctantly willing to work with us. Hopefully they learned a few things and would be a decent option to work with if you also seek a non-toxic home renovation, but I'd still recommend that you do all your own research. Because we hadn't quoted the basement project separately, we didn't realize that we probably spent 10 to 30% more than we should have. An electrician looked at a panel that Amber Valley installed for $5,000, and he told us he nearly fainted when we told him the cost. He would have expected that job to be between $1800 and $2500. The pandemic interrupted our plan to finish the rest of the project in 2020, of course no one's fault, and as a client I saw that Derek handled it as well as anyone could. We felt very comfortable continuing to move forward with Amber Valley for the rest of our remodel, partly because of Derek's commitment to his clients during that time and further commitment to avoid any additional interruptions. When we restarted the project, we were devastated to find out that our favorite designer had left, and not only that, we had to re-explain our entire project vision from the ground up to the new designer. This was beginning to feel exhausting and we couldn't believe that there weren't better notes retained as a company. Because of the uncertainty and price increase that the pandemic brought, we did greatly reduce the scope of our project, but we should have still been able to use many bits and pieces of the old project development plan. Instead, we started over again. During this process in 2021, we were repeatedly frustrated by either a lack of or incomplete responses from key players on our remodel. If Joy is still the designer, her demeanor is strangely opposite her name. By the time the final quote came in for our reduced project after months of coordination, it was disastrously too high. We were able to act as our own contractor and get the kitchen remodel done for approximately half of Amber Valley's quoted price. I can't say if all projects are marked up that drastically, or just ours. One note about their pricing is that, at first, things weren't itemized so it was difficult to figure out where to cut costs and what money was going where. Since the pandemic necessity caused them to itemize much better, which is how we were able to determine the very large amount that was going straight to Amber Valley for project costs. We were not able to get our $6,000 project development fee back, even in part, because the contract for that fee is written heavily in Amber Valley's favor. Derek fairly stated that they had put at least that much work into our project, which is true, but in large part because of the continual staff turnover and need to re-explain and restart the whole thing. We part ways with a sour taste in our mouth, but still able to say some positive things. Derek is overall good to work with and has an endearing personality, but lacks systems and organization and tends to bite off more than he can chew. I think the company grew too big and had too much demand for the employees and contractors they were able to keep around. This may have been part of the cause of our price inflation experience. Chris is a spectacular project manager, and we were satisfied with all of the contractors who worked on our basement update. However, with all the turnover, that really doesn't mean much because it's probably different people who will work on your project. I'm sure there are some great advantages to the project development strategy, paying part down and making all the decisions before signing the final contract, but just make sure you assume a price increase and realize that the business will take a cut of all materials and charge quite a bit for their office work.