We visited the Winnipeg Home and Renovation Show in January expressly to speak to renovators to get impressions of the companies before asking for quotes. I had already done a decent amount of leg work prior to the show to ensure we could meet the three groups I thought would fit the bill. We ended up visiting with 5 different builders and renovation companies in our home and received quotes from all. In the end we chose Hammerdown because of their extensive quote outlining the project scope, allowances at all levels and due to the fact they had captured nearly all of what was discussed on the first quote prepared, that they seemed to have more than just a handle of the vision (but command of it) and also provided a first quick little layout with clear ideas on how our new space could be oriented. In addition to that they provided a timeline as to how our rather large renovation would take place and how they could make it easier on our family of 6. For me this showed a great deal of care and respect of us and our home and a clear desire to really bring this all to life for us.

They worked with us to ensure a late spring start and August completion so that we could be settled and ready for our teens to go back to school in September. They insured that we were as comfortable as possible (as you can be with 6 full sized humans living in a basement with a wet bar as a kitchen and one full time bathroom) by getting rooms upstairs ready for mattresses to be placed on the floors, that we had the use of a second bathroom upstairs by waiting until the end of the project to swap out the last toilet, and that our washer and dryer were connected throughout the entire reno, by painting and framing around and moving it and placing it back all in one day.

We knew our house had real potential and that it just needed some help to get more use out of our square footage. The project included: removing a floating wall and changing layout of our living, dining and kitchen, deleting two windows, adding much needed towers to an oversized powder room, stipple removal, drywall repairs, all flooring, painting, replacement of all casings and baseboards, lighting throughout including all new pot lights throughout, bathroom vanities, toilets and many more small accessories to finish the spaces. The complete kitchen overhaul and addition of a completely custom and show stopping 12ft tall 17ft wide built out entertainment wall were really the heart of our project. But, the updates were throughout and while some were mostly aesthetic, many were focused on improvement of function. Truly, looking at our home now, it feels as though this is how it should have always been set up!

Everyone at Hammerdown treated us like family from the very first day. We were consulted every time there were ideas on where little adjustments needed to be made. Including but not limited to emails and texts from Dean and Tyson to state when someone would be on site either from their crew or from subcontractors, to contact from Adrian when potential money saving options were available, or change of scope, detailed overages, or outlining approved changes. The entire team (and every subcontractor) showed an abundance of respect of our time and investment and went above and beyond everyday to make the process as seamless as possible. Virtually every single day from May 12 to August 16 someone was working hard trying to make our house in to our forever home.

They truly took our 2008 built home from "Spec" to "Spec"tacular!

All of our thanks to: Tyson and Dean, Adrian and Steph, Tyler and Riley and last but certainly not least Kylie and Kim!

Cheers and best wishes!