Sustainable Design Services in Stratford, CT

“My wife and I hired Kling Brothers Builders/Keith Kling to build an addition onto the back of our house, which included a new kitchen, family room, patio, mudroom, and other modifications to the interior. From the start, I was very impressed with Keith’s preparedness and diligence. He created a very detailed and transparent budget (approximately 10 pages), which outlined each item to be done and the price. More importantly, his estimate was accurate, and the prices that we agreed to did not change throughout the project. Keith is also very hands-on. He was on-site every day during the project. He is extremely responsive by email and phone, and if I emailed him a question while I was at work, within a very short period of time, I would receive a response. He was also available on weekends to meet with me, which was more convenient for my schedule. The workmanship of Kling Brothers Builders is top notch. Their on-staff carpenters are excellent, and their subcontractors are all superb. I did not have any issues with shoddy work or questionable characters walking around my property or in my house. Keith is very diligent about the “structure” and integrity of the building, and takes pride in how well built and solid the “bones” of the project are. Although I am not a builder myself, you can just tell that something is well put together by looking at it. Keith stresses quality and perfection, and was not satisfied until we were satisfied. He has access to some of the best craftsmen in the area, and in particular he introduced us to a custom cabinet maker who created a showcase kitchen for us. His other subs, such as the electrician, the plumber, etc., were all personable and flexible. All in all, we were very impressed and happy with Keith Kling. Although my wife and I are reasonable, we also have very high standards. Given the size of our project (to us), we expected top service and attention. Keith came through with flying colors, and he was very friendly, personable, and professional throughout. I have no tolerance for service providers who do not do what they say or make you feel as though you are doing them a favor by giving them your money. Keith is certainly not one of those people. Our project came in on budget, and any additional work that I wanted done was communicated and agreed-to up front. There were no surprises and the communication between Keith and us could not have been better. I give Kling Brothers Builders/Keith Kling my highest recommendation. I hope to use them again on a future project.”

“From the moment my husband and I met Lucien, we knew he was a genuine person with vast creative ideas. This was what we were looking for when deciding to embark on a long-term relationship for the creation of our new home. Lucien’s ideas on how to bring our dream to reality furthered our trust in him and admiration for his work. What Lucien has created in our home is a complete marriage of art and architecture. We challenged Lucien to design an open floor plan home with built-in art niche’s to showcase very special family sculpture. Since sculpture is a 3 dimensional expression, Lucien was truly able to design locations where our art is displayed and experienced from many rooms. Lucien functions very much like a true artist, taking ownership and quality assurance of his end product. We never felt we were counting hours and revisions that he put into our project but rather he gave whatever was needed to complete the job to his and my level of approval. We would absolutely use Lucien again for any project, large or small to help bring ideas to reality.”

“We hired German and crew to remodel our kitchen,master bath, and paint the house. I can't say enough about the service provided to us by this company. They listened to what we wanted and made sure we were completely satisfied before leaving. Our house looks gorgeous and feels like a new home! I will be hiring them for our next home improvement project.”

“I have been working with Milton development for over 15 years. It is clear that, relationship, quality, integrity and care is given to each and every project. They operate at a different level then most. A design center, project managers, in house architects and designers, and a office personal in tune and in control. They are an amazing firm that is driven on their clients satisfaction and I am proud to say I do business with them.”

“Kieth is a professional whom I would hire for a top notch bathroom or kitchen renovation. We hired Kieth's company to do both small and large jobs and he always came in on time and within budget and stood behind his work. The quality of the jobs are always top notch. He has a sterling reputation in town for good reason. He does what he says. A rare gem!”

“We used Maegan from Soglia Studios on more than one occasion over the past 2 years and have found her to be smart, professional, and very talented. She's done everything from guiding us on roof design and improvements to designing built-ins and storage in our living room to showing us new options and designs for our bathroom renovation. We will continue to use Soglia Studios in the future!”

“Design Builders employs competent project managers and skilled trades people. They are responsive, enthusiastic, and they offer great ideas. I have hired them to work in my own home as well as on client projects and have never been disappointed. My own kitchen renovation was tricky and they tackled the issues with creative solutions. In my clients home I trust them to provide professional service and top quality cabinetry. My clients have expressed their pleasure with the finished results in their home which came from close and easy collaboration with the Design Builders team.”

“We hired Faros to remodel our two bathrooms before our son was born this spring. We had a deadline and we were really counting on them to deliver on time - and they blew it out of the water. They show up, are incredibly communicative, and do a stellar job. I don't think any email ever even sat for a few hours unanswered! They are incredibly prompt, skilled, and they CARE. I think this story really exemplifies their level of professionalism: we were having my baby shower at our house and the bathroom still needed to be finished, but unfortunately, a huge snowstorm came and delayed almost every piece of the final installation. The owner and his son came to our house in the middle of the blizzard to finish the job. They wouldn't let it sit unfinished- they even shoveled our driveway to get it done on time! That's the kind of care I'm talking about - you'd be exceptionally lucky to have them work on your house. We look forward to working with them again and constantly recommend them to all of our friends.”

“We’ve owned our house for about 16 years, and over that period of time we’ve added-on an extension as well as remodeled most all of the rooms and areas in our Colonial built in 1958. When it came to the basement, however, we just let it be as it was a combination workout room, pantry and generally a way to get to our patio. It had some original light-wood paneling, carpet and unflattering fluorescent lighting. Outside, we had recently built and planted a whole bunch of raised garden beds, and put up some fencing to protect those beds from the 6 chickens who live in a coop in our backyard. Throughout the winter, we were looking forward to getting a better start this Spring by starting seeds indoors, and so that was the excuse to call up Old World Craftsmen and have them go through their Design-Build program in order to completely re-imagine our basement. In order to prevent me from going back on this impulse, I spent a good 12 hours on a Saturday ripping down all the ugly paneling. We were dreaming of shiplap – which has become quite the popular wall stock thanks to Chip + Joanne and their Fixer Upper show. We also wanted a sliding barn door to our re-built pantry, a heated tile floor and a sink with some character to put next to the potting benches. Add a wall-mount TV for the teenage girls in the house (and of course for Dad when war or history movies are on), and some comfortable sofas and chairs, as well as lots of shelves for plants and books – and there’d truly be a multi-functional basement. The design that we iterated with Scott Simonsen, the owner of Old World, included a primary white, brown tile and stain, as well as a contrasting wrought-iron black throughout for emphasis and texture. The design elements included -Shiplap – everywhere! -Shaker doors to complement – 3 internal doors, 1 double internal door and one exterior door -4 new windows with grills-between-glass including replacing some rotted sills -Installation of 24 LED ceiling lights – 3000K for a warm, neutral light -Schluter DITRA matting to whole basement including landing for electric heat -Basement levelling and textured ‘redwood’ porcelain tiling throughout -Re-plumbing an antique porcelain Crane sink -Removal of old baseboard that went around entire basement, deploy new baseboard to one wall -Knotty alder barn door in burnt umber stain with wrought iron hardware -Wrap columns and beams in hand-distressed pine wrap with burnt umber stain -Base and ceiling trim that complemented the shiplap design -Custom-designed iron railing for stairs We painted the shiplap and all the trim Benjamin Moore Decorator’s White in eggshell – we learned that in this style of design, it is better not to differentiate between the walls and the windows and trim – it came out nicely. For the stair treads/risers, stair trim and bathroom we used a combination of grays including Benjamin Moore Winter Solstice and Englewood Cliffs in satin. The whole Old World Craftsmen crew were courteous and professional for the whole month they were in our house. The basement was cleaned each evening before they left, and they arrived promptly at 8am each morning to begin work. The worksmanship and attention to detail throughout the project was very apparent. There were some areas of the basement that might be termed a little deficient in the right-angle category, but the crew made subtle accommodations which successfully prevented the imperfections from being noticeable. When vendors shipped the wrong door (3 times!), or a doorknob didn’t fit one of our specially made doors, Old World took it upon themselves to get things right without causing us any additional trouble. The tilers, plumbers, heating technicians, electricians and on-staff carpenters all were scheduled and arrived as planned and promised and all did a fantastic job. Paperwork and invoicing went smoothly and special requests were cheerfully received, acknowledged and executed. I was, for example, having trouble getting consistent staining of the pine breams – so Old World Craftsmen came by and did an expert job that turned out beautifully. Overall – the concept of design-build works out really nicely. The general contractor spends, in our case, a few hours talking about what the client wants and then translates that into the requirements that eventually become the finished product. An experienced contractor will already know all the do’s and dont’s and can competently guide homeowners that might have a real idea, but have no idea how to make it real. Old World Craftsmen really delivered a spectacular end-product and we couldn’t be more pleased.”

“Riverside Design and Build did a fabulous remodel and expansion to our house. Hiring an architect as talented as Michele with a terrific, efficient builder like Marc was the best thing we could have done. They are great to work with and listened to our ideas of what we wanted. The costs were accurate, and we know we got a lot for our money. Recommend!”