Kitchen is Transformed

What was involved?
It was major upgrade of our kitchen/dining area. We opened up the space by taking down the wall between our dining room and kitchen and raising the roof of the extended kitchen. We put in a large feature window, replaced all the other windows and fitted a new kitchen.

How did you choose O' Flaherty Construction?
O' Flaherty Construction were one of the builders suggested by our architect. We got quotations from about five builders, then narrowed it down to three and finally went for O' Flaherty Construction. One reason we went with Pat was price and the other reason was that we felt Pat was somebody we could work with.

Had you definite ideas in mind before you talked to Pat O' Flaherty?
Yes, we had architects' plans.

Did Pat introduce new ideas?
Yes, he worked from the plans but he was good at suggesting things that we wouldn't have thought of. For example, the plan was to put pocket doors on the sitting room side of the house. When we took the wall down between the kitchen and the dining room, it turned out that the dining room was slightly longer than the kitchen. Pat suggested to us that we moved the pocket door cavity into that side of the room as opposed to losing room from the sitting room which was a smaller room.

How did the project run?
Really well. We lived in the house while they were doing the work and Pat kept some of the utilities going so that I could cook. They tidied up every evening and made sure the house was safe. It took a couple of weeks longer than expected but we didn't really mind because they were doing a good job. It was the time of all the snow so that didn't help either. They were there every morning at half seven and finished by half four. We were out all day and it suited us to have Pat in the house because we trusted them.

The workmanship was very good and the people that he brought in to paint and do the electrics all did a good job. The painters, in particular, were excellent.

What was the biggest benefit to you of using O' Flaherty Construction?
Pat was easy to deal with. He lives locally to us as well. If there was any issue, he was up straight away to fix it. And he was good at suggesting things that we wouldn't have thought of.

Another one of the good things about Pat is that he was easy to talk to. If we weren't happy with something, we could discuss it with him and it didn't feel like it was a confrontation as such. Pat is reasonable to deal with.

For instance, I'd picked out grey windows which he didn't realize from the quote - he thought they were white. We all found a compromise - he didn't charge any extra and we just did the front in grey and to the side but left them white at the back.

What's your favourite part now?
Our kitchen is transformed. We hardly ever used the dining room before. Now we use it all the time. The windows are really good too. I love the pocket doors as well.

Would you recommend O' Flaherty Construction to others?
I have and I would. in fact, they are doing another job for me actually at the moment.