Dear Tom,
Rita and I are thrilled with the final result: our modern Muskoka cottage looks fantastic! As one of the pickiest clients you’ve probably dealt with to date (a fact that I am proud of), I am pleased to say that the quality of the work and finishes is flawless. After a shaky start with our original builder, it was an absolute relief to have you and your excellent crew take over and make our cottage what we had always dreamed it would be. For every little issue that arose during the process of fixing someone else’s mistakes, you always offered multiple solutions for every problem. It made our lives much easier to know that you treated our project as if it was your own. Suddenly, being 200 kilometers away did not matter so much as we knew we could trust your approach and day-to-day decisions.
We were quite aware that the minimalist design of our cottage actually often makes things more complicated from a construction stand-point. While it looks simple on paper, there is nowhere to hide or cheat as there are no baseboards, moldings or drywall, just gorgeous Douglas fir throughout. The carpentry work is perfect everywhere you look, walls, ceilings, custom solid wood doors, etc.. We realized very quickly that everyone on your team understood exactly what we were after.
One last but very important thing: you and your team were an absolute pleasure to deal with. Everyone was friendly, professional, dedicated, honest and equipped with a healthy sense of humour. We even made some precious friends along the way (say hello to Tom Smith!).
You can expect us to work together again as we plan some additions to our country property, and we will be happy to talk to prospective clients about your services. Building a dream home or cottage in Muskoka can be a very pleasurable experience, provided one has the good fortune to work with you.
All the best.
Dear Tom,
I am writing to convey Muna’s and my thanks and appreciation for your superb work on our Kawagama Lake cottage renovation. It was a pleasure to work with you and your team through every phase of our six-month, two-season project, from initial consultations and cost estimates, through our regular interaction by email and telephone, to final details.
At the start of the project, we were cautioned by friends that we were taking an enormous risk in commissioning renovation work in Ontario cottage country from our base in Bangkok. You inspired trust and confidence from our first meeting and site visit, in your regular email updates and digital photos of your progress, and through consultation on the numerous fine details and decisions that would never have occurred to us.
We especially appreciate your patience with our many questions, Linda’s and your careful attention to our dozens of email inquiries, and your readiness to work in coordination with the several firms through which we sourced cabinetry, windows and doors, hardware, and other fixtures. In addition, we are grateful for the care that you took in maintaining accounts, for keeping the work site immaculately clean as work proceeded, and to you, Al and other members of your project crew, and Dawn for your final push in readying the cottage for our arrival in July — including details that went well beyond your scope of work. We will treasure the memory of those first few moments in our transformed cottage.
Everyone who visited us this summer commented on the standard of workmanship apparent in every detail of your work. We look forward to working with you this autumn and spring on the final steps of our first phase of work, and to moving on to our planned addition in two or three years time.
You can count on us to spread the word of your fine work and professionalism to our friends and neighbors. We will be pleased to provide further information on our experience in working with you to any prospective clients.
With sincere thanks.
Dear Tom,
I could not be more pleased with the work of you and your team in the construction of the sleeping cabin and dock at our Foxpoint Road property on Lake of Bays.
From the outset, you introduced me to a terrific draftsman who immediately interpreted my desire to create a dwelling with required space restrictions, which would not feel small. The use of the fir timbers and lightly stained pine throughout added to the warm and relaxing spirit of the cabin.
Tom steered the project through the many complications of a council dealing with new regulations, as well as an Interior Designer (myself!) who specified unique finishes and quality of workmanship.
The end result is better than I could have imagined. I long to get back to Lake of Bays and the custom sleeping cabin and steel reinforced dock, as soon as possible. Tom will continue to assist our family with more renovations of the main cottage, in the future.
I am pleased to enthusiastically endorse Tom Stead’s work to anyone considering a renovation or new construction in the lake area. Please do not hesitate calling me, if I may be of further assistance.
Dear Tom,
We are writing to thank you for the most excellent job that you did in building us our new and beautiful lake house.
We remember our first meeting at the site when you impressed us with your calm, sincere manner and your ability to listen to our dreams and ideas, work with them when it was feasible, and tactfully explain when it was not! Over the course of the next year we met numerous times to tailor our plans. We liked your flexibility; and your suggestions and ideas really helped us to make our plans effectively. You always made yourself available when it was convenient for us and even met us in Toronto several times.
We gave you a small set of drawings from our designer and you took it from there. You had the drawings engineered and made all the arrangements: from demolition through to completion of our lake house. The companies and trades people that you contracted with showed up on time and got their jobs done in a most professional and timely manner. With your regular site visits, you oversaw every detail and made sure of that. Most of all we found your staff of carpenters to be talented, dedicated and hard working, carefully attending to every detail as if they were building their own home. They were polite, congenial and honest. You also kept us on track, making sure that we made our choices regarding fixtures, materials, paint colours, etc. in time so as not to slow down the project. The merchants that you referred us to for heating, lumber and windows were professional and reasonable and delivered on time.
In short Tom, we are very pleased with a job well done and would not hesitate to recommend you to anyone contemplating a building project.
Dear Tom,
I am happy to share our experience with Tom Stead Construction and with Tom in particular as we continue to have a very good business relationship with him.
My wife & I hired Tom to build a new cottage on a vacant lot about 7 years ago. We subsequently had him back to renovate our basement rec room last year, and have just hired him to renovate our screened-in porch & add a 2-car garage to our property this spring. Needless to say, we like the quality of Tom’s work. He knows the local tradespeople very well and seems to hire the ‘best ones’. We’ve been in our cottage for 7 years and have had no quality issues. As a matter of fact many guests have commented that the quality of workmanship in our cottage is superior to many others they have seen.
An important point for us in working with a contractor is follow-up. Tom has always been very responsive to any follow-up items and is available on short notice to attend to any issues. As a result, we continue to work exclusively with him 7 years on and he has become our ‘go-to’ person. As for a contract, we had no formal document in place with Tom when we built the cottage. All the work was delivered on time & on budget. Any changes to scope and the resulting change in costs were discussed ahead of time with Tom. He kept us abreast of progress on the project and provided itemized cost statements as the project moved forward.
Overall, we highly value the quality & value of Tom’s work & would summarize our relationship with Tom Stead as one of trust. We would highly recommend him as a builder of choice in the area.
