Urban Abode

When we decided to develop our basement we called 23 companies for quotes. When we contacted Urban Abode I didn't think that we would be able to afford them as we saw the amazing projects they had worked on, and we just wanted a basement to match our house. Out of the 23 companies we were taken with Urban Abode in our first phone conversation.

The two biggest things we were worried about were timeline and budget. Everyone of our friends who had ever had any work done told us to be prepared that projects will go over the timeline and exceed the budget.

At the time, I was 6 months pregnant and wanted the renos to be done in 3 weeks. Brad was very honest and explained that it would be 6 weeks to complete, where as other companies said "we might be able to within 4 weeks". Being pregnant I didn't have the luxury of "might". I needed a firm date so we could move in.

Next was of course budget. Brad gave us options for everything to ensure it would fit our budget.

We decided to go with Urban Abode and I can not express how thankful we are that we did.

First - I have NEVER met more polite contractors. Every person that came into our home were so nice. I never had to worry about who would be coming in and out. Honest, nice, caring people.

Second - the payment plan that Urban Abode follows is AMAZING! You don't pay for what isn't done. This allowed us to see the progress and pay for what we saw. For example - 10% is due when framing happens, you actually get to see what your paying for and if there are any issues they are worked out right then and there.

Third - quality. I don't know where to even begin. We didn't want the basement to look as if it was done after the house. We wanted the entire house to flow. They matched the paint, carpet, tiles, baseboards EVERYTHING to ensure it would look good. Considering this house was 10 years old I'm sure that was a challenge, but never once did they complain about anything.

Fourth - even when plans were made and I had last minute changes or didn't like something, they were flexible. They always did everything they could to make us happy.

Fifth - Warrantee and final check. Before we paid the last instalment we went through the basement and verified everything was to our liking. There were some small things that I noticed and they were fixed that same day without question. Even 8 months afterwards, we had to call about a faucet and within days it was replaced and fix with no questions asked and without any charge.

The end result? We have a amazing basement that flows with our house and exceeded our expectations. As my husband says "they under promised and over delivered". We actually like to brag about them as they finished the job a week early and the budget was not over by a penny. The exact amount that we sign the contract for, is exactly what we paid.

THANK YOU URBAN ABODE!!!

If you are considering Urban Abode and want to talk to us about our basement, please contact Brad and he can set it up! I am an actual customer with no affiliations to them, they really are just that good!!

For years we delayed our renovations, as we often heard horror stories about renovation projects and the stress that it caused the owners. When we hired Urban Abode to complete our project, we were pleasantly surprised, from start until finish, at their efficiency and quality of work. During the three week renovation, someone arrived every day to complete work. Our renovation was completed within the original timeline. Due to the relative ease of the process, we plan to have Urban Abode return to refinish our bathrooms and complete a basement renovation.

When we were looking to start our basement renovation, we started looking around at local contractors and their portfolio of work. We were looking for someone who had a decent variety jobs that weren’t all vanilla and certainly didn’t want to have something that looked the same as everyone else’s. My wife found Urban Abode online and we set up a meeting with Brad to get his ideas and take a look at what he could come up with.

It only took one meeting and we knew we’d found our man. He is not your typical contractor. He is full of energy and is highly personable. The best part is that he is full of ideas. We had our wish list for what we wanted in our basement. Having a small child who is slowly taking over the rest of the house, we wanted to create an adult playground, a place where we could entertain, a place that was still a part of our house and had some of the elements that were already there. At the same time we wanted it to be different, so that when we went downstairs, we were still home but it just felt different with different energy. Brad nailed it. The colours are different, the look is different, yet it all still fits. Our friends have dubbed it the “Purple Lounge” because that’s what it is, a lounge and of course, it's purple. We often entertain and lose track of time because it’s just soo comfortable and energizing.

One of the key features of working with Urban Abode is that it’s not up to the client to try and imagine what the space will look like based on drawings, they provide a full 3D rendering that is extremely realistic and really helped to put us into our space. The finished product matches the original renderings soo well that at a glance they actually look like the finished product. Using these really helped my wife and I pick out our pallet and choose furniture so that when the basement was complete, my wife already had it decorated well before it was complete (literally) so that we already had everything. The day it was done we could enjoy the space without any delay.

I will note that the project took much longer than the original estimate, however, this was primarily due to some issues with the original project manager that was assigned to us not being on top of out project. It was frustrating at the time but it was handled in a very professional manner, and once the necessary changes were made, progress was not only smoother, the communication became much clearer. Brad absolutely made up for the issues (which will generally arise on all large projects like this) and we could literally not be any happier with how it turned out.

Brad was very accommodating of our wants and wishes and made amendments to the renderings before moving forward implementing them so we fully understood what it would look like. We had some pretty vague ideas in some spots and He took our ideas and ran with them. The wine cellar for instance turned out much better than my original idea. We went back and forth a lot with him presenting ideas and me incorporating them in and asking for small changes here and there. It was built completely to spec with foam insulation, vapor barrier, temperature control, custom built insulated door, double pain windows control unit tucked nicely in the ceiling and so on. The description does not do it justice. I knew what I needed for it to function and knew the types of storage I was looking for, He made it look good. This holds true for the whole project, just a few of the highlights include:

•The media center with hidden components, panoramic fireplace and white stone, puck lights to highlight all our treasure knick-knacks and pictures.
•The bathroom with in-floor heating, and spa grade steam shower that I now have to get up earlier to enjoy because I don’t want to get out.
•The highly functional workout room with cork floor (no images for this).
•The absolutely brilliant way he came up with to hide 2 very poorly placed tele-posts that is now an awesome shelf with lighting.
•The bar… Fantastic!

All in all, I would highly recommend Urban Abode to anyone. They have an excellent team of craftsmen. The mill workers are top notch, the painter/stainer is an artist (literally) and they are all extremely kind. The space they created for us FAR exceeds anything we could have imagined.

I had initially wanted to do the renovating of my basement myself on the weekends but after a few months and failed starts my wife and I decided we better hire a professional and I would just keep my day job… and my marriage, lol.
We spent a bit of time looking for the right contractor to build our basement. I wasn’t really looking for anything special, my wife wanted a built in for the laundry, that’s all she cared about. We had three companies come out to give us an estimate. Brad (from Urban Abode’s) came somewhere in the middle.
What I liked about Brad is he listened to what we wanted and made some very unique suggestions that we didn’t even think about, like utilizing the space under our stairs to put in a bookcase and some other nifty ideas with built-ins and a murphy bed. Our basement did not have the space to have a dedicated bedroom but this was a very good option for us – especially because my wife had her parents stay with us over the holidays. He showed us what our basement would look like in a 3d rendering so we knew exactly what the final product would look like and we decided what we wanted to do from that.
I have to say that I am very very happy with the final outcome. Brad was straight forward in his quote, there was nothing hidden so we knew that there wasn’t going to be any surprises in the end. We had a written warranty to protect us if something did go wrong in the future.
I have to say, our space looks amazing and we have already recommended them to our friends. If you are looking for a contractor that has an eye for design and the people to implement it, you should definitely give Brad a call from Urban Abode.

Brad and his team were on time and on budget. I felt I had to chase Brad down a bit, but when I actually had his attention, he listened to my concerns. Overall we are happy with the results.