Louise and Bert in Scarborough

Mark and his crew built out of the nothing of a raw unfinished section of the basement a home for our new midnight blue front loading washer and dryer, creating my dream of a VanGogh inspired laundry room with sunflower yellow walls (you can see the print of VanGogh's "Irises" hanging in the picture). Despite my frequent additions to the project, as I realized it would look better if we were able to block off the view of the unfinished area that housed the furnace, and build in a door to close off the storage room, and add a shelf here and a tile floor instead of linoleum, and other numerous small and big additions, Mark brought us in pretty close to time and budget. It is an astoundingly beautiful room, and I don't think I exaggerate when I say that, as I listen to the reaction of friends when they view it for the first time. I now make it a point to go down to the basement at least once a day, whether or not I'm doing laundry, and if I'm ever feeling low, I know exactly where to go to cheer myself up. The best thing about Mark and his crew, especially for a neatnik like me, is that at the end of every work day, the work area is left neat and tidy, and on Friday afternoons, you would not know anyone had been working there, despite the fact that this involved major renovation work. Mark also shows such attention to seemingly small detail. Because the tiles we used for the floor are square, he went out and found the most beautiful little square drain cover for the round basement floor drain in the laundry area. It is partially covered by the washer and dryer but I make a point of looking at it each time I do laundry. It exemplifies to me the care that Mark takes with every aspect of his work.

Mark Ashton and his crew came to install a stair railing we had ordered from Montreal. It was an incredibly complex piece and took three days to install. We were impressed with Mark's and his crew's ability to figure out what was clearly a very difficult piece of installation with very sketchy instructions. During the installation, we were amazed at the crew's quiet work - we almost forgot they were there, and at their clean and tidy workspace. They were prepared to remove everything at the end of each day, but we insisted they feel free to leave things. Each night they left a neat and tidy row of all their tools and equipment. Our son was starting a career in carpentry and they were helpful talking to him about what they were doing. The finished railing is just astounding. One picture shows the completed railing. The other shows the bend in the railing necessitated by the way the railing has to shift to accommodate the ceiling. This part Mark and the crew had to completely create on their own; there were no instructions!