TL;DR Summary
Senso was absolutely fantastic to work with. Check the pictures for the before and after for a sample of the work his team can do. I would absolutely recommend his services to anyone and I plan to reach back out for Senso to do my master and guest bathrooms.
Our Story
This was my Wife and I first ever renovation project. The process was quite opaque to us and we were bombarded with friend and family's anecdotes of horror stories with their renovation project.
With Mark and his team at Senso, I have no idea what my friend and family were talking about. I am still in shellshock how smoothly everything went with Senso.
The beginning was like any other home renovation company (we personally reached out to three others), they drop by with a free consultation about your reno. Mark made it immediately clear it's about what you want - you tell him and he will do whatever is in his power to make it so. If you are like us and didn't know what you wanted, he had numerous recommendations for where to check to get ideas. He suggested we take some time to review get comfortable with some designs then come back to him if we were ready and comfortable to proceed.
I want to emphasize that last point - Mark always made sure that the decision was comfortable with us. There was no pressure for sale, it was clear he wanted us to be happy with our choice. So much so, he actually told us to reach out to other contractors and get second opinions. He also told us to check reviews about his team and his work; he was telling us how to vet his work!
After we've finalized our thoughts and signed off on designs with Senso's Design team it was finally time to begin the work. Mark gave us an estimate of three weeks to get everything done - we were prepared for five. If I was a betting man, I'd be down alot.
Senso's team came and powered through demolition, plumbing, electrical, and floor tiling in 3 days. Cabinets came in on the 5th day; installation finished on the 7th day. Countertops came at the 10th day. Backsplash finished on the 11th day, and the last remaining days up to the 15th day (exactly 3 weeks) were putting appliances back in finishing touches. I simply could not believe how smoothly everything went.
During this time, Mark was extremely responsive to any questions or request. We hit a few snags with some of the cabinets being slightly off place - we message Mark, and the next day someone was back in to fix it up. He came in himself to vet his teams work and caught some minor issues for us.
While I am exceptionally happy with Mark's service I think it's also important to be critical. We were woefully unprepared for the impact the demolition would have to our house and the mess in it's wake. Given his experience with renovations, we would've appreciated some foresight into this - so if you're reading this, cover EVERYTHING in the proximity of the renovation area with sheets or something you don't mind getting dirty.
And finally let's talk budget. I will be earnest here - this project was beyond our original planned budget. But the design and goal of your renovation is going to set the bar of the cost: the more you want; the more it will cost. I don't think it's fair to assume that what we got, and the quality of what we got, is not achievable with a 35k budget (perhaps if you did all the labour yourself). Mark makes this clear up front which is why he encouraged us to get second opinions from other places.
In the end, we are happy with what we got:
1) Very smooth transition
2) No delays
3) Full transparency with all steps in the renovation
4) Gorgeous new kitchen
And I think we paid a very fair price for it.
I plan on going back to Senso with all my future renovation projects with no hesitation.
