Dan & Michele

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Dear Keith,

Thank you for the opportunity to be able to participate in the CHBA Homes Awards program by offering “our comments” on Sawlor’s professionalism. When we made the decision to build our new “lifetime dream home” on Porter’s Lake, our research in the home builder market continuously pointed to Sawlor Construction as having “the best” reputation for building excellent homes with a “flare” for attention to detail and quality in the Halifax/Dartmouth area. That earned reputation for quality and attention to detail is well deserved.

We had been in the “dream mode” for some time, but neither of us had the “first clue” about how to turn our dreams into reality. Sure we had a satchel full of tear sheets from magazines, we had pictures of homes we had seen with bits and pieces of different things we like, we had sketches of model homes with different layouts that we thought were kind of neat, and we had a piece of lake frontage that demanded a structure that would suit and enhance the property and the environment. “We” also have two very different, strong personalities, the one being “girly-girl elegant”, and the other being “macho outdoorsman”. As we were about to retire we also had a “strict budget” number which we were unwilling to exceed. Sawlor’s first interpretation of how our dreams could move from concept to reality was really pretty darn close to how the home was actually built. The Sawlor planning process allowed us to get the essential design we wanted and at the same time be “tough enough” to meld our different, strong opinions into a seamless home design and interior that suited the landscape and even more importantly, stayed within an affordable budget. Simply put, we got the plan we wanted, and a production schedule and budget that suited our needs.

Sometimes we felt that perhaps we had too many questions and that too many of our questions were probably frustrating for Sawlor because of our naivety in the technical aspects of home building. Always, Keith Sawlor’s answer was “there can never be too many questions and now’s the time to ask them.”

Home location on the property was very, very important to us. We only have the one piece of property and it had been a lifelong dream to build on this property. I appreciate the time and devotion to “exactness” that Sawlor brought to the project in guiding us to exactly the “right place” to build. That would include things like distance to the lake-frontage, road-in access layout, and most importantly to us was angle of the house because we are located on a sloping hill, in the “curve of a cove”. Our home is exactly where it should be, and at the right angle for view, sunrises, sunsets and environmental integrity.

Actual building and project management by Sawlor was in a word, “awesome”. Things happened on time, every time, with the best building talents available in Nova Scotia. Every step of the process was carefully explained to us and we were integrated in the process. We were allowed and encouraged to ask questions and discuss details. All of our questions were taken seriously and “the best” advice was given generously. Change orders were kept to a minimum and the home was finished exactly on time and on budget.

Sawlor seems to be “big enough” to have the “top” crews in the industry, but small enough to treat the client personally. The Sawlor experience, for us, was “excellent”. Sawlor craftsmen are proud of their work and we get to enjoy that “extra Sawlor price”, each and every day. Would we choose Sawlor to design and build another home for us…”in-a-nanosecond”!!!

Yours truly,

Dan & Michele