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The comments below are unedited opinions of the colleagues who submitted them. A date (month and year) indicates that the comments following that date are from the given month and year. The most recent comments appear at the bottom.
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9/00 *** The following are based on recent personal experience. If you call any of the following people, please tell them my partner and I (Kristina Rodolico and Austin Frakt) recommended them to you.
| REALTOR: Kelly Catallo, ERA in Medford, 7812830793. She was a delight to work with. She was not pushy and she worked very hard to get us the latest information quickly. Though based in Medford, she can handle nearby towns, including Melrose, Stoneham, and Somerville. We would definitely use her again and recommend her highly to anyone buying or selling a home in the area. INSPECTOR: Chris Monahon, National Home Inspection of New England, 6179232300. He is very thorough and patiently answers questions. He has decades of experience doing inspections. He writes up an inspection report immediately following the inspection and will provide estimates of repairs and recommendations of who does good repair work. We think he did such a good job on the first house we considered we called him again for the second one. MORTGAGE BROKER: Adam Cohen, Mortgage Master Inc., 7814463999. Adam is one of the few mortgage brokers I spoke with that actually had some creative ways to save us money. He made the task of getting through all the paperwork very easy by coming over to our place and going through it with us. I'm very pleased with the service he and Mortgage Master provided. LAWYER: Joan Koffman, Koffman and Dreyer, 6179249075. Joan is outstanding. She really works for her clients, not for herself. She is good at keeping lawyer fees low for her clients while still getting them the deal and the house they want. Many other's at Abt have used her and I've not heard a bad word yet. CONTRACTOR: Leo Arria, 7812469650. Leo and his crew redid several of our closets, built us a custom bookshelf and hutch, and opened up an indoor porch. He does great work and pays attention to detail. He even did some additional work to make things look nicer at no charge and without any prodding from me. He is very neat and cleans up everything at the end of each day. We found him to be honest and patient. Like every other contractor we called, he is hard to get a hold of. But, once he started our job he was easy to reach and to communicate with. FLOOR REFINISHING: The Floor Sanders, 6177831711. They did a nice job at a good price. We asked for three coats of polyurethane (one more than is customary) and we paid $675 to do our living and dining rooms and connecting hallway. To our surprise, they finished a day early by working over the weekend (without our asking them to). Also, they were remarkably clean. There was very little sawdust left for us to clean up. Others at Abt have used and recommended them. [Warning: You can easily get your floors done more cheaply. Based on my research, you will get what you pay for. A welldone threecoat job cannot cost less than $500 and $650+ is more realistic.] PLUMBER: Kenny, Hinchy Brother's Plumbing, 7816653919. Kenny sent us an estimate quickly and then returned my phone call promptly to go over it and to explain the options. He did a nice job upgrading our hot water system. We will call him again when we need more plumbing work. WALL PAPER REMOVAL PRODUCT: Dif, available almost anywhere paint and wallpaper supplies are sold. We removed six rooms worth of 50 year old wall paper with this stuff. It worked well, though it was still quite a chore and a mess (probably unavoidable). Dif is nontoxic and doesn't smell bad. WOOD STAIN STRIPPER PRODUCT: Safest Stripper by 3M, available at Tags/Ace Hardware in the Porter Square Shopping Center, *not* available at Home Depot. Safest Stripper worked very well on stain. I don't know how well it works on paint. It is worth trying because it is nontoxic and does not smell at all. Most other stripping products are terribly toxic and very hard on the lungs, brain cells, skin, etc. FURNITURE: Jordan's Furniture, Framingham. This is a huge, overwhelming store but it had the best prices and widest selection for the items we were looking for (couch, dining room set). Their rug department is not very good in our opinion. ********************************************************************* The following were recommended to me by others (many by Abt employees) but I have not used their services. PLUMBERS: Dean Votano, 7818994409 Robert L. Pann Family in Cambridge, 6178642625 Kenneth, and he can be reached at 6173892010. Bean & Cole, 7816652566, ask for Kenny. ABC Plumbing, 6176413823. FLOOR REFINISHING: Peter, 7813878915. Deng Saycocie, 7813293254 [I did speak with Deng at length. He was fantastically helpful, explaining to me the ins and outs of the floor sanding business. He educated me on how to find good people to do the work we needed. We couldn't hire him because he was booked up. Based on my conversation alone, and the source of the recommendation, I would trust him to do my floors and highly recommend him myself.] MPD contracting in Arlington. 7816413408 CONTRACTORS: Wayne Mitchell, 6178890240 (h), 6178393793 (cell). He's the head carpenter for the Chelsea public schools. Larry Capalupo, 7819581152 (pager), 7816659634. Dick Vanaria (carpenter), Steve Trulli, Dan ???, 7816650900. Owen Gillespie, 5086692674, 5089623958 Eastern Construction, 7813227352, Malden MPD Contracting, 7816413408. Guy Catallo, 7813246295. Steve Heights, 7812452311. John Milas, 7762776; Louis Milas, 6484343 BASEMENT WATERPROOFING: Tom Tropeano, Pioneer Basement Waterproofing, 18006496140 Boston Basement BDry | |||||||||||||||