maison d'etre design-build inc.

Maison has just completed a 1100 sq ft 7 room complete reno to our basement for our 65 year old character Burnaby home. From initial meeting, thru design, demolition and final finish Maison delivered beyond expectations. All sub trades were managed , full time on site project management was excellent, thx Nick. They were a pleasure to have in our home, We highly recommend you consider Maison if you are considering renovating. Dave and Dee Burnaby

Rob and his team have done a number of renovation jobs for me, both big and small. Design wise I found they listened to what I wanted and came up with interesting and creative ideas. As for the execution, it was always done in an extremely timely, courteous and professional manner. I was kept informed at all stages of the work and the workers were extremely mindful of not only the quality of the work but also cleanliness and safety within my home. I highly recommend using Maison D'Etre Design-Build Inc.

Having seen work by Maison d’etre from friends, I was confident they would achieve the look and quality I was wanting. As the partnering of Rob and his team was such a great experience, I am using them again for my newly purchase home.

Maison has been my preferred renovation team for the past ten years. I have only praise and excellent experiences to report. Offering both the design and execution on their projects, it makes the whole work so much easier. If they need to sub contract, they are covered by workers giving the same high quality workmanship. We finished a major renewal this past spring and I’m totally happy about everything. My quality of living has been increased in so many ways thanks to their experienced team that came up with great ideas and on budget ! What I appreciate as well is their flexibility and relentless search to find the right way and the best way to do such work making the customer very happy. Look no further. Maison is the best renovation team in greater Vancouver.

Overpriced, sloppy, extremely slow. We were unimpressed with the service of this company, to say the least. They strung us along for months only to repeatedly present us with proposals for renovations that were far above the budget that we had provided, all the while charging us by the hour to repeatedly redesign the plans. They made errors in the materials that they ordered (e.g. ordering and installing frosted bathroom windows for non-bathroom windows, installing a window where our plans showed no window at all) and then fought with us to avoid taking responsibility for those mistakes. The windows were also a random assortment of horizontally sliding, vertically sliding and casement windows. The casement windows cannot be easily fitted with screens that don't look terrible, so we now have bugs continually flying into our house. The installation of the windows was also extremely sloppy and our new general contractor indicated to us that the price that we were charged for them ($22,500) was far too high. The company's invoicing system was opaque, so it was hard to tell how much subcontractors were charging and how much was being charged as a fee by Maison D'etre. Rob Capar, the company's principal, claimed to have many years of experience and inside knowledge of the City of Vancouver's permitting process and had us pay for a variety of expensive reports that he said were required to obtain the necessary permits. But, upon actually presenting our permit application to the City he got some resistance and recommended to us that we proceed to do the job without permits. We wasted months trying to make things work with this company and ultimately had to cut bait and hire a new general contractor. Our new contractor did an excellent job within our budget and in fact offered us many options that Maison D'etre never suggested. Overall, we had a very negative experience and would recommend avoiding this company.

A talented and great design firm to work with. The entire team is awesome from designers to the trades they bring to a renovation. They are not only creative and easy to work with they are all around fabulous. Great attitudes, incredible work ethic. We love the result of the renovation they did 5 years ago. We always loved our home and now it is just perfect for us.

My husband and I became aware of maison d’etre design-build inc. after seeing the work they had done on a couple of rooms in a three story townhouse in the same complex we purchased in. We were impressed with the quality of the workmanship as well as the design choices made that pulled the whole home together. Review of their website gave us even more confidence in their ability and skills. We knew we wanted to work with maison d’etre after meeting with owner Rob Caper and designer Stephen Lunney. They understood our goal was to create efficient small space living in the 30-year-old townhouse by making the space functional and flexible and opening it up to increase the light and make it feel larger. Our project initially started as a cosmetic renovation but once we opened a couple of walls and found a long standing existing leak we made the decision to gut the place and rebuild. We’re extremely happy with our renovation and wouldn’t change a thing. We have high standards and wanted to ensure that no corners were cut and that all regulations were followed to ensure we met code. The team at maison d’etre are extremely professional. We enjoyed working with everyone from the office manager to the project manager and the trades. When problems came up as they always do in renos, especially in older buildings, the team members communicated directly and promptly and worked hard to achieve practical, affordable solutions. The follow up and warranty work was terrific. After completion of the project, Rob even went out of his way to speak to the City and get clarification on rules related to tree replacement on the strata’s behalf when another company doing a landscaping project for the strata dropped the ball. Due to Rob’s intervention and clarification the strata was able to the permits required. If we ever do another renovation project it will be with maison d’etere again and we have recommended the company to a number of people.

Having worked with many different contractors over the years, we can easily say that the team at Maison d'etre are one of the best. Their keen attention to detail, professional project management and overall high quality of work, ensure a successful project from beginning to end.

maison d'etre design-build helped us redesign our office space. They are very professional, polite and pleasure to work with. When the work was completed they cleaned everything up and didn't leave a spec of dirt. Thank you maison d'etre!