Bella Construction Company

They were very good,easy going,very professional and they have a good price.They didn't put too much headache.

The project had a few glitches but at the end it all worked out well. The color of the cabinet did not turn out to be the exact color we had selected, but given the design changes we introduced during the process, we are satisfied with the final outcome. Walter was very flexible and him and his crew did their best to see that at the end we had a cabinet we liked. We would definitely hire again. <br />

Walter Castillo, who we had hired several times--once to build an Arts and Crafts style cabinet insert with large stained glass panels in the doors for a large niche in our living room that was to be a built-in cabinet for music, books, and games; and once to build custom-sized upper and lower cabinets for our laundry room/pantry. Any hiccups were quickly fixed, and we were very happy with his work. This time we had hired him, after accepting his estimate, to refinish our solid wood Arts and Crafts style front door with a leaded glass window. He left this minor job for his two-man crew to do unsupervised. They sanded down the areas where the original varnish had weathered and the wood underneath had been weather-stained and mildewed. They did not sand down thoroughly enough and did not clean off the surface thoroughly enough with tack cloth and vacuuming before applying the finish. As a result, the door looked terrible--the stains were still there, but darker now with the varnish, and the varnish looked all gloppy and amateurish because the sawdust was not cleaned off well enough before varnishing. We refused to pay and called Walter to voice our complaint. He came out and agreed that it had been poorly done and spent his own time fixing the mess his people had created. He did not ask to be paid more for his work, which we appreciated, and he was able to fix the door to our satisfaction. Our only complaint is that his people should not have been left unsupervised to do this work. It was clear they needed someone overseeing their work to correct things before they got too far off course. The greatest damage is that this experience shook our confidence in Walter and his company to do anything we ask without assurance that he will oversee his men and the work and expect of them the same level of excellence as he does himself. I would still give him an excellent rating and hire him again because he is very polite and agreeable to fix mistakes without expecting his customer to pay more. We wouldn't hesitate to hire him again for another project, but would not want his crew left to do the work on their own.

After we had such a positive experience with Walter Castillo's work building our Arts and Crafts style niche with stained glass inserts in the doors for our great room, we asked Walter to give us a quote on building the cabinets for our tiny laundry room. We had just purchased and installed and new stackable washer and dryer and needed custom-fit lower, upper, and full-length cabinets in the remaining space in our laundry room. We also wanted a granite countertop installed, which Walter does not do himself, but was done with another company that he recommended that specializes in granite. Walter gave us a quote, which we negotiated to $3,000. We selected the style to be Shaker style outer doors and solid cherry wood. He took the measurements and we discussed some tricky areas and were happy with the design. The full-length cabinet was in two sections--one to fit the electric floor cleaner and one below to fit the canister vacuum. The other cabinets were to be used as a pantry with storage shelves throughout. When he returned a couple of weeks later and began installation, we noticed that the doors were not Shaker style but had been cut with the recess mitered and slanted instead of blunt cut and the recessed portion squared. He said his crew had not cut the doors as he had requested and took everything back to be recut. He was back the next day with the correctly cut doors. The installation had some tricky issues that were resolved easily. We went with him to his friend's granite shop and selected a perfect piece of 2" thick ubatuba (black with flecks) granite. Since it was a small piece from a damaged counter, we got it for $150. The granite company had done the measurements, so was responsible to redo it when the first attempt didn't fit. They had to totally recut our piece. The second attempt was perfect. The cabinets looked wonderful, except for a long door on the full-length cabinet ended up being very slightly warped.and askew, which bothers us but probably no one else notices. This was caused, according to Walter, by the solid wood construction of the door and its length. He said he would return to fix it and install the hardware, but never has. We are happy with the overall work, though, but would like to have this one little anomaly corrected. Walter still gets high marks from us.

<br /> The overall installation went extremely well. They arrived on time and were very deliberate in describing how the installation would proceed. They prepared the room and entrance to the house by laying down sheets on the floor to protect the walls and floor while they brought all of the pieces upstairs. They did run into a problem trying to get all of the pieces around some of the tight corners of the house, but were able to get it all in. Things were a bit noisy for awhile, but they completed the work in about 8 hours and everything worked better than we had originally intended. We were extremely pleased with the final product, the quality of the workmanship and the quality of the wood that was used to create the system. We were also extremely pleased with the cleanliness of the work site when they left. The workers left the room as clean as they found it. <br /> <br /> We were very pleased with the project. We would definitely recommend Castle Custom Cabinets for future projects!

Mr. Costillo always showed up on time for appointments, returned all phone calls, and was friendly, courteous, and professional. We hired him based on his photo portfolio and his responsiveness to our requests for wood, stain, and style of the finished piece. One concern was that initially his quote was based on hand-sketched notes instead of a formal contract, but, upon our urging, Mr. Costillo submitted a complete drawing and formalized contract that we both signed. After signing the contract and paying 1/2 of the total, he went off to construct the piece at his workshop. He and his assistant came to install the piece on-time and installation was professional, clean, and beautiful. We are absolutely stunned with the finished product. It is exactly what we had envisioned, and Walter captured everything we had wanted.