Four Projects, One Brookfield Family
There was a stretch where Rick wasn't allowed at this family's house.
Not really. But that was the joke, and he earned it. Every time he pulled into their driveway during their window project, he had more bad news. Rot behind one window, then the next, then the sheathing behind that. And then a snake came out from under their sliding glass door.
That was project number two. This past July we finished project number four, a bathroom in Brookfield, CT that I can't stop thinking about. Which tells you something about these people, because after everything 2020 put them through, they called us back. Twice.
Four projects, same family, same house in Brookfield, going back to 2017. Some of what follows is mine and some of it is theirs, because when I sat down to write this I realized I only knew half the story.
Their kitchen remodel started with John telling them not to paint their cabinets
The first time we sat down with them, in 2017, they came in for a kitchen remodel. They wanted to paint their existing cabinetry, put in new stone counters, redo the flooring, and add a new backsplash.
John walked in, looked at those cabinets, and told them to leave them alone.
They were stained wood and they were in beautiful condition. So he asked them why.
Why paint these? They said the wood was making the kitchen feel dated, which is something I hear constantly, and I understand why people think it. But quality wood cabinetry is timeless. Most of the time, new hardware is all it takes to bring it forward.
That conversation cost us work and we had it anyway. I'd rather talk someone out of spending money they don't need to spend than take it.
What I didn't know until recently is that they thought he was out of his mind. "At first I couldn't believe a contractor would tell us to keep something that we had," they told me. "Everyone had white cabinets in 2017 and I thought that was what we needed to do to update the kitchen."
They took his word for it anyway. We did everything else, and that kitchen felt brand new. And nine years on, here's where they've landed on it:
"Looking back at it, painting those cabinets white would have changed the whole vibe of this house. They really set the tone for how we designed the rest of our house. John was right. Keeping them was the best decision we made in planning our kitchen update."
Those cabinets didn't just survive the remodel. They became the reference point for everything we've done in that house since.
Then came 2020, and the window replacement
They called us back to replace some windows. I'll be honest with you, that project tested every one of us.
Every window we pulled had rot behind it. The further we went, the more we found. We ended up replacing a significant amount of sheathing and siding before it was over. What started as a handful of windows became a full exterior renovation, windows, siding, and sheathing together. They'd planned on doing one section of the house and ended up doing all of it, because once we understood what was behind those walls, stopping partway didn't make sense.
Telling a client you found a problem is the hardest part of this job. Telling them again the next week, and again after that, is worse. There's no version of that conversation where you get to be the good guy, and I felt terrible for them.
They'd owned the house for about six years by then, and what they described wasn't frustration; it was fear. The house they'd been living in suddenly didn't feel safe. They started wondering what would have happened if they hadn't done the project when they did.
And then there was the snake.
"When they found the snake under the sliding glass door, I was over it! I didn't know what creepy thing was waiting for us the next time they opened a window or door. Thankfully, we knew Rick and John at this point, and we could honestly talk with them and joke with them about this project."
That's the whole thing, right there. They were frightened for their house, and they still trusted us enough to joke with us about it. So no, Rick wasn't actually banned. But by the end of that project, the joke wrote itself.
What stays with me is how they describe coming out the other side. Working through something that big and overcoming it is the reason they knew, in their words, that Solimine had their back. They felt like they could be honest with us, and they knew we expected the same from them.
That's what made the next two projects possible.
Then the living room
After everything 2020 put them through, the living room was a relief for all of us.
We installed beams in the ceiling, painted, and refinished the floors. On paper that's a short list. In person it changed the entire room.
This is the project where I saw what they'd meant about those cabinets setting the tone. Wood beams overhead, the original floors brought back instead of covered up. They weren't chasing a trend here any more than they were in the kitchen. They were building on what the house already had, and nine years in, that choice has held up better than any trend would have.
It's also the project that convinced me they'd be back. When someone keeps making good decisions, there's usually another room on the list.
And this past July, the bathroom remodel
When their name came up again I was thrilled, and a little nervous for them.
They were ready to do their bathroom and they wanted us on the design and the construction both. So we opened it up, and this time? Nothing. No rot, no surprises, nothing waiting behind a wall. Rick could stop in whenever he wanted.
We spent time together in our Danbury design studio working through it, and the material selections are what make this room. The vanity wall is a wood-panel tile, which you don't see often, and it plays off the countertops the way I hoped, but I couldn't fully picture it until it was installed. The floor is a black tile with brown and white running through it.
We did custom vanities through Fabuwood with Michelangelo quartzite from JF Granite. Our design center supplied the tile and cabinet hardware; all the plumbing fixtures came from Kohler, and the accent lighting is from Lamps Plus. The custom shower door is still on its way and will be the last piece to go in.
Ask them for a favorite part and you get "Just one? haha!" before they'll commit to anything. Eventually they pick the vanity area, for the wood panel tile against the countertops, and then they come right back around to the floor. "The flooring turned out even better than we could have imagined," they said. "We love the speckles of brown and white mixed into the black tile."
Those are the same two things I'd have picked. That room went from dated to exactly what they'd been describing to me, and watching it come together was one of my favorite stretches of the year. I'll admit it has me thinking about redoing my own bathroom.
Why they kept calling us back
Anybody can do one good remodel. Getting invited back a second time, and a third, and a fourth, after a stretch where we were the ones delivering bad news for weeks, is something else entirely. So I asked them about it, and the answer was simpler than I expected.
"We know what we're going to get! Each time it gets better. This bathroom project was the best yet. From the design process with Jonna in the design studio, the ease of working with John and crew on a day-to-day basis, the open communication, we couldn't have asked for a smoother process."
I'd rather tell you something you don't want to hear than sell you something you don't need, or stay quiet about something we found. Sometimes that costs us a job. It's also why this family in Brookfield still has our number, nine years after we talked them out of painting their cabinets.
I'll give them the last word, since it's their house:
"If you want to work with a company that has open communication and wants to do their best to make you happy, this is it. We could not be happier with our four projects with Solimine and would happily work with them again."
Thinking about a kitchen or bathroom remodel in Brookfield, Danbury, or anywhere in Fairfield County, CT? I'd love to talk about it.
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