Our experience renovating our kitchen

I got a lot of information from this board that helped with our recent kitchen renovation, so I thought I would report to help others who are going through the process.

We live in a coop in Prospect Heights and remodeled our small (approx 9×9) kitchen. We interviewed 4 contractors whose names we got off various websites and from people in our building. The quotes ranged from $5,000 to $15,000 for labor. We normally would not have considered the high or the low bids, but ended up going with the low because he had done work in the building so we could see his work and he came highly recommended. His name is Mentor Frangu and his company is Altina Tile Care.

We had initially planned on going with Kraftmaid cabinets and were going to Lowes and dealing with Alicia Mead who was recommended on this board. She was great to work with, however, we did not use her because Lowes does not do measurements unless they do the installation, and none of the contractors we interviewed measured either. We then went to Gold and Reiss, who was recommended to us by other people in our building. We had planned on going with them until I checked out Park Slope Kitchen Gallery, who was also recommended on this board. We dealt with Keenia Farrell there, and she was wonderful. They have only a small selection of brands for cabinets, but we really liked the Medallion cabinets and she also had the best price on our Casesarstone counters.

For flooring, we had looked all over. We ordered tile from Country Floors, but then did not like the color when we received it. We returned that tile (minus a 30% restocking fee) and ended up getting porcelain tiles from A&K tiles on 9th Street in Park Slope and we happy with their service and price.

For the backsplash we went to Nemo tile. Unfortunately, we fell in love with their Insterstyle glass tiles and they are the only dealer that carries this line in the area. I say unfortunately because the price was very high (and the shipping was about $450 and took over six weeks) and the customer service was bad. We dealt with a salesman there named Steven who was quite condescending and not responsive to our concerns. The tiles are beautiful, but we certainly won’t be going back there.

The cabinets arrived on time and Mentor and his worker began work on January 7th. In 7 days of work they removed a wall and all cabinets, etc, moved electrical, installed a waterproofing membrane (required by our board), and installed recessed lighting, flooring, and cabinets. Our counter was installed a week later and Mentor returned for one day to connect the water. We then had to wait a month for the backsplash to come in and he did that in a day.

If you are looking to have some work done, I would definitely consider interviewing Mentor- I can not recommend him highly enough. His prices are great, his quality is very good, and he is a completely trustworthy and reliable man. He wouldn’t even take a dime from us until the cabinets were installed. If you contact him and would like further information or to see his work, ask him for Andy’s phone number as a reference.
Mentor Frangu, Altina Tile Care: 917-692-6234

I would also highly recommend working with Keenia from Park Slope Kitchen Gallery: 233 Prospect Ave, nr 5th Ave 718-832-0002