Birmingham

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Architectural Partner
Christopher J. Longe Architects
Square Footage
8,100

From the Client's Perspective

I had always wanted to build my own home, creating exactly what I wanted.  I had done a number of renovations, but they still were not exactly what I wanted.  When I found THE lot, my real estate agent recommended Young and Young Architects.  After extensive discussions and preliminary designs, we started interviewing builders.  Derocher had done some major renovation work for a family member who highly recommended them.  This particular family member, who shall remain nameless, is a very discriminating customer and does not recommend someone or a business unless they are very pleased with their work.  

After Derocher met with Y & Y and submitted their bid, the lead architect Don Paul said he had never seen such a precise and detailed proposal and was extremely impressed.  Based on Don’s review, I chose Derocher as my builder.  It was a long process, a lot longer than I had anticipated, but I’m sure that may have had to do with the immense size of the project, which grew substantially along the way.   

I remember during the building project, my real estate agent stopped by and was blown away by the cleanliness of the worksite.  She said she had never seen such a clean project.  I never had any issues with Derocher when I or my designer or architect had changes.  They simply went with the flow.   

Bill Derocher or Frank, the superintendent on the job were always available for questions or meetings or phone calls.  There were so many things involved that I never anticipated, but Derocher made them less stressful than I would have expected.  This is not to say there were no bumps along the way, but they were made easier to deal with by Derocher.  

To this day, Derocher is part of the family and both Bill and Frank remain on speed dial.  With a home this size, there are always going to be issues to be addressed, and Derocher does their best to handle them on a timely basis.  They deal with the maintenance of the home and grounds, working with subcontractors and making sure annual checks and services are properly scheduled and performed. If a sub is not “doing” the job as expected, Derocher is proactive and finding, interviewing and getting a replacement.  Derocher is # 2 on the call list for my alarm company. They act as “caretakers” when I’m on vacation, checking on the house to make sure everything is OK.  All in all, I’m very pleased with the choice I made picking Derocher to build my dream home.  Now that I’ve done it once, I know the things I would do differently, change, add, delete etc., and would have no hesitation to use Derocher IF and when I build dream house # 2.