Longfellow Design Build

Longfellow Design recently completed renovations on my kitchen and two bathrooms. I would highly recommend Longfellow Design as a business with a knowledgeable, professional, and caring staff committed to quality workmanship.

I am very pleased with their attention to schedules (they finished the work by the projected finish date!), workmanship, and communication avenues provided. From day one they clearly communicated the options I had in design and in the selection of cabinets, counter tops, floor tiles, and fixtures. Owner Mark Bogosian ably guided me through the overall design and construction process. Designers Mark and Gene readily gave me input on bathroom and kitchen design and suggested materials to choose. The construction team of Geo, Marcelo, and Evan aimed to please. With careful coordination and master craftsmanship, they made the magic happen.

My lifesaver for the entire project, however, was designer Ann-Marie. She would contact me (email, phone call, text) to help with scheduling and attend to the many details that made the day-to-day schedule work smoothly and make the end results what I wanted. She is a punctual, patient, detailed-oriented, and dedicated worker at Longfellow Design. I felt as though she became my personal designer. We met many times in Longfellow's comfortable showroom and conferred often. "Ann-Marie, what pendant lamp looks better in this space... What tile goes with my color palette... Can we change... Could you come look at the gray paint chips I'm considering for the bathroom?" She also served as the most efficient communicator between me and the entire Longfellow team of people who so masterfully transformed my old, dated kitchen and bathrooms into stylish, attractive spaces.

We contracted with Longfellow in the spring of 2022 for a second floor remodel/master suite addition. I want to preface this review by acknowledging that the majority of the problems we had with Longfellow were largely due to our contractor and the subcontractors he hired, and our property was outside of their typical work area. However, the Longfellow team made a major error when submitting our plans for approval and submitted an incorrect version (despite my asking our contact there to send me a copy of the plans before they went to the town, which we did not receive.) As a result, our windows are misaligned and we had to compromise on some of our "must haves" to work within the revised structure. In addition to the error with the plans, there were multiple (and sometimes costly) mistakes made by the contractor and his team including - ordering the wrong windows (then ordering the wrong number of replacement windows), ordering (and nearly installing) an incorrect floor, ordering the wrong roofing, damaging our siding, and more. In addition, the longer we are in the property, the more we noticed many poor-quality finishes (misaligned door frames, gaping trim work, sloppy cuts for ventilation, multiple holes that needed to be patched after paint work was done, etc.) They also threw out an antique door that was not intended to be replaced, and therefore we had to order a custom replacement at our own cost, as it was a non-standard size. Finally, we had to chase them for a long period of time to get the final work and permitting complete, and had to deal with patching multiple holes that they left in our "finished" house, as well as trying to track down a replacement window due to multiple misorders. Perhaps the one positive thing I can say is that our project came in under budget, although there were multiple "forgotten" invoices from early months that magically appeared when we were reconciling our deposit return, and it took nearly 8 weeks (and multiple chases) after the final refund amount was agreed on to actually get the check in the mail. For all these reasons, and more, I cannot recommend hiring them, and would encourage anyone (especially if you are not on the Cape) to find a different builder.

Avoid at all cost. My in-laws hire these con men to build them a custom home, the build was overpriced, over budget, and over due. Would not recommend.

Prefer Andover Construction if Somerville. The owner is an architect, has 40 years experience, and is knowledgeable and helpful. He does things promptly. For example, he sends brochures when he says he will.

Good contractors are hard to find on Cape Cod, especially for the everyday person who isn't living here in a mansion or just in the summer months. Simply getting someone to call you back or ever provide a proper quote is harder than it seems. I was initially hopeful about Longfellow because they were good about call backs and communicating, but I quickly learned that they were really just one giant sales pitch excited about showing off their showroom.

We had a site visit and had hoped to meet for a second visit at their showroom to look at plans and examples of similar work they had done in the area. When we arrived at the showroom at the time they had appointed, they had nothing pulled aside for us and told us in order to show us plans they'd have to have someone dig through the basement. I could tell immediately that they really just wanted us to gawk at their showroom. Yeah, ok it's nice, but I left work to come meet you and see other work you've done. They threw together a few home renovations that were nothing like what we were hoping to do and then gave us an updated estimate nearly $100K more than what was discussed at the site visit. It kind of felt like the car salesman of builders. Thanks, but no thanks.

Worked many years with lots of contractors/builders. Have never experienced such great responsiveness and quality work.

We hired kitchen bath Ltd out of Osterville just before they merged with Longfellow build. The project was a kitchen remodel and started two years ago. We had nothing but problems since the beginning. Poorly finished cabinets and doors, scratched granite counter tops, etc. Now the tile floor is cracking and coming up. Each time someone comes to look at it, it takes weeks for them to get back to us and nothing seems to get resolved.
The last visit Tom told us that they would come back when it gets cooler to see if it gets better or worse. Meanwhile every time you walk on the floor it cracks and pops and all we get is lip service.

I called the Falmouth Office because my husband and I wish to build an addition to our house. We have admired Longfellow's designs and their work looks beautiful. However, the person who answered the phone didn't know if the company could build porches and landscaping for a pool we intend to build. She said she would ask the owner and get back to us. Several weeks later, we still have not received a call back. It is a shame the person answering the phone did not know whether or not the company "does that sort of thing". I am disappointed we never got the chance to consult with your firm. I suppose you have enough work, so you don't need to bother to get back to potential clients.Eventhough the work looks good, your very unprofessional attitude cost you this job. We will find another person who wants the job

I contacted them regarding a basement refinishing job. They sent someone out to look at it and give me an estimate. After two weeks I had all the estimates from all the contractors except Longfellow. I followed up and asked if they wanted to submit a bid. I even told them that if the job was too small or they didn't have the time, then that was fine, just let me know so that I wouldn't be waiting.

I was told that the guy who came to look at the job just got married and was away on his honeymoon and, because of this, some estimates had fallen between the cracks and were missed. I was assured that I would receive an estimate soon. Another month later, no estimate, no follow up, nothing. They obviously had no interest in the job but rather than say so, they kept stringing me along, waiting and holding up other contractors.

It makes me wonder how long it would have taken to get the job done if they had taken it

Mark (owner) and our project manager (Kevin) were outstanding to work with on our North Falmouth home. We decided last fall to re-design the exterior style of our home and received quotes from three different companies. Our goal was to completely change the exterior style from a contemporary saltbox to a more traditional Cape Cod style. Ideally I wanted shingles and windows that opened up/down vs the contemporary crank-out windows our home had.

The other two companies we met with basically said that they could shingle the exterior and do all new windows but that the windows would still be the crank-out/more narrow style. They told me the window options were limited with my budget so we had to work within the existing window socket dimensions. Their quotes also came in $10-20k higher than my budget.

When I met with Mark, not only did I immediately get a sense that he did high quality work, but I felt I could trust him and valued his input on the project more than anyone else we met with. He took the time to really speak with me about my vision for the home, my budget, and then we came up with a plan to do the project the RIGHT way. We ultimately hired the Longfellow company to re-do our home, and they worked to add shingles on the front and side of the house, but we left the back with the old siding. They also added new up/down closure windows that were slightly wider than my old windows with a pane at the top (for a more traditional look). We discussed the key windows to change on the front/side/back of the house, focusing on ones that were at the end of their lifespan and also those that affected the style of the house - this ended up being all windows on the front, select windows on the side, and one in the back. And I loved Mark's idea on only doing the front and side shingles for now. If we have the budget in a year or two, we can consider adding shingles to the back of our home, but to Mark's point, you really don't even notice the back siding on the house. This plan allowed us to stay within budget but we still were able to transform the exterior to truly be a traditional Cape Cod salt box style.

The team got the job done (the key tasks at least) before the Thanksgiving holiday as planned. There were a few follow ups that I worked with them on in the upcoming months, including a new garage door, light fixtures etc. All and all, the exterior looks EVEN BETTER than I had envisioned. Without Mark's guidance on how to best spend the money to get the result I want, it wouldn't have been possible.

Great company and people- I would HIGHLY recommend them!