Ben and Natalie Hoffman

Dear Bob,

We are writing to thank you for the wonderful change you helped us make in our 1955 ranch in 2009, when we completely stripped the home’s 2,200 square foot interior all the way to the studs and reinvented it as our dream home.  When we first decided to take the plunge into this remodel, we had a vision of beauty combined with energy efficiency and environmental health and wellness. You definitely helped us achieve it — all the while demonstrating true caring about both your work and your customers.  It was a pleasure working with you.

Your estimate and detailed scope of work were delivered quickly and with exceptional detail.  You were always available for us and very responsive to our needs, questions and concerns. You demonstrated expertise in green building and explained things to us in ways we could understand, as lay people, and you always made us feel comfortable and excited about the project.  And, in the end, you did build us our dream home.

We found that working with you had an added and unique benefit because of Fireside Home Construction’s dedicated, full-time team of building professionals and your long-term relationships with the trade craftspeople you engage on your projects.  Their immense combined experience was invaluable to our project and your long-standing relationships with them proved very beneficial to both the quality of our home and to our budget.  Because of you, everyone on the job gave more in terms of creativity and flexibility.  In the end, that helped us put the greatest number of green building principles, products and technologies in place while remaining within our very firm budget.

And we are thrilled.  Our new home, twice the size of our previous home, is more beautiful, more comfortable, healthier for our family and has comparable energy bills — an enormous achievement in energy efficiency and a great relief for us!

Thank you, Bob.  We love our home and are grateful for the outstanding service you and your team members provided in making our dream a reality.

Sincerely,

Ben and Natalie Hoffman

Bob and Marj 

The house Bob Burnside and Fireside Home Construction built for us is a dream come true.  From the initial meetings with Bob, when we worked on our ideas, to the design phase working with Riverbend, through construction when it came together before our eyes, there was Bob explaining what was going on and what we needed to focus on next.  Decisions, decisions, decisions!  And now we get to live with, and in those decisions!

Bob Burnside is the honest builder we all should have when we embark on a home build.  Bob steered us right with the type of construction that comes standard with a Fireside home (Green, with high efficiency heating and lighting, great insulation and the attention it took to make the house extremely air-tight) and just beautiful, too!  There is nothing like a timberframe home.

Thank you, Bob, and your whole organization for our beautiful new home.  Everyone who sees it agrees that it is something special.  If you would like someone to see it, send them over.  We love to show it off!

Bob & Marj

Barbara

It is my great pleasure to write this testimonial letter for Bob Burnside and Fireside Home Construction, who were the main contractors for some remodeling work to my Westside Ann Arbor home. Many contractors say that they treat your home as if it were their own, but with Fireside Home Construction, that statement is much more than a cliche-it governs every aspect of the work that Fireside does, from the initial customer contact through the [mal stages of the project work. '

I have been involved in a number of house remodeling projects over the years, and have been pleased with most of the contractors who have done work at my house. However, it is rare in my experience to complete a project with the feeling that remodeling really is an enjoyable experience and it would be fun to do it again! But that is the feeling I had when Fireside completed their work at my house.

Honesty and integrity are perhaps the most important qualities I look for in someone doing work for me. Is a contractor willing to inflate a price or try to convince me to buy something that I don't need or want in order to increase his profit? Is a contractor willing to cut comers in materials or workmanship behind my back? I was again and again impressed by Bob Burnside's honesty and straightforward approach, a reputation that was also confirmed by other home construction professionals with whom I spoke regarding his work.

I was also impressed with how carefully Bob listened-not only to the elements of the project that were important to me, but also to my budgeting priorities and constraints.
I enjoyed very much the nature of our collaboration-he used his considerable technical experience/expertise to translate my needs and constraints into construction possibilities. If he saw a problem with something I was suggesting, he would let me know what pitfalls he saw and why. His comments and suggestions were always supported by good reasoning and solid data.

Bob also pays careful attention to all the details and always does what he says he will do-including staying on schedule and within budget (sometimes even coming in under budget!). He uses quality materials and takes great pride in his workmanship. He selects with care the tradespeople working for him, and all the tradespeople whom he engaged to work on my house demonstrated the same high standards as Bob and Fireside.

Finally, I think Bob and Fireside demonstrate an extraordinary creativity/problem-solving ability and a very big commitment to customer satisfaction.

It is my great pleasure to give Bob Burnside and Fireside Home Construction my highest possible recommendation. In my experience, it would be difficult to find a better person and company to work with to design and carry out a home construction proj ect.

Barbara L

Don & Kathie 

We are still enjoying the enhancements you did for us in our attached garage last spring. Our garage was the only "stick-built" portion of our home, a Riverbend timberframe home built back in 1998. It got incredibly hot in the summertime sun, and was as cold as the outdoors in the wintertime, because almost no heat leaked into it from our super-insulated home. Your foam insulation in the walls, cellulose insulation in the ceiling, and wallboarding throughout has made the garage as 'tight' as the rest of our home. During this past summer, the indoor temperature never rose above eighty degrees and usually was in the low 70s, with no air conditioning. Now that it is cooler, I bring my hot car into the garage after driving, rather than leaving it outside for a cooling-off period.

I am looking forward to turning on the new overhead gas heater when the temperature gets colder, and commuting to work in a 50-degree car even on zero-weather days. The garage is also a workshop for me, and will be useable even in the most extreme outdoor temperatures. It is a lot brighter on the inside, with the finished drywall instead of the original studs and backside of the exterior siding on the inside before this work.

I will recommend your company for anyone who wants to have a hassle-free home improvement, or to have a home built. The renovation went very well, and the end result is as good as we hoped.

Don and Kathie

Jennifer and Alon

Dear Bob,

We are so pleased with our lower level remodel. You essentially took an entire floor of our house, which started as an empty shell, and created a warm, welcoming apartment out of it.

From the beginning planning stages, we were impressed with your suggestions about the design of our project. We never felt the need to hire an architect because your design plans totally incorporated our needs. Your work team is truly impressive, especially since you have had long working relationships with so many of its members, so we felt comfortable as we watched them do their jobs with obvious experience and expertise. We especially appreciate how flexible you and your team were when we changed our minds about details during the construction process - you were able to accomplish just about anything we asked for, even when it wasn't part of the original plan. Your team cared for our home and kept it extremely clean and neat throughout this large project, which made it easy for us to continue our regular activities without being inconvenienced. We appreciate the fact that the budget was realistic and provided great value for the price. And it's amazing to us that we finished our project totally on budget and even ahead of schedule, which is practically unheard of!

So thank you for a wonderful job. We would recommend your company without reservation to any of our friends, and we look forward to working with you again on our next construction project.

Sincerely,

Jennifer and Alon