What people said after the dust settled

They found the missing beam on the first visit and told us what it would cost before we signed anything. Every surprise after that had a photograph and a price attached.

Two other builders said our foundation would not take a second floor. Craft and Timber dug test pits and came back with numbers instead of an opinion.

Two other companies quoted framing and drywall without asking about the white crust on the wall. These people spent two weeks working out where the water came from.

Two quotes told us the floor was fine. Craft and Timber put a straightedge on it and let us look underneath ourselves. We would have tiled over a real problem.

Watching a frame they cut in a shed in Bozeman go together perfectly on our site in three days was the best day of the whole project.

We lived in the house for fourteen of the eighteen weeks. Every Friday we got a plan for the following week and they never once missed it.

The build was excellent. The county permit took six weeks longer than anyone expected, which was nobody's fault but still felt long.

They saved the 1911 staircase when I had accepted losing it. The newel post alone took their shop three days.

They flagged the septic bedroom count on day one. Our previous contractor would have framed the whole thing and then found out.

Every transition in the house is oak they made in the shop. Not one metal strip anywhere. It is the detail I point out to visitors.

The load calculation they ran before we chose appliances saved us from buying an induction range the house could not feed.

The old deck ledger had rotted the rim joist of the house and nobody had noticed for years. They found it, fixed it and showed me the photographs.

Outstanding structural work and communication. The finish schedule slipped two weeks waiting on windows, which they warned us about in week one.

They talked us out of the bedroom downstairs until the sill was cut lower, then showed us the tape measure. I would rather hear that in week one.