Real stories from across San Diego.

Interviewer: What prompted you to start the process of getting a remodel?

Homeowner 1: Like a lot of people who have lived in a house for a long time, 25 years for us, it was time for a refresh and something new.

Interviewer: What was the best part of working with Kaminskiy?

Homeowner 2: I’ll answer that. I think the design team was fantastic. Going through thousands of choices, you guys made it really easy for us.

Interviewer: What’s your favorite part of your new bathroom?

Homeowner 1: Well, it’s easy for me. I like everything, but most of all, I like that my wife likes it.

Homeowner 2: Our favorite part for sure is the bathtub. Everything is great, but the spa-like feel, you guys really captured that. I love the tile, the bathtub, sitting in the bathtub with the view is amazing.

Interviewer: Why did you choose to go in this direction style-wise?

Homeowner 2: My lifestyle is just so busy in general. To come into a spa-like feel kind of breaks up my day and calms me down. It’s just a nice feel.

Interviewer: What would you like to tell someone who’s maybe thinking about starting a remodel?

Homeowner 1: If you work with Kaminskiy, you won’t have to think too much about it because they do a lot of the research. They’re very talented and have a lot of knowledge. My experience working with them was great communication, very professional. So start there and you’ll enjoy it.

I’m completely impressed with the craftsmanship and the professionalism of Kaminskiy.

I moved into the house about two years ago and it was the original design from 1990. It had not been updated. Square tile countertops, the old oak cabinets. The kitchen just didn’t have a good flow, so I really wanted something that would work for my home, to have people over, entertain, and have an open space.

I heard about Kaminskiy Design at the Home Exposition in Del Mar. I saw Andrea at the booth and that’s where it all started. What interested me in Kaminskiy was the professional presentation they had of past projects and all of the good reviews. I could see before and after pictures of previous projects, and that really drew me in, in addition to what appeared to me to be a very professional approach with a strong team between design and build.

I’m not good at design. I don’t know much about design. I worked with Andrea and she helped me every step of the way. Not only coming up with what would work as a design I had in mind, but thinking outside the box and providing alternatives, really helping me come up with a creative and fantastic design. You can see that in the end result.

There are a couple of focal points I really like. The entire kitchen is fantastic, but the huge island is great for entertaining. It’s a great working space. The fireplace really turned out well, two-sided and wrapped in tile. It gives you that stone look. The banquette is just a great addition to the kitchen area, and I’m looking forward to using it a lot.

During construction, this is a shout-out to the project manager Brandon and his team, they did a fantastic job of keeping the work area sealed off, keeping a clean environment, and keeping me apprised every step of the way. Their workmanship and craftsmanship has completely impressed me, and you can see that in the product.

The remodel has completely changed the way I use my home. I have more people over. It’s much more of an entertaining house now. It’s wide open and there’s great space for people to move around and hang out. Even when I’m here by myself, it’s the most comfortable setting to kick back, enjoy the fireplace, and work in the kitchen. I just love it.

Definitely talk to Kaminskiy. It’s a very professional company. It’s been a great project to work with them, and I’m completely happy with the outcome.

We started out knowing we wanted a lot of tile. That was going to be the core of the project. This bathroom was 20-plus years old, very dated. The bathtub was not functional. We had a very small shower enclosure. Just a general dissatisfaction with what we had day to day.

We went through a couple of interview processes with other companies and we couldn’t find anybody who could come up with a design plan that was even close to what we were looking for. My web browser was up on my screen and I started looking for bathroom design companies. I saw Kaminskiy’s website, very professional. I liked all the different projects they’ve worked on. That was the seed, and it was really easy from that point forward to move forward meeting Andrea.

I had some ideas about what I was looking for, but Kaminskiy really brought it into a material reality, which we were not going to do otherwise. The design process, which was very key to everything, was not going to be your normal off-the-shelf. It was very detailed. It was very protracted, we all worked together. It was truly a collaborative effort, and that’s what I really loved about it. A great meshing of ideas, and the outcome was spectacular in my opinion.

Having tile as a central feature of the bathroom was going to be very important from the execution standpoint. They delivered. It’s gorgeous every day. I look at it and I’m impressed. The outcome was wonderful. Then having all the other elements to complement that central theme brought it all together.

The grout was mixed across three or four different samples to get it to match with the tile. We have contrasting tile, so that took a lot of extra effort. That’s attention to detail that, unless you really study it, you might not appreciate. The best outcome is that it’s very transparent, and I think that’s been achieved.

At this point, I would not entertain anybody else to do a bathroom or a kitchen project other than Kaminskiy because the outcome, the whole journey, was worth it to me. That’s what it’s all about. I’m passionate about this. I’m very pleased.

We were noticing that the cabinets were starting to show wear, and we were asking ourselves, should we have them redone, or should we just go for a completely different look? Then we decided it’s time to update, time to do something fun.

We actually talked to some designers, and they made it clear that they could design the kitchen, but they wouldn’t do any of the contracting and they wouldn’t guarantee any of the results. It seemed like a lot more work for us.

We had worked with Kaminskiy before, and we really wanted, we both still work, so we wanted a soup to nuts design with a single team to see us through the whole project, like the last time. My partner had had a disappointing experience with some other contractors when we built the back of our house, and he probably went with Kaminskiy because of reputation, licensing, things like that. It’s just a more professional outfit.

My favorite part of the new kitchen is the storage. We redesigned the cabinets and the layout so that I would have a lot more storage and a lot less to clean. The cabinets go all the way to the ceiling, the countertops are very cleanable, everything is just easier, and I get to have a lot more storage. The type of storage works better for us too. It was nice to have that built into the design.

If people were to ask me who to hire for a kitchen remodel or a bathroom, I would recommend Kaminskiy because of how smooth the process was and how comprehensive all of the services were. The design, the acquisition of the material, the schedule, the payments, everything was a one stop shop, which was very nice.

Interviewer: How did you hear about Kaminskiy, and what motivated you to reach out for a consultation on your home renovation?

The first conversation that we had made me feel comfortable, made me feel like my needs would be addressed. I did talk to other people where I felt like they were just pushing their ideas. If anything, I would tell them no, it was not supposed to be that way. Kaminskiy made me comfortable, and that was my major reason.

The fact that they could connect and immediately bounce ideas off each other and come up with a design that worked, that she was comfortable with, that was the most important thing for me.

Interviewer: Would you describe your experience of the evolution of the design?

When I saw the way you worked with the kitchen, the countertop was the first thing we did. It was a very different shape, a hexagonal shape, and my husband did not like the six pointed corners there. We put that together with you and we said, okay, the kitchen is the main thing we need to change, nothing else. But the way you put in this countertop that is right behind us here won me over.

Then I said, okay, I want personalization in every room in this house. I had to convince my husband that this is not just the kitchen, that I need Alex’s touch and Jean’s touch in every room in this house. So we ended up with pretty much every room having something Kaminskiy has done.

Our house was dated. We lived here 25 years and many of the features were of that era when it was built, and our children have moved out, and we decided we wanted a refreshing new look to our house.

The design allowed us to have much more functional space that looked much better. Also the new features, new cabinets, the look of everything, the new sink, everything functions much better than it did before, but also looks much better than it did before.

The design process was good in being interactive. We had a really good designer. We had to go around a few times to try to figure out what we really wanted. We didn’t really know exactly what we wanted until we went through a few iterations of it.

The functionality and the look of our kitchen and family room, that is probably where we spend most of our time when we have friends or family over.

I love the fireplace, and the other two fireplaces just have a unique look to them, and one of the best features I think turned out to be the stairway that was redone. It’s just really beautiful. We enjoy just being around the house probably more than we did before.

I would recommend Kaminskiy Remodeling. Ultimately we feel like this project worked out very nicely and we’re very happy with the end results.

I decided to remodel my bathroom because I fell in my other bathtub. I’ve been falling outside too. I’m 80 years old. I’m doing different things in life now, so I wanted a new bathroom with a tub I wouldn’t have to stand up in.

I looked online and compared several different sites. Your reviews were the best. So I called. I did call a couple of others and interviewed them as well. The tub wasn’t necessarily the one I wanted at first, but you guys helped me do all the tiles. I hadn’t even thought about tiles. I didn’t know what I wanted, and it turned out beautiful. The color combination, I love it.

I liked that the team enjoyed working with each other. I never heard a negative thing any of them said about each other. They complimented each other, “the other guy left this perfect for me so I can do this.” I like that.

Mike brought me in several times to say, “we can put this anywhere. I would suggest here, but what do you want to do?” For instance, I read when I take a bath, so we talked a lot about where to put the light so I wouldn’t have a big shadow. That’s important. You don’t think about those things, at least I didn’t. And the electrical plugs, having one on either side of my single sink. That was a really nice idea.

I have to compliment the fact that every single product I got was excellent. I’ve experienced in other houses where when you plug in, the whole apparatus comes out. I hate that. I don’t know what they do wrong, but I’ve experienced it in two different houses I’ve lived in. These I just plug in. It’s easy.

And of course the bathtub. I selected it, and the pedestal too. I wanted it to be higher, but then everybody got into “okay, how is this going to look and where is it going to be.” It looks really great. I’m very pleased with that.

I love the window. The window’s up high, and that’s interesting because we get the afternoon sun in the summer. I won’t get direct sun in that window in the summer, but in the winter I will. I don’t know if that was a trick or on purpose, but I love that.

They even changed a couple of things because I asked about it, and I appreciated that. We asked about an extra thing, and Brenda came in and we talked about that and how much it would cost, and that worked really great. I felt very listened to.

All of them really worked. Mike was here the longest, so he’s the person I remember the most. He didn’t talk about himself, mostly he talked about the project. Of course I’ll use them again when I have another project. Yes, of course.

Homeowner 1: Basically, this house is like 52 years old and the cabinets were dissolving, just falling apart.

Homeowner 2: In the original kitchen.

Homeowner 1: Yeah. It was time.

Homeowner 2: The footprint of the kitchen is unchanged. We haven’t expanded it, but the design of the countertop has really allowed us to entertain more people more comfortably. And because I like to bake, I can spread out all of my baking equipment and just have a lot more room to work. I can find my equipment a lot more easily too. It’s just better design.

Homeowner 1: And it’s nice that two people can be working here at one time. We don’t stumble across each other anymore. Everybody’s got their space. You can get to everything you need. You don’t have to push people out of the way. The flow is way, way better.

The countertop is so easy to maintain. Everything wipes clean with soap and water. It doesn’t stain. We don’t have to treat it with anything. It’s just simplicity and clean.

Homeowner 2: They listened to what we needed. They heard what we needed and wanted, and they were able to implement it. And they came up with some very creative ideas to help us reach our goal.

Homeowner 1: We actually ran into some companies that told us what they couldn’t do. “Oh, you can’t do that. Oh, if you did that, you’d need this.” Kaminskiy never did that. They were like, “interesting, let’s see what you come up with.” And it was so refreshing to see that.

My husband and I knew when we bought the house that we would never use the big old tub that was in the bathroom. Within a year after we moved in, his health was going downhill. He said to me, “be sure and fix the bathroom as soon as you can after I’m gone so it’ll be ready in case you ever need it.” This was due to some physical difficulties he was having getting in and out of the shower. We never ever did use that bathtub. Not once.

This was going to be one of the biggest things I ever did on my own. With my husband gone, and I had received a fairly serious diagnosis that might possibly end up needing a wheelchair. So I was very conscious of getting this done and getting it done right.

I have a friend who’s in the construction business and I talked to him about some of the things I should be looking for. The things that were important to me were a company that had a reputation for ethical building practices, treating people fairly, and access to good craftsmen to do the detail work so that it looks lovely and is also very functional. So ethical practices, good craftsmen, a teamwork approach. This firm is represented by people who do what they say they will do. They’re available when I have questions or need something to be slightly changed.

My friend sat in on the initial Zoom interviews with all three of the companies I had narrowed it down to, through reading websites and what I could pick up from the pictures. He asked some questions that I would certainly not have known to ask, because I’m not in this business and I have had very little experience with remodeling.

What I like most is that it’s exactly like I pictured it. That says to me the people I was working with really listened to what I had to say. It’s actually better than I pictured it, but very close to what I described to them in the diagram that I drew. I love having the windows over near where the old tub used to be. A lot of sunshine comes in.

What I was most looking forward to is getting a functional shower. I would have been happy with a one or two inch lip to step over, but in the initial conversation with the person who came and walked through the project with me and made some suggestions, I realized it was possible to have a totally flat walk-in shower that could accommodate a wheelchair if I ever needed it. That was really exciting to me.

I love my bathroom. I love my bathroom so much. As we speak, I’m having a little buffet table built to fit under the window. I would love to recommend Kaminskiy to anyone who would like to talk to me about it.

The reason Kaminskiy stood apart for us was their people-oriented approach. They were always wondering about us as people first and then our home. It wasn’t just a house and a project. It was actually people and homes that they’re trying to improve, which is great because that’s what we wanted. We wanted someone who connected with us on a personal level, but also understood that we live here. This is our home. They kept that approach all the way through the project.

The team was always professional. The head of staff Kimberly, our designer Jean, and project manager Brandon, and all the trades and subs, they’re all very professional, all courteous. We had a lot of fun as well as worked through the design and issues together. It was a team effort all the time, which was really nice.

Their communication was great. The whole experience was very exciting for us, and having a team like that that was always thinking about you and how you use your home and the space was really great.

It was actually really easy once we started using it. The software was very user-friendly. What was nice about it is the financial part, making payments was very easy. Direct payments, no check writing. It was all tracked in the software. All the progress, the calendar, the schedule for construction was all there, all at your fingertips. We really appreciated that software. It helped us understand the project from start to finish.

We’ve actually had some family visits already, and instead of spending time with us, which is what they were here for, they actually spent more time taking pictures of our remodel. Although we had a few dinners together, and they told us how beautiful our house is.

One thing we’re impressed by, and so were they, was the attention to detail of all the remodel areas of our home. As for friends, we’ve had several people walk by the house while the construction was going on and they’ve actually already taken pictures of the sign to follow up with Kaminskiy for their projects. Literally about six blocks up the street, some of our friends are doing their kitchen as we speak with Kaminskiy. We highly recommend Kaminskiy to all of our friends and family.

Homeowner 1: We’re both 70 years old, we’ve been married for decades, and we’ve hired dozens of contractors over the years. Interior, exterior, roofing, landscaping, bathroom, kitchen, everything. We’ve never actually had a super positive experience with those contractors until Kaminskiy came along. And that’s the darn truth. Never had a better or more positive experience.

Homeowner 2: Everything that Ted said comes down to the professionalism and the quality of work that we saw.

Homeowner 1: Quality was very important to us. Fabulous quality was delivered.

Homeowner 2: To me it was superior, particularly with regards to the communication. We didn’t have surprises. We knew who to be expecting. Everybody was extremely professional. They were very careful with maintaining cleanliness as they were leaving, which is one of the issues that can be extremely challenging with most contractors. But your team did an excellent job making it respectable coming into the home.

Homeowner 1: One hundred percent agree with that. I wrote a few words for a Yelp review, and I just want to read one passage on how my experience with the team was. I wrote: “Everybody we spoke with and worked with was super attentive, extremely responsive, technical experts in their specialty area as well as artistic, creative, and a joy to work with.” And I believe that.

Homeowner 2: Number one, I love the space. We have a much larger bathroom than we did before. I absolutely love how much storage area we have. Storage over the toilet, storage everywhere. It’s amazing. That is absolutely a highlight. And when it came to more personalized requests, the team was very creative with ideas. We have a beautiful glass partition between the shower and the toilet area, specialized with a custom glass manufacturer in Carlsbad. And then you may also see some plants. Live plants incorporated into our bathroom.

Homeowner 1: We only have plants in pots in the kitchen, but here they’re part of the architecture. Honey, what would you say in one word?

Homeowner 2: A hundred percent.

Homeowner 1: I want to read my final sentence in my Yelp review that I wrote for Kaminskiy: “In short, Kaminskiy deserves a strong five-star review for how they turned our dated 1985 primary bathroom into a beautiful, functional, modern bathroom that we get to enjoy every single day.” I would actually give a six-star review if they made them available.

Homeowner 1: We decided to choose Kaminskiy after we interviewed about six different contractors. We walk our dog around the neighborhood, we noticed there was a Kaminskiy sign, and we happened to see the owners in the yard. We discussed their experience with Kaminskiy and it was very positive. Another reason we liked Kaminskiy was their combination of design and remodel all in the same package. Most of the other contractors required a separate designer to create the plans, and then they would do the construction. A lot of them were pressing us to use custom cabinetry. We liked that Kaminskiy allowed us to use a semi-custom approach to save a little money.

Homeowner 2: A number of things pointed to Kaminskiy. Recommendations we’d gotten, internet searches, and just the openness of the people we worked with really helped solidify our decision. Kaminskiy was the most open to ideas. “We’ll figure that out,” or “that’s a great idea, we’ll see what we can do.” Some folks were a little bit more, “oh, you can’t do that, that’s going to be too expensive.” The attitude of “let’s hear your ideas and see what we can do” was great. We certainly had a budget, and we helped each other come up with just a great design and a super functional kitchen that’s fun to be in, easy to keep clean, easy to cook in. I’m delighted.

Homeowner 1: One of our ideas was to put plumbing in an island. A lot of the other contractors said, “oh, we’ll have to cut through the slab, it’s going to be kind of a pain to do all that.” You guys didn’t present that at all.

Homeowner 1: The fact that you’re a going concern, I mean, I look around and there’s like eight people here. Some of the other contractors we had discussions with, there was like one guy and that was it. He was going to be the carpenter and the electrician and do everything. That’s why Kaminskiy was so appealing to us.

Homeowner 2: We like how spacious it feels, how there’s room for multiple people to be working, to be munching, to be helping, to be chatting. It’s a very comfortable space. I’d seen the dual faucet idea in some design photos online and thought, what a great idea. His and hers faucets makes it super functional. Many people have a water filter faucet anyway, so why not have a fully functional second faucet? So we have filtered water through the left faucet, and a heated water booster on the right side. We use both of them every single day. It makes the space comfortable for two chefs.

Homeowner 1: And we don’t have to wait for each other. We would definitely recommend Kaminskiy to our friends and family.

Homeowner 2: Our experience was overall just wonderful.

Homeowner 1: A combination of their willingness to work with us and their competence was wonderful.

Homeowner 2: I’ve recommended Kaminskiy and have had people from my work come over and see our beautiful kitchen. It’s delightful.

Homeowner 1: I thought everything was wonderful. I don’t have any complaints.

Homeowner 1: Before was awful. We hated it. It had brown cabinets that were too tall and stuck out too far, the colors were ugly, and it made the bathroom very dark.

Homeowner 1: Now it’s bright. It’s happy colors. We have this beautiful shower and we don’t have to worry about tripping into a bathtub or any of that. It’s lovely.

Homeowner 2: I like the fact that I was sent pictures several times a week to keep us updated, and that we could respond and make recommendations, or at least keep the dialogue open.

Homeowner 1: What you didn’t know is that Jeff sent emails about ten o’clock and I got tuned into that, so I’d be like, “are we going to get one? We’re going to get one.” And then I’d say, “more pictures, please.” But he was very good. He kept us informed, and if I had questions, he always answered them. It was awesome to have that website so you could go into it and see not only what had been done but what was scheduled to be done, and the pictures accordingly. Doing something long distance, this is the best way to do it.

Homeowner 2: You’re really many steps higher than any other contractor we’ve ever done business with.

Homeowner 1: For me, I have two excitements. The process of shopping was really fun. I literally got to pick out stuff, from cabinetry to countertops, to make it personal. What I like, the colors, all of that was fun. And then the process of seeing it come together. You go to the yard and you pick all that out, and then you actually come and see it laid out in your house. That was exciting to me. I loved that part.

Kaminskiy designer: Shopping with the homeowners was easy and enjoyable. The dynamic between the two of them is really fun to see, how they communicate and work together. Selecting materials was easy because we went based on the design I had presented, based on the conversation about what they wanted for each of the bathrooms. It was really just about selecting the different materials that would work and adding the bit of character each of them wanted for each space.

Kaminskiy team member: The homeowners were an awesome couple to work with. I truly enjoyed having them be part of our team to create a wonderful, beautiful place in their home. We remodeled three bathrooms along with a couple of other things in their home, and it was such a pleasure to work with them.

Homeowner 1: When it first started, what you see is literally this demolished house, and you all had warned us that it’s emotional. I was like, “nah, I got this.” And it really was. It was pretty emotional to see your house torn up. And then in the end, you see it come together beautifully, with all the pieces you picked and the designs the team put together. That was good to see.

Homeowner 2: For me, seeing it evolve from a demolished home and seeing the pieces all come together, specifically my bathroom, which is quite tiny and now has a really nice shower area. But more than anything else, it was my partner’s excitement every time we’d come back into the place as it was being put together. That let me know everything was going well. That was the exciting part. It may not make the pages of Architectural Digest, but it turned out to be exactly what we wanted in terms of a comfortable home. And that’s a result of the Kaminskiy team listening to how we lived in our home and how we wanted to live in our home, and the designers keeping that at the forefront.

Homeowner 1: I want to piggyback on that. It was important to us that what we visualized, what we wanted, the team really listened. You guys were so good at that. Really listening and understanding, “this is what they want,” and then promising and delivering, “we can make that happen just like you want.” That was enlightening and satisfying. I really did want bling in my bathroom, or an archway that didn’t exist, and you knew how to do it. I loved that part.

Homeowner 2: Or a chandelier in my bathroom that didn’t have the ceiling height for it to fit. You found a way to make it work.

Homeowner 1: We make it work. I loved it.

And patience. I would add patience. Because you think it’s going to happen really quickly, and it doesn’t. Every detail is so significant that you really do want it finished like you visualized. So it’s not going to happen quickly, and if you can have the patience, it will come out exactly as you planned. If you follow the Kaminskiy plan, which we did, you’ll be thrilled. I’m beyond thrilled.

I love the fact that we really built a warm and friendly relationship with the Kaminskiy team. They got us. They understood us. They took what we wanted and made it come to life. The relationship really made a difference for me personally. I want to know that the people working with me and on my behalf care about what I care about. That was so apparent with the Kaminskiy team. There were even suggestions, things I wouldn’t even think of. Our designer Vanessa really got me and understood what I wanted, suggesting things that made me think, “oh my gosh, that’s such a great idea.” It made me feel like the Kaminskiy team cared, they listened, and it was personal for them as it was for me. That made me feel warm and totally grateful. Now the Kaminskiy team is like a first part of the family.

Homeowner 2: It’s a juggling act there, which the Kaminskiy team did well. You’re dealing with emotional and passionate, level-headed people. They’re able to work with that very well.

It was awful. It needed a lot of work. It was 20 years old and needed some updating. It wasn’t really functional for us, and it lacked a lot of storage.

Our kitchen today is wonderful. It’s easy to clean. It’s functional. We can move around in here. We can all sit together at the bar, which we couldn’t do before. Storage is not a problem. Fabulous.

Our designer was wonderful. She listened well. She was easy to work with. All of the steps were wonderful. Everything went so smoothly, and we really appreciate the wonderful kitchen we have now. So thank you, Kaminskiy.

It worked very well with Jeff too. He was easy to work with.