Testimonials

In 2007, RafterCraft LLC built a custom saltbox style home in the beautiful Sandalwood area of New Seabury, where both architectural compliance and the building process is monitored by the homeowner's association. The home owner is thrilled with the final product - everything she wanted and personally chose and integrated in her personal dream home. We are deeply satisfied but not at all surprised when a homeowner is pleased with their new home. But this testimonial was received via email on December 20th, 2007 from the local neighborhood association.

Sandalwood Property Owner's Association

22 Bates Road PMB #124

Mashpee, MA 02649

Sandalwoodassoc2@verizon.net

508-477-6564

RafterCraft LLC.

Jared West

Mashpee, MA 02649

12/31/07

Dear Mr. West,

We, the Board of Trustees for Sandalwood Village of New Seabury, would like to commend your work building the house on West Way. It was an extremely professional job. You are certainly a company that stands behind its work!

Thank you again for having kept the property cleaned up daily and for limiting the noise. Furthermore, having encountered problems with builders clear cutting lots in Sandalwood, the Trustees were very pleased that you left the natural vegetation in front keeping in line with Sandalwood's landscape "scheme". Overall we were very impressed with the job that took place.

Sincerely,

Sandalwood Village Trustees

Board of Trustees
 

Letter received from homeowner in the Sandalwood area of New Seabury.

In the period December 2006-August 2007, I worked closely with Jared West in the building of the “house of my dreams” on Cape Cod. I’m a professor at the University of Michigan, but during the 2006-07 academic year I had sabbatical. I moved to the Cape to oversee the house-building. This meant that I was perhaps in Jared’s way more than he’d like. But my continual presence also allowed me to observe the building process first-hand, to pose countless questions, and to occasionally make mid-course corrections.

Why did I choose to work with Jared in the first place? My architect, Tim Luff, obtained three bids for building the house. I eliminated one because of a higher price; the other two were quite close to one another. However, Jared’s estimate was much more detailed – it was very clear to me that he’d put a lot of effort into working up what was likely to be a very accurate estimate. Although we made a few changes before signing up together, Jared stuck incredibly close to the original estimate. I was not in a position to go overboard on details of the house, and this attention to detail was really appreciated. Jared also was respectful of my parameters.

Working with Jared at every step of the process was really satisfying – he was incredibly responsive to my queries, never made me feel silly for asking things, and tried to keep his “But that will cost you extra” responses to a minimum (which meant he understood me very well!). Despite his young age, Jared is incredibly knowledgeable about the process of house-building. He never discouraged my queries about the order in which things were done, when I might see a particular part of the construction process completed, or what alternatives might exist for the decisions he’d made. I did add a few things along the way (e.g., I substituted a stone fireplace for the brick one in the plans, I decided on a more elaborate raised-panel design for the paneling and wainscoting in the living room and dining room, I wanted even wider pine boards for flooring, I wanted to wallpaper three rooms, and I used Mexican tile in the bathrooms). Jared was able to estimate exactly what these extras would cost, give me his opinion about them, and explain exactly what the extra costs would be.

Because I have never built a new house before (and won’t again), I had no standard of comparison for such seemingly important issues as sticking to deadlines, cleaning up the site, making sure the neighbors were not bothered. However, I have heard from the New Seabury Architectural Review Committee that Jared was exceptional in these areas. More important to me has been the quality of the workmanship. An old friend from Connecticut who knows a lot about construction and woodworking visited the house site often during construction. More than once, she said to me, “This guy is really good!” I agree completely.

If you’re considering Jared as your builder, you should feel free to give me an e-mail or a call and listen to me rave! You also might want to look at the house – the details of the workmanship are exceptional. I feel so fortunate that I hooked up with Jared West and RafterCraft. I think you couldn’t do better than having your project completed by him and his team!

Valerie

January 2008
 

Email received from homeowner in Cotuit.

Jared West of RafterCraft: best choice for a beautiful, well-built home.

When we purchased land and were ready to build our house in 2000, we researched and interviewed a number of builders and contractors. It became clear both on a competence level and cost advantage scale that Jared West of RafterCraft would be our only choice. He did not let us down. We could not believe how smoothly the project went. He was always there, updating us on the progress of the work, informing us of any new developments, and thankfully, kindly and tactfully making positive suggestions to correct choices we made that would have been disastrous to the outcome of our beautiful home.

We cannot recommend him more highly; not only for his building skills and choice of skilled craftsmen and subcontractors, but for his honesty, integrity and genuine interest in the final result of the project and our happiness and satisfaction. He takes pride in his work, his name and his reputation.

We have been in our home now for almost eight years, and we can honestly say there is not one thing with which we are dissatisfied. We would not hesitate to refer him to anyone who cares about the home they are considering building or answer any questions in regard to his work.

Terry and Cheryl
January 2008