I have now lived in my house, built by Kent Parker, for about a year and a half. I am extremely happy with the house and have found working with Kent to be a pleasure. From the first stages of planning the design and floor plan, to the coordination of the work with the subcontractors and the careful oversight he provided, and the attention to detail, Kent proved to be an excellent contractor. When planning the house, he was very flexible and creative in working into the plans several wants and needs that I expressed, plus making some excellent suggestions. His aesthetic eye and imagination were very helpful. Even during the building, my requests for changes, such as adding a window here, a closet there, more windows here, etc. were taken in stride without complaint. I have also been very impressed with his continuing attention even after the house was completed. As will always happen, there have been some problems to come up, and Kent has been prompt and careful to remedy each one satisfactorily.
I would strongly recommend Kent to anyone who is planning to build a house.
J. Albert Benton, D.D.S.
We just wanted to tell you how much we love and enjoy the home you built for us. It's our dream home and we appreciate the quality and attention to detail that is obvious in your work. The entire experience of working with you was very positive. It felt like a collaboration - never adversarial. In speaking with friends that have had homes built, this doesn't seem to happen enough with other builders. Also, we were very pleased with the subs you used. They were consistently polite and professional- and the job site was kept neat. (This was especially important to us, since we lived on site).
As you were building our home, we were creating a horse farm…so I have to say a special "thank you!" for all the extras you helped us with at our barn. You were very generous with your time and advice- and invaluable in helping us take an empty field, and turning it into a lovely estate.
Kent, we think you are one of those people that is especially gifted at what they do, and we definitely recommend Morgan and Parker Builders with the highest regard!
Patty & Elton Sawyer
Now that we have been in our home a couple of years, I want you to have our feedback on the experience working with you and Jim. In a single word, your work has been "outstanding!"
From your initial responsiveness, to your team's willingness to tie up the smallest detail after the job was completed, every single person we've worked with at Morgan & Parker has been friendly, professional, creative, resourceful and willing to go beyond the expected to satisfy us. Your work ethic and sense of pride in a job well done has been evident since the day we began living in our home.
For all these reasons, we wouldn't hesitate to recommend the team at Morgan & Parker Builders - without reservation of any kind to anyone- and would certainly turn to you again for any of our building needs in the future.
Rick and Deborah Foster
We have been in our new home for a couple of months now and wanted to let you know how much we appreciate your contribution. To say the least, we went into the process of having a home built with a bit of trepidation. We had heard plenty of horror stories from people that have had homes built. The problems varied, but the central theme was issues with builders.
However, after working with you for the last couple of years, it has been a joy to have Morgan & Parker build our dream. Throughout the long process (which was not of your doing) you worked with us displaying patience, and understanding the stress. You brought ideas to the table and made good suggestions. You even talked us into a few things that we initially opposed, and I have to admit, you were right. The changes made along the way were positive and definitely improved the end result. We especially got a kick out of receiving a call in the middle of the week indicating you had done something different or tried an alternative design and wanted us to come down and let you know if we liked it or not. As we recall, we always approved and appreciated you taking the time to think about what we would like. You made the effort to get to know us and know what we wanted.
We know this was not the least expensive or most expensive house you have built, but it is our dream and we love it. We could not have chosen a better team to work with than yours — not only Morgan & Parker, but all of your subcontractors too.
Without hesitation, we would recommend Morgan & Parker to our friends and others should they have the need for building a house or remodeling their current home. Our experience was positive and the result was great. Should you need to use us as references, feel free to do so. We wish you the best. Thank you.
John and Charlotte Gerke
Tony and Rita's Story
Part 1
We had been in our magnificent new home for 5 months when we decided to take the first- ever trip to Disney with our daughters. We had not even finished unpacking completely from our move when we left for 8 days of super vacation this past spring.
It is just not possible to have a better trip than we had. The weather was glorious, and everyone had the most wonderful time ever. We made the long trip home without even so much as a hiccup. Upon our return, the feeling of relief to be back at home was just like you expect it to be. Unspeakably great-and the idea of a hot bath and our own beds was all that was on our minds.
We had arrived home to disaster.
A new appliance had failed while we were gone. Water was "raining" through the ceilings, and everything on two floors was saturated and ruined. It was as though everywhere we turned we saw water and it was coming out of every light socket, ceiling, and seam.
Water cascaded down the once-beautiful hardwood basement stairs like a waterfall. Paint and sheetrock were dripping off of the walls. The hardwood floors were buckled. The ceiling sagged with water. Everything smelled wet and dank. Over the next couple of days wet and dank became much worse.
We waded through the process of emergency remediation service and wet dry vacuums and dehumidifiers. The house sounded like an airport tarmac inside because the noise from dehumidifiers was so loud. They drained hundreds of gallons of water from the floors, walls, ceilings and air. The company sent by our homeowners insurance to take steps to prevent further damage removed the water that they could and removed all of our ruined belongings. They partially removed hardwood floors and pieces of ceilings and walls. It was an unspeakable mess.
It is not possible or necessary to describe all of the feelings and angst that exist during disaster or the wrangling that has to happen with a homeowner's insurance claim or an appliance company's response.
After a full two weeks of remediation it was time to think about finding someone capable and willing to take on the massive reconstruction.
Part 2
Kent Parker was the first builder to appear at our front door after we called him. He was cheerful and confident and appropriately sensitive to the situation. He had a clipboard and a measuring device. He took notes and he kept saying, "Okay. Okay. Okay," as he surveyed the horrific damage. He was thorough and he took his time-noticing everything. It gave me the impression that he was not nearly as frightened by the job as someone would be if they were getting into something that they couldn't handle. He held what he called a subcontractor meeting at the site of my disaster. There was an HVAC person who used an instrument to check the trunk line-which was full of water- and all of the auxiliary lines. There was a sheetrock and building materials representative, and a cabinet rep, and an electrician. Everyone he brought in seemed to have one goal: to put our home back together-as quickly and as completely as possible. No one made comments like, "Oh *#@t ! This is the worst thing I've ever seen!" or "Hey, can you believe this?" I asked him about everyone's noticeable composure after the meeting. He told me that he won't allow anyone to work for him unless they treat their customer's homes with honor and respect. He said it is a privilege to work in someone's home, and that he and his subs know that. The conviction with which he said that and the thorough effort he had already invested in a quote that had not even been written yet spoke volumes about what one could expect from Kent Parker.
We proceeded to request several quotes as directed by our homeowners insurance. I went personally to several of the offices of builders whose signs are familiar in some of the nicer areas of Winston-Salem. The reason I did that is because I had the idea that if a company can remodel around a family, they may be able to take on our project without too much disruption.
In stark contrast to our experience with Kent Parker, we experienced a few refusals-strictly because of the words, "homeowner's insurance claim," I found a builder who treated me like he didn't have the time or the desire to talk to me about my request on the phone. He sent an estimator out to my home who sneered and barked at me and was basically impolite. As difficult as things had already become, there was no way that I was going to sign on for an argument with a builder every day. Scratch him.
Some builders entertained the phone calls and made appointments to come and meet us to evaluate the scope of the work then didn't show up for the appointments that had been set.
In the meantime, we had to move to an apartment. The damage was that bad.
Part 3
Fast forward through the machinations of wrestling over all kinds of things with the insurance company.
Kent Parker began the work of rebuilding as though it were a mission for him to get us back into our home from our temporary apartment. Although my husband checked on things frequently and sometimes walked through the house on a daily basis or brought all the guys working on it a breakfast biscuit, I stayed away for the most part and I relied on the reports I received from my husband and from Kent Parker.
This is what I am certain of:
Everyone who showed up to our home to work was presentable, clean, polite and urgent about what they were there to do.
Kent made sure that the process happened quickly. There was something moving and happening in a positive direction every day. It is my belief that scheduling and the art of anticipating what happens next and how much time is involved in each task is a large part of that success.
The work was done with impeccable quality and attention to detail. In the few instances when something needed fine tuning or adjustment, it did not have to be mentioned more than once.
The job site-our home, yard, driveway, and street in front of our home were kept clean and presentable throughout the whole process. In other words, a job with a potential for being extremely messy was not.
Kent Parker finished the job in about three months when it had been estimated to take 6 months to finish by several people. No one would ever know that the home had been as badly damaged as it was because virtually everything that was damaged by water was thoroughly replaced or completely repaired.
The success of the rebuild can be attributed to the professionalism and commitment of Kent Parker.
Thank you, Kent. Thank you so much.
Rita Morgan
