Monk's Design Studio — Local services in Harding Township

In 2021 we decided to update our kitchen/dining room area. We had some ideas but wanted a highly capable company to take us through the process. After much research and references, we selected Monk’s Home Improvement.

We decided to add the original dining room to the kitchen layout. This meant removing a separating wall. With the space now about 1/3 larger we worked with our designer at Monk’s, Denise, to layout our kitchen, choose cabinets, decide on counters, make decisions on lighting, choose colors, hardware and tile. With the design software Denise utilizes we were given remarkable computer-generated renderings with which we could visualize our new kitchen.

There was a 7 month lead-time for the cabinets and it turned out the was a 7 month lead-time for our appliances as well.

In March the cabinets and appliances arrived. We were assigned an overall project manager, Chris, who got the ball rolling with a pre-work meeting to present the project schedule.

It was Chris’ job to maintain the schedule, overcome construction issues (there were a few) and communicate with us. Chris is high-energy and knowledgeable so he was perfect. He was at our house every day for 10 minutes to an hour.

There were 10 milestones to the project: Demolition of the existing kitchen, including all cabinets; removing a ceramic tile floor; removing the wall; dead-ending electrical wiring and plumbing, removing the existing window, etc Installing a wood floor which matched the existing wood floors in our home Installing a new, much larger window over the sink Sheetrocking the walls and the ceiling Prep painting everything Installing the cabinets Running new plumbing and electric Installing lights Installing appliances Final painting

The project took about two months, which is what Monk’s told us it would take. I found myself calling Chris a few times when it seemed like the progress was slow; my wife reminded me to be patient.

In retrospect a couple things about Monk’s stand out: • The designer did an unbelievable job. • The project manager is essential to keeping things on track and having one person to communicate with. • Each of the crews were competent, CLEAN and COURTEOUS, especially important since they were in our house for 2 months. • The subcontractors (electric and plumbing) knew their stuff.

Everyone who has been in our house loves our kitchen; but not as much as we do.

We would use Monk’s again for future projects and have recommended them to...

We recently renovated two bathrooms with Monks Home Improvements. We were extremely pleased with the the final outcome. The entire team from Monk’s that worked on our project were terrific. We worked closely with Anina as our design consultant. She has a great eye and her design expertise guided us seamlessly through the entire process from visualization to installation. She is professional, diligent, and hard working. She worked quickly to resolve any questions or concerns that we encountered.

Ward Malnak provided us with price quotes for the labor & materials associated with the job. He walked us through all of the numbers, taking the time to thoroughly explain the pricing and the scope of the work. He too was highly professional & was great with following up on any open items.

Bill Buckner was the project manager assigned to our project. I can’t say enough about Bill. What a great guy…hard working, extremely organized, patient and great with follow-up & problem resolution. Bill was very approachable with any issues that arose during the construction phase of the product and went above and beyond to make sure that we were 100% satisfied every step of the way.

The entire team assigned to our project were a pleasure to work with and I would absolutely recommend Monks Home Improvement to others looking for quality workmanship. I myself will certainly be calling upon them again...

I've worked with Brandon Horowitz on two concurrent projects and he's been helpful, thorough, efficient, and patient. He set me up with Alberto Vargas and crew to paint and do carpentry work, and I could not be more pleased with the work they did. They were professional and prompt and the work was impeccable - honestly, they went above and beyond expectations. Alberto was flexible in both timing and design and graciously offered his helpful suggestions and advice. After seeing the great work already done, I'm looking forward to continuing to work with Brandon on renovating my bathroom.

Updated review -

I recently worked with Joe Corticada and his crew at Monks on a second project (two concurrently, actually). They redid my bathroom (shower, tile, plumbing, paint) and removed a wall in my finished and painted, repaired woodwork, and installed flooring to finish the space. I continue to be exceptionally pleased with Monk's and everyone I've worked with. They were efficient, respectful, professional, on time and went over and above what they promised to do while charging no more than they estimated. It's like they go out of their way to disprove any horror stories you might've heard regarding contractors.

I cannot recommend them more highly after 2/3 experiences I look forward to working with...