Arete Renovators, Inc.

We hired Aret to add a new second floor comprised of 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a laundry room, a mechanical room to our bungalow. Aret also expanded and remodeled our kitchen, added a mudroom, renovated the powder room, added a storage room in the basement, installed new hardwood floors throughout the house and built a deck. We were impressed with Davor and Ivan, our project manager, from day one. They assessed our house and our needs and we were all able to quickly negotiate and implement a contract. Ivan is an amazing project manager! He always promptly responds to email, texts and calls. He ensured that our project stayed on schedule as we moved back home in less than 10 months. He offered creative options and improvements throughout the project, which we almost always implemented. Ivan is very knowledgeable about construction and anticipated downstream challenges, especially those related to remodeling in Chicago. Most importantly, Ivan is honest and hard working. We really cant say enough good things about him. Throughout our project we received just about daily updates and photos of our project and as well as weekly summaries. The workmanship of all the carpenters, electricians, plumbers, painters and tilers was excellent. Any mistakes were quickly corrected. Pattys construction and design expertise was so helpful. She guided us through each stage of our project, offering suggestions to make our space more beautiful and functional. Ivana and Vasilka asked us for gave us lots of material and design options and walked us through the process. Benjamin designed our mudroom and beautiful kitchen, with a built-in banquette, two pantries and floor to ceiling cabinets. He incorporated our needs and his creative accents. His 3-D design images brought our new kitchen to life and helped us make last minute tweaks to the plan. I have already recommended Aret to friends and would choose them again for a future project.
Apr 9th, 2024

I purchased a 1 bedroom and studio apartment combined unit condo in River North and wanted to make the studio apartment bathroom a true master-bath. Aret helped me to design a great layout working within the parameters that I had due to condo constraints with plumbing, vents etc. I had a vision and they helped me with the layout, design, and materials. It is an all inclusive process from the vision board down to choosing the materials that best suited my color/design scheme. They gave me design choices in the high, mid, and low range to meet my needs and budget. After all was decided, the project was turned over to Marina who organized the people for the labor and gave a detailed grant chart outlining the project specifics and timeline. Everything is organized through a system call Construct. There is an app available or you can access it online. It makes it super easy to review messages, pay bills, and communicate with specific individuals. Marnia communicated with me everyday and sent realtime pictures which was important as I travel a great deal for my job. She let me know everyday what had been done, what would happen the following day, and answered any questions that I had. We had a few things arise that were not anticipated as working in a condo seems to always have extra surprises within the walls. We were able to troubleshoot quickly and regroup on a workaround with the crew. The project finished on time and is everything I could have anticipated and more. I want to give a huge thanks to Marina for her consistency, communication, and patience as I asked a thousand questions about understanding the workings of a complex project, the entire team at Aret including Davork who immediately let me know what was possible with the condo limitations, Ivana and Patty from the design team who helped me with materials and my vision, Luis who was in my apartment working tirelessly everyday and Janet Tebbenkamp who Aret recommended as my architect that thought of everything. I have a beautiful new bathroom to enjoy!
Mar 2nd, 2024

This was my third project with Arete - this project was to remodel a bathroom and replace windows. For all three projects, I worked with Marina as the project coordinator- she is really great to work with! She kept us up to date on the progress and coordinated all the activities needed. Luis was also great with the demo work and the entire crew was so helpful and really kept the debris to a minimum as we stayed in the house during the renovation. Many thanks to Marina and her team!
Feb 20th, 2024

So happy we chose Arete to finish our basement! From Davor's first visit to give an estimate, to Ivan who managed our project from start to finish, to Dejan and crew who did the construction, everyone was so easy to work with and very communicative. Benjamin and Ivana were very helpful during the design process, giving us lots of ideas that could work within our budget and our needs for the basement. They gave us super detailed drawings of what everything would look like so we knew what to expect. Ivan, Dejan, and the crew made the construction so easy. They gave me a heads up on what they'd be doing each week (which is great to know when you have a toddler napping at home!), sent updates with pictures on their app, and kept everything super clean and contained during the project. I'd work with them again and would recommend them 100%!
Feb 6th, 2024

We hired Arete to do a dormer addition on our house. We bid the job out to 3-4 different contractors and they far and away offered the most when comparing others. With their full design team, the process was pretty seamless for us. Timing was really imperative for our team as we wanted to have the project done by EOY and also making sure we stayed on budget. Ivan, our project manager, and the team fully delivered on both items. From helping us design and select materials for our bathroom within the 1st month of the project to keeping us well-informed throughout the process and even being patient with this first-time renovator as we lived through the project as well, I cannot say enough good things about Arete. They finished the work ahead of schedule just before the holidays and we were able to spend Christmas in our newly remodeled primary suite. The renovation turned out stunning and we could not be happier with the outcome. If we ever need to do more work on our house, we will be sure to hire them again! Thanks to Davor, Ivan, Ivana, Vasi & Patty for all your hardwork!
Jan 2nd, 2024