Maisons Paragon Homes Inc.

Paragon Homes helped us build our dream home. Our project started a few months before the Covid-19 pandemic hit our region in Ottawa. Residential construction was halted by the Ontario Provincial government for several months. When construction started again, the prices of building materials rose very quickly and trades workers were very difficult to find because everyone wanted them at the same time. Paragon Homes staff were critical in ensuring that we got the best prices possible and the most experienced trades workers. The prefabricated components of their wall system were already pre-ordered, built and ready to install. They offered manufacturing precision and with their 2x6 framing and extra insulation we have an enhanced R-value and precision built walls. We could not have achieved this level of construction quality and savings without Paragon Homes support.

Thank you very much for your expertise and support.

I liked the service Frank provided and was always on the ball and negotiated the best price for our dealings with the trades. He was on the job site daily to ensure the work was progressing well and that the quality of workmanship was there. Frank is proactive in identifying potential problems and having a back up plan to ensure the timelines of the project are met. His experience and knowledge really helped us attain our dream house. Thank you Frank for all that you have done.

We were happy with the work done by Paragon. The project was completed on time despite covid and some early site issues. Communication with Frank and Nicole was excellent and Frank sent regular updates and would call to let me know of any issues as they arose. Was happy with the way that Frank coordinated and managed the various sub trades. We are very happy with our house. The only disappointment was the cost - total cost was over 30% more than the original estimates pre-tender. That being said, factors outside Paragon’s control such as the timing of our build (winter/spring build seems to be pricier) and trades unwillingness to travel to the location seemed to have resulted in fewer bids and thus higher costs. We worked with Frank’s recommended interior design person Julie as well as their recommended mortgage broker Chad and both were great.

Nous avons choisi Paragon pour la construction de notre maison de rêve et nous n'avons aucun regret. Ils ont su nous guider dès le début du projet avec la création des plans, le bon 'timing' pour effectuer le choix des matériaux de finitions et le choix des contracteurs. Le concept de Paragon est unique. Nous sommes auto-constructeur mais nous achetons aussi un kit de qualité supérieur. En effet, la qualité des matériaux utilisés est supérieur à ce qu'on retrouve avec la compétition. Ce concept nous donne de la flexibilité que l'on ne retrouve pas ailleurs.

Frank et Nicole ont su respecter notre budget, et ils nous ont aussi aider à économiser avec les contracteurs. La communication avec eux est excellente, ils sont toujours disponible peu importe l'heure ou la journée.

Notre projet n'est pas encore terminé mais il tire à sa fin et jusqu'à présent nous sommes très satisfaits et notre maison est exactement comme on l'avait imaginée. Merci Frank et Nicole pour l'excellent service!

Chantal B.

The Stand Easy

Cantley

I would like to share my experience on building a home from scratch with you. I was feeling uncomfortable getting my project started due to no experience in the business of building a new home and no time to oversee all the activities involved. So, I turned to Maisons Paragon Homes for help.

I spent 2 years researching online looking for good contractors to help me build my dream home but none of them gave me that sense of trust. Some of them wanted to charge me for consulting fees which I found strange and their prices added up to a lot higher than my estimate. I picked up the name Maisons Paragon Homes from my search. I spent 2 days learning about what this company offer. One thing that I like was their online estimate calculator. The number that I got from this calculator was in line with my estimate. This was a good indication for me which took me to the next stage.

With careful consideration, I started email communications with Maisons Paragon Homes, and I got a reply the next day from Frank Murray. I also had a few phone conversations with Frank after that. I was impressed by the knowledge Frank had demonstrated to me over the phone about the construction business. As a result, I decided to hire Frank to help me build my home. I used Maisons Paragon Homes for “Architectural Design” and “Construction Project Management Services”. I also bought the Home Package Kit from Paragon Homes because of the R-32 wall insulation system.

Just to be clear, Paragon Homes was only acting as a construction project manager in my case, not a home builder. I am not buying a completely built home from Paragon Homes at a fixed price. I was the custom home builder, a self-builder as I learned this later on during the process. Frank & Nicole went through the whole tendering process and pre-picked the best contractors for me. They always tried to stay within the budget and often would re-negotiate for better prices for me. This had saved me some money. One thing that I really like was, during the entire building process, they acted like they were building their own home. Judging based on that, I knew I had hired the right person for the job.

My house was built on a high hill and it’s about 100 km out of town. Well, it was referred to as a mountain by most contractors. Due to that, I was charged a much higher price for everything. We had to prepare special plateau here and there at high cost to enable the truck to get up there to do the work. My site was full of sand/rocks and every time it rained, it washed away a lot of the sand. Erosions occurred all over the place which required repair and drove up the price of building. It went over the budget by quite a bit but that had nothing to do with Maisons Paragon Homes. I guess I can blame it on the site, price of materials, labour cost and the local laws for driving the cost of the project up. However, it would have cost me more money if I managed this project myself.

A project once I thought was impossible, now has become a reality for me and my family. Without the help of Maisons Paragon Homes, this dream home would have never been realized. Even though we had many issues to deal with during the building process, many disagreements and many delays, we managed to come out of it with a beautiful home. As for that, I would like to thank Frank & Nicole for sticking with me all the way through to the end, and for their patience and professionalism in dealing with many issues. I am very happy with the quality of my home, structure and appearance wise. My family is looking forward to spending our first winter in this home this year.

If you are in search for somebody to help you with your project, I recommend you touch base with Maisons Paragon Homes.

Saly Leak, CEng, MIET

Lanark Highlands, Ontario

May 30, 2017

After over two years of research on building our new custom home, we chose to go with Paragon Homes.

Such a big project comes with a lot of challenges and financial consideration. Frank Murray from Paragon Homes ‘the owner’ took our dream and idea and made it possible.

Paragon took charge of our design, custom plan including all of the engineering on the structure, the mechanical engineering and all of the other aspect of the design of our new custom home.

With Paragon Homes management systems and tendering process, we did save big time on the total construction cost. Frank was also on site every day managing and supervising all the trades and vendors and ensuring quality control and all inspections.

We did have some issues with a few trades but Frank took charge and resolved the problems.

We also purchased Paragon Home package kit due to the high efficiency of their system and more specifically the R-32 wall system and the overall quality of the material included in the kit.

We are certainly happy we did as we ended up with a home that will cost very little to run.

Without any hesitation, we would recommend to anyone wishing to build their dream home to Paragon.

Sylvie Lesieur

St-Eustache, Québec

Horrible experience! We hired frank murray back in 2013 as we were building our new Bonneville home; we hired His team to manage our new build as I was 6+ months into my pregnancy, we thought (and were promissed) and "key in hand" type of a service... we basically paid him over $20k ++ dor absolutly nothing; we had to continuously follow-up with our trades, our home was supposed to be delivered i. september at the latest; upper level of our home was "ready" only on November 27th... by January 2014 all the post-dated cheques we had given Mr. Murray were cashed however our home was not even close to being finished. I have birth to our son on December 21st and by the first week of January 2014 I was booking cobtractors to complete the jobs they had started and not finished (such as primodial things like a shower...) ... I tried contacting Mr. Murray to no avail; I then sent him a written notice that his work was still not done and that we were vary dissapoi ted with his services; he responded with a formal letter from his lawer basically stating that his portion of the deal was done and to sue him if we were not happy!! Not exactly what we were expecting from a person we gave $20k++ to complete our new home project... we also found out later that Mr. Murray had received "kick-backs" from certain trades he had strongly recommended as reliable ... extremely dissapoiting to say the least... to follow-up to Mr. Murray's response: I presume that this is how Mr.Murray deals with all negative feedback; no accountability what so ever. For the record all our trades completed the work however WE had to schedule/manage them ourselves. We have even called back a few of the trades to complete more jobs for us. We also found out that Mr. murray was trying to bid on jobs for Bonneville instead of discussing deficiencies on our behalf (as he was supposed to). We did not mention in our review that our house had deficiencies DUE to paragon; what we said and stand by is that $20k++ was taken from us for "management" but we did over half of the work and were basically told to get lost when we vocalized our disappointment. We stand bad our review (we would give this company 5 rotten tomatoes if that option was available).

In the summer of 2015 my wife and I decided to build our dream log home. We visited quite a few companies but it was clear to us that Frank Murray from Paragon Homes knew this industry extremely well. Frank took care of everything, our plans and designs, the entire construction management including all of the red tape in obtaining permits, engineering, septic engineering, surveying and grading plans.

We also purchased our home package-kit (log home kit) from Paragon. Their system and the quality of all the materials were really outstanding. Paragon does not manufacture logs nor timber frame but they purchase the materials directly from their vendors. Everything is assembled on site with the Paragon log home system and details.

We are very pleased with our home and would not hesitate in recommending Paragon Homes.

Mathieu from Cantley, Quebec

I hired paragon homes to carry out my house plans and project management under construction and I also bought a paragon home kit, an amazing team.

J'ai engagé maisons paragons pour effectuer mes plans de maison et la gestion de projet en construction et j'ai aussi acheté un kit de maison paragon. Une équipe incroyable.

My wife and I hired the help of Frank & Paragon Homes to help us build our home from start to finish as we had absolutely no experience in the field. As we do not live anywhere near Quebec, Frank was only able to visit the site on key inspection dates. All communication was done through phone and email. Building a home this way made it difficult at times, but overall we believe Frank did his absolute best to communicate concerns with us and our hired trades.

As one would expect with home construction, we encountered many issues throughout the entire build process. Frank did his best to resolve all of these issues, even those that he was not responsible for. By the end, we had also understood just how high quality the provided building materials were. Through our efforts and Frank's, we were able to complete our dream home project with only a few days delay.

We built a home using Paragon project mgt services in 2015 and are very satisfied. We received guidance throughout. Even after the project was finished we never felt on our own. I can call Frank 7 days a week and he's there to answer questions or help solve a problem. The relationship is like a marriage. We argued, we stressed, and we got it done. We now have our dream home and no horror stories to tell. The only advice I would offer is no matter how good the PM is (and Paragon is good), remember that the client makes the final decisions. Sometimes we disagreed but Frank is thick skinned and has his clients interests at stake. Paragon provides a great budget planning guide but you need to read it thoroughly. The feedback we gave Paragon is to explain up front that some items are not budgeted for as well as they could be (lighting fixtures, waste removal, water softeners, etc.). Also who is doing certain finishing wasn't clear. We ended up installing door handles, door strikes, heating vents etc ourselves - although this is easy work. To be fair, Paragon is very receptive to feedback. However in terms of holding contractors accountable, these guys are strong. Everything is inspected by Paragon. There is a lot of work involved by the client as well but I will certainly recommend these guys - they're not out to cheat you and they represent your interests well.

Paragon helped us complete a complete renovation to our cottage, basically top to bottom and built on a screened in porch and new deck for us. They basically took us through the process from start to finish, including post completion follow up and repair of minor issues. The team was great and kept us up to date with the work which was completed on time and to specifications. They were excellent and we are completely satisfied with the work that was completed. We are already considering how Paragon can help us with our next project. I would definitely recommend them and use them again in the future!

Regrettable decision to hire these guys. Installed wrong windows in basement, gave me a shorter ceiling in basement then what was called for on the plan, no accountability within the company. They work to get paid, not to satisfy customers.

Paragon guided us every step of the way during the planning and construction phase of our build. Their knowledge of the construction business and trades is outstanding.

It was great to know that all the trades were hired,scheduled and dealt with by Paragon. This alleviated alot of stress. And all the workers hired were top notch and always happy to be there.

Paragons project management approach works very well and I would recommend it to anyone.

Overall, we are very pleased with the final results of our project. Completing a major renovation during the winter months is never an easy task, but Paragon Homes did a great job of ensuring that everything was delivered on time, as per specifications. Despite the freezing cold, the crew showed up every morning, bright and early, ready to work with a smile on their faces.

Do not hesitate to hire "Paragon homes" for your next Reno!

We hired Pargon to help design and build our new home because of their willingness to go above and beyond the services of most contractors. They have a unique option for allowing the customer to be the general contractor and have control over the type of materials being used to build the house.

Paragon did an excellent job working through many design iterations and 3D renderings to help us finalize plans before construction. They were more than accommodating for any change orders throughout the process and quick to help resolve any issues with contractors or materials during the construction process. They continue to offer post build support to ensure a satisfied customer.

I'd recommend Paragon for any type of construction project.

I Needed a basement makeover and a friend referred me to Paragon.

I was very impress with their professionalism and quality of work.

I highly recommend them for any renovations or additions.

Everything was done on time and on budget.

Thanks Paragon, my basement looks amazing!