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David Michael Kelsey
Tina Guido Kelsey
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mystic, CT 06355

July 9, 2001

Don Barber
Stonington Post and Beam Homes Inc.
109 Basset Hill Road
Voluntown, CT 06384

Dear Don:

Many times the excitement of moving into a new house spawns a letter writing campaign from the new homeowner, stating how excited they are and how pleased they are with the building experience. This excitement can be confused by the newness of the situation. The fact I am writing this letter one-year later is testimony to my sincerity.

Don, I must say I really enjoyed working with you and your team of subcontractors. Starting with designing the house with Wes Kelly, sanding the timbers with Casey, raising the frame with Scotty and Mark, laying the kitchen out with Patty from UBS, making electrical decisions with Leon and Mary, choosing bricks with Louis Caswell, sharing the tile layout decisions with Dave Creamer… to installing the siding with Tony.

At every point in the building process there were design and financial decisions to be made, which could affect other aspects of the house’s look and feel. An example of this was raising the height of the first floor ceiling that would effect the external appearance of the windows on the front and side elevations.

As we learned early in the process, planning and budgeting were critical to the success of our project. Each bank we talked to recommended setting 20% of the building budget aside for overruns. This turned out to be good advice.

We had never built a house before, and were counting on your help with getting us successfully through the project. Our contingency was mostly used up with blasting ledge and site work, even before you arrived on the job site. We did not know how expensive some of the options/upgrades could be. Every decision was $100 here, $1,000 there. Individually they seemed reasonable but collectively they could have added up to a considerable sum. You tempered our zeal to help us stay within our budget.

We appreciate your guidance with establishing the allotments in your contract. We understood clearly that when we started looking at options, we would have to pay out of our pocket for any overrun. These allotments helped keep us focused on our budget.

Many thanks to your flexibility and working with us on a few upgrades we felt were really necessary to get the house exactly the way we wanted. Building our new house continues to be a source of pride for Tina and I and regular topic of conversation with our friends.

If you ever need a client referral or recommendation, please do not hesitate to call on us.

Sincerely,

David M. Kelsey