HardwickGC Client Q&A: Lake Nona – Entertainer’s Dream!

We had the most amazing time renovating Derek and Becky Cassidy’s home in Lake Nona. We took a standard-finish production home and made it completely custom and unique to express the Cassidy’s fun personalities and create an Entertainer’s Dream! Here’s what Derek had to say about the experience of working with Hardwick General Contracting.

1. How did you first hear about Hardwick General Contracting?

Our interior designer, Joe Sirilla, recommended that we interview Greg Hardwick. We actually interviewed five different GCs and Greg was the easy choice. He genuinely seemed to want to do the project. And of course, everyone we talked to in the industry recommended him.

2. What project did you hire HardwickGC for?

It was a total renovation job. Our house was about five years old, and we really liked the bones of the house, but we just didn’t like the overall look. What started the whole thing was this huge ugly column next to the living room, right in the middle of the room. We hated it, and we were like okay, we’re starting from there. That’s got to go.

3. What results do you get from working with HardwickGC?

Well one thing that I’m really excited about is the kitchen. A lot of kitchens are made for families, and you can always tell because there will be an island in the kitchen with a cooktop. Whereas for entertaining, you want the island to be a place for food and drinks to share with your guests. So, we went with that concept of designing our home around entertaining, and we centered all our decisions around that logistically.

4. What exactly did you like most about working with HardwickGC?

Once knew the flow of everything, the next step was: how do we make this awesome? This is where the Hardwick Team came in. All of them came up with little ideas. Some of the ideas that they came up with were incredible. Some of it is just little touches, little things that some people don’t even realize, but they really made the space unique. We were going for a style that’s modern contemporary with touches of industrial. We used a lot of glass, straight lines and brushed nickel. Justin from Hardwick came up with a really cool idea finishing out the railing next to the bar. We were using black anodized aluminum diamond plate accents on the front of the bar where people sit. Justin had the idea to shape diamond plate and anodize it in black to custom-fit the railings. It’s a small thing that makes a big difference in the custom look of the bar. It brings design as well as function since it protects the area from scrapes and spills.

5. Why would you recommend Greg Hardwick to someone who might be on the fence?

Look at his portfolio of work, compare it to others. See if it fits within the range of what you want to do. Do you want somebody who is going to do the job well or to do the job magnificently? I sat down with five different General Contractors and Greg’s portfolio of work just really stood out.

6. What was your experience with the members of the team?

They were always responsive, reassuring and they always found out the answer and came up with solutions when problems arose. The fact is the company is as small as it is and what they are able to accomplish is absolutely phenomenal. It’s just it’s just the core four or five people, and then of course they work with contractors and other companies. But the fact they’re able to accomplish as much as they do with so few people surprised me.

7. What was your home like before you hired HardwickGC?

It was a cookie cutter production home, about 4 years old. We bought it from the original owner. We like the neighborhood and the location, but we didn’t like the inside. The house was very choppy with angles all over the place. There were arched walls for no reason that really separated absolutely nothing, and it wasn’t optimized for entertaining.

8. What is your home like now?

I love going home. I have everything I need to have a drink at the bar, swim, play arcade games play pool, play a board game with Becky, or have people over. I can even go upstairs after work and go to my own movie theater watch a movie. Because I can!

9. What surprised you the most or made you the happiest about working with HardwickGC?

Going into the project, I knew that we were trying to do something different. It’s easy to find somebody who’s going to do the job well. But I wanted somebody who’s going to do the job magnificently. You know, I’m no Bill Gates, but we saved and sacrifice so that we could do something magnificent. And that’s what you get with Hardwick, this team’s work is absolutely magnificent.