Recently, Howard and roger Polo asked Michael and I to write a letter of recommendation for a sales brochure they were creating. We started working with Howard and Roger in March of 1995 when we found a great piece of land and decided to build a home in Mendham, New Jersey. When we decided to design the house from scratch rather than using one of the beautiful Scholz designs they had recommended, they were not deterred. They were at every meeting we had with our architect, putting in many extra and uncompensated hours.

There are so many great things to say about both Howard and Roger that I don’t really know where to begin. Perhaps the most important quality about them is that they are both incredibly honest and sincere. We felt we could trust tem every step of the way. And there were a lot of steps in the process when you design from a blank piece of paper. Any time there was a little misstep, we all trusted each other and found common, workable solutions.

One of our big problems was tons and tons of blast rock littering the property when we had to dynamite for a week just to put in our basement. The rock was so overpowering that Michael and I couldn’t stop focusing on it. We knew it would cost us $15,000 just to get rid of it. Howard wasn’t perturbed. He was well connected and well respected in Mendham. He heard a local road was being seriously eroded by a stream and that Mendham was going to have to buy rock to fix the problem, so he went to the town meetings and offered them our rock. All they had to do was take it away. And eventually, after Howard attended many meetings, they did. The town got a good deal, and so did we. Howard is worth his weight in gold.

The Polos’ honesty and integrity filters down to their subcontractors. The subs who worked for them had a lot of pride in their workmanship and in their relationship with Howard Polo. Almost all the subs who worked on the job told me how much they liked working with Howard and Roger. And happy, proud people do good work. Just recently, I had to call the plumber and the tile man for two repairs which would definitely be considered wear and tear after over two years in the house. I had to argue with each of them to take money for their work. The fact that Howard and Roger attract and keep such good subcontractors is a credit to how they do business.

Michael and I have owned eight homes. We have done renovations or additions to all of our homes. We have dealt with many contractors over the years, and we knew when we chose a contractor to build a home for us that we wanted someone we could trust, who would have the ability, to give us what we wanted. Having lived in so many homes, we knew what we liked and we didn’t want to be disappointed by a builder who couldn’t create what we wanted. We did get what we wanted. We love our home, and if were going to build another in the area, Howard and Roger would build it. This is truly a quality custom home.

As a final note, Michael and I bumped into Howard in town a week or so ago. We were all very happy to see each other. Isn’t that the best recommendation of all.

MMK