Testimonials: Steven Brouillard Construction; Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Durham and surrounding areas.

"My husband and I have known Steven Brouillard in a professional capacity for over a decade. Our house is a building, listed as classic Piedmont architecture in the Historic American Buildings Survey of 1965. It is of post-and-beam construction, with hand-sawn beams and panelling with few true 90 degree angles. Such a building requires a thoughtful and patient approach. Steven has demonstrated just such talents, time and again. He listens very carefully to advice and owner ideas concerning the work to be done. He then accomplishes what has to be done, within the confining constraints of an historic house."

Leah and Wallace Burt

"Steve's ideas were striking and practical at the same time. He was really good to work with in terms of ability and patience. I had no idea how to set the house on the land to take advantage of its unique aspects. Steve did all that, plus he helped me to understand what was going on as the home was being built. With five levels of roof line, this was a pretty complex construction. He's an incredible carpenter.

Steve was really good at interpreting the floor plan and the passive solar features we wanted into a really striking house. Steve had a vision, and he helped us to have a vision about this home. The vistas from each window are very beautiful day and night. We feel like we have the outdoors indoors. It's kind of like having a picture everywhere you look on the wall."

Brenda McCall

We live in a house built in 1854, originally only four rooms, two per floor. Sometime in the 1940's a kitchen was added onto the back, with a bathroom. We tore this off and planned to almost triple the size of the house, connecting it by a covered breezeway to a three car garage with a studio above. The owner from whom we bought the house is an architect and he passed on his layouts for a restoration and addition, but the drawings were inadequate to build from. Then Steve came on the job. He understood immediately our desire to strip the original house down to its heart pine core and then duplicate the style and features for the addition, so blended it would be hard to tell the old from the new. Steve was as dedicated and interested in the job as if it were his own home, taking a pride in his work that I can't say I see very often. Together we designed the interior layout, me drawing out what I envisioned and Steve drawing it out so it worked. What some might see as an obstacle, Steve took on as a challenge. Along the way we made many changes as the process unfolded, and I came to rely on Steve to bounce any ideas off of.

The job took a good two years to complete. Steve brought in an excellent crew of reliable and talented carpenters. They, too, took the job personally and felt free to express their opinions and offer suggestions whenever they could. They got to know our family and our pets and I felt secure with them on the site. From foundation stone to roof truss it is one of the most solid houses anyone could build, and I credit Steve with insisting on attention to the details of its solidity (especially during the times I was away). Never did we find ourselves having to go back and rebuild something because it was insufficient to bear weight or misaligned. When it came time to design and craft the handrail, Steve truly shined. He carefully built a model, measured it against the stairs so it flows with the incline, and rejected any but the finest beams of reclaimed pine from which he cut the rail's pieces. Joined together, you can hardly tell it is assembled from pieces.

For any of the further developments we have on the drawing table I'll call Steve to execute them.

Marc Paradis

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