Testimonials

We are very proud to present just a few of the testimonials from our clients over the years.

Mr R. – Roquefort-Les-Pins, France

‘An English friend who has lived in Roquefort les Pins for many years introduced my wife and I to Tim Stares, proprietor of Amber Design some two years ago. He was tired of hearing our tales of woe for all the things that kept going wrong with our villa. As remote expats, we had had so many bad experiences that we seriously considered selling the villa and saying goodbye to this special part of the world.

Two years on and all is well. Tim corrected everything, either personally and, or by bringing in specialist contractors. This gave us the confidence to take on more elaborate renovation and expansion projects, which we did and we have more in the pipeline.

Tim oversaw everything, from scoping and budgeting the works to signing off the finished products. He would visit the villa regularly to check on progress, email photographs of the works and report any issues with options to resolve.

I would recommend Tim and Amber Design to anyone who needs to get things done, honestly and professionally.’

Mr N. La Croix-Valmer, France

‘We purchased our property in May 2015 and first met with Tim in mid May and outlined the works I required. Within a week Tim had provided ‘guide costs’ dependent obviously on quality of products to be installed, i.e. kitchens, bathrooms, pool tiling, flooring, Air conditioning etc.

Immediately after signing the contract to use Tim he appointed architects to draw the required plans for submitting to the local Marie. The plans were provided quickly and to my requirements and Tim and the architect met with the Marie on the 4th June and the plans were all approved by the 21st September. This was all a very smooth and painless process , managed by Tim.

In summary , Tim’s role has been to:
–          Discuss with me my requirements
–          Appoint an architect to draw up appropriate plans and submit to the Marie for ‘planning permission’
–          Appoint contractors for all the works – my works were basically a complete refurbishment of the existing property, plus a new build of a sizeable garage, terracing areas and swimming pool.
–          I was involved in all the choices re the specification

o   Kitchen
o   Bathroom fittings
o   Flooring
o   Air conditioning
o   Type/colour of paint
o   Pool. Terrace and house tiling – Tim recommended certain stockist which I visited and decided on required tiles and then Tim dealt
o   Pool tiling
o   Type of pool heating etc

All through the process Tim would make regular visits and send plenty of photographs showing the progress ,and I would attempt to fly out monthly to see progress.

As with all projects the work evolved into additional works needed – at my request and need, and in retrospect  I should have spent more time on the detail of what I required. However, Tim and his appointed contractors were always flexible and helpful in meeting my demands.

–          Tim carried out the required transformation from my ideas into detailed plans and costings and then provided appropriate quotations from the various suppliers of services
–          Tim has a pool of ‘preferred’ contractors and perhaps this is an area I could have requested comparative quotations for, but I was happy with the quotes provided ( I did cross check sample quotes with UK contractors I know to review). However, I have to say the main contractor he used was extremely reliable, the quality of the work is excellent and they were able to deal with my requests for alterations when I made them.
–          Tim was a able to guide me through options on the most cost effective ways of carrying out the work, and would provide options as to where savings could be made- ie varying options on tiling, kitchens, type of pool heating, new shutters etc. Importantly he would give an honest opinion on options.
–          He has transformed the property I purchased from an ugly duckling into a swan. We have changed the property to a contemporary design internally, but tired to keep a ‘Provencal’ feel outside and the contrast we feel really work.
–          We have had to have a lot of  ‘groundworks ‘ carried out with substantial ground dug out and removed and a remodelling of the area around the villa to accommodate the pool and garage/terracing, which has worked extremely well.
–          As regards the swimming pool Tim provided great help, initially on maximising the size in a particular area, such that it fitted with the layout we needed, and then on the type of pool, heating, pool covers, tiling, lighting etc and we are delighted with the pool. We had to have additional piling as ours was installed on an originally sloping piece of land.

I have found the process with Tim straightforward, sometimes frustrations but those really are on perhaps unrealistic expectations on the time-frames but I did make considerable additions to the original works which were all completed. In effect from start to finish the works took a year but there has been a significant additional work I requested.’