Family owned since 2007Ajax · Durham Region · Greater Toronto Area4.9 on Google
What’s your next chapter?

Good homes start
with a conversation.

james@jarviscontracting.ca(289) 892-4169Home additions & renovations
Durham Region & the Greater Toronto Area
A narrow kitchen with a walnut island, cream shaker cabinets and a herringbone floor, beside an open oak stair with looped black balusters

From drawing to handover

How a project runs, from the first visit to handover

Ten steps, in the order they happen. You meet James first, the whole job is priced before design starts, you see the design in 3D before anything is ordered, and nothing is built until the permit is issued.

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The first estimate is free

James meets you at the house, hears what you want and gives you a rough estimate on the spot, and your first estimate costs nothing. Call him on (289) 892-4169 or send the enquiry form.

The order matters

The entire project is priced, and the contract signed, before any design work begins. James's proposals are detailed, so the price rarely moves; when a design selection or a finish does change it, the change goes through a change order you approve and sign. Our designer is James's wife, who runs the design studio Juliette Interiors, so the person drawing the plan knows what it costs to build.

Meet & design

A shared vision.

James Jarvis and Ceara standing together behind a stone kitchen island at Coventry Residence

  1. Meet James

    James meets you at the house, hears what you want and gives you a rough estimate on the spot. The first estimate is free.

  2. Proposal and contract

    If the estimate works for you, James prepares a detailed proposal. The whole project is priced, and the contract signed with a 10% deposit, before any design work begins.

  3. Design onboarding

    Our designer sends you an onboarding email with some homework: your style, how your family uses the house, and what you need and want. You share Pinterest boards, then go through them together on a Zoom call: what you like in the pictures, and what you don't.

  4. Measure and floor plans

    The designer measures the house and draws the floor plan: which walls come out, where the stairs land, how new space joins the old. We go through it with you until it's confirmed.

Plan & construct

Ready to build.

The living room with an arched niche of oak shelves, a terracotta pot with an olive tree and French doors through to the green office

  1. Drawings and 3D rendering

    With the plan confirmed, she draws the elevations and the millwork, then puts it all into a 3D rendering, so you see the rooms before anyone orders a cabinet.

  2. Finishes presentation

    We don't take you round the stores: there are too many options. Using what she learned in onboarding, the designer narrows the tile, flooring, quartz, plumbing fixtures and the rest to a few choices that suit your style, collects the samples and presents them to you in our office. If a selection changes the price, the change goes through a change order you sign.

  3. Permits and engineering

    We prepare the permit drawings, bring in the structural engineer wherever a beam or a load changes, and apply to the municipality. If the plan changes after the permit is issued, we file the amendment.

Finish & hand over

Welcome home.

A dining nook with an upholstered banquette, a fluted black round table, two velvet chairs and glass-front cabinets on either side

  1. Construction

    Our crew and trades build it, with one point of contact from demolition to the last coat of paint. Our site supervisors write a job log every day, which you can follow in our online app. When we open a wall and find a problem, you hear about it, and what it costs, before we fix it.

  2. Inspections

    The municipal building inspector checks the work at each stage the permit sets, before it gets covered up.

  3. Handover

    We walk the finished house with you and put right anything that isn't. On one job a stair stain didn't match the new floor, so we refinished the stairs.

Along the way

How long it takes

West Lynde, a bungalow taken to two storeys with a new kitchen and two bathrooms, took about four and a half months on site in Whitby in 2023. Greenwood, a rear extension and a new top floor in Toronto, took 10 months from the permit and the design through construction. The permit itself has a clock: for a house without one unit above another, the town has 10 business days to decide a complete application (Ontario Building Code, Division C).

How you'll know what's happening

Our site supervisors write a job log every day to document progress, and you can read it in our online app. Clients have written about it: one loved "the on line app to track day to day progress with daily pictures" (Susan Morris, 2023), and another, who rarely saw the house, was "consistently kept ... updated with photos and videos" (George Sevastin, 2026), both on Google.

When the plan changes

Sometimes the house changes the plan. At Greenwood, once the demolition was done, taking out a brick wall in the basement made sense to gain floor space. That needed new engineering and an amendment to the permit, and it cost us a short delay. The same house had no waterproofing and no weeping tile at the footing, and little room to dig, so we installed a bridged weeping system that carries the water to a sump pump, which pumps it away from the house.

Your rights under Ontario law

Ontario requires a written contract for any renovation over $50. If you sign at home, you have 10 days to cancel. And the final price can't be more than 10% over the estimate unless you agree to changes (ontario.ca).

Sources

  1. Ontario Building Code, Division C publications.gov.on.ca
  2. Google google.com
  3. ontario.ca ontario.ca