I have had the pleasure of knowing Lee Gander for several years. During the years of our acquaintance, I have known Lee in many capabilities.
Lee has demonstrated a wonderful initiative and a positive attitude toward accomplishment in the development and construction of my new home. I am very pleased on the outcome of my home. Lee is an intelligent, capable, dedicated, and a personable man.
In summary, I highly recommend Lee for any endeavor that he may seek to pursue, he will be a valuable asset in which any company would be proud.
Patricia Dale-Ramos - Deforest, WI
I hired Mr. Gander with Gander Contracting to work on my old house and build an addition. I was very pleased with the quality of the work and the personalized service. I would recommend him to my family and friends.
Amal
In June 2007 Gander Construction, LLC began clearing our lot for construction of our home at the letterhead address. The home is located off of Lake Wisconsin in the town of Dekorra. The design of the home was based upon a spec home that Lee Gander of Gander Construction, LLC had for sale in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. The size and layout were almost ideal for our needs and wants. Being across from the lake with a beautiful view, we had Lee modify it from a ranch style to a two-story home with a spacious basement, which we intended to use for entertaining. The site was approved for our design, and immediately we encountered a problem. Three feet down we encountered water, which meant we could no longer have a basement. Lee demonstrated quick thinking and displayed his ingenuity by modifying the design to include a room for entertaining above the garage, and we have been greatly pleased with the result.
Throughout construction, as is typical, we encountered various "problems" in which Lee's brainstorming enabled solutions which ended in satisfactory design modifications, many of which we liked more than the original design. He was a pleasure to work with, and showed concern of our needs and wants, and was willing to amend the contract to incorporate items, which we neglected to contemplate at the time of the original contract.
We were cleared to move into our home at the beginning of February of this year. We are greatly pleased with what has been completed, and feel his work is beautiful. Please feel free to call us at the phone number listed in the letterhead if you have any questions, or would like to see photos of our home, or arrange to see the home.
Doug and Paula Dederich - Poynette, WI
My husband and I moved to Prairie du Sac three years ago. We looked at many houses and finally found one we liked very much. It was nearly finished and was being built by Mr. Lee Gander. He readily showed us the house when we asked if we could go through it. We could tell by his demeanor he was very proud of the work he had done. We were impressed and purchased the house, which we still live in today.
We worked with Mr. Gander on making choices for various things for the house like flooring, counter tops, lighting, and more. We asked him to make a number of changes to which he was extremely accommodating. We were never made to feel our requests were an imposition for him. He willingly worked with us to make his house our home.
Mr. Gander was very professional and at the same time extremely personable. Whenever we needed to contact him and he was not available, he always got back to us in a timely manner. He was courteous at all times and addressed all of our concerns. Our experience with him was a positive one and I would not hesitate to work with him again.
Deborah and Bob Harris
I met Lee about 5 years ago when he was building a house on speculation and I was in the market to buy a house. Most of my interaction with Lee relates to negotiating construction changes and purchasing this house.
In the fall of 2003 Lee started this house with plans to work through the winter. When I first saw the house, the foundation was in and the outside framing was complete. Lee was working on the roof. I like the layout, but I said I really needed to have the house finished as soon as possible. In addition, I wanted to make some changes to what Lee had planned for finishing the house. We were able to negotiate not only some construction changes I wanted to make, but also work I wanted to do myself (such as laying stone instead of brick, building a bigger deck, finishing one room with pine boards instead of drywall, to name 3 of many).
Lee was very accommodating with my desires. Not only did all the changes get made to my satisfaction, we were able to negotiate the contract so I could get the loan I needed. And above all, I was able to move into the house in mid November 2003.
So in my experience, Lee was very flexible and worked hard and efficiently to meet my needs. He was also easy to talk to and relate to. I think he is a conscientious man who takes pride in his work.
I would be more than happy to answer any specific questions related to any employment Lee is applying for.
Gene Hafermann, PE - Civil Engineer, Wisconsin Department of Transportation
We hired Gander Contracting as our general contractor in the major remodel of our Madison home. The original house, built in 1924, was a one story bungalow with masonry clay tile exterior walls. Lee Gander worked with us to develop a remodel plan that saved three of the four original exterior walls, added a sunroom facing the back yard and a second floor. This remodel was very complicated due to the fact that the original exterior walls could not support the additional load of a second floor and the original first floor joists were in poor condition due to dry rot. The original house was so small but we loved the beautiful brick exterior and the neighborhood so Lee helped us build a new house within the outer shell of the old one from the basement up.
Lee was wonderful to work with. He was always willing to work with us to resolve issues that came up during the course of the project. Due to the complicated nature of this remodel, Lee was right there working with his crew throughout the rough framing to ensure everything went together according to plan. He was on site or a phone call away whenever subcontractors had questions or needed guidance during this unique remodeling project. Lee worked with us to come up with many alternative construction solutions throughout the project as we found unanticipated challenges and made changes to the plans along the way.
Except for change orders we requested during the remodel project Lee kept the project on the original budget. The remodel took much longer than anticipated due to an unforgiving winter and spring with relentless snow and rain forcing us to shut down the project from mid December to April. Lee did a wonderful job helping us to protect the structure from the elements during all this inclement weather. Many subcontractors and city inspectors commented on how well the subfloors looked after all that harsh weather and wanted to know how we managed to keep it looking so good with all that precipitation we had.
We are now living in our newly remodeled home and happy with how it went from dream to plan to reality.
We would recommend Gander Contracting to others who might be looking for a general contractor that is willing to work hard with them to design and build the home of their dreams.
Ron Shutvet and Deb Schieve - Madison WI