S. A. Baxter

It’s taken me a long while to write this review, but after looking for reviews for another contractor, I was reminded of Sid, the work he did on our place and how awful an experience it was. Sid was contracted to replace some custom-​sized windows and measured one of the the openings incorrectly. Twice. He refused to believe he had measured incorrectly, and insisted on having a representative of the window manufacturer come out and check his numbers. The manufacturer’s rep confirmed that he had measured incorrectly. He became increasingly argumentative and difficult to work with, and when he did finally install the window on the third try, after months of delays and plywood covering up the window, he just increased the size of the opening, making the window no longer match the others in the wall. Which negated the need for a custom window, and wasn’t what we wanted at all. His billing was very haphazardly detailed, and eventually all communication just broke down. In the end we paid him to go away. This all happened a few years ago, and perhaps he’s improved a great deal, but we had a terrible experience with him.

I have worked with Sid several times now, and it has been fantastic. He has been consistently straight-​up with how much things will cost, worked hard to stay within my budget, gone the extra mile to see that things are done properly and makes things right that aren’t up to his excellent, and rigorous standards. Plus, he takes better care of my place than I do! I recommend him highly, and will definitely be using him again — and soon!

I could tell Sid was someone I was going to be happy working with right from the initial phone call (Especially compared to the other contractors I had previously dealt with). He was to the point, incredibly professional, able to assess every situation with great precision & innovation and a real delight to have around.
I am very apprehensive to leave anyone in my home while I am not there. It is simply in my nature. This wasn’t the case at all with Sid. He made me feel at ease and I couldn’t have felt more comfortable with him in my home. He has been back to complete a few smaller projects for us as well, and we look forward to the next visit. He is really one of a kind and I just can’t say enough about him and his professionalism.
His work speaks for itself. He and his crew work like a well oiled machine and it shows. They really have something special going on. Everything looked so beautiful when it was done, it truly exceeded my expectations and I couldn’t have been happier or more impressed with the final results.

If you’re looking for a home with high quality finishing without any hassle along the way then I believe Sid is your guy. Although I didn’t end up using him in the end due to my own budget constraint, Sid was extremely patient and professional helping me to work out where I can/​should make compromises. He also made some great suggestions and recommendations to help us to save money. I’ve seen a property he remodeled before, and I admired the finishing and quality of the work. I hope I can work with him in the future when my budget allows.

I interviewed a few contractors before I decided on Sid to make some built-​in bookshelves and a window seat for our front room. Partly because my dog liked him best. Turns out Chauncey is indeed a good judge of character.
Sid did and his crew did such a great job on the bookshelves and window seat (which houses components for our TV, so there was a lot of tricky electrical wiring to be done, and it was done ingeniously) we hired him again to completely remodel our kitchen and bath. Oh, and to install a new hot water heater. And add a railing to our back steps. And do just about everything else involved with converting our TIC to a condo. Now that it’s all done, our apartment is, like, Apartment Therapy house tour-​worthy. Everyone loves it, including us.
Sid’s fantastic at dealing with city inspectors, he always returns calls, emails, and text messages promptly, and he’s a charming southern gent with a penchant for Wes Anderson films. Which never hurts. Sid’s a gem. Hire him immediately.

I’ve used a lot of different contractors for work on my house over the years and Sid is the only one I’ve hired back for multiple projects. He recently completed a full kitchen remodel, and I’d hire him again for future work. He’s very clear about pricing and estimates and what is and is not included. The people who work for him are very responsible and good at their jobs. And they are excellent at dealing with the very complicated requirements of picky city inspectors. I also found his timelines pretty accurate, which is unusual for contractors in my experience.

Comes off as a nice and honorable guy, but don’t be fooled!
Makes excuses for everything and accepts responsibility for nothing.
Details:
He treated me as though my time had no value, even though from the beginning I had been clear that we are on a deadline. We started communications in May 2011 and he committed to working with us. After months of excuses he finally provided a scope of work and approximate time line. He then fed me some excuses about staffing issues and needed more time before picking up with me again. After a month or so, he then rescinded his original scope, claiming that he thought of some «other potential issues» and needed more time to bring in a few experts to do more exploratory work prior to giving me an updated scope of work and time line. Weeks passed, of course there was nothing wrong and the scope of work did not change. He then needed even more time to have the original scope of work drafts by a third party. Then more time was required for him to review the plans and give us an updated time line. Oops, it’s now mid-​December! He pulls out of the project and tells us he can’t meet our deadline after stringing us along for 7+ months. Turns out he says the construction would take about 3 months and our deadline is March! What a coincidence. Wow, if only we had hired a contractor earlier in the year… hmmm, wait we did! His name was Sid Baxter and we signed a contract and everything. Wouldn’t it have been nice if Mister Baxter told us sooner he couldn’t do the project so that we could hire someone else?! Nah, that would just require too
much consideration, accountability and integrity from a reasonable service provider, right?
Summary:
Will lie to your face, waste your time, leave you with no options, and won’t even apologize. Guess if he can’t take you on as a client, then at least he’ll make sure no one else can either! Kudos to him, and his successful conniving scheme.
I would be happy to provide more information or detail if you message me. Good luck!

Sid Baxter takes a professional approach to his business but has an unfortunate habit of being unable to follow through on almost anything he says he can do.
Sid was initially hired to work on an expensive foundation replacement and basement renovation project which he claimed he was capable of doing and could complete within a 3 – 4 month timeline. We called Sid’s references and while Sid had never actually completed a project of this scope, he did have some limited experience with foundation work and his references were reasonably supportive of his work. We liked Sid and we decided to give him a chance. We signed a contract and were told that our architectural plans would be done during the month of August, and our project would take 3 additional months to complete.
Over the next several months, Sid repeatedly promised to deliver simple items and never did. The true mystery is that as clients did not set the agenda. We simply asked Sid to tell us how long things would take and accepted what he told us. To develop a plan for our project, Sid hired an architect, at our expense, and promised that he would work with the architect to develop a set of simple schematics from which he could determine a scope of work and provide us with a refined work timeline and cost estimate. This was supposed to take several weeks into mid-​August but it is now almost Christmas and we have not received what Sid promised. In the meantime, we have accrued thousands of dollars in expenses.
I cannot reiterate how surprised I have been by Sid. Here is an abbreviated list of the delay excuses that Sid made to his own promised deadlines.
August 10^th: Sid mentions unexpectedly that he fired a contractor and will have to delay our project for a few weeks.
August 21^st: Sid mentions he has found a new contractor but he is going to have to put our project on hold for 3 – 4 weeks. He gets back to us again 7 weeks later on October 12^th.
October 21^st: Sid promises «expect to see some schedule projections coming from me early next week».
November 15^th: Sid promises to provide a schedule and scope of work within 10 – 14 days.
December 1^st: Sid promises to provide a schedule within 24 – 48 hours.
December 9^th: Sid promises to provide a schedule, scope of work and set of plans by December 14^th.
December 14^th: Sid says he is running behind and will send what he has promised by the end of the week. (4 months have gone by and we have still not received ANYTHING that Sid promised would take only a few weeks to provide).
December 17^th: Sid quits project after we express that the delays seem to be making it unlikely that we will be able to complete the project by Summer 2012.
I am talking about the scope of work, and timeline. Over the course of 4 months, Sid promised these things at least 20 times and over the course of 4 months Sid never delivered. The thing that concerns me about Sid is wondering what might happen if we had actually gotten to the real project stage. If Sid has trouble completing his own paperwork as a contractor, it scares me to think what delays we might have experienced once the real work started.
While Sid was taking these 4 months, Sid invoiced us for thousands of dollars of expenses. More over, upon quitting the project, Sid sent a last invoice (despite not completing any of the tasks for which he was hired) and with a message saying «I’m sorry that our schedule prevented me from meeting yours.» Over the course of 4 months I can honestly say this is the only apology we ever received from Sid for his delays and the apology as phrased says it all.
We hired Sid because we liked Sid, because he promised to focus on project and because he seemed to understand what we were hoping to achieve. Unfortunately, Sid cannot be counted upon to deliver on any sort of timeline or even to return phone calls if his schedule gets tough. Dealing with him is like no other professional arrangement I have ever had.
Sid signs all emails «Quality means doing it right when nobody is looking –Henry Ford». Perhaps Sid just needs to realize that quality also means doing things right when people are looking as well. It’s a pity that such a nice and seemingly competent person like Sid could be such a disappointing surprise. San Francisco has a lot of better options for contractors.

My experiences with Sid have been terrific. The necessary work was clearly outlined ahead of time in a no pressure fashion. Cost estimates were spot on if not slightly higher than the final cost.
What is most amazing is how clean the work site was kept. I had new windows installed in my bedroom. Never was there any dust or debris remaining. The bed and bedding didn’t even need to be removed during the work.
Sid has worked on at least 4 houses on my block. I expect that number will rise. I will definitely use Sid again.