Marisa & Co., Inc.

Marisa & Co. got to kitchens and bathrooms the long way round. The company says its founder started in 1989 as one of the first female-owned painting and renovation businesses, spent years renovating east-coast hotel chains, turned to houses when that market fell away in 2008, and has spent the last fifteen years specializing in kitchen and bath work. It describes itself as woman-owned, with the owner overseeing each job from start to finish. Its Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration, number 170996, is active under the company's own name. The Better Business Bureau has had a file open since August 2014 and grades it A+, recording 37 years in business and ten employees under owner Marisa Markarian. The work spans kitchen, bathroom and basement renovation, general contracting, interior and exterior painting including cabinets, flooring installation and refinishing, siding, roofing and decks, across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The written record is small: three customer reviews across two sources, all positive, all pointing at the same things — fair estimates that were kept and close attention to detail. For a company with this much history that is a thin base, and it is the main reason to do your own checking rather than a mark against the work. One practical note: its BBB profile lists payment by cash, check or Venmo, so if you were planning to put a renovation on a credit card, settle that before signing. The right fit here is a homeowner who wants a small, owner-run shop for a kitchen, a bathroom or an exterior repaint in MetroWest, and who values having the person who quoted the job be the person running it. Ask for two or three recent project addresses and call those homeowners — with a public record this small, that conversation tells you more than anything you can read.