Jim Burnop, who also builds under company name South Shore Construction, was contracted to add and extra bathroom and an upstairs Master Suite, Master Bath and Walk-In closet in November. The agreed upon price for this upgrade was $42,000. Along the way, as is common in the business, a few more items were discovered that made it necessary to raise the contract price for the additions to $45,000. During the construction process, Jim Bunop was asking for draws against the overall price almost every other day. Numerous times I raised concern that he was over-drawing compared to the amount of work that had been performed. I was driving an hour across town every few days to check on his progress (We had to find another place to live during the construction process because of the mess). Jim Burnop promised us the work would be complete by February 1st. As the miles began piling up on our vehicles and the price of gas was starting to become a burden, my fiancee and I ask Jim Bunop to please at least make the downstairs livable so we could save money by not paying to payments for living expenses and also to avoid paying $700 in gas bills for our vehicles every month. Jim Burnop understood we were trying to save for our wedding in October and that we had to save money and also if was crucial for us to stay within our budget. Things took a turn for the worse. Jim Burnop asked for a larger draw than usual to complete the sheetrock upstairs. I informed him that I didn't feel comfortable, but do to the circumstances, I would allow the draw so that we could finally at least move into the downstairs of our home. He said he needed that money to hire a sheet rock company to finish the job within a week. To our horror, a few days later when I drove to check on the job, I discovered this 60 year old man attempting to do all the sheet rock work himself. I asked him where the sheet rock people were, and all he could say was "There is not enough money in this job and I need to do all the work myself". He blatantly lied and now it would be much longer before we would be able to move back into our home as this 60 year old contractor was starting to move very slow and complain suddenly that his back was hurting. Suddenly he turned things around on us. When he was begging for work, he said he was feeling the best he had felt in years. As the money left in the job shrunk, the number of excuses from this con-artist seemed to grow. "I have to eat", " I have to feed my family", and "I don't know how much longer an old man like me can do this" were just a few of the excuses. This builder lives in a 4,000 square foot house in one of the nicer homes in the area. The average consumer might make a mistake of equating that fact with a successful business owner. Jim Burnop starting showing up to the job less and less. He finally started saying he wasn't making enough money in the job that he estimated to feed his family and that he needed to find other jobs to make ends meet. He started trying to add other job to our existing agreement. One instance was he said he needed to replace the entire a/c system because it wasn't functioning properly. He wanted to add another $4,000 to the job. I called my own air conditioning professional who installed a few new ducts, but the entire system was otherwise fine. When Jim Burnop finally walked off the job, we were $8,000 short of completion and left with a leaking roof that damaged the ceiling texture he charged us an extra $1,000 for. Jim Burnop left the entire upstairs addition needing tape & float and paint. He did install any doors or the walk out deck off the master deck. He did not complete the hardi plank siding nor did he paint the exterior as agreed upon. He did not finish any of the cabinetry he started. Left us short two toilets, a dual sink vanity and a linen closet. He did not install two shower doors in the new bathrooms as agreed upon. He kept begging for money until the bitter end, all the while knowing we were saving for our wedding. He ruined our current plans, but not our spirit. Although our house is not finished, my fiancee and I were able to do a lot ourselves. We postponed our plans because of this dishonest individual, but he should not be left freely to swindle other honest people. We considered suing him, but upon further investigation, he is selling his home under duress. He is either a struggling builder or an academy award actor, but you do not want either one working on your house!
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