We contracted Steve Arnold with Avalon Home Service on November 14 to do a kitchen remodeling job. The project was to be finished in 8 weeks. On this same day we paid him $3,150 as down payment for labor, services and equipment and materials he said he needed to start off the job. On Nov. 24 we paid him $6k to custom order the kitchen cabinets, $600 for dump fees, $250 for frame walls, $1,800 for concrete/foundation labor. Till this day, he has not brought the cabinets to us, he never dumped the trash, nor did he sheetrocked the walls, less frame the walls!
On the month of December, we made several other payments to him for tile, windows, trims, roofing materials, brick material, insulation, texture, taping, paint, HVAC duct, electrical, light fixtures, and additional dump fees which he never did or complete.
He started by making a poor job on the roofing, heating, flooring, and tile. He would do pieces here and there, in different areas, and never completing any of the jobs. We talked to him, complaining over his lack of progress and how he had several small jobs started and none completed. He blamed it on his workers and said he would get on to them.
By the end fo the year, he began to be a no-show. After several days, weeks, of not showing up and not answering our daily calls/messages, I took pictures of everything to have proof of where he left off, and what he did or didn't do.
We left him a message telling him to come back and finish the job. We could not keep our hands crossed and leave the house a mess, so we left him another message telling him that we were going to finish the job, but we wanted our $6k back since he did not bring our kitchen cabinets. We received to reply from him. We decided to finish the project ourselves and save receipts and take pictures of us or others working on the house. We hired an electircian, HVAC tech, plumber, brick layer, cabinet maker, granite counter top installer, and someone to do the tape and texture. Family, friends and we did the rest of the work, tile, paint, sheet rock, intalling insulation, dumping, finished roofing, etc...
The final framing inspection passed on 3/12/09! This was just an 8 week project! Steve Arnold never even tried to come back to finish anything. Our out of pocket expenses were $15k, not including what we paid him and he didn't do or finish.
We hope this report helps other out there. We don't want anyone else to fall into the hands of this fraudulent person. He has no word or shame.
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