We hired Rex Appel as our contractor because he was a "friend-of-a-friend". Because of that fact we felt assured that he had our brst interests in mind to do a small addition on our 100 year old house.
We became sceptical when we found out that he had ordered replacement windows for us before we ever signed a contract, gave him any money, or even DISCUSSED the exact windows we wanted!
We would not use those windows, and we ordered the type we wanted... And he and his crew started. Then they stopped. And then they would show up, and dissappear for days.
We had winter pressing and we needed to close up the new addition to beat bad weather, but Rex and his crew (who by the way were not allowed to work without his supervision because they were incapable of doing anything he said) were just gone.
We called them for an unexpected meeting, we told them we had a problem with a few things: 1) Why did they keep telling us that they would be working and not show up? And, 2) why can't we have a detaied receipt of where we were at with money? Rex became defensive and apolagetic at the same time (he told us he was being medicated for his "problem") and promised detailed receipts and that they would be there at our house and that our job was their "#1 priority".
We never gota any copy of a single receipt, and they only worked for a few days before they quit to go to work for a week at Rex's buddys house.
I became furious as we had called for another meeting and we were "blown off". We wanted to know where 30,000 went and they were hiding.
We got into an argument over the phone and Rex came to the house making unusual accusations that my husband should have been "helping instead of hunting" (we still can't figure that one out).
My husband fired him, and said our working relationship was too strained to continue and that we just can't trust anything he says (there were too many lies to even mention).
So in the end, we had to hire another contractor to finish, and to repair the many mistakes he made; like cutting the trusses 2 inches too short in the uptairs addition, then scabbing in chunks of old boards to patch it up; like forgetting to put ventilation in the cinderblock under the addition; like replacing the stairs that he started because they could not even work with what Rex had done (we paid Rex over 800.00 for that day he worked on the stairs).
This is what we got for $30,000: footings for an addition that was les that 400sf (only 2 walls), framing for those walls and the ceiling, about 50% of roofing job (house is only 1600sf, two story), about 30% of the siding completed.
They also installed 8 replacement windows (he damaged two, one beyond repair and the other must be re-installed), 2 new doors and they demolished the top 3 feet of an old chimney. Thats it. That cost us 30K!!!
We had no insulation no wiring and not one single wall inside was touched. There was no inside framing done. Nothing!!! He refused to send us any copies of any items or materials. He had told us that he would not charge a fee for any materials because he was charging us 25-35 dollars per hour.
We had no idea that meant if he had 5 guys (all unskilled laborers) that we were being charged as much as $175 an hour!!! They only gave us an invoice once they wrote the bill up to 30k, after we had given them all that money!
And they charged us for days that they were not even here! We have had to pay to have the siding and roof finished and had to reorder windows that should have come out of the 30k, but he would not turn them over when he was fired (3,200.00).
He was a nightmare and he gouged us BAD!!! He hardly knows what he is doing and his crew doesn't at all (as he stated himself).
It was the biggest mistake we could have made!!! I would recommend you find another contractor if you are cosidering rexjenny.com... Or you will be SO sorry!
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