Saturday 5/30/09
Scheduled to come at 9 am for quotation, but called and cancelled.
Sunday 5/31/09
Arrived at the house at 9AM for a consultation. Work began around 11:30AM-ended around 2:30PM
Total time at house (working): 3 hours
Work completed:
Installed light over dining room table
Installed ceiling fan in bathroom
Installed bathroom light
Notes: When they left at 2:30 they said they were going to Lowes to get supplies. They instructed us to rip up the flooring in the hallway and entry way as he would be having someone come first thing on Monday to do the floors. The agreement was that they would get the floors in on Monday, grout them on Tuesday and finish all other work on Tuesday.informed me that the light bulbs that came with the bathroom light did not fit. David said that he would bring a contract the next day for us to sign. I gave him $700 for supplies.
Monday 6/1/09
Arrived at the house at approximately 8:45AM, left at approximately 2:30PM
Total time at house: 5.45 hours
Work completed:
Installed ceiling fan in Amy's room
Installed ceiling fan in front room
Patched hole in the kitchen wall
Patched hole in the entry way (was not asked to do)
Fixed bathroom door
Notes: No one came to do the floors nor were they mentioned. They said the ceiling fan that I purchased on Sunday was broken, so I went to Home Depot to exchange.
Tuesday 6/2/09
Arrived at the house at approximately 11AM, left at approximately 2:30PM
Total time worked: 3.5 hours
Work completed:
Kitchen lights installed but stuck on
Installed ceiling fan
Finished installing light in the laundry room
Notes: When I came home at lunch David proudly showed me the lights in the kitchen were installed. My 12 year old that was home, pointed out that the lights were on but did not turn off. David then went into some long explanation of how there was too much load on the breaker. I pointed out to him that the load was exactly the same as it had been before. He argued with me a bit and I told him that if he couldn't do it, to just take out the light above the sink. He said that he would fix it. David called in the afternoon to tell me that the lights in the kitchen were messed up because of the wiring that was in the house. He told me that it would be $100 extra in supplies to fix this problem. I agreed to pay. He asked if he could use our texture and texturizing machine. He was supposed to have purchased can texture with the supply money, but I said ok. Because David had not brought a contract and I was beginning to feel a bit awkward about this situation, I typed one up and left it for him to sign (which he never did).
Wednesday 6/3/09
Arrived at the house at approximately 9AM, left at approximately 1:30PM
Total time worked: 4.5 hours
Work completed:
Textured entry walls (textured the entire wall even though I asked for only the top portion to be textured)
Textured the entry ceiling (even though I asked for it to be left alone)
Tried to install bedroom ceiling fan (but said part was missing-which wasn't missing)
Fixed kitchen lights
Notes: I came home at lunch and was glad to see that my walls were being textured, although they didn't look exactly like I wanted them to, I figured I could fix it later with some sandpaper. David started talking to me about the electrical in the kitchen (again) and told me the wiring in the house was from 1972,1976, etc. I pointed out the house was not built until 1979, to which he told me he didn't believe that, blah blah. He said that he had to call in an electrician to help them fix the kitchen electrical. He told me the walls would be done today as would my ceiling fan. Tomorrow the floors and molding would be finished. I asked him when the doors would be done and he said Yeah I was going to ask you where they are?". I replied to him that he was supposed to purchase the doors, he acted clueless for a moment, and I then said yes, that is what the supply money was for, right? Then told Harley (his helper) to note that they needed to buy 4 doors. He asked for the additional money ($100 in supplies) which I gave him a check for. I got home later that evening and found that only parts of the walls were done and my ceiling fan was not in because a part was missing. The part was circled in the manual; I found it in the box in less than 30 seconds. I was also frustrated because of the extreme mess they left from the texture AND they got texture on my couch. I noticed that the microwave was not working. After seeing how crappy the texture looked, I left word for him to leave the large wall in the entry way alone.
Thursday 6/4/09
Arrived at the house at approximately 9AM, left at approximately 2:30PM
Total time worked: 5.5 hours
Work completed:
Installed ceiling fan in my room
Textured small portion of wall in living room
Installed about 2' of flooring
Notes: Thursday I managed to avoid talking to them at all. I was becoming increasingly frustrated. I had my husband speak with them and they said they would be done with everything by Sunday. They apparently complained to him about extraordinary supplies they had to purchase such as nails for the molding (I guess they figured the nails would fall out of the sky when they quoted the job). He mentioned to them that the microwave was not working; they said it was because of a blown fuse but they could fix it. The flooring in the hallway that he DID do was done incorrectly. The boards were not staggered so it would have looked incredibly stupid if he left it that way. He also said that the floors were uneven so he had to sand the concrete to install the new wood... Even though the same type of wood was there before we ripped it up. I drew him a picture of how to properly install the floor and stagger the boards and told him to just install it and don't worry about sanding.
Friday 6/5/09
Arrived at the house at approximately 9AM, left at approximately 1:30PM
Total time at the house: 4.5 hours
Work completed:
Partially put in wood flooring in hall
Textured walls in laundry room (very badly)
Notes: Friday I was on edge about this whole thing-in tears literally the whole day. The prospect of spending a weekend with them in my house was very disturbing to me. I told my husband he needed to deal with them exclusively and he agreed. The hallway was done, there were a couple of areas that needed to be fixed, in addition they completely skipped the hall closet, which apparently we had just ripped the flooring out of because-not because we wanted the wood in It too. The hall still needed texture. The laundry room texture looked horrible and did not match in any areas. I was sitting on the couch thinking that everything they have said or done has been screwed up. Then it dawned on me, I bet the light bulbs in the bathroom DO fit. So I went and checked it. Voila, pushing down, THEN turning did the trick. Smart is, as smart does.
Saturday 6/6/09
Arrived at the house at approximately 9 AM
Notes: When they arrived at the house, I went in the bedroom and closed the door. I could hear them talking to my husband about something. My husband came in and said they needed to talk to me about the doors. They were saying the doors had been put in less than a year ago (I have lived in the house 8; I think I would know this). I went out there and David started telling me how the doors were uneven and needed shims. I said yes, you need shims when installing doors. He said, no, there is a larger space. That is when I lost it. I did talk angrily at him, asking him why he needed an excuse or explanation for everything. Why could he not just do the work and move on. I pointed out the light bulb and the ceiling fan and generally stupid mistakes they had made. I told him to leave the doors, that we would put them in ourselves. For him just to finish the tile in the entry and not come back-we would even grout it. Then I went in my room slamming the door. They packed up and left, threatening to sue us for the rest of the money (which by the way I never said I wasn't going to pay and which by the way he didn't earn because he didn't finish the job)
Work completed satisfactory:
Installation of:
4 ceiling fans
1 bathroom fan
4 lights
Patching of 3 holes (2 of which were not contracted to do)
Work completed unsatisfactory:
Installation of wood in hallway (not complete and some areas need fixing)
Texturing of walls (all look like crap)
Things not even started:
Entry way tiling and grouting
Installation of 4 bedroom doors
Things broken:
Microwave/electrical
Supplies he was to provide that he did not:
4 doors
Molding for entire house (he did leave some behind)
Work that I cut out of the job (because I figured it looked better undone than him doing it):
Texturing wall in kitchen
Texturing 2 living room walls
Summary:
This was probably the worst experience of my life. I kick myself for not forcing a contract upfront, for not getting more bids and for not asking for references. Not only was David extremely unprofessional, he was extremely slow-I forgot to mention that this entire time he had a "helper"-were talking a combined time of 42 hours to do what they did... Honestly, I think he is good at minor jobs like repairing a hole in a wall, but the work he quoted was just way over his skill level.
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