houses14 - Why did we hire him? Because the ONE thing he turned out to be very good at was talking a good game! He comes across as the nicest guy you would ever want to meet. I called all the references he gave us. Then I found out later that one of the three references was his GIRL FRIEND! Another admitted to me later that the only reason he agreed to give a reference was in order to get the builder to finally come fix punch list items that he'd been waiting over 2 years for! The 3rd was actually a satisfied customer...at the time he gave the reference. But by the time we started doing discovery in my law suit, that customer too was pissed off at builder because he had started having some problems with his house due to some of the shoddy building practices builder had employed. We also talked to a couple of builder's subs before hiring him. Later on we found out that builder had owed them large sums of money and had flat out told them that the only way he'd be able to pay them was if he managed to land another job... so it was in their financial interests to tell me they'd never had any issues with him! When we started having issues ( the second week of the build!), according to builder, the problems were always due to a "misunderstanding" because I had somehow not made myself clear. Builder always promised that HE would make everything right b/c he just wanted me to be happy. Despite problem after problem after problem - none of which ever seemed to actually get resolved to my satisfaction - I continued to believe for quite a while that he wanted to build me the home of my dreams and would eventually do so. It was only after he very clearly lied to me on two separate occasions where there was absolutely no possibility of a misunderstanding that I started insisting that every single communication between us be in writing. Even when we met and talked about something, I started carrying my computer with me and IMMEDIATELY sitting down and writing up exactly what we had agreed to, emailing him a copy to his smart phone and demanding that he read it and sign it if he agreed with it OR that he respond with a revision stating his own understanding before we went any further. That's when it became more and more difficult for him to get me to agree to sign off on additional draws when the work that he claimed was completed really was NOT. Once I was dried up the spigot of easy money, we started getting liens filed against our house by subs and material men. Then builder started claiming that he had more money tied up in our house than we had paid to him - although he could not seem to tell me exactly how much. I told him that if he could show me with DOCUMENTS (receipts and canceled checks) where he had paid out more than he had been given, I would reimburse him every penny of the overage. When he started sending me documents to back up his claim, I called the materialmen and subs and went thru every receipt with a fine tooth comb. Turned out he was sending me bogus documents... eg., receipts for materials that were never put into our house; lien releases from subs who told me that either the signature on the lien release was NOT theirs or that they had signed the release in exchange for a payment check that then bounced so that the release was not valid, and so forth! Builder was only able to reasonably document an amount equal to about 60% of what we'd paid to him in draws...which means that he apparently pocketed close to 40% of the $290K we paid to him. That's over $100K in "profits" taken out UP FRONT on a $540K build that was less than half complete at the time we fired him. Yet he claimed we OWED him money! In answer to your next question about why the builder is not in jail, I talked to the local district attorney about a criminal prosecution for fraud. The DA told me that he had TRIED to bring a criminal case against my builder previously due to the claims of another previous client of his and had failed. According to the DA, builder and his attorney convinced the grand jury that the only thing going on was a contract dispute so it belonged in civil court not criminal court. You should now that Builder is a local boy, son of one of the wealthiest citizens in the area, a deacon in the local church, and - as I said earlier - a very smooth talker. Like us, his previous client who sought to have him prosecuted was a newcomer to the area. Having failed once, the DA was not willing to attempt to prosecute him again. Thus my only option was to go thru the civil court system. And before I could complete that process, builder passed all his assets to his father who put everything into a spendthrift trust leaving builder "judgment proof". Then builder declared bankruptcy.

I just put this color in my laundry room. I had seen it in a bathroom in a model home and fell in love with it. My room has a window to the west, south and north. In the daytime it has a bluish cast. At night it has a greenish cast. My trim is painted "Simply White" by BM. Now I am trying to decide whether to do a painted cabinet and what color or to go with quarter sawn oak. The house is an 1860's farmhouse. Any suggestions?

And, for my part, if I had a client who insisted on micro-managing and second-guessing everything I did, I'd walk, or not take on the job in the first place. Was this comment directed at my post? If so, I want to explain: the very reason we chose the CM route was because the CM said, this will be a partnership. I'll guide you in everything but we will work together to realize the architect's plans, which is your (our, the clients') ultimate vision. You won't have to release control; you can get involved in what you want to get involved in, and I'll handle the rest. You defer to my expertise in management, and I'll listen when you raise concerns or have questions about anything you see happening. You have a painter you'd like to use? Fine - we'll get bids from him and two guys I know, look over the numbers together, and decide which way to go. You want modern fixtures in the bathroom? Fine - here are some places I know, check them out, bring me what you've found online and we'll number-crunch together. Et cetera. Our CM's primary responsibility was to make the job run smoothly - line up the trades, schedule them, give us deadlines on choices to be made to keep on schedule, let us know when things were behind and what could be done, if anything, to keep work going. It did not happen that way. Unlike Worthy, our CM did not have adequate management experience in anything to handle construction management. I'll agree with Worthy in that construction management is 90% straight management - getting the people you want in the place you want, ready to do the job you need with the correct materials/resources at hand. The combination of poor management and the lack of financial incentive has been problematic. We are paying a fixed fee but it's not directly linked to the CM's salary from the architect. It's not like Architect says, you're another two weeks behind so I'm docking you two weeks' pay. CM gets paid his regular salary and ambles along overseeing our job and we have no way to make things move faster or more efficiently. And if Worthy's comment wasn't directed at me.....(*channel Gilda Radner's Emily Litella character here*) never mind.

I just took a similar style tile out of my kitchen. Not the tile's fault -- it was the patching done as part of my kitchen reno that was poorly done and ate at me to the point that we decided to rip it out and start over while putting hardwoods in the rooms that didn't get new flooring before. We had crema marfil in our entry and powder room and the porcelain tile in the master bath ad laundry room as well as the kitchen, breakfast and family room. I always thought both looked good. I understand what you mean about the builder can say he's going to charge whatever he likes, but really, it's not like people are standing in line to have houses built these days. It doesn't mean you can't ask the builder why he feels he needs to charge more to have a tile laid in a straight line with offsetting joints instead of grid joints. It is not harder or more work. If it's that he has to communicate that to the tile setter -- offer to do it yourself and let him sleep in. I paid extra to have my tile done in a pinwheel in the kitchen and family rooms as well as on the diagonal in the master bath, but it wasn't that much and it was much more complicated to lay. It's been a while, but I think it was $1 to $1.50 a square foot for those patterns plus there was additional tile waste allowed. Your brick pattern shouldn't require more tile -- but maybe he's thinking it would? The trend these days is to have fewer flooring materials, so one in all those rooms would be fine.