Cross post: should be dump our designer/builder?

14 years ago

Newbie here who has really been impressed with the amount of knowledge this site shares. Wondering if I should dump our kitchen/bathroom designer/builder for remodeling our kitchen and bath. We plan on a full gutting, making a kitchen window hugh, opening up part of 1 wall and everything new...floors, appliances, island , cabinets the works in both kitchen and a bath.

Story...contacted a well respected local designer/builder who did a friend's kitchen/bath 10 yrs ago and they HIGHLY recommended him. The guy wins local awards all the time. We started last Sept saying we wanted to start construction at the end of April this year to assure completion prior to fall/winter bad weather. He said no problem. We really picked up the pace...chose granite, cabinets, appliances, making a kitchen window hugh to bring in the outdoors, remove part of a wall etc. Well, we went thru winter then spring. Then he said we would probably be able to start construction in June...still not enough forward movement...got hung up in remeasuring everything again for the cabinets etc. June comes and he says he is ready to put in the cabinet order for pricing and then will have a contract/bid ready for us when we return from a vacation in July, he promises us we are absolutely the next job for his construction crew and will start when we return. We return and no bid. In fact, he never submitted the cabinet order to get a price. Then we find out he has in fact moved his crew to "a new job" after promising we were next and has been working on another design job rather than completing ours!. We try one last time to get it all together to try to start in early Sept but now...he is making up excuses like "we may be having an issue with our supplier for the tiles you wanted" etc and one excuse after another. We have paid for most of the design and have learned a lot of what is out there and this has resulted in us knowing the layout we want for the new kitchen. I just told him as it was now obvious that as we have no bid yet and he has shifted his energy to another job that there is no way to complete the remodel this year as he said it would take 3 months or so and we do not want to go into Thanksgiving and beyond. I just told him to suspend all further design or other work for us. He is saying we can pick it up again this fall and winter and is "promising" again he can start next April. Everyone who has had work completed by this guy/firm ends up loving the quality and final design...but often state it took longer than they expected. I think this guy has ADD(attention deficit disorder) or something. I know he owns the design but I think we can easily guide another firm to what we know we now want re layout etc.

I want to just drop him and move on to another designer/builder in the area who is also supposed to be good and is recommended by other friend's.

I think we have been neglected here several times and no longer trust anything he tells us.

Am I correct to jump ship, dump him and move on?

Thanks in advance to all!

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

ebean
14 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
yes.
0
dianalo
14 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
If he has shown you a lack of honesty and respect by blowing you off and giving excuses, then you are well within your right to dump him. The trust is lost.
He did not invent basic kitchen design and has abandoned you. If you use your newfound paid-for knowledge in planning your kitchen without him, then how will he know what you copied from "his" plan or not? Do you plan on showing him your new project?
0
Related Discussions
Before using Miele dishwasher for the first time (cross-posted)
Q
Comments (10)
@fauguy - I live in NE Fort Lauderdale, zip code 33308. After testing the water from my kitchen tap with a Sofchek water hardness test strip I picked up at the shop where I purchased my Miele DW supplies (a vacuum shop at Commercial & 18th Ave.), I set my DW settings to 15 gpg. If I end up having a Miele tech out here at any point, I will ask them to recheck the water hardness. Our DW allows me to set the water hardness at the precise setting, as opposed to setting based on ranges. Unfortunately, I don't have much confidence in information obtained from my local water utility department; that's why I tested the water hardness myself. BTW, I spent time on the phone today with one of the founders of NY Minute, the company I booked based on your excellent recommendation. In my case, the installers left much to be desired. The lead installer spoke only broken English and communicating with him was a challenge. I put down layers of beach towels on the floor surrounding my dishwasher and the kitchen sink, yet the lead installer repeatedly ignored my requests to set his wrench, drill, etc. on the towels, and I repeatedly heard him dropping his tools onto the floor. As a result, I found multiple areas of damage (divets) in the marble flooring when they finished. Additionally, I just discovered that it appears I am missing two pieces of my dishwasher installation. Earlier today when I phoned Miele tech support to ask about how to tell when a cycle was complete, I learned that in addition to the audible setting (which had been disabled when our DW was installed) there should be a "prism" mounted to the underside of the granite counter, just above the Miele control panel on the DW, that serves to reflect the red indicator light that illuminates and flashes when a cycle has completed. According to the Miele tech, this prism is shipped in the box with the DW and comes with a corresponding stainless steel frame. Both pieces are to be attached by the installer. NY Minute's install team did not install, discuss, or leave me any such parts. Although my keyword search of the PDF manual does not indicate any matches for "prism," I discussed this with NYM today and also have a call in to the Miele Territory Manager who handles Miele issues for the dealer from whom we purchased our DW (FL Builder Appliances).
...See More
Cross-post what is the average builder/contractor's discount ?
Q
Comments (8)
xoxosmom, generally speaking, the end user of a product pays the sales tax. In this case, that would either be you or your builder, *one* of you would likely own sales tax, the whole thing. Your contractor is likely paying sales tax on all of the other materials, there's no reason why appliances would be different. As weissman says, though, the rules are different everywhere. Here in Washington (state), for example, for new home construction, sales tax is paid on the entire price of the house (!) - on materials, the contractor's mark-up, everything - so you should feel lucky if you only have to pay it on the appliances. As far as contractor's discounts go, in building our house, I found them to be largely fictional - like a phony department store "sale", prices are marked up so they can be marked back down again. In the case of appliances, discounts from MSRP were marginal - say, 5-10%. We found the best strategy to find prices and then ask the dealer favored by the contractor to match them. So if Sears has exactly what you want, get a quote. Ask the independent dealer to match it. If they don't, take your business to Sears if you want but you'll need to balance price against possibly better service from the independent dealer.
...See More
Should we buy the vacant lot next to ours? (cross post)
Q
Comments (16)
Do it if you can! The other posts bring up great points & if all of that checks out to your satisfaction I'd buy it. I can't tell you the # of times we talked about doing the same thing on various properties. It happened in our last house (WOW do I wish we'd bought the lot next door - they moved in a Home Depot Kit house - awful, but better than a trailer, I guess + they were very nice neighbors). It also happened at our lake house - we were offered the house next door but were short on money at the time & couldn't justify it. We kick ourselves every time we go, wishing we'd found a way to do it. Now, we might get the chance to purchase the 15 acres directly behind us. They bought it several years ago & never built. He's tired of keeping it up and told my DH they might sell & asked if we'd be interested. Funny, he was really bummed out when he found out that we bought our house last December. He never knew it was for sale & would have bought it. I'm hoping it won't be totally out of reach $$$$-wise, but we're gonna try to do what we can to give it a shot. We like the buffer zone. After that Home Depot kit house thing that built about 5 feet from our last property line, we learned our lesson - haha! Good luck!
...See More
Cross-post: Being jerked around by spec home builders?
Q
Comments (10)
A couple of quick thoughts: 1) If I were you, I would explore what it takes to get your "earnest money" back. Your best leverage is the willingness to walk away from the deal. 2) You should not allow yourself to be held financially responsible for their realtor's mistakes. 3) The rush to have you make decisions is a calculated (or at least well practiced) attempt to get you to make mistakes and agree to things you wouldn't otherwise. 4) You should require your realtor to stand up for your interests rather than (hint, she'll do more if you threaten to walk away from the deal) 5) If you go through with the deal, I would strongly suggest a pre-drywall inspection. I would have little confidence the builder isn't cutting corners on the build. 5) This sounds like a crappy situation with numerous bad actors (the builder, the realtor(s), and likely the subcontractors working on your home), but to get an acceptable outcome, you need to take ownership of the situation. 6) If you're enough of a pain, stand up for your rights, talk about a pre-drywall inspection, lawyers to force builder to perform, they will likely be willing to give your deposit back.
...See More
Related Professionals
Northbrook Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Peru Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · University City Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Cloverly Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Broadlands Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Garden Grove Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · San Juan Capistrano Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Waukegan Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Ridgefield Park Kitchen & Bathroom Remodelers · Buena Park Cabinets & Cabinetry · Christiansburg Cabinets & Cabinetry · Red Bank Cabinets & Cabinetry · Tacoma Cabinets & Cabinetry · Hermosa Beach Tile and Stone Contractors · Niceville Tile and Stone Contractors
steff_1
14 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
From your description it is definitely time to move on. You are certainly ready to move on and when the trust has been broken to this extent there's no reason not to. For whatever reason you are a low priority and will probably stay that way. This goes beyond the job taking longer than expected and gets into non-performance issues. Starting a project a year past the promised date without approval from the client is definitely unacceptable.

Issues with tile suppliers could mean cash flow trouble and you really don't want to go there. The cabinet company may have cut him off too. Even in good times contractors have credit issues and it's gotten a lot worse in these tough times. You don't want to give an advance on construction only to see that disappear. There are numerous posts on this site about that problem.

Are you sure he owns the design? If you paid a design fee apart from any purchases then you should get copies of the design. You should at least request copies. Be insistent and even blunt about it. You paid for the design and you are entitled to what you paid for.
0
missmuffet
14 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
No bid yet? Do you have any type of contract with this guy? If he is certain he can get the work done on time - ask him for it in writing. We had a contract with no timeline, and it has taken forever. After a very long year, we are well underway - but I will never do another project without some type of schedule in writing. He's great really - and I'm sure worth the wait, but I don't think we've been his priority. I'm not saying be unreasonable, I'm just saying that if he says he'll have it done in three months tell him to put it in writing that it will be done in four. At least then you'll have an end date to look forward to.
0
michiganrachel
14 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Why don't you take your design and bid it out. Tell the builder you're going to do so and give him a chance to bid. If you don't get his bid when you get the others, then that's his loss!
0

Cross post: should be dump our designer/builder?

Comments (5)

ebean

dianalo

Related Discussions

Related Professionals

steff_1

missmuffet

michiganrachel

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US