The Renovation Co

Prior to hiring Richard, I checked him out on the BBB website-he had no complaints filed against him and had an A+ rating, plus was accredited by them. Sounded good so far. I checked out Angie's List, saw there were 2 bad complaints and 4 glowing reports. When questioned about this, he had a plausible story, involving a troublesome client who would never be happy, no matter what he did. One report was from a good friend of mine-he did a great job on her kitchen and she was very happy-I found out later that the original estimate was $50,000 and it ended up over $80,000. We also discussed having him build me a greenhouse, completed by June 1st. The greenhouse kit was around $1000 from Spenard Builders Supply and the total cost would be around $2,600. NO WRITTEN ESTIMATE WAS GIVEN, but he started within the week on the greenhouse. We also discussed removing existing back deck and building me a new l arger one (12'x12'). He told me that all 3 projects would bring my cost to $40,000. Again, I did not receive a written estimate for this new deck. In fact, I did not have a contract with The Renovation Company at this time or at any time in the future. Richard and I met at Home Depot in mid-April here in Anchorage to pick out the cabinets, countertops, backsplash, flooring, and hardware . He told me they would take about 6 weeks to arrive when ordered and that he would order them. Work proceeded on the greenhouse and I was out looking at appliances at various stores in Anchorage. On Wednesday 5/16/12 Richard asked for an additional $5,000, without specifying exactly what it was for. NO INVOICE for or RECEIPT for this $5,000 was presented at this time. or any other later time. I wrote the the check to the Renovation Company. He was finishing up the greenhouse on Monday 5/21/12 when a neighbor came over to take photos of my old appliances prior to posting them for sale on craigslist. Then, my 49 year son Jeff stopped by later that afternoon on his way home from work to meet Richard for the first time. The next morning I asked Richard when I should start cleaning out my cabinets prior to the Kitchen demo-he ADMITTED to me that he had NOT ORDERED THE CABINETS like he told me he would a month previously. The reason he gave was he DID NOT HAVE THE MONEY-when pressed, he indicated he had SPENT my DEPOSIT MONEY elsewhere. I was floored, stunned, furious. I could not believe my ears. He said he was hoping that a $20,000 final payment from another job would come in before he had to admit to me that he had RUN OUT OF MONEY. He continued to finish up the greenhouse for the rest of the day. After he left, I called my son who was equally stunned and furious. At this point, my son Jeff took over control of this project; i.e., he would be making all the decisions and would do all the talking to Richard. There was a confrontational meeting about a week later between Richard, my son, and a neighbor who is an ex-cop. This neighbor had looked up Richard's court record on Courtview's website and was seriously concerned about what he found. It appears that Richard was being SUED by two different parties in TWO separate cases in CIVIL DISTRICT COURT and that the judgements went against him on 5/8/12 and 5/10/12. It appears that he lost his $10,000 CONTRACTOR'S BOND at that time, which means he lost his insurance and probably his contractor's license too. Remember, he asked for that additional $5,000 on 5/16/12. It means he was probably working in my house without license, bond, or insurance from 5/8/12 until I fired him on 6/4/12. During the week of 5/28/12 Richard was supposed to come by and retrieve his ladders in my backyard but he did not show or even call on the 3 days I was waiting for him. He did call and leave a rambling message on my landline when I had told him I would be out in the yard and to only call on my cell. He had left town for his cabin and would talk to me on Monday, June 4th. He admitted he had no Bond or Insurance but was willing to come work for me as a friend, not as a contractor. He didn't want me to "panic or fret"-and "that's my main concern is for no threat for you and of course for me to do my job without problems". These are his exact words taken from his message on my answering machine at 3:09 pm Thursday, May 31, 2012. He did not call on Monday 6/4/12 so my son called him and fired him over the phone for misusing my deposit and basically lying to us. He had told my son that he was expecting "inheritance money" from his father's estate, but that he had no money to pay me back the balance of my deposit. We do not trust this man anymore and do not believe anything he says. When I examine the dates that the lawsuits against him were filed and settled, and then compare them with the dates of my first interview with Richard and the subsequent hiring date and check writing dates, a disturbing picture emerges. He was robbing from Peter to pay Paul and it caught up to him. He had also mentioned that mine was his last job, that he was getting out of the business partly because of the lawsuit brought by that never satisfied customer. That comment was a BIG WARNING SIGN but I continued to hope that everything was okay, even though I was starting to have some doubts. He was busy doing my greenhouse and evidently appearing in front of judges in two (2) different court cases at the same time. Busy man.. The l awsuit filed by J&D Interiors on 4/3/12 here in Anchorage against the Renovation Company and his Bond Company, Northland Casualty Co. out of St. Paul, MN, was filed a week before I hired Richard on 4/10/12 and paid him $14,750. No wonder he wanted so much money up front. After my son fired him by phone, I followed up with a Certified Letter on Wednesday, June 6th, sent to both his home and business addresses, reiterating what my son had told him on Monday, June 4th. I also asked for a final invoice for all labor and materials for the greenhouse kit, all paperwork and warranty paperwork for the greenhouse. I asked for the balance of my deposit to be returned to me by a certain date and I requested that he contact my son about setting up a time for him to retrieve his three ladders and the construction trash from my property. I gave him to the end of the month for that. I have since put a lock on my gate so that I can't be blamed if the ladders "mysteriously" disappear when I am not home. I am filing this complaint to warn people about Richard Humphrey and the Renovation Company. If he is working for you now or since 5/8/12, there's a good chance he is operating without Bond or Insurance-he admitted that he didn't have them anymore due because of "some kind of problems" (his words from the phone message of 5/31/12). He can be fined $1000/day if caught, if I read the Alaska Statutes/regulations on Contractors correctly. My advice? Run away from this guy-he may do quality work but has no trouble spending money that is not his to spend. Before hiring any one for anything, go to the BBB website ( read the fine print-if someone like Richard can slip through, be warned), then go to Angie's List, and then for sure check out the License, Bond, and I nsurance certificates like they all say-I had asked Richard and he said he had everything required-he did not tell me that there were two (2) current la wsuits against him. It's probably still painted on the side of his white company truck that he is Licensed, Bonded, and Insured. Then, go to Courtview and check out the person's/company's record. I hope this review helps someone out there before it's too late. Richard told my son that he never does contracts- BIG RED FLAG. With $40,000 on the line, you need to dot every "i" and cross every "t". Sure, I made mistakes but this guy abused my trust and took advantage of my willingness to give him a second and third chance. I believe he owes me about $16,000, give or take. I won't know until he submits a final invoice, if ever. If he has no Bond and no money, he has no reason to come finish my job when he can be out there getting more up front deposits from unsuspecting little old ladies like me.

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The project took considerably longer than expected. The plumber took 3 days for a one day project, though his work was good. There were a few snafus along the way, but the final product is what we wanted and the work quality was exceptional.

I think that the most stressful part of the entire project was emptying out the upstairs of our house. We rented a storage unit and moved everything out of the upstairs or our house. Richard and his crew showed up at 8am and began with ripping up the carpet. By the time I got home from work, the entire upsatirs was basically a shell. This was a huge job and they had it completed in 6 weeks. Richard makes sure to keep you informed and involved with the project. He was helpful with picking out colors, fixtures, and materials and was never over powering with his opinion. They were extremely dependable. They were at the house every morning by 8am and kept the work area as clean as could be and took extra steps to give us a temporary kitchen. Richard was receptive to questions, and never got upset when I asked for changes. I can't think of any part of the job that we were not happy with. Our house is now beautiful, and we definitly have Richard and his crew to thank for it. He does quality work and stands behind it all the way. If I had to do it over again, I would not change a thing.

Richard and his crew came in and demolished the bathroom in a day. Since this was our first time getting work done on our house we had no idea what to expect. When I came home, the only sign that they were there was the gutted bathroom. They cleaned up so well, I was amazed. They were very respectful of our house and pets. During the demolition they found more than they expected. Richard halted all work until he could show me what he found and explain what it meant. There was an exterior wall that needed waterproofing and insulation. It would have been easy for him to ignore what he found but instead he was honest and told us what it would take to fix it properly. It only added $500 to the cost of the project and we had the piece of mind knowing that it was fixed correctly. Richard is truly a professional craftsman. His tile work is top quality. His team provides quality work at a fair price. My bathroom now looks like something right out of a magazine.

As with any large complex project there were hitches but we are extremely happy with the end result. We had gotten Rich's name from my husbands busoiness partner. We had him come over to look at the place and offer advice and an estimate. We did not intend to begin work immediately. We had no clear idea of what we wanted done--just that we wanted some work done. Rich offered many excellent suggestions. After quite a long consultation we decided to get started. The Rich told us he had just had a cencellation and could start immediately. The problem with this was that, since we had not been thinking about specifics we were constantly playing catch up to the crew. We had to make a lot of decisions fast, and when we couldn't, we slowed the work dpwn. Also because we hadn't planned the work out in advance we did not have things like bathtub, tile, vanity selected or ordered. This also slowed the work. At the same time Rich's business was growing and he was sometimes overwhelmed with jobs, was hiring and training new people, and some of this also slowed things down. The front porch, and hall were completed quickly. The fish room and bathroom took longer, than all of us had anticipated. Some of the subcontracted work also took longer than any of us wanted it to. Throughout the whole project the crew was wonderful. The crew working for Rich is top notch. They were professional, respectful, cheerful, and cleaned up after themselves. They were responsive to questions and concerns and any imperfections we noticed were addressed immediately and with good humor. We would have any of them, back any time. So what did we learn? Know what we want before the demolition begins, order what we need in advance, and go with a pro.

From the beginning there were dependability issues. I met with Richard Humphrey in early July. He was to begin the project a few weeks later, the tub was to be ordered so that it would be here at that time. I gave him a down payment of half the money which he requested to put me on the schedule. At that time he told me he would order the cabinets for the bathroom as a favor to me even though he wasn't responsible for that portion of the work since he would be able to get a price break at Lowe's. Lowe's was to contact me for the credit card info for the purchase. After several days when I hadn't heard from Lowe's I began to be concerned. A attempted to reach Richard Humphrey leaving countless messages that were not returned. Finally about 10 Days later a gentleman by the name of Chris returned my call and said the Rich would call me the following week. In the meantime I had called the BBB because I was concerned that I have just given over 6000. to a scam artist. I was told that He wasn't a member of the BBB as advertised and that his contractor license was expired. When he finally contacted me he had an excuse for his actions that made sense to me and frankly I was sorry for his troubles so I agreed to let him do the work. BAD decision! We established a new start date at that time. He ordered the cabinets for me{with no discount}, and ordered the tub. He did begin on the agreed upon date, worked pretty steady for 4-5 days then said they had to wait on the plumber. The rest of the job went just like that with them coming off and on and waiting for either plumbers or electricians. When the plumber finally came, he was unable to do what he needed to because the drain kit and faucet fixtures that Rich was to supply were not there. I went to Lowe's and purchased them so that the job could continue. I came home for lunch one day while the passageway walls were being installed and realized the wall for the linen closet was too short to accommodate the closet. The wall was already built and the tub installed on the opposite side and because the tub was placed about 5 inches away from the wall, there was no longer enough room for the linen closet wall to be built to fit the linen closet and still meet code. I wasn't pleased but told him to make the passage narrower and I'd live with it. Rich during this time took my stained glass windows out to have them framed by a glass company. We had never discussed this and I told him I thought that he would just frame them in himself as that had been done previously with some windows in my kitchen. He told me that it wouldn't meet code. Anyway he ended up putting in a regular window {another months wait}, and I put the stained glass window in myself. Rich told me that he would never get involved with a stained glass window again. I was sorry he was having such a problem with it but he knew about it when he did the estimate. He told me that there was small crack in one of the side panels that had happened during transport. Several days latter, I found them in my garage, SMASHED... both side panels. I had to pay over 400. to have them repaired. He got mad at me early on because I questioned whether he would finish in the time-frame he had told me he would. His 2 week project begun around the Th of August wasn't to the point that I could do the finish work until around Thanksgiving. At that time his foreman and the plumber tested the tub. Everything was fine but the plumber didn't want to install the fixtures at that time because he wanted the tile up first. He told the foreman he would finish up then. The foreman had the invoice for the final payment so I went ahead and payed it ...Minus the amount I had payed out of pocket for the windows and the plumbing supplies. It was agreed that the plumber would finish up when I was ready. I finished my part over the Christmas holiday and called Rich to have the plumbers finish up. He said he'd have his secretary set it up. After not hearing anything for 2 more weeks, I contacted his secretary who knew nothing about it. She contacted him and got back to me with the message that they were done as they had lost money on my job and gave me the phone number of the plumber so I could call them myself at my own expense. I called Rich directly who told me that he would not finish because I had shorted him on the final payment. I told him that He had damaged the windows and was supposed to pay for the fixtures and I had had to take care of it out of pocket so the money was justly withheld. He didn't care. I told him I would never call him again and would tell all my friends not to employ him. He didn't care. He was very unprofessional.