creative hands

This is a LONG post but PLEASE read it before considering hiring Gus to do any projects for you! This is a fair warning to anyone looking to hire him. We hired Gus in the middle of November 2017 to complete a bathroom remodel for us. To give you some insight as to what our project was we were doing a full bathroom remodel, consisting of re-tiling a whole shower, adding wainscoting, baseboard, and bead-boarding to the walls, re painting the walls, installing a new toilet, light fixture, and vanity. At first I was very impressed with Gus' work, it was well done and he was polite and courteous any time he came to my house. After a while though, Gus' entire demeanor changed. He began to not answer my texts for days on end, and would tell us that he couldn't come to work on the project for weeks. (Full disclosure: we were waiting on our bathroom vanity arriving as we had to order one online and Gus repeatedly used this as an excuse as to why he couldn't come and work on the bathroom-even though as stated above there was PLENTY more work to be completed). When we first hired Gus for this project we had agreed upon two deposits - one consisting of $500 and the other being $700. THIS WAS THE ONLY MONEY THAT WE HAD ORIGINALLY AGREED TO PAY BEFORE THE PROJECT WAS COMPLETE. The reason I bring this up is because when Gus came to work on the bathroom one day he proceeded to ask me if I could pay him another $1,200 (mind you he had only finished the shower and one wall of baseboard and wainscoting and this is 3 weeks into the project) I was a bit taken aback by this but was told that he needed this money for the work that he had already completed, so I obliged. He said that he was going to head out for the day and that he would come back the next day to complete the walls of wainscoting and baseboard/bead-board as well as finishing painting and to install the new toilet and some shelves etc. When Gus came back the next day he only stayed for 3 hours, doing some painting and cleaning the shower tile since the grout had set. He came to tell me that he would be leaving early that day (even though he had hardly done any of the work that he said he would do) and then proceeded to ask me to pay him ANOTHER $1,300! To say I was shocked is an understatement. I told him I didn't have the money at the moment and he said to write him a check. I felt so cornered by his sudden insistent and unprofessional behavior that I wrote him the check. Two days later the check cleared my bank account made out to an individual I had never even heard of. After that day (12/12) we didn't hear from Gus until January 2nd, 3 weeks after this incident. We had tried to contact him several times to ask when he was going to come complete the rest of the work as our new vanity was arriving on January 3rd and that was supposed to be the absolute LAST thing that he had to do to finish off the bathroom. Yet walls were still unpainted and didn't have wainscoting or baseboard/bead-boarding, the new toilet hadn't been installed, the new light hadn't been installed, and the bathroom accessories hadn't been put up. After not hearing from Gus for a few more days we had accepted the fact that he was never coming back to complete our project. Therefore, we hired other professionals to come and complete our project. They were able to finish the project in ONE DAY when this whole process with Gus had been going on for over 2 months. At this point we have paid him for $700+ more than the work he had completed. We have continued to ask Gus to refund us this money since the work is now done and he keeps coming up with excuses as to why we need to wait for his convenience to pay us back OUR money. Overall, Gus was inconsistent and unprofessional. I would NEVER recommend him for someone looking to get any renovations done to their house, especially if you would like them done in a timely manner. Hiring Gus was the biggest waste of time and money. I highly recommend taking your business elsewhere.