James Michael Interiors

Job 1 - Window Coverings. Great job, most of the coverings were done to perfection. The only issue is one set of drapes was measured 1/2" too long and the owner/designer, James Becker, asked if we could just keep them as-is so he doesn't have to redo them. We agreed. Window sheers for french doors are the best. Reasonable pricing. Job 2 - Custom Interior Door Installation - Great job. Door created beautifully and project done on time. Reasonable pricing. Job 3 - Interior Painting & Crown Moulding - Mediocre work performed by angry contractors who did not complete the work on-time and also damaged some appliances. Paint crew arrived and immediately balked at the size of the job because James Becker told them the job was half the size it actually was. My husband indicated to the Lead it was an issue he needs to discuss with James. The paint selected by the owner/designer James was god awful. It was the only paint he selected in our entire home and it was terrible. To have a 400-square foot room painted the shade of pale Santa Fe peach circa 1988 was atrocious. After some haggling with James, the room was repainted at no cost to me. A bathroom was painted and the painter did not remove any of the hardware so there was paint all over the base of the towel rack mounts, on the toilet paper holder, etc. The painter didn't even remove the paper blinds in the windows and painted the window sills with the blinds in and there was paint all over the paper blinds and some paint missing on the sills. Also, the painter painted our laundry room and decided to stand on our appliances and the top of our 1-year old $1500 dryer is covered in pock marks. James said he would purchase us a replacement panel if we sent him the model and part information. We sent it to him and 6+ months later, still no replacement part. Regarding the crown moulding which actually is gorgeous, there were issues in dealing with the installation crew. There were gaps in crown moulding (between pieces and between the top of the moulding and the ceiling) that were finally addressed after my husband took a lot of time walking through the home to inspect and then had to explain to the crew that the gaps are not supposed to be there and had to prove his engineering experience before they relented to add a few more nails and caulking to address the gaps. Had we not pushed, we would be dissatisfied with the crown moulding like our neighbors are who used the same crew. Job 4 - Custom Cabinetry - TERRIBLE. A 2-day job ended up taking approximately 1-month to complete. We allocated 3-days just in case and were assured that the job would not take longer than 3-days. The cabinetry installed represented the conversion of a standard closet into a built-in cabinet with drawers, open shelves and shelves with cabinet doors. The crew arrived late every day of the initial 3-day installation and on days 1 & 2 left early. On the third day, the crew spray painted all of the wood for the cabinet "inside" the room where the cabinet was being installed. I live in a large house and the room that was receiving this installation is in the casita that has a separate entrance. I realized the painting was going on when lacquer fumes were being pumped through the entire house as the ceiling vent in the casita was not sealed properly. We had five cats when this issue occurred. Two were kittens recently rescued and they had some medical issues. Three are seniors and one had cancer and some other serious medical issues. This work was being done during a week of an Indian summer and it was very hot. I had nowhere to take the cats and ended up opening all of the windows to try to air the house out. The Lead carpenter tried to reseal the vent but it didn't last. When I questioned why there was spray painting going on in the casita (a furnished room with brand new wood floors), he told me that he had been so busy that he forgot to prep all of the wood at his shop so he figured he would just do it on-site. Later on that night we had to purchase a number of fans from Target to get the air to circulate through the house with the AC on. The Lead left us one floor fan to put in the casita to help with the smell and told me the smell would be gone by the next day. I had a masseuse renting the casita two days a week and she had clients the next morning. Needlesstosay, the fumes were not gone by the next morning. I lost my rental income from the masseuse as she had to cancel all of her clients for the remainder of the week. We also had to rush our cat with cancer to see his internist because he was behaving differently after the paint fumes and took him in for 3-unscheduled visits the following 2-weeks. This was the beginning of his health spiraling out of control and he passed away about two months later. I can't be sure that the lacquer fumes contributed to my cat's death but I do know that I suffered from intense headaches for days after the lacquer incident and was coughing and sneezing up black and green stuff for a couple of days too. When my husband and I explained all of this to James Becker the evening of the incident and the following week, he was apologetic and was cursing and blaming his contractors. When we told him he should adjust the balance of the invoice for the work to reflect the cost of the fans we had to purchase at Target he balked a lot. When I started sharing the thousands of dollars we spent on vet bills as a result of the incident he finally agreed to cover the cost of the fans we purchased which totaled less than $100 and threatened not to complete the cabinet job if I didn't agree to pay him the balance of the job. Ridiculous. I felt totally trapped because I had a partially complete cabinet installed and my casita which I use as an office was in total disarray. Between his contractor's schedule and mine, the job resumed 3-weeks later and was supposed to take 2-days to complete. At the end of the second day, the Lead said it was done. I went to inspect and the drawers didn't slide because they were not lined up properly and were jammed into their cut-out. The cabinet doors weren't hung evenly and some of the open shelves were damaged and the paint job was rough as some areas weren't even finished. After another two days, everything was completed to satisfaction. This job took 4-5 weeks to complete and it was supposed to be done in 2 days or less. Also, it cost me more than the invoice James charged me. The time and energy spent firefighting the toxic fumes his contractors pumped into my home, plus the renter I lost, plus the weeks of clients I could not see because my office was unusable, plus the vet bills, etc. This project occurred between the months of October and November. I have not seen James Becker since October. His final payment was given to his carpenter. When I texted James in November to confirm that his carpenter would arrive on our scheduled date, his reply to me was curt and brief. He told me he was burying his mother and that he doesn't want to talk about it. I hadn't spoken to him for weeks. I did not know there was a death in his family. His response was completely unprofessional. Fortunately I had the cell phone number for his contractor and was able to confirm with him. We had other jobs planned with James before Job 4 that didn't pan out. We wanted him to reupholster a few large sofas and some chairs and also to create a new canvas zippered slipcover for a little chair I got at Pottery Barn years ago. We received two quotes from James three-months apart. They were very different costs for the same work. The second quote came in at about 70% higher than the first. James couldn't find his initial quote. He asked us to send it to him. We didn't have time to look for it in our emails and asked him to send another. We were shocked at the price of the second quote so we made the time to find the initial quote and compared the two. Just to give you an idea, he wanted to charge $300 for a zippered, canvas slipcover and after I provided his upholsterer with the existing cover to use as a pattern/template. I paid $30 for the original one that needs replacing. We decided not to work with James on the upholstery as it was clear to us he had started to gouge us. As we continued to work with James, his lack of professionalism became more acute. We know that he was having some health issues which led to him using pain meds. We had a heart to heart with him to let him know that his behavior was changing and that we think it could be the pain meds. He agreed it was the meds and was shocked that he was saying the things he was saying as he thought they were things he was thinking but thought he was keeping in his head. Some of the comments were misogynistic. He has completely offended one of my neighbors who we referred him to. They are no longer working together after he failed to deliver custom window coverings after many months while still demanding final payment. This neighbor, along with another, have also experienced his odd behavior, lack of responses to emails and voicemails, and suffered from his rude remarks when he finally texts or calls. I do not recommend working with James Michael Interiors at all.