iiHOME by Inspirare Interiors

In June 2019, we met with iiHome by Inspirare Interiors owner/designer, Heather Tipton Sullivan, in Suwanee, Georgia to begin a renovation of our master bath and tile work in a secondary bath. After demolition, only 1 worker was sent to our home to tile the floor in the jack and jill bath, install a new tub, frame a shower niche, move the shower head, & tile the shower. During this 3 week time, no one worked on the master bath. The 1 worker on site admitted he was a jack of all trades, but tiling was not really his thing. This became obvious! The shower wall containing the shower niche looks terrible - uneven cuts/grout lines, no symmetry, tiles not level. In August, iiHome sent another tile team out to try to fix the symmetry around the niche. There was some improvement, but the tiles were still uneven. A third tiler was sent on Oct 7th (after 7 weeks) to address the uneven grout lines. iiHome refused to acknowledge the bigger problem in framing as this would require the entire shower to be redone in order for all tiles to align. I've had 4 other contractors look at this secondary bath; they all agree it looks more like a DIY project gone wrong than a professional installation. The master bath remodel was also a series of errors and poor workmanship. iiHome cut corners every step of the way. The tub was installed before the floor trim and paint. Door trims were heavily damaged during demolition. After removing the previous tile and concrete pad, iiHome failed to raise the floor to the proper height. Now there are gaps under all of the door casings. The biggest issue is the pre-fab cabinets. The cabinets were poorly installed & assembled. Most trim pieces are missing, others are poorly installed, & one filler piece was cracked while installing hinges. Shoe molding was only installed on the front of the cabinets. No trim pieces were placed between the cabinets and the walls. The cabinet drawers and doors are not flush with one another. iiHome then stated that their “fixer” would come & adjust hinges to pull the cabinet doors into alignment. This is the same "fixer" who did the initial install of the cabinets and damaged the ceiling during the process. In addition, the width of the drawers (on the left vanity) is unacceptable for a master bath. While the drawer front appears to be 11”, the inside of the drawer is only 6”. iiHome never provided measurements or samples of the cabinetry beyond a small drawer front for color purposes. The quartz counters are also cut too short for the cabinets. Industry standards recommend a 1.5” overhang. My cabinets/countertops are flush, measuring 22” each. In addition, they are installed incorrectly. There is a 1/4" difference from one end of the countertop to the other. We've had leaks in the plumbing and the tub fixture is not securely installed. For almost a month, from August 28th - Sept 24th, iiHome ignored us and sent no one to our home. Finally, on Sept 24th, iiHome did a walk through to note punch list items. This was one of only 4 trips Heather made to our home during the renovation. We expressed our dissatisfaction with the cabinets, tile work, and numerous punch list items. Heather and her husband Michael told us to "put up a shower curtain and no one would notice!" Heather also stated our home was a "black hole vortex where nothing goes right." After several emails, iiHome agreed to remove cabinets, counters, & mirrors, and refund mirror wraps (that were never installed); however, they only offered 50% of my cost. I received a quote from a competitor for the exact same cabinets/layout/design/installation for half of what we paid iiHome! We were way overcharged! That was the day iiHome stopped communicating with us. It has been 3.5 months. I've called, texted, and even filed a complaint with the BBB. No response at all.

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June 11 - contract signed w/6 wk est'd completion Sept 18 - contractor walked out on job $38,120 - est. in contract for Kitchen Reno and flooring $4,100 - est for Pipe replacement $29,050 - paid before contractor walked out without completing job iiHome by Inspirare Interiors sent email stating, " iiHOME will no longer be working on your project". Upon review our lawyer said, "Based upon the facts presented to me, it clearly looks like the general contractor unilaterally breached the contract. " iiHome said the ~$13,000 left in budget would be more than enough to hire another contractor to complete the job. 3 contractors have subsequently looked and said the damage to the floors cannot be repaired and replacing the floors will be "no easy undertaking" quoting between $22,000 - $35,000 to replace which involves another almost entire kitchen renovation. That does not include the other things that are unfinished or messed up. Besides the unmitigated disaster with the floors... The polybutylene pipe replacement was also disastrous. Multiple plumbers/teams were called in to assess the job done by the original sub-contractor. There were leaks, active poly pipe, poor craftsmanship, and the poly pipe was not removed. Two different teams of plumbers took part in "fixing" what the original sub did, but there was no sense of pride in the repair work since they were tasked with making fixes (i.e., just get it in functioning order) the cheapest and quickest way possible. The general contractor (iiHome) insisted that while the craftsmanship was poor the plumbing would function. The only pipes that she had re-run were the ones in the guest bath running to the sink because they were just run straight up from the floor on either side of the pedestal as opposed to being hidden behind it. The poly pipes were never pulled from the home. In some places I can hear the new pipes rattling b/c they were not all secured. Also with regards to the plumbing when the guest bath toilet was pulled out to install new floors, it was not properly re-sealed and we had a stench for about a week. I called an independent plumber to fix the seal. He said (about the pipe replacement) that if his guys had preformed the shotty work he saw that he would have fired them. He said if he had done the job the old piping would have been pulled. Also he would have been checking on the job as it progressed instead of leaving it to me (the homeowner) to discover the mess, active poly pipes and poor craftsmanship upon returning from being out of town. While iiHome paid the independent plumber for the seal that iiHome originally messed up, it was not without complaining about how much was charged. I asked that going forward my plumber do the remaining plumbing and I would pay him directly. iiHome said they would issue a nominal plumbing credit, but given their invoicing practices it is hard to reconcile. PICTURE 1: The refrigerator is wedged into place and that happened after I had reported to iiHome that the opening for the refrigerator wasn't big enough based upon the specs for the refrig. iiHome had presented two different refrigerators to choose from and the other one was even bigger. I was assured they would take care of this. We tried to dislodge the refrig and the casing began to splinter and I saw where paint was transferred to the sides of the appliance...probably when they forced it into the cavity. It cannot be moved without damage...can't clean behind it...can't access the back to get to parts and water hook-up. PICTURE 2: The trash cabinet door will not stay closed PICTURE 3: Custom made farmhouse style table serves as island. While it did turn out close to what I had in mind --design- wise--, I don't particularly like the distressing. It seems the marks are a little too deep and in the picture you can see they are almost symmetrical in places. I believe this is b/c she was in a hurry at that point. This may be a matter of tastes; thus the picture is below for you to judge for yourself. I was never presented a rendering of the table/island after explaining what I wanted. I did spend an incredible amount of time with the cabinet maker (almost an entire Saturday) just convincing him that I did not want a traditional island. Being uncomfortable that my vision wasn't shared, I sent many many pictures waiting for iiHome to give me a drawing of what they were going to build. The island just appeared one day (unfinished) and the cabinet maker and the owner were in a disagreement about its design. The design was fine, in fact very close to what I had envisioned, but I was concerned about the finish. I had to insist upon being allowed to see samples of a few different stains before moving forward. Come to think of it, after the original cabinet design had to be significantly changed, I was never shown a new rendering of the cabinet layout on paper. PICTURES 4 and 5 demonstrate that the floors were not protected while the cabinets were going in. At this point the floors cannot be refinished. They are Kensigton Smooth Engineered Montelena Acacia RL x 9/6" x 4 3/4". The "no easy undertaking" to replace them --to the best of my understanding-- is because they run under the cabinets. It involves ripping out the cabinets, granite, and possible damage to back-splash and it would even run into upper cabinets b/c of the corner cabinet (which I did not want) installed on top of the granite. There is leveling compound poured b/c sub floor was damaged during demo (PICTURE 10). There is nothing between the compound and the "glue". There is gray "filling" in some of the wider cracks. There are at least 1/2 dozen places where a quarter can be inserted between floor boards. There are places where the cut of one board lines up with the cut of the board beside it (PICTURE 12). There are countless gouges and scratches left behind by iiHome (PICTURE 11). There are at least three places where the casual eye can see dips and a slant in the floor. PICTURE 6 While iiHome was still on the job I discovered a hanging puck light and supposedly it was repaired. I have now discovered that instead of replacing the broken component or replacing the light altogether it was just glued back to the ceiling. After awhile the heat from the light melted the glue and the light is now hanging down into cabinet. So there is a significant cost to (no paperwork/warranty) b/c lights come in a box of three plus an electrician needs to be hired. PICTURE 7 The walls in the guest bath were NOT going to be changed, but unfortunately somebody working in the kitchen punched through the wall by accident. Also the pedestal is not re-anchored to the wall and the switch and outlet plates have been removed. PICTURE 8 This shows one of the pieces of trim that wasn't installed after the new floors were put in. We also have uneven cuts bumping up to our bottom stair. PICTURE 9 A set of loose cabinet doors. The original contract included the design, but picking out things was done piece-meal...no design or story board. In retrospect it seems iiHome and myself had different visions. I almost wonder if her approach was sort of "cookie cutter" as she insisted no storyboard and no sample cabinets (style nor color) is standard to how she completes a design. She presented two or three samples of flooring, granite, and paint early on. Later I was asked to select cabinet color and no sample color was presented. The color of the cabinets was to be 50% lighter than some paint chip she showed me and although while indeed 50% lighter than paint chip, the color of the cabinets did not turn out the color that I envisioned 50% would be. She insisted upon my having a corner cabinet and I did not want one. She asked that I "let [her] win this one". The corner cabinet, while nice, takes up too much counter space with the limited counter space in my kitchen. After the floors, paint, granite, and then cabinet color was selected and could not be changed, then she took me to a warehouse full of back splash options...so many so that I was overwhelmed. I honestly would have made different choices up front had I seen all things together in the beginning on a story board. The owner of iiHome spent much time trying to convince me to not have my microwave over cook top. Because of the layout of my kitchen and the fact that my island would be the farmhouse table I wanted, cabinet and drawer space is limited. She told me that my kitchen would look an apartment kitchen with m/w over cook top. Then when it was apparent that there really was no other place for it to be installed, she spent more time trying to devise a system to put it behind doors above the cook top. The owner's design to hide the microwave behind doors ate up a lot of time and did not work out from a technical stand point. The cabinet maker said from the beginning that the m/w would not work behind doors over the cook top. Finally one day he pulled me aside and showed me how high it would be. After I told iiHome that I couldn't use a ladder to access my m/w, we had to pick out what we should have from the beginning, a m/w intended for installation above a cook top NOT camouflaged by doors. There was just an unbelievable amount of focus and time wasted on the idea of putting the microwave above the cook top behind doors. In summary, ~$13,000 is not enough to finish/fix --the floors are improperly installed, uneven, gouged and scratched, trim left uninstalled --hanging puck light --refrig stuck in its cavity --trash drawer that will not stay closed --the guest bath walls damaged and not finished --the pedestal sink is not re-anchored to the wall --inactive poly pipe still in home --forgot to mention before, different colored switch/outlet plates throughout kitchen