GARY GILLIS BUILDER

Gary is a nice guy, and does nice work but does not manage time or resources well. He had done a small project before that was left slightly unfinished in my opinion, but the details were ambiguous enough that I let it go. From the start of this project (and during the other) there were constant complaints of how much more difficult it was than he had expected and every small thing that he could complain about that would give him an excuse for the project to drag on. I chose him based on his purported experience and he says he also does house inspections, so I relied on his evaluation. I even started some of the demo. He even complained about the plumber's or electrician's work not being done when the parts that they hadn't done were easily worked around, or were as simple as cutting a copper pipe that was missed. I have friends who work in the industry and they said there is no reason, even with the small issues that were not expected, for the project to take so long. A lot of the slowness resulted from his habit of showing up late and leaving early, not knowing that my security system shows his time here. At one point he called me to tell me he had been there for 2 1/2 hours that morning trying to get up the floor when I knew for a fact that it had been less than an hour. His response was that it felt like that long. Another day he did not show up when he could have because he was working on another client's project, which I found to be very unprofessional. When I finally complained about the slowness of the progress the mood became very sullen and uncomfortable, but he started working a full day. I asked him several times during questionable parts of the project for a breakdown of what work remained and what his expected timeline was for the work. He would never give that information in anything than vague verbal terms. When he complained about the amount of time it took for him to pull up a subfloor that had been glued down, I agreed to pay for and install the new subfloor myself in order to make up for the time and expense he claimed. Money became an issue. We had agreed on $2800 up front and the same amount when the demo was done, with and quot;disbursements as neededand quot;, which I found to be uncomfortably vague, but gave him the benefit of the doubt. Because the state hadn't given me my refund, I was $800 short on the second payment, but paid $1000 the next week and $500 the week after (under the concept of disbursements). By this time I had paid him 71% of the total amount due and he was asking for another check of $2000 (leaving only $550) when there was still mudding, sanding, doors, trim, vanities, mirrors and fixtures left to do, which would be at least a week of work. I asked him for a written breakdown of the remaining work and what his timeline for completion would be, but he would not supply that. I told him that I have had several experience where contractors did not complete the work and left when they were mostly paid and I was not paying that much when so much was still undone, When he said he needed the money for the doors and other materials, I said that I would pay for and pick up the materials so that he wouldn't have to pay out of pocket, though I would have thought that the more than $6000 I had already given him should have been enough for the materials. However, he absolutely refused that option and said he was going to end the project as it was and call it done between us. Now I need to find someone to complete this project... -An update: I had to pay $500 for someone to come in and fix the drywall work that he had left undone, but also to fix problems I didn't know until I had a drywall expert look at it.

The previous construction was not to standard and Gary faced and resoved many difficult problems to preserve the structual integrity of the existing cabinets. He did an excellent job the new countertop was installed with no problems caused by any of his workniw