Jared Gross Furniture Design

Train wreck! No way to keep this short. From going several weeks/months over deadlines, making improper measurements, having to rebuild/repaint/rehang items several times due to not paying attention or wrong measurements, not providing symmetrical lines on the island, to finally abandoning the unfinished job, this guy is a complete mess. Reminds me of Pigpen with the little cloud of dust swirling about. He should be working under supervised conditions, not running a business and building cabinetry on his own. If he had only done poor work for us, I would not be writing this review. A client before us received poor work. Jared also abandoned that job. Then, a very good client of mine hired him (against my warnings). The work for their house was just as shoddy. Her husband had to rebuild a vanity where the measurements were completely off. They did not realize it until the stone installers arrived and could not apply the countertop. Had her husband not been skilled, they would have been charged significantly for them to haul the stone back and return another day when it had been corrected. Once he had finished their job, the husband had to continue to make corrections on everything. They said no measurements were correct. Sounds familiar. How insulting when out of nowhere, Jared brings up their names, telling me that their job is behind because they continue to make changes. Interestingly enough, he was saying the same thing to them about us. Now, we definitely made changes and modifications along the way. We own everything that was our doing. Jared went through more than 10 island designs. It just never seemed to make sense. We were never upset that it wasn't getting done. It was our need to make sure it right. More on the island later. The cabinets were to take about 3-4 days to install once built. I believe that stretched into many weeks. The inspiration kitchen had inlay cabinets. Jared installed overlay. The doors were also the wrong style. We came up with an overlay door solution that worked out great.This was somewhat a miscommunication issue. We thought photos said everything. He built the right section using two cabinets, one huge door on each. The original kitchen used one double door cabinet and one single door cabinet. All doors the same size. The double door cabinet on the left side of the kitchen was turned into a single door cabinet (the door never installed that way bc he never got around to it). This made for scale that was WAY off. The large size of the doors that were installed dwarfed the other cabinet doors and swung out so far you could not unload the dishwasher with them open. Jared said he would rebuild, but he will have to charge us since it was a change. The old cabs were still in the garage so we could prove how they should have been done. Plus, this didn't even match his own design. His design made the right side two cabinets with two doors each. He could not argue. I told him I would pay for some of it, bc I did not catch it in his design. This was to be kind. I did not have to offer that. Our lazy Susan still does not operate properly. He worked on it for weeks. Our crown moulding was never finished. He couldn't seem to make the corners match. We now know that the crown was not all built the same. It all has to come out and start over. The cabinet doors were not all hung the same. The perimeter cabinets were built too short. We had asked for a 37" counter height. Once counters were in, they were 35". That is 1" less than standard height, 2" less what we asked. These are what he considers to be changes we made. Not his mistakes that must be corrected. The cabinets were raised. The baseboards to the cabinets were removed and never replaced. When the stone installers came to install the stone again, nothing was level. The left side was so far off that the stone had to be shimmed up 1/4" making the counter to the left of the range 1/4" higher than the right. The wine rack had to be rebuilt about 8 times. Too wide a few times. Then, the holes for the shelves did not match up, so they were horribly crooked. Tried again and again until we are living with what he did. Shelf spacing still off, some still slightly crooked, shelves not all the same width, just looks shabby. Some caninet paint looks glossy. Some paint looks matte. Some doors show wood grain, while others don't. Even the paint is wrong. There were more issues with this portion, but enough. After all these mistakes, we thought Jared was not the guy to be building the island. It was a very complicated design idea. We had another company consult. After many sketches and reviewing Jared's attempts to design it, we realized there was no way to build what we wanted in the size kitchen we have. It would have looked really odd to try to scale it to our space. This is why we could never pull the trigger and start the island. This is why it never made sense. Not to mention there would be very little storage. Now we were looking at a basic design and thought Jared could handle that. We should have learned our lesson by then. Eventually the island is installed. There is light colored paint filler all over it. None of the seams matched properly. The baseboards protrude on two sides, and are flush on the other two. None of the corners look the same. There is a false door front missing. I watched Jared looking at the island doors and realize the paint is crackled on one and the other is warped. Waited to see if he would mention correcting them. Nope. When I gave him the punch list, he then said he noticed them and was going to make new island doors. He did not mention this until I pointed it out. The stone installers had a rough time again. They had to shim one side over 1/4". Not one part of his work was level for them. The island must have all the wood filler sanded off, and be repainted. Not cheap. We have not determined how to correct the baseboard and corners asymmetry. Oh, not to forget. The island was built 1" too tall. We requested a 38" counter height. We have 39.25" counter height. I wrote it off as my mistake for not being clear on counter height. Was not my fault after all. I found the notes where it was very specific. We wanted to put our three dog bowls into one end of the island. After island install, the three bowls we wanted to use did not come close to fitting. So we modified with smaller bowls to make it work. Jared just needed to make a template for the stone installers. The stone installers were scheduled. I had to reschedule them several times over the course of the project to allow for Jared to correct mistakes or his being behind. They were getting upset that we had to continuously reschedule them. I was getting upset at having to reschedule my clients so may times to accommodate Jared's fumbles. When I pushed to have the template done for the stone folks, he quit. It goes on from there. He believes that he is absolved of any charges we incur to finish and correct his worl because he quit. I suppose he is not familiar with the term job abandonment. He has said we are unbearable and is not taking responsibility. This was the fourth meltdown we had to deal with. So not only was the work terribly shoddy, he was an emotional nightmare that we had to be ever so careful with. My husband wasn't able to talk me into keeping my thoughts to myself at the end, so Jared threw one last mega meltdown and quit. We did not make the final payment, thank goodness. Mind you, this was a contract job, with deadlines. We need to refinance this house and it cannot be done until the remodel is complete. So we are looking at months of lost money because of this predicament with the carpenter. The person who so highly referred me to Jared is now having him correct his shoddy work on a new job she hired him for. That makes a fourth. Her shiny referral is the only reason we hired him. We would have been happy to pay so much more for less hassle and good work. People talk. We see you. All around a big fat F! He seems great to begin. Then the delays start. Then the sloppy work. Then the attitude. Seems like an ok human being. Just needs seasoning in this craft. Or a better system for keeping notes. Or who knows. Be careful to do your homework. Keep everything in writing in case you find yourself needing to be in court, as we may be if finishing and correcting his work costs us more than we would have owed him.