MARTY'S HOME REPAIRS

Initial contact was good; contractor seemed to know his business and appeared in no doubt about what was being requested. He asked that I draw up a sketch of what was requested since he was going to build the body of the piece off-site (the builder who made the existing bookcase made it on-site) and then would trim it in place. He took lots of photos of the existing piece in order to -- as he put it -- have a reference in case he was unsure about something. He then re-measured the space, checked for square corners, and together we went over some particularly important (to me) trim details that I wanted, and we agreed on materials required. After some delay and a couple of minor questions that he wanted clarified over the phone, and some more delay, he finally showed up with the finished piece w/ the trim all in place, and proceeded to install it in the space it was meant to fit. However, it quite quickly became very apparent that the final product was not at all what had been requested. The fit was off, and the trim was substantially inconsistent with the existing piece that it was supposed to match. Lots of awkward fits and inconsistencies, gaping corners etc. When this was pointed out, contractor immediately went into denial mode, claiming that he had built exactly what was specified and that he'd had a hard enough time making even that work. Emphasized how solid and strong the final piece was, though. Subsequent attempt to get him to appreciate that this was just not acceptable work failed; he continued to insist that he'd done what was asked of him, and left it at that. I've given up and resigned myself to patching up his mess as best I can -- but the whole point of hiring a supposed pro to custom build a piece was to avoid any subsequent patchwork.