NICK-KNACKS CREATIVE INTERIORS

We chose to work with Nick because he seemed to have a lot of experience and had some really good, creative ideas about using the space. In the early days we experienced a number of setbacks and delays, and the project he told us would take 2 1/2 weeks -- "3 weeks at the most" -- dragged into months, but still we were pleased with aspects of the work that had been done along the way. The demolition was done well and with minimal disruption. Nick paid close attention to cleanliness and dust minimization. We really appreciated this. The electrician, plumber and glass "subcontractors" seemed to be quite competent as well. There were constant delays -- sometimes for good reason, for which we were understanding, but other times, for no reason at all. Weeks would pass by with little or no progress in the project. These delays had consequences. Nick had asked us to purchase all the fixtures that would be installed in the finished bathroom relatively early on in the process. But he never inspected the parts within the 30-day return period. To his credit, Nick absorbed the cost of some of these failures, but others, required that we pay more money. Another consequence of the delay was that large portions of our apartment were turned into storage for months -- for Nick's equipment and supplies, for not-yet-installed fixtures, and for trash removed from the worksite. Again, Nick tried to minimize the mess associated with these storage areas, but nevertheless, there were large areas of our place that we couldn't use for months. Then, at one point in the project, it seemed that Nick must have moved on to another job. He would disappear for days, only to show up to work at 6 pm on a Friday. Finally in November -- 4 months into the project -- the bathroom became at least usable. We then discovered that our new shower does not really drain properly because of inadequate pitching of the floor. The floor tiles themselves were not properly grouted and the grout was coming up, even before any real use. The veneer on the custom-built vanity started to peel off. And the door to a storage area was not yet installed, as we had originally contracted. Nick came back to address some of these issues, including pulling up and reinstalling all the floor tiles. (However, the second round was still imperfect.) We agreed to pick up the project again after the holidays. After some scheduling difficulties, we began pursuing him in earnest again in March 2013. (At this point we also had problems with shower fixtures detaching from the wall). Nick was first elusive, then defensive. Ultimately we decided to give up on working with him - we now need to find someone else to finish this project, at our cost unless we decide to sue Nick, which we probably won't do because it's not worth dealing with him anymore for a few hundred dollars given the money and (more importantly) time we poured into the project. Nick is a friendly guy and he had a great vision for our space - but he was unable to execute on it. I cannot recommend that others work with him on a complex project involving other necessary contractors and moving parts. For one, Nick is NOT local to the area -- he lives in Pennsylvania. This distance makes it difficult for him to be on the worksite at times, which contributed to delays. Also, Nick seems to rely on several of his friends -- all of whom seemed very nice, but clearly had varying degrees of competence to work independently and also clearly had other jobs that took priority over our project. I could see value in using Nick for limited carpentry and interior work and for generating ideas for unusual spaces, but really, that's it.

We had a terrible experience with Nick and our kitchen renovation. We were initially very happy to work with him, since he came recommended by a friend and he had renovated our bathroom a year earlier. He estimated that the kitchen reno would take 4-5 weeks; however, over 5 months later, we were still not able to use our kitchen. By the end of the project, he came 1-2 days a week and worked about 2-3 hours per day. He wasn't doing any work by the end of the project and we finally had to fire him (after paying him nearly the full amount, since we mistakenly believed that he had done most of the work correctly by that point). In the course of the work that he did do, he damaged cabinets, backsplash panels, and our countertop--he paid to have some of these replaced but they were special-order and it delayed the project. We also paid for the new countertop (because we had already fired him by that point). He installed the countertops, dishwasher, refrigerator, and backsplash panels incorrectly and when we hired our new contractor, all of this work had to be redone. I should also mention that before we fired him, we asked him to do some discrete tasks to help us, such as removing all of the debris that his team left (piled 5-ft high on our deck outside) and repairing mistakes that he made; however, he refused to do any of this. In the weeks after we fired him, his plumber, electrician, and worker told me that he didn't pay them and his worker came to our apt and called me repeatedly to ask us for money. The plumber and electrician have also refused to sign off on our paperwork with the City, I believe because they weren't paid by Nick. We had a hard time finding a new contractor who was willing to take on this mess, and nearly a year after we fired Nick, we are still dealing with remnants of his team's incompetency (e.g., leaks). His team also accidentally damaged our bathroom shower wall, in the course of updating our electrical box, which is positioned near the bathroom. When we had the new contractor fix the shower wall, we discovered that the bathroom renovation that Nick did two years earlier was done incorrectly and we are now dealing with loose tiles and large cracks in our walls. We seriously considered taking Nick to small claims court, but we really don't want to ever see him again.