Affordable Homeworks

I hired Steve because he seemed like an honest, family guy. Boy was I wrong! Everything took much longer than anticipated and despite reservations, he convinced me he needed the rest of the money to finish the jobs. After I paid, he showed up less and less and became visible aggravated with the work. Then he demanded more for tile that he'd contractually agreed to include and electrical repairs that needed to be done because he wrongly placed the switch. When I refused to pay, he refused to show up despite only about 50% of the work being done. I lived without a kitchen sink and stove for weeks as a result. He left a live wire hanging in one of my cabinets. The area he'd worked on to install a backsplash all needed to be torn out because it was done so poorly. I had gaping holes in my laundry room and no ceiling for weeks. All outlets were left without covers. I could go on and on. The tile was done pretty well, but the floor moldings were torn out and then replaced and many were broken with chunks of wood missing. The ones that weren't broken were damaged; we now need to replace them. A few weeks later, my doorbell rang and it was a man who says he did the tile work...and that Steve never paid him...and that he worked him so hard that he ended up in the ED! Do not hire this crook! I honestly think he got in over his head, didn't know what he was doing and realized it was going to cost him to subcontract it out, so instead he took my money and ran. Very unfortunate; we'd taken a loan out for the remodel and taking out another loan to redo and finish the job will have long-lasting effects on my family.

After a week and a half I fired him. He was rarely on site, as promised, and had sub-contractors doing the work. After they left I contacted an electrical company to check the safety of what they had done. This was based on the sloppy job that I could see. I found that they had left a live wire, cut three times, in an interior wall and then drywalled over it. He did damage to my walls, plumbing, wiring, and woodwork that I can never repair in my 110 year old home. They screwed drywall into heat runs. They ruined the finish on one of my hard wood floors, stapled plastic into woodwork, and left plumbing disconnected. When I asked for a refund do that I could at least get things fixed, he has refused. I was willing to let him keep what he felt he earned, even though it was sloppy and dangerous. But he should be paying me back at least $5000, and that's being generous on my end. I don't have a lot of money and I just want to get my home back to what it was. I know it will never be what he promised it would be.