LUSTROUS DESIGN LTD

Over the years ive had a lot of work done to houses ive lived in. I have had some poor quality work and some good experiences. This was by far the worst experience ever. My father had a painting business and i tried to be patient and respectful. But this vendor only took advantage of my goodwill. His arrogance and irresponsibility are limitless. Around the middle of Sept. a full 3 months after I signed a 5-7 week contract, the work was still half done! I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt as he had clearly underestimated the work effort plus we had had a lot of rain over the summer. However, there continued to be many dry days where no one would come or only come for a few hours. I frequently had to call him to ask why he wasn't working as the weather was dry and I normally received some excuse that he would be there the next day or would be in later as he was at the shop, etc. No one ever showed up prior to about 9:30 am and I had to beg and plead with him that when its dry he needs to come early before the weather turned, but he never did. Before the 2nd payment was due he requested money "to pay my crew." I told him that I would agree but he needed to wrap this up by the end of Sept. early November and he agreed that was plenty of time. Several weeks later I saw that he had redesigned the location of the fountain without even mentioning the change or getting a change order. When I asked him about it, he indicated that due to some issue with the height of the property, it couldn't be done as designed. I pointed out that in that case, he needs to discuss the revised design with me and I need to approve it and the redesigned location would prevent reasonable access from one side of the patio to the other. He indicated that to redo this would be a cost to me to which I responded that if I did not approve the change I should not be responsible for its cost. I reminded him that any contractor I'd ever dealt with would always discuss changes and submit a change order. . He then sent me a series of extremely rude and lengthy emails indicating that I was somehow to blame for all the problems and with an outrageous request for me to sign before he would continue. This letter indicated that I had no right to get the patio inspected and that any future changes that he does do not need my approval. I naturally thought that was ridiculous and refused to sign it. He reluctantly agreed to not charge me for the changes, but then proceeded to send me a bill for an additional $5,000! He said that according to his contract he was permitted to do this and he would not continue the work until this was paid. I should have fired him on the spot, but I contacted a lawyer and tried my best to negotiate with him as it looked to be nearly 75% done and I was anxious to get this resolved and him off my property. I agreed to pay a portion of the additional charges, but told him that going forward there would be no changes without my approval and no additional money. I requested a project plan listing what he needed to complete and by when. He sent an email stating he would be done by December 10th. On December 10th, he actually worked past 5:00 pm for the first time, but had still not had the fountain working nor had he finished the pergola, the awning, or gotten the patio sealed. Yet, unbelievably he asked for some money to "pay his crew." By the last week of December, he finally sealed the fountain and got it working and sealed the concrete, but none of the remaining items were touched. In early January, I pleaded with him on multiple occasions to pick up the remaining debris, wood pallets, tools and materials, especially from the front of my house as it looked awful and it was interfering with the snow plow. His response will go down in the irresponsible contractor hall of fame: he texted me thst he got rid of 2/3 of it! Around then I finally asked him to leave as he had missed yet another deadline and I had run out of patience. Since then the water line that he tapped into for the fountain froze and burst leaking water into our basement. A plumber indicated that he used the same water line as the kitchen and was shocked to find that he had not installed a shut off valve and had ran copper pipe outside where it would certainly freeze and crack, so there was no way we could've avoided this problem. I have incurred now hundreds of dollars in plumbing and repair bills and still have a half finished pergola. Ren also took a copper roof worth thousands of dollars to incorporate into the pergola and the awning and now states he will not return that to me until he's paid in full. He absolutely sees nothing wrong in what he's done and how much financial and emotional stress his irresponsible and rude behavior and mismanagement has caused. or backyard was unusable all summer, spring and fall and we have thousands of dollars of remaing work. Hopefully this review will help at least one person avoid a similar situation.