For those of you who have the patience to read my side of the situation, I applaud and thank you for understanding that there are typically two sides to every story. The clients in this particular matter of, “building an investment home”, are not clients in this case to a2z Renovations . . . That is very important because their inappropriate score brings down many of our very critical categories. Before I go any further, please take the time to read our many other reports and you should see that their comments are very inconsistent. The members are great people, but are only prospects, not customers in regards to building an investment home for them in RI while they primarily reside in Pennsylvania. We would like to thank her for kindly pointing out in a previous report that the work we did do for them was done to their satisfaction . . . namely; 1) Clean out the home from the previous owner and discard all the belongings per their request. 2) Demolish the home to prepare for the rebuild. What they neglected to comment on was: 1) The integrity we had to notify them that we found a GOLD, yes a GOLD necklace that was most likely worth $800 to $1,000 plus and we actually gave it to them . . . not to mention other items they could have sold on Craig’s list . . . They said, “Thanks J” for the necklace and throw away everything else. 2) The prices they received to knock down the waterfront home that was 4 feet away from the abutting neighbor was between $10,000 - $12,100. We did it for $6,500. 3) We (a2z) went through several renditions (about 7 revisions in all, maybe more, about 80 hrs total) of pricing out a home for them off of their engineered plans that was coming in around $250,000 4) They then shared with me, that they had a firm budget of $150,000 . . . We asked them to allow me to do materials substitutions and change the foundation plans to a more economical plan. They said, “No,” they wanted it to remain per plans. She sent us an e-mail claiming, in her own words that, “I am rather frugal and like to negotiate.” We are fine with that, because she commented on many occasions that her business is doing well and this would act as a much bigger carrot and stepping stone for many potential projects yet to come. So we took a chance and kept trying to manipulate the numbers to hit her $150,000 budget 5) At one point she told us that she found someone to install her high end Advance-Tech septic for $10,000 . . . our septic installers could not purchase the materials required for that cost . . . She could never provide us with contact information so we could confirm if that installer was mis-representing the septic . . . We now suspect that she was just frugally negotiating us again, much like her $150,000 budget number. 6) They wanted to start building no later than September of 2010. So, they gave us $3,500 dollars to begin the process of getting the Permit process going because they felt that we would come to some agreement on building the home, so we started the intense administrative process of meeting, preparing and filing the paperwork with the: a. Town, b. Town Water Dept., c. Electrical Company d. Building Officials Office e. Fire Dept. etc. f. We did our best to turn over every stone to avoid future issues Well, we are sure many of you will agree that the process is very tedious and time consuming. 7) Needless to say, the best number we came up with was $218,000 . . . they said another came in at $210,000 so Yes we did advise them to make sure that others were legitimate and had good standings. Why wouldn’t we suggest such a thing? It’s the right thing for us to suggest and do . . . Not to sound inappropriate and I apologize ahead of time if some of you may take it that way, but that is not our intent . . . they are two women trying to get an investment home built in RI, why they reside out of State in Pennsylvania (many hours away) . . . she makes it sound like we were trying to bash our completion, we never once said anything bad about the folks she named to us . . . all we suggested is to make sure they are valid contenders . . . think about it, isn’t that what Angies List is all about? Protecting the consumer and applauding the great contractors? 8) Needless to say we did not get the agreement to build that house. In hein-site, maybe it was for the best . . . So we charged them for the administrative hours of work we completed towards the permit process plus some other miscellaneous items we had to do to knock down the house that they were suppose to do prior to us demolishing the home, that they could not do because they were not local. Pump out the septic, move an electrical wire etc . . . Is that wrong of us? We think not, why should we have to perform those duties for free and let the awarded contractor just walk in and get the building permit on our invested time? 9) Well the fact of the matter is that here we are in early December and the home has not been started in September as firmly requested (maybe just another frugal negotiation) and by the way, it was relayed to us that the way the other contractor got the price down to $210,000 (still $60,000 off from their supposed firm budget) was by changing the foundation plans and substituting materials . . . Hmmmmmmmm we wonder who suggested that to begin with . . . So bottom-line . . . a2z asks you, “Is their report fair?” Have we been convicted before being heard in a fair and conflict free environment? We suggest that the answer is a firm, “NO.” But as humans and individuals we all have the right to our own opinions. Would we love them to retract their report and understand that we are one of the good ones out there, the answer is a definite and firm, “Yes.” However we are afraid that it would take very confident individuals to do such a righteous deed . . . and not all of us can be such confident and do the right thing. On a personal level, as stated above, they are real nice and great people and we were just trying to help them succeed here . . . We do wish them the best of luck with this project and the many more to come. Richard Bonvegna – Proud owner of a2z Renovations