New Meaning Drywall

Mike Gonzales was the first person hired by our "trusted project manager" to be the "general contractor" in the remodel of our entire downstairs (while we lived upstairs). As I have since found out, he owns a drywall company of which usually does new construction only...not remodels. This made sense because they were very messy and inconsiderate of our properly and belongings. They did the demolition and began putting up new walls and then drywall without turning off our air conditioner so we had problems for months with material in our vent system. We had most of our belongings in the garage and they used our refrigerator and our old microwave that were being stored there as well. I wouldn't have minded but they did not ask and covered them both in joint compound from their hands. The side of our refrigerator was dented on one side where they pulled our attic stairway onto it. This cut the price of resell for us. We had a power washer and power drill stolen from our backyard storage shed that they worked beside daily. Mike even told my husband that he knew who probably did it and they were going to replace it but never did. Almost a year later you can still see the mess they left behind as well. We had to re-paint our pool crete from damage of materials left on it. There was joint compound on our back fence and on our bricks. I even had a Federal Marshall come to our front door looking for the owner of New Meaning Drywall ( his trailer stayed at our house for months) because he had employed a Federal fugitive. This man had been working in my home and was working at our rental properly at that moment. They arrested him there. The Marshall had his girlfriend handcuffed in the car and she led them to our house because she had brought him to work there. It was crazy. Now to the workmanship done. The dry wall was good. The rest of the work was of poor quality. Mike had hired a trim man that did not complete the cabinets for kitchen and living room because of a "family emergency". When they were put in our project manager made him redo some things and I think he got frustrated with her and Mike. The hardware on several of the drawer are already broken ( happened shortly after installation). We had a panel just fall off. The worst thing with the maple cabinets is the staining. There are drips, smears, different shades, areas that were missed completely in the staining. There were also rings from the workers soft drinks being set on unstained cabinets. These show through after staining. At first, Mike told me this was because of the wood, then he said it was the trim man sanding too much, and then he finally said it was the best he could do and would refund us $500 to put toward someone else doing it. Of course ,we have not seen that, as well as one cabinet door he took to "work " on in his shop. I have texted and called repeatedly to get the stain and the door but he will not respond or even put them on my porch. I had two master painters look at this job and they said it would take $4,000 to redo properly. He had a plumber that working for him that did not have a vehicle or any supplies. We had to go to Home Depot to pick up things for him. The electricians did what they were told I assume but the spots in the kitchen were covered by the crown molding on the cabinets so they had to be all moved. In fact, there were many things that got re-done as we went along. It was apparent that the forethought and planning was unprofessional. We had never remodeled anything before other than what we had done ourselves. We assumed , although we will not again, that people do what they say they will do and know what they were doing. The wheels of the project really fell off when the travertine stone was being laid. They started in the entry with the design pattern we had decided on and then ran it down the entry hall. It was all running crooked. They said it was because our wall was crooked. this was interesting because we had ceramic tile there before and it was straight They did not even run a plumb line. We called Mike and he came over and made them pull it up thus breaking some of them. They same people began laying again and it was the same. Mike had some serious words with him in Spanish. It was a good thing because my granddaughter might not have needed to hear that. It was pulled up again and he was removed from our job. Another man came over and laid more ( had to get more stone) and then just didn't show up one day. Mike quit communicating with our "project manger" and us. He had been paid in full and our house was not even finished. No working kitchen, downstairs bathroom, no master bedroom ..nothing was finished. It was the nightmare that people warn you about but you don't think it will happen to you because you trust the person you hired..our "project manager". I will report on her in another report. When we went to look in the storage unit that was rented for this project storage it looked like a tornado had run through there. you cannot even walk in. They had thrown all the things that we could supposedly reuse in there and it was scratched and damaged. This project began August 16, 2010 and they walked out in October 2010. It was supposed to take 6-8 weeks. We went into this project with faith in our project manager and she said we needed to begin right away before they got busy with other jobs. I know I am leaving out many details but I want to be clear that this company was so unprofessional and their work is unacceptable, other that the drywall. Note on that though.. they sprayed texture over doors and molding that I had to clean off. I think I already mentioned that drywall new construction is what this man usually does. I am sorry we got used to experiment with a general contracting job.