B & B REMODELING

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Overall the work was excellence.

Blas Rodriguez, the owner of BB Restoration, was hired by my Hurricane Ike repair/renovation contractor to complete the punchlist work on my home. They were given a list of approximately 160 items that had been deemed "Out of Compliance" by an independent inspector that had previously worked for the state of Texas performing inspections when there was a quality dispute between a contractor and client. BB's job was to fix each item so that it would be "In Compliance" according to the standards set forth by The Texas Residential Construction Commission which was disolved in September 2009. Blas and/or his crew were in my home on 17 different days, but did not come close to finishing the job. Since my contractor hired BB I don't know what the cost was, but I assume it was upwards of $5k, considering the hours they were here and the paint and other materials that were purchased. To begin with, Blas delayed the start of this project, first by 3 days due to other projects, then by 2 more due to expected bad weather that never came. The crew comprised his son, Jarid, and a worker, Javier. Occasionally Blas would be there too. They rarely arrived at my Midtown Houston townhome before 9:30, and usually left between 3 and 5, taking at least an hour break for lunch. They never put in a full 8 hour day at my home, and I never knew when they would arrive. Twice they didn't show up at all, with the only notice being an e-mail they sent late the night before. The BB crew was rarely prepared for the day's work, often leaving to buy paint, brushes, and other items. Jarrid even asked to borrow my things pretty often - a fan, windex, blue painting tape. And they used almost a full roll of paper towels that were hidden in my kitchen cabinets. Not a big expense, but it seems to me that home renovation companies would be aware of how messy jobs can be, and should bring along work towels, as well as anything else they might need. The communication between Blas and his crew is extremely poor. Blas did not relay several messages to his crew causing lots of dissapointment and conflict. For instance: on day one of this project I asked Blas for 3 things - 1) he and his crew were to use the bathroom on the 1st floor (my contractor's crew had left a disgusting mess in my bathrooms before), 2) no one was to go into the garage (we have a delicate classic car in there), and 3) no work was to be done in the 3rd floor guest bedroom room until the master suite was complete (we had moved almost ALL of our belongings, including my closet contents and our bed into the room and were living in there while they redid our master suite - the door was always shut). Blas agreed instantly, and without any discussion of concerns. Within 3 days, they had put paint cans in the garage, painted trim in the 3rd floor guest room, and used the master suite bathroom (they had to "steal" toilet paper from the 2nd floor bathroom to do this). When I approached Jarrid with my dissapointment, he said he didn't know about these things; when I approached Blas, he said he was sorry. I then put up sticky notes on the doors to the garage and guestroom, and on the toilets, instructing them to please stay out - the next day Blas told me that his crew felt discriminated against and that I shouldn't expect his guys to use the bathroom next to my office when they needed privacy. I actually had to tell him that it was my home, that I make the rules he agreed to, and that no further justification of my rules was necessary. Things got worse from there. When BB would repaint a wall, they would say it was done; the problem is that repainting the wall was not the job, fixing a bad paint job was - if they repainted a wall, but there were still streaks or bubbles in it, then it wasn't done. Likewise, if they removed 90% of the paint spots on an electrical outlet, there are still paint spots on it, so the job is not done. This was an argument I had time and time again with Jarid and Blas. Another issue that I battled with Blas and Jarrid over was covering my belongings. I was told they would cover anything of mine before beginning work, that this was standard practice. The only thing they had to cover was furniture, as I had packed away all other items. Still, they didn't do it. The first time I complained about this, Blas said that it was just dust and that he would have someone come in and clean if he needed to - not exactly the response you want from someone working in your home, around your belongings. Another favorite response of his is "these things happen", as he said to me after I found texture mud on my sofa even though I had repeatedly asked that plastic be used before any work was to be done in a room. I have one last thing to mention about Blas Rodriguez and BB Remodeling. It seemed to me that Blas had a difficult time working with me, a female. He often questioned, sarcastically, when or how I would clean a light switch or cover furniture, as if he were only responsible for work of the same quality that I could do. And once, when my boyfriend was home, Blas "told on me" to my boyfriend, saying "not one nice thing has been said since we got here". A) it was untrue (and not my job to compliment him on poor quality work, by the way), and B) I think he wanted my boyfriend to step in and reprimrand me or something. Interesting. After each discussion with Blas, he liked to say "we're going to finish the job - we want to make you happy". This definitely did not happen. After working with BB and my main contractor (Stephen McNiel with Creative Property Restoration - I'll be posting a review soon), I think I'll stick to DIY projects.

B and B Remodeling were very professional and polite to deal with. I was very satisfied with their workmanship. They were just a little slow on responding and getting out to my home. I received quality work. I was pleased with the results and felt I got my moneys worth. I would use them again.