Watershed Architects

It could not have gone any worse. They were consistently behind schedule, and over budget. Many agreed upon details (we thought) changed without explanation, and when we brought up these issues they would let us know that changing course would affect the timeline and the budget. Without going into all the painful details the bottom line is that they did not have the money to pay their subcontractors in a timely manner, or at all so the work was seldom done on time. The project manager consistently did not evaluate the work done by the subcontractors, leaving us to discover the issues after we had moved back in. For example the HVAC system required over 10 additional visits by the workman and major pieces had to be replaced before it was fully functional. This should have all been caught at the point of installation. Towards the end of the project we ended up paying the subs ourselves so that issues could be corrected. After our loan had closed and Watershed had signed the waiver indicating that all the subs had been paid we began to find out that most of them had not been paid. To date 5 subcontractors have threatened us with mechanics liens and we have been served with one so far. What was most painful and disappointing to us was that we were so looking forward to a collaborative and interesting partnership with what appeared to be a talented and innovative design and build firm. It is true that some of the features turned out really well, and we appreciate those bits, but the process was so painful that we could never ever recommend this firm. If anybody contemplating hiring Watershed cares to contact us via Angie's list we'd be happy to discuss our experience.