Van Auken Development

I knew that this relationship with my contractor was going to be a tough one almost from the very start. It seemed that he refused to listen to what I, the customer, wanted from the beginning. I asked for a black roof, I recieved a gray one. I asked for certain types of windows, we recieved the wrong sizes for many of them and they had to be returned. Perhaps the biggest disappointment and grievance I have with Paul and his company occured many months later in October of the following year (2012.) The electric in my home was originally placed by the previous homeowner who did not have a license and apparently did not know what he was doing because there were multiple appliances/rooms on the same circuit. This is not only a fire hazard but a huge inconvenience when you're trying to blow-dry your hair and end up with half of the house in total darkness. My contractor was notified of these problems with the electric back in November when he was working on the home, and I asked for my electric to be fixed so that I would stop tripping breakers all the time. Because I do not have a license in electrical work and I have no previous knowledge of anything having to do with electricity, I assumed that that is what I recieved back in November when the work was completed. This assumption was backed up by the fact that the electrician who performed the work had an inspector come out and verify that the work was done correctly. However, there have been several instances where I have tripped breakers throughout this past year and, again, it was causing power in half of the house to go out. This gave me the sneaking suspicion that the service I had notified my contractor I wanted peformed and that I had paid good money for was not actually completed back in November. In October of this year, I ended up with no power in half of the house again and immediately called my contractor who stated that all of the electrician's work was warrantied and that he would have him come out first thing the next morning to fix the problem. When the electrician arrived the next day, he checked a few things out and eventually found the problem. However, he tried to charge me a service fee stating that this problem had nothing to do with the original work that he had performed. After talking to him a few minutes more to gain more information, I found out that even though my contractor knew what I wanted done (reworking the electric so that every appliance/room was on its own breaker), I recieved something completely different. What I eneded up recieving was simply a new breaker BOX with "straightened up" wires. So basically what the guy was telling me was that I paid them to go in and make everything "look nice" without actually fixing the major problem. To say the least, I was very frustrated that, again, there seemed to be a complete lack of communication between my contractor and I, and it was simply because he would not pay attention to what I wanted. He was either completely disorganized (e.g., did not write things down) or just did not care about the input of the consumer at all. I immediately remembered how he seemed to have a "I know what's best, so leave it to me" attitude and acted as though his ideas were better than mine. Last time I checked, the salesman is supposed to be all about the interests of the consumer, not his own. I tried explaining my frustrations to the electrician who then passed them on to my contractor, but all my contractor did was tell the electricain, "Don't touch s***. Don't fix anything!" (I could hear him screaming this exact sentence to the guy over the phone. Sadly for my contractor, the job was already done. Karma at its finest?) So basically, my contractor, who is supposed to look out for my best interest considering I do not know anything about remodeling or construction, was throwing a hissy fit because I was refusing to pay him for a service that he should have completed in the first place. The electrician was trying to tell me that it would cost me "at least" another $250 (on top of the astronomical price I had paid originally for mere aesthetics!) to re-wire the electric so that everything was on a seperate breaker. To say the least, I felt totally taken advantage of due to my (presumed) lack of knowledge regarding the conniving nature of businessmen. When I asked my contractor why this service was not performed originally, he stated that he was "not aware" that this was what I wanted. Besides the fact that this was untrue, it was also, to be frank, quite stupid. I (probably a little too snappily) replied, "Who in their right mind would want you to come in and just make everything look nice but not actually solve the problem of multiple power outages?" Doesn't it seem just a bit fishy that, even if this is what he THOUGHT I wanted, that he wouldn't at least make me aware of the hazards of keeping everything on the same circuit and try to convince me that it would be in my best interest to have everything up-dated so that it was safe, even if it meant a little extra effort on his part and the part of his team members? I would think that if Paul was working on one of his own family member's homes (say, a daughter, perhaps?), that he would put a little more effort into making sure things were done correctly instead of, pardon my french, "half-assing" his way through the repairs to get it done as quickly as possible? Maybe Paul should keep this in mind the next time he works a job, although it certainly won't be in my home or those belonging to any of my friends and associates. I was overall very dissatisfied with the experience I had with this contractor and his company and would not recommend him to anyone. It is my opinion that the old American way of businesses working hard to provide quality services and ensuring trustworthiness to consumers is dwindling, and this experience was just another prime example. I was disappointed that, as a first time home owner, the process of converting my new house into a home (which is supposed to be an exciting and fun one) was punctuated by constant frustration at every turn, and I hope others benefit from my post by doing a little more research than I did on who they are hiring to perform such a crucial task as remodeling a home.