Pettersen Electric

Eric said he would install the panel and make sure each fixture and outlet was "safe." He made it clear he would not work on any exterior wall outlets. At the time I had a 12-hr-a-day job, and knew little about home wiring, knob and tube v. Romex, etc. At first, Eric was extremely pleasant and everything looked official, incl. contract, permit, etc. He mentioned his rate was $95/hr. But once he started work, he changed. Among other things, he considered the realtor as boss and treated me with amused contempt even when I reminded him that I wrote his checks. He ignored the can sizes I wanted or said they didn't exist (they did), and was generally really unpleasant which I attributed in part to summer heat and the fluffy insulation the realtor convinced me I needed. One day I found two 18-year-olds working in the basement. One was utterly terrified of Eric's explosive temper. When pressed, they told me that in a fit of pique, Eric had hurled a wrench to the floor so hard it bounced and broke a basement window and that he paid a carpenter to get it fixed and not tell me. At times I thought he smelled of drink. Eric and Russ did not tell me that the GE security system could only be accessed by the installer, thereby insuring a $95/hr visit every time I needed help with it. Window sensors failed immediately, noisily and usually late at night. Last year, I demo'd the basement with its knotty pine panelling and cleaned out the attic, revealing new Romex tied to old, often-patched knob-and-tube wiring that had been stuffed back into the studs and joists, or had lain under under two feet of insulation fluff along with the unprotected can lights. In the basement, large rough holes were gouged through the joists near the edge to accommodate large bundles of wires. When the security system really went bad a few years ago, I looked up AVS Home Systems in hopes they could give me the code that would make it stop chirping every 90 seconds - but it had gone out of business. Perhaps I should have exposed myself to Eric's bad temper and scrutinized his work on a daily basis. I've learned to look up everything before I talk to people in the building trades. Perhaps he's changed; however, I'd also recommend you also check the WA State Courts website as part of any due diligence.