Construction Project - The Results

Two months ago (almost 9 weeks), the contractor started building the upstairs addition. I have described the early weeks and some of the issues that arose. Finally, the project is nearing completion - but, although I am tired, I know I will have to fight to the finish!

Several weeks ago, the contractor got a job in Spanish Town, restoring the old mansion of a Baton Rouge attorney. At that time, my project sunk like a rock to the bottom of his list of priorities.

It is my perception that he sees the Spanish Town job as a gold mine, with the potential for lots of wealthy clients. From the time he got that contract, he became preoccupied and has been mentally 'missing in action' at my house. He has become extremely disorganized, evidenced by his failure to follow through on unfinished tasks, oversee the sub-contractors' work, and obtain supplies. On numerous occasions, he failed to show up at his stated time, and he once said he had forgotten all about me. - This, after I sat here day after day, waiting, still trying to believe he was a man of his word.

He was also caught in a number of lies. Example: I called him one day when he didn't show up. At first he said he was in bed, trying to recover from a back injury. In the same conversation, he stated he could not give me a phone number I asked for because he was in his truck. He quickly caught his error and said, "I'm running an errand." - Another day, he promised to stay until he got my trim done. After about an hour, he left abruptly, saying he had to meet with his wife and a realtor regarding selling his house. (I thought his wife said they had already sold their house!) Four hours later he returned, but since he was so exhausted, it was more likely that he had rushed to his other job. - Why lie?

Since I am an idealist and have great faith in people, it is not easy for me to be critical. However, in this case, I think my kind and sincere demeanor was construed by Kevin Stevens to mean I am stupid and gullible - and therefore easy to exploit.

Ultimately, I had to be assertive or I would have left in a worse situation than I find myself in now.

Rather than going into the minutiae, this is a summary of my position, as of today, May 20:

(1) Kevin Stevens did not pour a footer at the outset of the project, despite saying he was going to do so. The stairwell is built on the patio, which has water issues during heavy rains. He initially put flashing along his plywood frame but it was NOT effective because the patio is not smooth concrete and water ran under the flashing. - After his plan to put siding on the exterior did not work - because it would not match up with the existing siding - I had to pay the $400 above the cost of siding to have a stucco finish on the exterior. We had to pay $250 for a gutter to channel some of the water away from the patio. Even with the gutter, the water still runs under the patio, with caulk and a treated 2x4 the only barriers.

The floor in my new stairwell is freshly milled heart of pine. It is nailed onto plywood that is nailed to a few 2x4s that were first tapered and then bolted onto the patio floor, creating a quasi-level surface. Next week it will be sanded, stained and then coated three times with polyurethane. It will probably look nice but it is certainly not constructed in a professional way. As the floor installer stated, "Because of the way the floor was built, it will always creak and crack like an old floor."

Nevermind that mold might grow on the patio under the floor and could actually kill people who are sensitive to it - including me.

Honestly, walking on this floor reminds me of the floors in my childhood home that were made of pieces of Masonite, held up by car jacks located in the dirt basement.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I was asked this question by the people who have worked on this addition: "Why wasn't a footer poured for this floor?"

My additional costs related to this stairwell floor debacle: $650. But the cost is greater in terms of the years we will have to listen to the "creaks and cracks."

(2) The stair risers were painted white, and the treads were stained, followed by two coats of polyurethane. Despite numerous leftover pieces of milled oak, there is patching in a very conspicuous area. The treads, as stated earlier, were placed against the molding, rather than placing the tread first and trimming it with molding. Every gap is caulked or filled with wood-filler, resulting in another half-assed, unprofessional-looking job. Kevin Stevens was told three times that this was not acceptable, but he ignored my comments.

Kevin leveled one of the severely slanted, hazardous steps that I wrote about before. The riser of the one he leveled is very noticeably shorter than the two below it. He did not bother with the other two steps, which prompted me to ask why they could not be level, too. - He fixed one more step and the risers of the bottom three steps are now of varying heights. He said he couldn't level the bottom step at all because of the position of the posts. - At least if someone trips and falls on that one, they won't have far to fall.

(3) The pedestal sink, knowingly installed without regard to safety or plumbing standards, was removed last week. Even though I was originally supposed to have a vanity with a cultured marble vanity sink, I was required to purchase those items myself. I had to pay an additional $180 for an unpainted vanity cabinet and I bought a vanity sink top for $115. My original budget from the money paid to Kevin was $75 for the sink, plus the unfinished cabinet, which I presume would have been $180. $180 + $75 is $255. He substituted the $255 vanity sink and cabinet with a cheap pedestal sink, so I should be entitled to the credit for the difference between the two.

Plumber #2 came to install the cabinet and the sink. Long story short, he did NOT put the cabinet flush against the wall on the left side before he secured the vanity sink top to it. Since the sink top IS against the wall, the vanity cabinet is VERY CROOKED beneath it. - Where did Kevin Stevens find some of these people?

Under the cabinet, the plumbing mess on the wall, which includes a half gallon of spackle, will be a chronic reminder of the "pedestal sink debacle." After weeks of Kevin Stevens saying he would sand and paint it so no one but he and I would be able to tell, he never did so. My husband sanded & painted the spackle of this sub-standard result. The metal parts overlap rather than being flush against the wall.

(4) The TOILET is very small. I said I didn't mind if he got a cheaper toilet than the one I originally ordered... but that was a mistake! WHO KNEW that he would introduce a child-size commode that leaks and "runs" and then expect me to be OK with it? Both a master plumber and Kevin himself tightened the bolt on the tank and it still leaks. Who wants to have to tell guests to "jiggle the handle" or "take the back off the toilet and put the plunger down?"

(5) As stated earlier, electrician #1 didn't return 4+ weeks ago to do the trimout. Over the next month, for reasons unknown, Kevin was unable to get the electrical trimout done. Finally, after numerous cancellations, I said he better find an electrician THAT DAY or I was going to call Home Care and he would have to pay. He said he was sending two electricians; when asked, he stated they were licensed, which, of course, they weren't. One was an electrician's helper and the other was the electrician's helper's helper. - This lie, after I stated earlier that only a licensed electrician would be acceptable.

The men were here 4 hours and managed to get the job done, somewhat, although they had not been told the scope of the task. At that time, they added a separate switch so the two outside spotlights would not come on with the interior ceiling light in the stairwell.

Problem: There is a light on the way up the stairs. There is no switch at the bottom of the stairs. One could go up the stairs and turn the light on in the bedroom. The light could be turned on before coming down the stairs, but since there is no way to turn it off downstairs, the light is essentially useless. (!)

(6) Since Kevin didn't bother to look at the work of the subs, damage is done that can't be undone, unless we make the corrections ourselves. The sheet rock in the closet is not done well, but I was told, "The painters will take care of it." Evidently, the painters are unfairly charged with fixing all of the mistakes of the carpenters and sheet rock people. The closet - and other numerous other areas - remain significantly flawed because the painter said the problems are the fault of the sheet rock hanger and, therefore, beyond his responsibility.

I don't blame the painter because DAYS of work were added to his original job and he would not have received additional compensation. We tried to help and ended up paying extra for many jobs that the contractor was responsible for. Some of these are:

*Bought paint and painted the two downstairs bathroom ceilings that were patched after being stepped through.
*Painted the attic stair pulldown
*Bought kitchen paint and paid painter to paint walls that were affected by the removal of a window.
*Bought paint and paid painter to paint the living room ceiling, also damaged by the construction.
*Primed, sanded and painted the vanity cabinet in new bathroom
*Agreed to refinish both sides of wood door in stairwell, including the trim.
*Painted upstairs window and trim

Approx. cost of paint, $120. Fee to painter, $260.

I wonder when Kevin thinks it would be a good time to decide who is responsible for sinking nails, then filling and painting? And who IS responsible for the wrinkles and bumps on the sheet rock in the attic?

(7) At the outset of this construction, the contractor told the next door neighbors that he would put top soil on their yard to fill in the trenches left by his truck and those of his subs. The neighbors were very accomodating and tolerated the damage. However, their patience was strained when the painters used their water and splashed paint on their house. Their fence was also damaged by the contractor's trailer.

When the fence damage was brought to the attention of the contractor, he said he would stop and pick up a replacement board. A week passed and the board was not forthcoming - or mentioned again. We replaced it ourselves.

The painter power-washed the paint from their house. The spots occurred when the painter fell off his ladder and the paint can flew into their yard.

After 9 weeks of damage to the neighbors' yard, a heavy rain revealed the depth of the depressions caused by driving trucks on it. Since it will be weeks before this job is done, as a result of Kevin Stevens' poor management of the project, it was finally time to be considerate and respectful of the neighbors. We bought sod and placed it in the affected areas.

(8) At the outset, when Kevin Stevens described his approach to a project like this, he said that "every evening" he would put the trash on his trailer and haul it away. He did that about 3 times in the early weeks and then once later.... So about 4 times in 9 weeks. MOST of the garbage was bagged by my husband and put out with our trash. I'm sure that Kevin never noticed.

One thing I brought to Kevin's attention was a huge black bag filled with concrete stucco. It sat in our grass for weeks and then Kevin realized it could not be picked up. He said he would get his football players to move it but that didn't happen. Finally, so the grass beneath it could grow, we chopped the concrete up with a hammer, put it into about a dozen bags, and then disposed of it. - Like the unused wood that remains in the backyard, Kevin has not been concerned about the damage to our property - or the appearance.

(9) Prior to hanging the sheet rock, a man came and installed the insulation along the frame of the new structure. Weeks later, even after Kevin had been in the bathroom to lay the tile floor, I noticed that the walls in the bathtub area were very warm to touch; they actually seemed to radiate heat. - Reason: There was NO insulation behind those walls, therefore nothing to protect the walls from the heat in the attic. Kevin was going to "take care of it" but after 6 days we added the insulation ourselves.

The addition is still uncomfortably hot, despite A/C, and I think he might have failed to put insulation UNDER the room to keep the attic heat out. The room is elevated above the attic floor and the heat may be filling the space beneath the floor.

(10) The crown and base molding used in this addition is almost exclusively made of some type of sawdust or wood particles. This may be the "green" thing to do but it was a cost-cutter in this scenario. Since I had no idea that a contractor would use such inferior materials, I was stunned to discover that the molding wasn't much better than cardboard.

In addition to the cheap product used, I was supposed to have double-crown molding in the bedroom. When I noticed there was only one piece, Kevin said HE had decided not to use two pieces. Such disregard for the contract, not to mention the disrespect for me, is not acceptable.

I also expected that the crown and base molding in the addition would be the same as the rest of the house. It is not. In fact, he had planned to use the same mismatched molding in the stairwell, even though it meets the existing trim. When I learned of that, I stated that it had to match the existing. - The crown molding in the living was not repaired in a quality way. "Caulk!" was the answer to that.

(11) The laminate floor in the upstairs room is not the worst I have seen but it was cheaper than the one I selected. My choice would have required that Kevin purchase the pad that goes under the laminate but the overall cost was within the budget. - I objected to the fact that Kevin told me he was going to Home Depot to pick up my choice of flooring - but instead drove to Sam's Club and bought a differnt product. He dropped it off here without comment to me. Obviously, he thought I would never know the difference.

(12) Kevin left here on Friday, May 2, and said, "I'll be back Monday morning." The next time I saw him was the afternoon of May 12. Over the next week, essentially nothing was done and it took two weeks for him to finally finish the molding in the stairwell.

On two occasions, Kevin came and then had to leave because he didn't have the necessary supplies.

When his carpenter came to re-do parts of the upstairs floor, he had not remembered to pick up the flooring; I had to get it. When the carpenter needed a second box of flooring, we had to get it.

When electrician #2 came, the necessary supplies were not here. Even though he left without completing the job and never returned, Kevin never did mention the supplies. Knowing he was not on top of this job, I bought them myself and had them here. And a good thing! Last week, prior to the electrician's helper coming with his helper, Kevin asked if electrician #2 had the spotlight.... NO, WHY would he have it? That was one of the missing supplies and electrician #2 did not purchase anything... I did.

Kevin owes me $60 for the wood flooring; $45 for the electrical supplies; $20 for purchase and installation of board to neighbor's fence, and the difference between the $255 budget for vanity & sink and the cost of the pedestal sink.

My reimbursement will come from the outstanding money owed to Kevin. All of the points made in this blog will be discussed and negotiated. It only seems to fair that he be penalized for poor quality work.

Did I mention that this was a "TURN KEY" job? That was supposed to mean that we would not be burdened with all of these problems. - Right now, the biggest problem I have is Kevin Stevens, who is still MIA in terms of my addition.