The Addition - Closing the Door

More than three months ago, construction started on the addition - a bedroom, bathroom and closet in the upstairs of my house. Today, I am stating that I am SO done with it. It has been a dreadful experience and a real blow to my idealistic worldview that is all about people being fundamentally fair and honest.

But before I close the door on this project, I want to state some of the grievances I have, mainly pertaining to the contractor, Kevin Stevens, who has not returned my calls in 10 days.

I have stated most of the points in the rambling earlier blogs, so this is sort of an "at a glance" presentation.

In my mind, I have been thinking that Kevin abandoned this project and left us "high and dry." But it just came to me that the cliche "high and dry" means a good thing and, therefore, it is not fitting in this scenario.

Because Kevin is not a man of his word, I have no faith in him and I am experiencing periods of anxiety regarding the safety of the new room. With all of the shadowy, inexperienced people he brought here to work, I am not confident that things were done correctly... and nothing was inspected because he never got a building permit. - Is the room going to fall through the ceiling?

#1 - The worst thing is the floor in the stairwell. I have been calling it the stairwell but I mean the frame and floor area around the stairs that were built to go upstairs. To reiterate, there was NO footer poured and the frame for this part is built right on my patio, which slopes to the grass. A quasi-level floor was built on and it is covered with handmilled heart of pine. From a distance, it looks great! I should have made a video and posted it on YouTube, showing the reaction people have when they step from the existing wood floor - glued on concrete - onto the new floor that is built on this sort of platform. One woman stepped onto the floor and said, "WHOA!" She stated she had the sensation that she had stepped onto a trap door. The hollow sound is disturbing. - We had to have a gutter installed so the rain doesn't run under it; caulking does not make me feel too secure. - We have to live with this because it can't be undone at this point.

#2, and the worst thing in terms of actually using the new room, is the fact that Kevin left us with a room that is too hot to sleep in, despite having air conditioning. Because Kevin never looked at anyone's work and was basically Missing in Action after week 4, he failed to notice that the room was HOT - when it shouldn't be. He managed to put in the tile floor in the bathroom, yet failed to notice that despite the A/C, the room felt almost as hot as the attic. Even after it was brought to his attention that insulation was missing, he did not move to remedy the situation. By then, he was off to Spanish Town, probably on his best behavior so he could get future jobs in that rich community. WE ended up having to add the insulation. Later I discovered more areas of inadequate insulation, which we also dealt with. The room feels somewhat better but Kevin promised to install an attic fan, which is a necessity.

#3, the painters did not do what he said they were going to do. Perhaps not their fault but that matters not! After 10 days of the painters and Kevin failing to do the job, we were left to do a week's worth of painting. But we could NOT do the painting of the bare wood on the new addition that was overlooked by the painters. TODAY, I paid someone to paint the bare wood.

#4, Kevin failed to fix the threshold under the door. The last time I spoke with him, almost two weeks ago, he was coming "in a day or two." Again, he didn't show up so we figured out how to do it ourselves.

#5, Kevin failed to return the calls of the electrician's helper, Randy - and me - regarding a downstairs switch for the stairwell light and the line for the attic fan. Randy was ready and willing to come a week ago. When I heard nothing from either Kevin or Randy, I had to make alternative plans. - TODAY, I paid $975 to have an attic fan installed. The light on the stairs is not something I care about right now.

#6, Kevin failed to have the roof leaks fixed. TODAY, I paid someone to come and check on some of the leaks... Impossible to find them all, they said, and the roof WILL have to be replaced. - Kevin hoped he would be out of Dodge before we discovered this fact.

#7, Kevin repeatedly stated he would fix the mess (i.e. spackled wall) under the sink in the new bathroom... He never did and we sanded and painted the wall that is nothing more than a half-gallon of spackle.

#8, Kevin and the first plumber he brought here left a pedestal sink installed improperly, thus exhibiting a reckless disregard for the safety of of my family.

#9, Kevin had NO concern or respect for the property of my next-door neighbors - or ours. At one point, he asked WHAT happened to neighbors who would cooperate when such projects were underway. The fact is that they DID cooperate but WHY should they have to wait for a fence repair or the repair of their yard while Kevin was working week after week at Spanish Town? We had to take care of their fence and yard ourselves. - But what can one expect when Kevin went up to my new room and promptly layed his tools on my new bedspread? He never cleaned up after himself and has no respect.

#10, Kevin consistently did the cheapest thing possible. There are too many examples to list but I am keenly aware that when I decorated, it was like putting lipstick on the proverbial pig. Kevin Stevens substituted cheaper products without consultation and, in the case of the double crown molding I was supposed to have, HE decided not to do it.

#11, the workmanship on the stairs is atrocious! (See previous blogs regarding the half-assed job Kevin did.)

At this time, I am too tired to write more. If Kevin Stevens ever comes across this, he won't feel bad because it is obvious to me that he has no conscience. He is a smooth talker and, believe me, he walked me down the Primrose Path. He was defensive rather than embarrassed or apologetic for the unlevel stairs, the inferior materials he used, and his failure to start the job with a concrete footer. He expressed disdain for architects, the parish building inspectors and anyone who thought, as I did, that his workmanship was not adequate.

I did find online that he has had some brushes with the Louisiana Building Contractors Board - and was found guilty. Maybe he is getting by - - but he is not an honorable man.

Technically, Kevin left this job without settling the final payment of $1500. Obviously, he would never get $1500 because we had to pay far, far, more - not counting our labor - to complete this project. I suspect that he factored all of this into his bid, so there was not a chance that he could actually lose money himself.

PLUS, we are stuck for the duration with the shoddy workmanship of Kevin Stevens. His philosophy seems to be this: Contract for the highest amount possible and then make the most profit by providing the lowest quality for the lowest price.

I have to say that I was gullible for a very long time. I would get furious with Kevin and then he would come by and say everything I wanted to hear. I don't like conflict and like things to be happy, so it was easy for me to believe that he was going to do everything he said he was going to.

This blog will only come down when Kevin Stevens pours a footer under this floor, provides DOUBLE crown molding like he was supposed to, patches all leaks in the roof, and fixes the molding on the stairs so they look like they are supposed to look.