Where to begin: filling you in on what we hoped would be an ending?

Coach likes to pretend he is going to
 sweep his pile right down this
opening to the heating/ac duct.

Where to begin?  So the addition/kitchen remodel started close to a year ago.  The kitchen looks great, except for the gaping space where the hood should go, the lack of glass doors in two of the cabinets, the cabinet panels that are falling off or our appliances, the hole in the base of the cabinet where there should be a vent, and. . . well - I could go on. 

It is ALMOST done, but not quite.  The process has been long and frustrating.  There have been ENTIRE months when NO ONE showed up.  Communication was horrid.  I couldn’t get in touch with ANYONE from the group for several weeks back in December/January.  I started to think they had gone bankrupt.

That is my little snack bar area
complete with fridge drawers
 with cabinet covers
that don't stay on.  I now
 have to pay someone else
 to come and attach the cabinet
 doors properly.
Note the red solo cup.
Anarchy.  Our children
refuse to reuse the colored
cups they have been assigned.

Old news.  No hood.  No glass cabinet doors.

On April 30th the contractor emailed to let us know that we owed him $25,000.  The body of the email detailed a charge for $1,900 and a charge for less than a thousand.  I wasn’t understanding the math.  How was he getting those two numbers to add up to 25K?  He wanted us to send a payment before he continued to do work on the kitchen.  I almost fell off my chair at the computer.  According to my calculations, we owed him closer to $10,000.  

I waited until after I hosted Mini’s confirmation dinner on May 1st, and then I called the office.  ‘Is this a typo?  Has someone added a zero?’  The office person spoke to the owner’s daughter, the self-taught kitchen designer.  She came back to the phone and assured me that Self-taught thought it was a mistake.  

I relaxed until I got the next email.  No, they still felt I owed them close to $25,000.  They did apologize for the run on sentence and the horrible math in the earlier email.  Can you say unprofessional?  Who sends an email with bad math and a lack of a sentence?!

In this email, they listed the payments that they had received from me.  The $7,000 payment I made in February wasn’t included.  I called the bank and got a copy of the cancelled check.  Then I emailed the contractor to let them know they had failed to give us credit for the 7K. 

I told Coach that night that the contractor would probably start adding additional fees to our bill.  I suspected that he just wanted to collect a certain amount of money from us, whether we owed it or not. 

Guess what?  That is exactly what happened.     

Hi Ernie,

I apologize for missing the $7,000 payment you made.  I had just come on board and during the transition the books were not as accurate as they should be.  (HELLO - RED FLAG!!!)

I have attached the revised statement.  Upon further reviewing the extras, we have found that the crown molding in the front hallway, door casing for the front door, as well as the baseboard and base shoe was not included in the extra sheet in the amount of $1,980.

There was also the pricing for the additional new crawlspace decorative semi-custom door for $592 which was overlooked.

Your job description from the original order until now has changed dramatically.  (CHANGES THAT WERE NAILED DOWN BEFORE THE PROJECT EVER BEGAN!!!)  Because of these changes we believe it is beneficial for all to be on the same page moving forward. We are just as eager to complete this job as you are for us to complete it.

Sincerely,

Babs

(THE WORST) Office Manager 

The actual names have been changed in the above email to protect the idiots who work there.  They decided that they hadn't charged us enough for the baseboard and the crown molding in the front hall.  An amount I had already been billed for and paid.

Oh, there's more.