While Bairman was drinking Absolut and Echowood was partying for a new espresso and Scara went to the Kentucky Derby, I've been home all summer feeling the pressure of two households crammed into one small home. I got married two months ago. At the time, the construction crew had already worked six weeks on the attic expansion. The contract said they would be finished by August first. Since they got started a couple weeks earlier than their contracted date, we had always hoped they'd be finish early. Right. School starts in eight days. I had to get a garment rack to hang school uniforms because with two bedrooms and six people, we have NO closet space. Furniture from Mr. Perfect's house is in the basement and on the porch. We have beds for everyone, but not enough floor space to set them up.
Things started to fall apart when the city wouldn't connect the electricity. The whole shebang had to be rerouted. That's about the time the contractor came to me with the bad news that he is over budget. He had given us two estimates, lowball and highball, and guaranteed in writing that we wouldn't have to pay anything over the high estimate. The conversation:
Him: We've gone x-thousand over budget. Now, you aren't obligated to do this, but if you could split the overage with us, it would help a lot.Me: We don't have the money. We can't get any more.
He thinks: If that's the truth, at least they can't hire a lawyer.
I think: I hope we sell the old house soon, so I can hire a lawyer.
Then I didn't see him or his crew for about three weeks. They didn't return calls, but we got the word that they were doing roof jobs because they had to raise some cash. They are back now, with two crewmen gone in order to save money. The electricity is on upstairs. The drywall instalation is now subcontracted, which I thought was a good idea because at least a specialist would know what he's doing. He didn't show up for two weeks after he was first supposed to, but he's here today. The new target date for completion is Labor Day. We'll see.
I thought back to all the wonderful things the contractor told us when we started this project.
He said: This amount is the maximum you'll ever have to pay, guaranteed.
He meant: When we go over that, we'll just stop working.
He said: We'll start at 8AM and work until 5PM weekdays.
He meant: We'll start at 10AM and leave at 2PM, unless it's hot or raining, or we have something else to do, in which case we won't come at all.
He said: We won't come through the house because we don't want to disturb you.
He meant: We'll sneak in and out so fast you'll never catch us.
He said: You'll get to select your appliances, doors, and fixtures based on the budget we created.
He meant: We'll go ahead and get those to save the most money possible.
He said: I like to overbuild, so you'll get better quality than you expect.
He meant: Only at the beginning while we have all this cash. We'll make up for it by skimping later.
He said: Any changes in the plans will have to be agreed one by both parties in writing.
He meant: Oh, we built it like that because it looks better. I figured you'd understand.
He said: We'll check the codes ahead of time to make sure we pass the inspections.
He meant: We'll redo everything after the inspector tells us to.
He said: You'll probably hate us before this is through.
He meant: You will hate us before this is through.
If, for any reason, you might want to read more about this project, you can follow it here.
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I've had about 7 years experience in construction, I'm a draftsman/foreman and have worked and seen many projects and contractors, some just from the design aspect but most visiting the site and keeping and eye out on the work being done.
ALL, and i do mean ALL, my experience so far is that "he said-he meant" is completely the standard practice. No matter how good or bad they make things out to be they'll end up being worst. The problems will always end up on the costumer's end and they'll pay with lots more money and anger than is specified on the contract.
That being said, your contractor seems to be on the dumber side he shouldn't have given a written guarantee and should have run the numbers better to be sure what estimate to give you before going in.
My advice is don't hire the lawyer. The contractor will most likely has fucked other people up and is way over his head financially when the legal trouble comes he'll declare bankruptcy and you'll have years of trouble and waiting to do plus pay your lawyer.
Seen it way too many times.
Urrr...this is so frustrating. Sorry to hear about your troubles Miss C.
Sadly this sounds like a common occurrence as Etantao indicated.
I know this suggestion won't help now but.... a few years ago a friend of mine was having a new deck and some landscaping done in his back yard. He went through the same high/low estimate game with the contractor. He knew the drill when it comes to them promising one thing but falling well short of expectations.
Anyway, they settled somewhere in between - middle ground price.
A few days after construction started, when the the main contractor stopped showing up, my friend approached the crew and with an envelope of cash.
(A few hundred dollars - but it looked like a lot in an envelope.)
He told the guy leading the crew that if the job was finished on time, that the crew (not their contractor boss) would get this cash as a tip.
Guess what: The crew showed up when they were supposed to each day. And the job was finished on time. The crew members each got a hundred or so each.
I know that sounds extreme and it's not always feasible to pony up extra, but in this instance, the trick worked. Instead of giving all the money up front. My friend paid less to the contractor knowing he'd spend a little more to the crew.
Interesting story. Good luck.
Bairmen, we considered that bonus incentive (my mom suggested it), but with back-to-school expenses and such, we can't come up with any money. As for the estimates, we always assumed we'd have to pay every bit of the higher amount. We were right.
The whole situation stinks. Sorry you have to go through it.
sorry to hear that this is happening now. i wish i had heard what you were up to cause i learned a nice bit of advice from my grampa that saved us a TON of time and money. (everyone who knows my grampa would think the advice would be for you to sleep with them. not the case this time.)
gramps said to hold back 5-10k in cash over the amount estimated. then dangle it in front of them telling them they can have the rest when it's complete.
worked like a charm for us.
i slept with 'em anyways b ut thats a different story.
best of luck miss c
Sorry to hear it's going south. It will eventually be finished.