World's worst nightmare...
Hired Kevin to do a 45 square foot bathroom, gut and redo walls, dispose of the demo materials, close a window in the tub, add a new light with vented fan, put new tub surround and tub with shower valve, put back in existing toilet and vanity top, he was to purchase the vanity bottom and fix/replace the wood under the toilet which is visible in the basement. Kevin then stated if the floor we ordered came in before he started that he would throw that on for us as a "freebee" as well as install a previously purchased small chandelier in our nursery (we planned to do these items ourselves when he was finished in addition to the obvious painting we would need to do) He wrote up a proposal, the job was to cost $5,000.00 we paid a $3,000.00 deposit by check which he cashed the next day, the job was to start 4/30/15 and end 5/1/15.
On 4/28/15 Kevin texted my husband asking if he could begin the demo Wednesday 4/29/15, my husband agreed to go into work late and let them in to the house at 10:00am, at 11:00am Kevin was nowhere to be found but texted saying he was on his way, as the time passed my husband yet again asked where he was, he stated he would be there by 1:30pm, 1:30pm came and went no Kevin, he texted by 2:00pm that he wouldn't be coming but would be there 4/30/15 as originally planned, so my husband missed the majority of work for the day costing us money, not to mention we had already moved ourselves and 9 month old baby a day early to my parents so we could have a place to stay with a bathroom and prevent our baby from exposure to any excessive dust or chemicals from the bathroom remodel. But things happen so we understood. 4/30/15, Kevin stated he would be at the house at 7:30am; my husband drops our daughter off early to the sitter and heads to the house, 9:00am Kevin still isn't there but has stated he is on his way, he arrives at 11:30. This first day, they demo the bathroom and are gone by 5:00pm. However they loaded a bunch of the demo materials into a neighbor's garbage can left out on the street, so my husband had to empty this for them and put into their contractor bag, still unsure of why they did this as it was told to us they would handle the removal of the demo items.
5/1/15, the day the job is to be complete, they don't arrive until 11:00am and when I arrived to check the progress of the house at 3:30 Kevin assured me he only needed one additional day to complete and the job would be done Saturday 5/2/15. They again left by 5:00pm. 5/1/15 evening Kevin called to say the wiring in the bathroom was a hazard and needed to bring in his very "reasonable" electrician [redacted] on Saturday morning to correct this problem, we said ok, but couldn't afford to put out much more additional money so if he couldn't do it for what we had available, we would need to re-group about the necessary repairs. Saturday 5/2/15 they arrive after 9:00am, electrician [redacted] in tow, who proceeds to fix the hazardous electrical work, my husband explained anything over $300.00 we would need to discuss before he continued, after 3 hours my husband asked "where we were at" in terms of what he was working on because Kevin had asked Jim to look at the light in the nursery (which he had said he would do himself as a "freebee") and [redacted] responded that our current total was $500.00 ... not at all what was discussed and not at all reasonable for 3 hours, after Kevin had initially quoted to us that [redacted] was $75.00 an hour. We were stuck, we had to pay him, and Jim went on his way. Kevin leaves shortly after dropping off his crew, my husband spends the day at our house raking leaves so he can watch over the job and make sure it will be completed on the day-delayed schedule. Sometime in the early afternoon my husband texts Kevin to ask where he is and that he doesn't see a great deal of progress on the bathroom so could he provide an ET of completion? Kevin does not answer him. One of the crew members then informs my husband that Kevin has been in an accident while out pricing other jobs and does not know anything other than that, does not know if he is coming back etc. Kevin also had the work van with all the necessary equipment to do the bathroom, so the crew was left without some necessary tools; my husband provided them with some of his tools so they could continue working. So around 5:00pm the crew states that Kevin won't be coming back and they are needing to catch a ride, my husband gives them a ride to meet their ride. We still have not heard from him. Later on that evening we texted Kevin to check his wellbeing and discuss when the bathroom would be done and also how we felt very cheated over the cost of the electrician. He stated he would pay half of the electrician cost because he was a fair, honest and reasonable guy. He also stated the bathroom would be done Sunday and he would stay until it was done.
Sunday 5/3/15 they didn't arrive until at least 11:00am, they work and leave by 5, it is still not complete and Kevin stated he needed one more day and it would be finished and he would even fix the front brick stairs that had been broken. 5/4/15 Unsure of when they arrived at the house this day but did work late into the evening, again Kevin stated he needed one more day and it would be complete on Tuesday, he also asked my husband if he completed the bathroom on Tuesday would we pay him the balance in cash, my husband agreed thinking that would be ok since he is a professional contractor he would have a legitimate receipt book.
Throughout the duration of this "remodel" not one day did they "clean up" at the end of their working day, so at this point our house is an absolute disaster, 6 days of drywall, plaster, dirt, dust piling up, they have left tools and parts all over the house, kitchen, on my dining room table, in my nursery on the furniture, on the rugs in my living room and dining room.
On Tuesday 5/5/15 Kevin said he would be completed by 3:00, we did not hear from him by this time, so we assumed it was still not complete and went to check the progress, on arrival Kevin stated he needed one more day and would be complete 5/6/15 by 3:00pm, as he was leaving he opened our fridge and pulled out a 6 pack of Twisted Tea with 2 remaining, in the previous days I had noticed some bottles and caps in the garbage in the house as well as the contractor bag, however not in my wildest dreams did I think anyone would actually be drinking while "on the job." I was so in shock I couldn't say anything, he also stated he would "make this right" and replace some loose electrical outlets in addition to fixing the bricks, installing the light in our nursery, he would do a fantastic clean job and even paint the bathroom in addition to laying the score and snap floor.
Wednesday 5/6/15, unsure of the arrival time at the house, however very early in the day he began texting my husband requesting cash for his final payment by 3:00pm 5/6/15. At this point I became concerned with regards to this request because early into the remodel Kevin stated to us that he was experiencing a domestic situation in which his partner had withdrew all the monies from his account, I was worried that he had possibly not yet paid his crew and if we were to give him cash without a legitimate paper trail he could simply tell his crew that We had never paid him, so he wouldn't have to pay them, and at this point the crew know where we live. Also I was worried that because everything seemed to be going so poorly, so behind, so little progress that he may try to turn around after and state that we never paid Him. So I instructed my husband to let him know unless he had a legitimate business receipt book he would be getting a check for his services, if it was an issue with his bank account he could simply go to our bank which the check was written from and cash it without needing a personal bank account. Kevin stated this was not possible because he lost his wallet in the accident and "we needed to help him out for all these extras he was doing around our house." (not only had 1 "extra" not been completed but the original Job of the bathroom was yet to be completed) My husband tried to explain to Kevin (all messages/correspondences between us have been saved for documentation) that we were just not comfortable with paying cash without a receipt, Kevin's response was that he "did not feel comfortable then to do anything else in the house besides the bathroom agreed upon items," so all those "extras" he stated he wanted to do because he was a good, stand up, reasonable, honest guy would not be getting done because we didn't feel comfortable paying cash for the remainder of the balance without a legitimate business receipt. Honestly at this point we had already told him if he didn't "get to" any of his previous offers of "extras" we were fine with that, we just wanted him to stick with his work on the bathroom to get it completed.
So because of his response to what would seem to most people to be the proper way to handle professional business transactions, especially when they involve this amount of money, the obvious fact that the bathroom would most likely not be done again by 5/6/15 and all the other contributing factors previously mentioned I asked my husband to please ask him to leave, just drop everything he was doing, take his stuff and leave and we would finish it ourselves at this point I felt due to his almost hostile response regarding the request to conduct a proper business transaction that for the safety of us and our home he needed to leave immediately. He continued to argue with my husband about the cash payment; my husband then stated he would give him $1,500.00 cash if he just left now. Kevin stated we "owed him $2,000.00." My husband stated to Kevin that the deal would be $1,500.00 leave now even with everything being unfinished, Kevin then tried to state we would need to pay him at least $1,800.00 for all that he has done to this point. By now after all we had been through, displaced for a week, a wreck of a house, an unfinished bathroom and the complete lack of any professionalism from a supposed seasoned contractor my husband had enough, he stated to Kevin it would $1,500.00 cash and he could get the rest in court, Kevin then stated "you win," and made his way back to our house to collect his things (at the time of these messages he had been out supposedly getting additional parts for something). My husband drafted a hand written receipt and Kevin requested one stating we would not hold him liable for "not allowing" him to finish the bathroom. He simply took the money, his tools and left, he said nothing, not even an attempt at an apology. Once my husband let me know Kevin was gone, I left work to go check the status of the bathroom, I think I must have stood in my house, looking around sobbing for a good hour; the work needed to put my house back together and finish the bathroom is simply overwhelming.
I called a reputable plumber, one who has been so amazing to our family over the years, I would have had him do our bathroom but he is VERY good so he's VERY busy and didn't have the time to do our whole bathroom. He felt terrible for what happened and came by to have a look to see if he thought we could finish it ourselves based on the existing work done by Kevin. The plumber did an overall assessment of the work done, went through it all with us, showed us everything he was looking at, so basically the assessment was that the little work Kevin had done was incorrect and needed to be re-done. The tub was not properly secured, we needed to open up a wall and secure it from the side because it was leaking, the drain was too high, the shower valve fixture installed was a.) not the one I sent him the item number for as well as a photo and b.) was improperly installed, the spout and on/off handle are sitting on top of each other, one wall that contains our heat grate was plastered right up to the heat grate so the plaster wall needed to be tethered back, the plumbing to the toilet and sink were cut and set too far back and done with cheap shark bite's which are meant for plumbing you can see because they are known to leak, the panel behind the shower revealed the tub to be secured with drywall screws and the wood was not replaced under the toilet that is visible from the basement. In addition extremely large holes were cut into the back of the vanity which was not necessary for the required plumbing; Kevin also never purchased the new vanity facet which was also sent to him with a photo and item number.
So not only did Kevin not finish the bathroom, the little work he did, we now have to pay someone else to correct, buy corrected fixtures and additional supplies, we have to patch the hole they cut in my nursery ceiling since it's not centered and there are no electrical wires even done for it, we had to rip up the little floor he did lay because he laid it incorrectly on a wet dirty floor sideways, we have to finish plastering the ceiling, install the light in the shower, re-lay the floor, fix the front brick steps, pay for the contractor bag to be picked up, secure the floor under the toilet, re-install the toilet, vanity and vanity sink top with new facet, fix the wall with the heat grate, put an electrical box up for the light fixture in the bathroom, silicone/caulk the tub, hopefully not have to replace the surround because of the holes Kevin cut into them to incorrectly install the shower valve ... And when this is done we still have to paint (again which is something we planned to do ourselves as well as the floor because he was supposed to be finished 5/1/15 which would have given us the weekend to complete ourselves) and continue to clean and re-clean as the amount of mess contained in my home is unimaginable.
After speaking with the plumber, making a list of all that needed to be completed, spent some time shop vacuuming my home I sent Kevin a message, I simply asked how he could do this to us, to my family, take all the hard earned money we worked so hard to save and just walk away blaming us? How could he take $4,500.00 from us, leave us with this mess, this shotty work, the days and days of being displaced from our home, all these extra expenses ... his response was I had some "balls to say this" and he would "have me arrested for harassment." Later when he realized he was speaking to myself and not my husband (because I also mentioned his being out pricing other jobs when he is behind on his current one being an inappropriate practice, he called me a liar) I let him know he was speaking with me, not my husband and his crew was the one who told us that he had been out pricing jobs when he was already into Saturday 5/2/15 One day over the schedule, Kevin messaged me simply "You should have let me finish it would have been completed everything today no problem and you know it." I'm sorry but No, I don't "know it" because every day for 6 days he had said the same thing.
Then I proceeded to explain to him what the plumber had said to us and he had suggested we pursue legal recourse because of the extent of the repairs needed, very illegibly he messaged me back stating that we had "robbed ourselves" and that if I had given him "one more day" everything would have been "fine" and that because he and my husband had drafted the letter stating we would not hold him liable to "not even bother with an attorney." I had enough of trying to get through to him that it wasn't just the waste of time and money but physically and emotionally what he had put my family through so I didn't bother to answer him.
Later he sent an additional message stating if he had "screwed up the plumbing and the plumber is reasonable he would pay the difference," he's not a "bad guy or a thief" he makes mistakes but he could come back and do the ceiling and "make it all right, honest." I simply told him that at this point after all he has put us through and the way he has behaved there's no point and to be honest I don't feel safe around him with his erratic behavior, but that he had stuck us with about $1,350.00 of additional expenses including correcting the plumbing, fixtures and the contractor demo bag and that I still couldn't understand how he could do this to us ... his very last text read "call the number on the side of the contractor bag its $150.00 to pick up," which I already stated to him I knew.
So that's it ... that was our last communication. The plumber is coming this afternoon to fix the mess Kevin created, I'll be spending the weekend including my first Mother's Day trying to get my house back together so we can finally have our life back ... we lost well over $6,000.00 dealing with Kevin [redacted], I am writing in the hopes that this will not happen to anyone else. We are a young hard working couple, work fulltime, go to school fulltime, we pay our bills, we love and cherish and provide all we can for our daughter, my husband is prior service Army, we do all we can to be good people, live our lives doing the right thing, which has probably been why this has whole ordeal has not only financially devastated us but emotionally as well. I give Kevin [redacted] Zero star rating and really hope this never happens to anyone else.
World's worst nightmare...
Hired Kevin to do a 45 square foot bathroom, gut and redo walls, dispose of the demo materials, close a window in the tub, add a new light with vented fan, put new tub surround and tub with shower valve, put back in existing toilet and vanity top, he was to purchase the vanity bottom and fix/replace the wood under the toilet which is visible in the basement. Kevin then stated if the floor we ordered came in before he started that he would throw that on for us as a "freebee" as well as install a previously purchased small chandelier in our nursery (we planned to do these items ourselves when he was finished in addition to the obvious painting we would need to do) He wrote up a proposal, the job was to cost $5,000.00 we paid a $3,000.00 deposit by check which he cashed the next day, the job was to start 4/30/15 and end 5/1/15.
On 4/28/15 Kevin texted my husband asking if he could begin the demo Wednesday 4/29/15, my husband agreed to go into work late and let them in to the house at 10:00am, at 11:00am Kevin was nowhere to be found but texted saying he was on his way, as the time passed my husband yet again asked where he was, he stated he would be there by 1:30pm, 1:30pm came and went no Kevin, he texted by 2:00pm that he wouldn't be coming but would be there 4/30/15 as originally planned, so my husband missed the majority of work for the day costing us money, not to mention we had already moved ourselves and 9 month old baby a day early to my parents so we could have a place to stay with a bathroom and prevent our baby from exposure to any excessive dust or chemicals from the bathroom remodel. But things happen so we understood. 4/30/15, Kevin stated he would be at the house at 7:30am; my husband drops our daughter off early to the sitter and heads to the house, 9:00am Kevin still isn't there but has stated he is on his way, he arrives at 11:30. This first day, they demo the bathroom and are gone by 5:00pm. However they loaded a bunch of the demo materials into a neighbor's garbage can left out on the street, so my husband had to empty this for them and put into their contractor bag, still unsure of why they did this as it was told to us they would handle the removal of the demo items.
5/1/15, the day the job is to be complete, they don't arrive until 11:00am and when I arrived to check the progress of the house at 3:30 Kevin assured me he only needed one additional day to complete and the job would be done Saturday 5/2/15. They again left by 5:00pm. 5/1/15 evening Kevin called to say the wiring in the bathroom was a hazard and needed to bring in his very "reasonable" electrician [redacted] on Saturday morning to correct this problem, we said ok, but couldn't afford to put out much more additional money so if he couldn't do it for what we had available, we would need to re-group about the necessary repairs. Saturday 5/2/15 they arrive after 9:00am, electrician [redacted] in tow, who proceeds to fix the hazardous electrical work, my husband explained anything over $300.00 we would need to discuss before he continued, after 3 hours my husband asked "where we were at" in terms of what he was working on because Kevin had asked Jim to look at the light in the nursery (which he had said he would do himself as a "freebee") and [redacted] responded that our current total was $500.00 ... not at all what was discussed and not at all reasonable for 3 hours, after Kevin had initially quoted to us that [redacted] was $75.00 an hour. We were stuck, we had to pay him, and Jim went on his way. Kevin leaves shortly after dropping off his crew, my husband spends the day at our house raking leaves so he can watch over the job and make sure it will be completed on the day-delayed schedule. Sometime in the early afternoon my husband texts Kevin to ask where he is and that he doesn't see a great deal of progress on the bathroom so could he provide an ET of completion? Kevin does not answer him. One of the crew members then informs my husband that Kevin has been in an accident while out pricing other jobs and does not know anything other than that, does not know if he is coming back etc. Kevin also had the work van with all the necessary equipment to do the bathroom, so the crew was left without some necessary tools; my husband provided them with some of his tools so they could continue working. So around 5:00pm the crew states that Kevin won't be coming back and they are needing to catch a ride, my husband gives them a ride to meet their ride. We still have not heard from him. Later on that evening we texted Kevin to check his wellbeing and discuss when the bathroom would be done and also how we felt very cheated over the cost of the electrician. He stated he would pay half of the electrician cost because he was a fair, honest and reasonable guy. He also stated the bathroom would be done Sunday and he would stay until it was done.
Sunday 5/3/15 they didn't arrive until at least 11:00am, they work and leave by 5, it is still not complete and Kevin stated he needed one more day and it would be finished and he would even fix the front brick stairs that had been broken. 5/4/15 Unsure of when they arrived at the house this day but did work late into the evening, again Kevin stated he needed one more day and it would be complete on Tuesday, he also asked my husband if he completed the bathroom on Tuesday would we pay him the balance in cash, my husband agreed thinking that would be ok since he is a professional contractor he would have a legitimate receipt book.
Throughout the duration of this "remodel" not one day did they "clean up" at the end of their working day, so at this point our house is an absolute disaster, 6 days of drywall, plaster, dirt, dust piling up, they have left tools and parts all over the house, kitchen, on my dining room table, in my nursery on the furniture, on the rugs in my living room and dining room.
On Tuesday 5/5/15 Kevin said he would be completed by 3:00, we did not hear from him by this time, so we assumed it was still not complete and went to check the progress, on arrival Kevin stated he needed one more day and would be complete 5/6/15 by 3:00pm, as he was leaving he opened our fridge and pulled out a 6 pack of Twisted Tea with 2 remaining, in the previous days I had noticed some bottles and caps in the garbage in the house as well as the contractor bag, however not in my wildest dreams did I think anyone would actually be drinking while "on the job." I was so in shock I couldn't say anything, he also stated he would "make this right" and replace some loose electrical outlets in addition to fixing the bricks, installing the light in our nursery, he would do a fantastic clean job and even paint the bathroom in addition to laying the score and snap floor.
Wednesday 5/6/15, unsure of the arrival time at the house, however very early in the day he began texting my husband requesting cash for his final payment by 3:00pm 5/6/15. At this point I became concerned with regards to this request because early into the remodel Kevin stated to us that he was experiencing a domestic situation in which his partner had withdrew all the monies from his account, I was worried that he had possibly not yet paid his crew and if we were to give him cash without a legitimate paper trail he could simply tell his crew that We had never paid him, so he wouldn't have to pay them, and at this point the crew know where we live. Also I was worried that because everything seemed to be going so poorly, so behind, so little progress that he may try to turn around after and state that we never paid Him. So I instructed my husband to let him know unless he had a legitimate business receipt book he would be getting a check for his services, if it was an issue with his bank account he could simply go to our bank which the check was written from and cash it without needing a personal bank account. Kevin stated this was not possible because he lost his wallet in the accident and "we needed to help him out for all these extras he was doing around our house." (not only had 1 "extra" not been completed but the original Job of the bathroom was yet to be completed) My husband tried to explain to Kevin (all messages/correspondences between us have been saved for documentation) that we were just not comfortable with paying cash without a receipt, Kevin's response was that he "did not feel comfortable then to do anything else in the house besides the bathroom agreed upon items," so all those "extras" he stated he wanted to do because he was a good, stand up, reasonable, honest guy would not be getting done because we didn't feel comfortable paying cash for the remainder of the balance without a legitimate business receipt. Honestly at this point we had already told him if he didn't "get to" any of his previous offers of "extras" we were fine with that, we just wanted him to stick with his work on the bathroom to get it completed.
So because of his response to what would seem to most people to be the proper way to handle professional business transactions, especially when they involve this amount of money, the obvious fact that the bathroom would most likely not be done again by 5/6/15 and all the other contributing factors previously mentioned I asked my husband to please ask him to leave, just drop everything he was doing, take his stuff and leave and we would finish it ourselves at this point I felt due to his almost hostile response regarding the request to conduct a proper business transaction that for the safety of us and our home he needed to leave immediately. He continued to argue with my husband about the cash payment; my husband then stated he would give him $1,500.00 cash if he just left now. Kevin stated we "owed him $2,000.00." My husband stated to Kevin that the deal would be $1,500.00 leave now even with everything being unfinished, Kevin then tried to state we would need to pay him at least $1,800.00 for all that he has done to this point. By now after all we had been through, displaced for a week, a wreck of a house, an unfinished bathroom and the complete lack of any professionalism from a supposed seasoned contractor my husband had enough, he stated to Kevin it would $1,500.00 cash and he could get the rest in court, Kevin then stated "you win," and made his way back to our house to collect his things (at the time of these messages he had been out supposedly getting additional parts for something). My husband drafted a hand written receipt and Kevin requested one stating we would not hold him liable for "not allowing" him to finish the bathroom. He simply took the money, his tools and left, he said nothing, not even an attempt at an apology. Once my husband let me know Kevin was gone, I left work to go check the status of the bathroom, I think I must have stood in my house, looking around sobbing for a good hour; the work needed to put my house back together and finish the bathroom is simply overwhelming.
I called a reputable plumber, one who has been so amazing to our family over the years, I would have had him do our bathroom but he is VERY good so he's VERY busy and didn't have the time to do our whole bathroom. He felt terrible for what happened and came by to have a look to see if he thought we could finish it ourselves based on the existing work done by Kevin. The plumber did an overall assessment of the work done, went through it all with us, showed us everything he was looking at, so basically the assessment was that the little work Kevin had done was incorrect and needed to be re-done. The tub was not properly secured, we needed to open up a wall and secure it from the side because it was leaking, the drain was too high, the shower valve fixture installed was a.) not the one I sent him the item number for as well as a photo and b.) was improperly installed, the spout and on/off handle are sitting on top of each other, one wall that contains our heat grate was plastered right up to the heat grate so the plaster wall needed to be tethered back, the plumbing to the toilet and sink were cut and set too far back and done with cheap shark bite's which are meant for plumbing you can see because they are known to leak, the panel behind the shower revealed the tub to be secured with drywall screws and the wood was not replaced under the toilet that is visible from the basement. In addition extremely large holes were cut into the back of the vanity which was not necessary for the required plumbing; Kevin also never purchased the new vanity facet which was also sent to him with a photo and item number.
So not only did Kevin not finish the bathroom, the little work he did, we now have to pay someone else to correct, buy corrected fixtures and additional supplies, we have to patch the hole they cut in my nursery ceiling since it's not centered and there are no electrical wires even done for it, we had to rip up the little floor he did lay because he laid it incorrectly on a wet dirty floor sideways, we have to finish plastering the ceiling, install the light in the shower, re-lay the floor, fix the front brick steps, pay for the contractor bag to be picked up, secure the floor under the toilet, re-install the toilet, vanity and vanity sink top with new facet, fix the wall with the heat grate, put an electrical box up for the light fixture in the bathroom, silicone/caulk the tub, hopefully not have to replace the surround because of the holes Kevin cut into them to incorrectly install the shower valve ... And when this is done we still have to paint (again which is something we planned to do ourselves as well as the floor because he was supposed to be finished 5/1/15 which would have given us the weekend to complete ourselves) and continue to clean and re-clean as the amount of mess contained in my home is unimaginable.
After speaking with the plumber, making a list of all that needed to be completed, spent some time shop vacuuming my home I sent Kevin a message, I simply asked how he could do this to us, to my family, take all the hard earned money we worked so hard to save and just walk away blaming us? How could he take $4,500.00 from us, leave us with this mess, this shotty work, the days and days of being displaced from our home, all these extra expenses ... his response was I had some "balls to say this" and he would "have me arrested for harassment." Later when he realized he was speaking to myself and not my husband (because I also mentioned his being out pricing other jobs when he is behind on his current one being an inappropriate practice, he called me a liar) I let him know he was speaking with me, not my husband and his crew was the one who told us that he had been out pricing jobs when he was already into Saturday 5/2/15 One day over the schedule, Kevin messaged me simply "You should have let me finish it would have been completed everything today no problem and you know it." I'm sorry but No, I don't "know it" because every day for 6 days he had said the same thing.
Then I proceeded to explain to him what the plumber had said to us and he had suggested we pursue legal recourse because of the extent of the repairs needed, very illegibly he messaged me back stating that we had "robbed ourselves" and that if I had given him "one more day" everything would have been "fine" and that because he and my husband had drafted the letter stating we would not hold him liable to "not even bother with an attorney." I had enough of trying to get through to him that it wasn't just the waste of time and money but physically and emotionally what he had put my family through so I didn't bother to answer him.
Later he sent an additional message stating if he had "screwed up the plumbing and the plumber is reasonable he would pay the difference," he's not a "bad guy or a thief" he makes mistakes but he could come back and do the ceiling and "make it all right, honest." I simply told him that at this point after all he has put us through and the way he has behaved there's no point and to be honest I don't feel safe around him with his erratic behavior, but that he had stuck us with about $1,350.00 of additional expenses including correcting the plumbing, fixtures and the contractor demo bag and that I still couldn't understand how he could do this to us ... his very last text read "call the number on the side of the contractor bag its $150.00 to pick up," which I already stated to him I knew.
So that's it ... that was our last communication. The plumber is coming this afternoon to fix the mess Kevin created, I'll be spending the weekend including my first Mother's Day trying to get my house back together so we can finally have our life back ... we lost well over $6,000.00 dealing with Kevin [redacted], I am writing in the hopes that this will not happen to anyone else. We are a young hard working couple, work fulltime, go to school fulltime, we pay our bills, we love and cherish and provide all we can for our daughter, my husband is prior service Army, we do all we can to be good people, live our lives doing the right thing, which has probably been why this has whole ordeal has not only financially devastated us but emotionally as well. I give Kevin [redacted] Zero star rating and really hope this never happens to anyone else.