Value City Dept. Store

I am writing in response to letters from Revdex.com ID *** and CC-***. In this letter I will address the agreement I had with the ***'s to build their home at *** *** **, the work I performed for them and the termination contract.On October 30th, 2016, Martin Building &
Development entered into a contract to build a home for *** *** and *** ***. I was to construct a home for the ***'s based on plans they supplied that were drawn by *** drafting in October of 2016. I am including a copy of our contract, this includes the signed contract, cost estimate, description of project and the plans. The contract includes the scope of work, the time line that the home will be completed, who will pay for material and labor and how I will get paid. It also includes a timeline of payments, what we will do if the home is altered from the original contract and the services I will provide.I started the home as usual, getting the necessary permits, exterior materials were selected by the homeowners. I also obtained approval of the neighborhood association for what was to be built. Next, I had the homesite excavated, foundation poured and waterproofed. I had the foundation prepped for a floor and the plumbing roughed in and floor poured. At this point I met with the homeowners and we discussed selection of the flooring, appliances, cabinets and lighting. We start framing the home and met a few times to discuss the above mentioned selections and to walk through the progress with the homeowners. Everything is going good with the project to the homeowners. Everything is going good with the project to this point. After framing for a few weeks, *** *** starts questioning a few things on the budget. I explain what I have figured and everything still seems to be fine. We proceed a little further and *** *** starts questioning about the budget a second time. She is starting to second guess some of the items outlined in the cost estimate and description of materials (mainly windows). It is early February at this point. I proceeded to set up several meetings to help the ***'s understand that there were other options than what was specified and try to educate them on the pro's and con's of the options. In our last meeting at the house we met to talk about the cabinets. During this meeting *** *** tells me that she wants her home to follow the CARB phase guidelines as much as possible and that the cabinets can't contain any materials that don't follow these guidelines. I have no idea what CARB phase is and that the cabinets can't contain any materials that don't follow these guidelines. I have no idea what CARB phase is and ask her to explain. She tells me that it is California code for items that off gas toxins. This is the first time in our build process that I have heard anything about this. I later Google it and read a few articles about CARB phase 2. This is something I have no knowledge about and don't feel comfortable attempting to build to these standards. I ask to meet with Mrand *** *** and we meet a few days later. At the meeting I explain that if changing the scope of work to meet these standards is something they want to do then I need to remove myself from our contract. After some emotional discussion, they thank me and agree that resolving our contract is acceptable and they will have their attorney draft a release.I stop working on their home at this time and sign the release effective 3/1/on 3/22/17. I agree to the release and that I will warrant the work I did for a year. At this point the home is only partially framed and we were $4,under budget. The date of the last draw that I was paid to be their general contractor was 2/23/17. The ***'s continued to pay the original framer via draws through *** *** *** as late as 3/10/17. These last payments did not include me.I had not further contact with the ***'s until May 25, 2017. I received a text from *** *** that they had an issue with the window height. Her new builder told her the windows were framed too high. I met with the framer onsite to verify that the window height was correct. Everything was exactly as it should be and there were no issues with the windows. I contacted their current builder and explained that both myself and the framer had checked the window height and found it to be correct. At that time I learned that he was reading his level incorrectly. I explained to him how to properly read the level. he then rechecked the windows and agreed that the opening height was correct and that there were no problems with the windows. I also attempted to contact *** ***. She did not answer my call so I left a message. I was unhappy that my time, as well as the framer's time was wasted because her builder did not know how to read a level.Until I received your complaint letter I had no knowledge of any additional issues the ***'s had with my work. I would have had no problem having the framer I hired going back to address anything that didn't pass inspection. The ***'s didn't have a framing inspection done until 6/27/17, they had plenty of time to contact me with their complaints and again I heard nothing about this until your letter to me.I am not new to home building. I have been a builder for over years and built hundreds of homes. I take great pride in the workmanship that I put into my homes every day. I am well respected in the building community and I'm including a few letters from my peers. I have never had problems with a client not have I had any complaints. All that the ***'s had to do was make me aware of an issue and I would have taken care of them. It is impossible to warranty something I never knew about