The search for a contractor started in the fall of 2020, after most of my inheritance filings were done (a separate nightmare) coupled with a hefty "death tax". COVID-19 was headlining the news everyday with the death toll and new cases being updated. The world was waiting on a vaccine to be developed; companies were in lockdown...all told, it was not an ideal environment to build a new house.
With no idea how to approach this, we were searching through the internet for local contractors, made appointments with quite a few. The discussion always started with some photos of the original house, and this is where 70% of the contractors' expression became cloudy. Despite all this, we were able to get two proposals, but both were over budget and did not really replicate the original house. During this time, material costs soared due to logisitic issues from COVID-19 and unusual real estate demand in the U.S. and China. Everything seemed to be blowing against us.
Separate from my search for a contractor, I had a casual meeting with some of my fathers colleagues / architects, who wanted to return some items burrowed from my late father. During this meeting, I shared my struggles with the search, after which one of them, a retired architect, volunteered to support. After receiving proposals from several recommended contractors, we decided to move forward with one of them. Nobody could have predicted that this would be the start of the "Lousy Contractor" nightmare.
As with all failures, the Project started smoothly. We received a rough Master Schedule, paid an initial fee, moved everything we wanted to keep from the original house to our small apartment believing that it was only a 10 month wait.
There is not enough room to list every failure that followed. The "Pine Tree" incident is representative of the quality of service. For demolition I had only two requests: 1) protect the pine tree, 2) protect the myrtle tree. The estimate was quite expensive compared to other previous proposals (around $10K USD). When challenged, their argument was that the demolition needed to be done by hand without heavy equipment to protect the trees. "Fair enough" I thought. If this is the cost to protect the trees, then so be it. The results can be seen in the photos above with half of the pine tree destroyed. I asked the contractor, "Was this tree destroyed by hand?" If yes, this is intentional destruction of private property. If no, this is a breach of contract. After some mumbling from the contractor, I informed that either way, I have no intent to pay for this illegal act, which was reluctantly accepted. Our loss, though, isn't about the money. This tree has protected our family for four generations. In hind sight (20/20), this is when I should have parted ways with the contractor.
We were already a month behind schedule, and I inquired when the next phase begins (foundation construction). I was completely caught off-guard by their reply that the design is still pending (whaaaaaat?). A few weeks later, the project was put on "hold". Simply put, there was no schedule in the first place. The strategy was to put our family in a quite literally "tight" situation by destroying the house first. Had this company not been introduced by my father's colleague, we probably would have made some better choices at this stage.
After spending 10 months with the contractor's architect (another loser), we finally had a plan. The core problem was that despite multiple requests to update the estimate, the contractor refused to provide. We were left in the dark on how much the additional costs would be while continuing our "tight" lifestyle. Finally, in February 2023 the bombshell was dropped: a 40% increase in total costs. Needless to say, it wasn't too hard to refuse this. The contractor followed up with an invoice for labor costs during the ten months, which I am challenging through a lawyer. More to come on this.
There are several painful lessons learnt:
Do not trust any 3rd parties, even an architect that used to work with your direct relative. Of course, this gentleman had no intention of detroying our lives, but rather tried his best to support. Either way, these life-changing decisions must be made by family...and no one else.
There was no website and very little information on the contractor. We just trusted the architect. You MUST determine based on hard information if the contractor is the correct partner for the project. A good contractor will always have a firm approach, philosophy, and communication strategy towards building the ideal home for each client. Past projects will show their style, which needs to fit your taste.
If the project gets derailed, you need to have the courage to walk away. Remember: a lousy contractor will only work with lousy sub-contractors, and your investment will result in a lousy house.
