Squires Design & Remodeling LLC

Awful experience. Most unprofessional, untrustworthy business we’ve ever worked with. Showed up late, presented extremely limited design/construction options, extremely poor communication, required half of project cost up front, and finally made a huge mistake (intentionally placed wall in different location than planned) and refused to take any responsibility for it. Tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and compromise, but was actually yelled at, lied to, and patronized before we were forced to terminate. Waited months for an actual invoice, after calling/texting/emailing on a near weekly basis. Requested a refund for work not performed and damages caused, but was denied. Lost so much sleep over this...still flabbergasted at the complete lack of integrity and respect for their clients.

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Our design was approved by the municipality only after requiring substantive and costly structural changes that would balloon this project way beyond our budget.  The Squires never once communicated this to us.  At that point we should have taken the time to re-evaluate our plan and find a cheaper compromise.  But all the Squires saw were large dollar signs in their eyes and things went swiftly downhill from there.
They - the Squires couple - are incompetent, unethical, dishonest, and unprofessional.  They sell themselves as something they are not.  They got in WAY over their heads, underbid our project, assumed no responsibility for their mistakes, and left us with an unfinished mess.  Meanwhile they took our money and didn't pay our electrician, the plumber, or the heating subcontractor.  Consequently, we now have two liens on our home thanks to the Squires.  We signed a contract that Squires Design and Remodel touts as the work they will accomplish for the proposed bid.  He essentially abandoned the project, tried to fire our very competent carpenters, ceased communication, and never told us he was not paying the subcontractors.  Meanwhile the house was still unfinished FIVE MONTHS beyond the original projected time he told us he would finish.  Bob Squires wasn't answering phone calls from the countertop subs, the plumber, the electrician.  They lied about being out of town when they weren't just to avoid confrontation with unpaid subcontractors.  He kept asking us for more and more "over charges" some of them for things that had occurred 6-7 months previously.  At the same time it was difficult to get the "credits" we were due for work we put into the house or mistakes that were made in the contract.  He messed up every single bathroom in the house.  Ironically he bragged about how he made it through high school "without ever taking any math".  And it was quite obvious.  He ordered the incorrect size vanity for a custom sink that we gave him the exact dimensions for.  He incorrectly calculated the cabinetry for one of the upstairs bathrooms.  He didn't reference the blueprints and ordered a custom made cabinet for the master bath that didn't fit.  And because he neglected to drain our pipes during the construction phase and they froze (imagine that in January in Alaska) he destroyed $1200 worth of plumbing fixtures in the one bathroom we didn't plan to remodel.  This freeze also caused $1500 worth of damage to an essentially new boiler.  He ordered incorrect paint, incorrect windows, incorrect doors, incorrect shower stall.  He would order incorrect quantities of tile and wood leaving us to scramble and figure out how to rectify his mistakes.  He didn't order enough wood for our staircase.  He ordered the wrong color flooring and then told us that it was a superior product to that which we actually wanted (it wasn't).  He didn't order enough siding.  However, he certainly charged us for the correct amount of siding and then left us to pay for it a second time over.  I read a review another client of his wrote and dated 4/2013.  This client talks about how attentive Bob was to detail and all I could think was that Bob was probably spending OUR money on their project while he had essentially decided to check out on ours.  We felt phenomenally betrayed and wouldn't wish this man or his company (which has changed names multiple times - a red flag we didn't recognize until it was too late) on our worst enemy. 
Bob Squires needs to go back to pounding nails and has absolutely no business touting himself as a general contractor.  I credit the fact that we have a lovely finished product to our excellent carpenters and sub contractors.  The mixed blessing is the fact that Bob Squires actually did very little work on our house.  I fear what the outcome might have been if he HAD been more involved! 

Work took longer thank expected and I spent more than I had intended, but quality of work was top-notch.  Daily work crew - Skyler and Jack - were very friendly, accomodating and had high work standards.  Owner, Bob Squires, continued to be active in the project and was always available for questions and regularly came out to check on progress of project.  I will definitely use them again for other projects and happily recommend them.

All in all we were very happy with the work that was done even though he does owe me a "credit" for one thing I paid for that I didn't have done.  I emailed him about it but he didn't get back to me.  We had him bid some other projects around our house but the quote made my jaw hit the floor and we ceased moving forward with other projects.  Our original project was about half covered by insurance so it didn't seem so bad but the prices for materials and time to do projects otherwise is cost prohibitive for me at this time.  If you've got the money to spend or the insurance is covering the cost, I would definitely use them.

As with a previous major addition to our home also done by this contractor, the bathroom remodel went smoothly and easily, with the contractor doing everything on time, on budget, and with the excellent craftsmanship you should expect from a quality contractor.