ELEMENTS IN DESIGN

Overall we had a bad experience. There were two big problems: Budgets and supervision. Penny overcharged by padding the budget, adding non-existent expenses, failing to share contractor discounts with us according to the contract, etc. We were thoroughly fleeced. Her budgets are opaque, and so general (lacking detail) that it enabled her to add expenses after the renovation that she claimed had not been included. Her cost estimates (of purchases) were underestimates by 30-50%. Additionally, she also gave woefully inadequate supervision of the subcontractors. In a six week job she did not appear on site for FOUR consecutive weeks. I would NEVER use her again despite some positives (good ideas, good taste, and the use of pretty good subcontractors, prompt responding to e-mails and phone calls; getting the job done in a reasonably time).