Blues Brothers Construction Inc.

Where do I start, oh I know ( THE NAME!!! it says it all) ..... we signed the contract on 7/1/2020 for a full kitchen remodel and minor home updates (base boards and tile in one bathroom). We chose Blues Brothers after interviewing multiple GC's and reading the reviews ( which now i know half are bogus). Right after signing the contract, i found out i had to move out of state and i have until the end of October to move and sell my house. We were quoted 45 days for completion, and that sat well with my timeline. Onn (the GC, who come to find out knows nothing about construction) said we have to pay for ALL THE FINISH MATERIALS up front before scheduling the demo date so they have a solid schedule to work on and finish on time.. Okay fine...... issue 1- they did not give us a detailed invoice and said " the system doesn't allow that because it’s a package deal". We pushed for a written breakdown. issue 2- NONE OF THE MATERIAL WAS ORDERED BEFORE DEMO!!!!! in early august we were told the cabinets we ordered are back ordered until end of august, but they can price match our order with another vendor. Mind you, they never gave us a final price for the cabinets we originally wanted/ordered. We had 2 walls that needed to be taken down, and they did ZERO exploratory work. We told them it will need a POST AND BEAM and we were okay with the way it will look rather than doing major structural work for an added cost. We kept on asking on when demo will begin, and kept reminding them that we have a hard dead line and we are moving out of state. yet nothing ever happend- they kept saying we don't know what's behind the wall. So we yelled and fought and said “the only way you’ll know what’s there is if you open it up!!!!!!!” They should've done their due diligence from day one since we told them it could be a load baring wall. After fighting and pushing now DEMO DAY!!! The site protection was GARBAGE (used thin butcher paper to “protect” hardwood floors, put up sheet plastic and couldn’t even run the tape in a straight line). It looked like they went to home depot and grabbed a crew to shut us up. The sub and his crew knew nothing about cod, and thank god my husband knew what to look for, and my father in law was a 30 year union carpenter and saw all the hacks they were doing. We fought again since they were doing **** work and there was visible code violations. We told them none of the work will pass inspections and we kept getting told ( we never failed inspection before and to trust them) I’m sorry...... a drain line that runs uphill, using wrong gauge wiring to wire the kitchen and trying to bury a junction box is code???? we fought again and finally got a new sub ( which flat out called all the work done before garbage) Later we got told we have to hold on everything and we need a structural engineer to come in and look at the wall and submit the drawing to Alameda county for an additional $4K....... ( mind you, since DAY ONE we said this is a load baring wall, and we are okay to have a post and beam,and not have a seamless transition from kitchen to the rest of the house. why wasn't that included in the quote???) now a month after paying for the finished material we get told the floor tile is only available in FL and we need to pay for shipping ( why would you make us pay for something that's not there!) The GC was never at the job site and was never there to MANAGE the project. My husband and I ended up being the ones taking care of everything. The subcontractors were asking us questions daily, questions that would have been answered had there been actual PLANS AND PRINTS made. All they had to go off of was computer renderings and the cabinet layout, which were wrong as well. Fast forward weeks- and fights alll the time, the GC's brother and cabinet guy came to my house and YELLED AT ME FOR BEING difficult and pointing out issues all the time.... GET THE JOB DONE RIGHT and i wont fight it!!!! The SUB they hired was amazing and did a fantastic job, but they held back the project a lot! When we ordered the cabinets we sat with the designer and picked out everything and had A SIGNED layout. in November when the cabinets were being put together we found out that our 15" deep island cabinet is only a 12 because the cabinet company doesn't make a 15... WTH?? what's the point of sitting with someone and signing off AND PAYING for something we were not getting??????????????? At this point we were burnt out on the fights and lies and we gave in. Now countertop time!!! THAT TOOO GOT CANCELLED!!!!!! they had 3 months to get it and weeks before install they said we need to change it from the one we chose back in JULY to a different one that was available now ( went from a beautiful carrera to a mediocre slab) no price credit and i know for a fact that it was a much cheaper option. After dragging their feet longer i was ready to take legal action and notified them that they had a hard deadline date or i will be suing them for damages, financially, and the fact they were holding us back from selling the house. the project was finally over on 11/15/2020. BE AWARE !!!!!