MONARCH RENOVATIONS

It went very well, They worked continuously on our project. They also warned us of possible issues that might arise, yet luckily, in every case they were able to carefully skirt those problems and came up with ways to get around them. For instance, when placing a supporting beam to hold the new second story room they cautioned it might mean losing some of our kitchen ceiling. Instead it remained intact, with only one nail jarred out of place (an easy repair).

There were many negative things about working with Monarch, starting with the poor communication. At one point, I learned of a concern that a sub-contractor had by overhearing a phone conversation. It was the kind of thing that should have been discussed with me, as the homeowner and client. Neither the contractor or subcontractors discussed the situation with me until I approached them to let them know what I had overheard. At one point in the project, the general contractor switched the main contractor team mid-job, with no communication to me that there was going to be a change; a new team of people showed up at my door unexpectedly with no explanation of where the other team (the only two whom I had enjoyed working with and formed a respectful connection with) went or that the new ones were to finish the project. It took a lot of questioning of the new team on my part to determine their purpose in the project. That was a typical example of the poor communication on the part of the general contractor. I never knew when people were going to show up to do the work. I would be told that the workers would be there on a particular day, and I would wait and no one would show up. They never had a key to my house, so I was aware when workers were in my house and when they were not. The general contractors job was understood to be to manage the project, yet he never came to observe the project, did not touch base to communicate with me about the progress and did no follow-up to see if the job was completed to our satisfaction. The general contractor never saw the completed project. Mark Swanda is an irrational and angry general contractor; he is a bit of a prima donna and a bully. At one point in the project, I respectfully questioned him about a change that he wanted to make, which would have cost us a vague (but potentially high) additional cost. He told us that it was imperative to make the change (we later found out that his information was over dramatized), so I wanted to get a second opinion. The general contractor got quite angry about my lack of trust and said some personally insulting things, and threatened to take his men off the project, leaving the work undone indefinitely - simply because I wanted to get a second opinion about what he was telling me! This particular general contractor charges a 50% markup from the subcontractor price on the work done, and in our case, he tried to charge us for work that was not even done. He seems to have an inept record keeping and accounting system. Knowing what I know now, I should have hired independent contractors that are more honest. The job would have been done better and cost a lot less.