BetterHalf Construction & Landscaping, LLC

Was honestly quite nervous when the guy at the hardware store gave me the card and said SHE does great work.  I put my pride aside and called. She was half the cost and twice as dependable as any contractor we had used in the past.  She actually seemed to give a dang about the quality of her work.  Especially since I got no return phone calls from vendors I had found on web. We are getting our house ready for sale, and will definitely be using this company for any future work. I will never again doubt the skills of any woman with tools.

We hired Rachael O?Hanlon/BetterHalf Construction with high
hopes. We asked for a complete remodeled bathroom (extremely small bathroom)
and we were having 1.5 closets removed to extend the bathroom slightly. She was
enthusiastic and agreed that she could do all that we were requested within our
budget and within our time frame. Original contract stated that she would be
fully gutting the bathroom (including all walls and ceiling), adding new
drywall, new sub floor, reinforce the flooring (there had been water damage
from a previous home owner), new bathtub, sink, and toilet. We were also
knocking out a small hall closet and half of anther room?s closet to extend the
bathroom a couple feet. The bathroom is incredibly tiny so this was a pretty
basic project. The contract didn?t reflect her verbal agreements on time and
cost but we figured things were still reasonable so we went with it. We
originally agreed 2 weeks, we would pay the labor costs to Rachael, and we
would buy all the materials (this was so we didn?t have to come up with as much
cash up front for materials). The job ended up taking 3.5 weeks and we finally
gave up with an incomplete bathroom. We ended up having to pay separate for a
plumber which was not noted to us prior to starting the project. Some of the
many problems we had: (1) They did not put up plastic or put down sheets when
they were painting, sanding, ripping out walls. Our whole house was covered in
dust, our floors had paint and plaster all over them, there was paint dripped
on one of our tvs, there was stain on our basement floor and on our front porch.
She scratched up our wood floors and blamed our animals. There was paint and
plaster on walls and doorways throughout the whole house (hallways, kitchen,
basement stairs, ect.). To make matters worse Rachael wrote on our basement
stares and then was chewing on sunflower seeds the whole time and leaving the
shells all over the house including a mass of them in our bathtub without
cleaning it up. We had to ask them to clean up and even then our house was
still left a mess. We have spent many hours trying to clean things up. I ended
up putting some sheets up but it was really too late and they were pulled down
as they worked. (2) Rachael did not rip out all the walls as agreed upon. She
struggled with the lath and plaster removal (she was notified it was lath and
plaster underneath before starting). She took many shortcuts and this left us
with a half new/half old bathroom.  (3) There
was leveling cement in the floor and we originally agreed to take it out, once
Rachael got to that point she said she was not taking it out because it was too
hard to do. This unfortunately caused problems with the leveling of the floor
and they ended up having to take it. In taking it out they dropped it into the
basement breaking a light and breaking some of the plumbing the plumber had
already installed. They did end up fixing the light they broke but the plumber
had to come fix the plumbing. She did a poor job reinforcing the floor and we
had to have her fix it. Even then she put two random posts in our basement and
drilled into our cement floor so we cannot move them. (4) Tiling was poorly
done and inconsistent. Rachael bragged about how good she was at tiling the
whole project and unfortunately we are very disappointed in her work. The tiles
are not level (some sticking out about .25 inches) or and definitely not evenly
spaced. We had them redo some of the tiles but there are so many more problems.
There are gaps of grout .5 inch wide in spots. When standing in the shower it
looks like some of the ones at the top are falling in. The grout looks like it
was too dry when put in and is cracking. The caulking that was done is smeared
about .5 inch wide. Broken tiles were put into place instead of cutting new
ones, we had plenty left over. She put in miss-cut tiles in several places. There
are areas that are not grouted or caulked that we have to go back and do. (5) The
drywall they did put up was done poorly. She made the comment that ?nobody is
good at dry walling?. The sanding was done poorly and there are several areas
we will have to re do. As mentioned above, there were walls and the ceiling
that were not redone as originally agreed upon. The walls they did do appear to
be curved so we have had to put in filler between the walls and the base board because
there were gaps. (6) The paint job done was poor. The walls were two toned
because they did not do two layers all the way around. For example all around
the edges, ceiling, and above the shower there are sections that no second coat
was put so it is lighter. It looks like a dirty or wet brush was used in
places. Also as mentioned above, paint was splattered everywhere. I have had to
scrape paint off our new tub, sink. and toilet, off floors throughout the
house, and we will have to repaint several walls because paint was on them. They
left the walls in the hallway and the second room where the closets were
removed unpainted so that is something we will have to do on our own. (7) The trim
they put in in the hall and second room was poorly done and didn?t match was
what was already there. Instead of replacing a whole piece they did patch work
which looks awful (there was plenty of trim that they could have replaced a
whole piece). Like mentioned above there were gaps between the trim and the
walls. (8) We had ordered a dumpster for all of the old materials and the
garbage. We notified Rachael that the company was coming to take the dumpster
and everything had to be in it. A lot of materials were left on our front porch
and in our back yard. Rachael told my husband that I wanted them???? Why would
I want old used construction materials? We told her that she needed to haul the
materials away and instead she put them in our garage and in our garbage can
which the city does not allow. (9) Poor communication. Racheal often told me
different things than my husband. She would not respond to my husband?s calls
and he had to become firm with her at times. She failed to tell us when there
were problems or they broke something (happened several times). She had poor
communication with the plumber. The plumber needed certain things done before
he could finish his work and she kept putting things off saying that the plumber
needed to do his stuff first. My husband had to finally step in and sort it all
out. She gave us a different quote than what the plumber actually wanted and
then said she would pay the difference which she did not after talking to the plumber.
He sucked up the difference. She struggled with some aspects of the project and
did not tell us. Throughout the process she complained about other customers,
swore, spoke inappropriately, etc. (10) Rachael was sick for several of the
days and did not show up, we were still charged full price for her helper to
show up and do minimal tasks. She moved slow, did not put in 8 hour days, and
took a lot of time not actually doing work (there were some days I was home
that I monitored her work and found it to be minimal).  I can understand being sick but don?t charge
me for that time. (11) After 3.5 weeks Rachael called and said she was
finished. I got home to a bathroom with no ceiling vent, caulking and grouting unfinished,
house a mess, no door on the bathroom(!!!!), no switch plate covers, unpainted
and poorly painted walls, poor t