American Restoration

I lost my house in a fire in March of this year 2012. My insurance company State Farm advised me if I was going to rebuild to hire a contractor. I asked local but were all busy till fall, and I needed a home asap. I spoke with my agent at State Farm and he suggested I call this company American Restoration. They had come out and boarded up my home after fire and told my agent they would really like the job. After not getting anyone I knew to do work. I called this company, I figured it would be fine as my insurance agent told me they have done work for them on other cases and were a good company. I am a divorced woman who had recently lost her sister and then my father and now this. I was very fragile and had no idea how this all worked. I initially dealt with a guy named MIck. I had 3-4 meetings with him and he gave me an estimate of 120,000 area...I signed estimate and a few days later he sent me an email that said he had figured again and it would now be 151,000 area and wanted me to auto sign email and send back. I wondered why but like I said I was in a very fragile stage and really had no one to help me or offer advise....so the agreement was 25,000 first payment, 25,000 second payment and then Aug 1st 40,000 payment and Sept 1st 40.000 payment and rest at end of construction. Mid way thru I realized that I was getting the base of everything, so I decided to start paying for things myself and getting what I wanted. I ended up buying the sinks for bathroom and kitchen, the fixtures, the toilet, the garage door and opener, the bathroom vanity, bathtub fixtures, all the inside and outside lights, ceiling fans, garbage disposal, all the paint and all the flooring and hiring my own flooring guy and paid him the labor. Back to the first time I gave them 25,000 was in May and also the last time I saw Mick, when I wrote the check and handed to him he turned and handed to this guy name Tom Taggart. Tom is who I dealt with the rest of this ordeal. He told me that I will meet the contractor they hired to do the job, his name is Sean Murphy. It was miscommunication from the beginning. I met Sean at my house where the demo and not even been done. It was a very hot and muggy spring and this house had been sitting there with so much mold from the water and smell for over 2 months now. He had plans and had already cut all the wood for the enterior of the house; problem was my plans were different. They would change things and tell me they had to for this reason and that. I was living in Grimes and could not be here in C*** Rapids due to I had to work. I would come on weekends and see the progress and take pictures and it seemed everything was going along ok. I would get calls on things and we would communicate. A few times I would leave early from work (I work out of home) and come back and meet contractor and we would go over things. I would tell him things I did not like and things that I did, I paid him 400.00 out of my pocket to finish drywall in garage. Every time I would be there he had is 17 year old son and 19 year old son. A few times I saw an hispanic guy, I was told he was doing the roof. From the beginning I told them I needed this house done by Oct 1st. That I would be moving back here then no matter what. Well they were not done and didn't finish until 3 weeks later. Some days he would drop off his kids and leave, some days they would not come at all, some days come late leave early. but most of all what I found out was he would show his boys how to do something and then go off somewhere else and many times he would come back and have to redo it. The sub-contractor Sean Murphy was training his boys and THIS WAS THE FIRST HOUSE HE HAS EVER BUILT. And the company I hired American Restorations knew it!! So Tom Taggart shows up here last Sunday Oct 28th with final bill. I had previously told him I wanted every receipt for everything he spent my 130,000 on. He comes with this binder, and says after deducting eveyrthing I paid for I still home 14,000. I said let me show you some things, I showed him how they spray painted my walls and every wall you can see the inconsistency. I showed him on every wall the texture from ceiling is on. I showed him how non of the nails wholes had been filled in, I showed him how the finish work around my tub looked like a child had done it. I showed him how my kitchen cabinets did not line up. I showed him how my front stairs to front door where as wide as door 36" and railing was 8-10 inches away from steps. about how my dog had fallen down in there and myself. I showed him my sidewalk to house was 36 inches instead of the standard 48. I showed him the cracks in my sidewalk that was not there before heavy machinery going over and they built driveway around it. You see my original plans had my garage in front of my house, and they thought it would be better to move it to north side of house, which in turn required more concrete to do driveway and they wanted me to pay for it. Well I never approved moving my garage or infact they changed my entire house that I wanted. I do not have the house that I wanted. Anyway so they got very skimpy on the concrete, that is why I do not have the 2 lane driveway that I wanted and got a 36 inch sidewalk instead of 48 and front steps that are 36 inches and like a high school did. I have one crack that goes from one side of my garage to the other and another that goes almost all the way across. There are burn marks on my siding where they were cutting whatever and the sparks burnt holes in my siding.... I have gotten an estimate from one local contractor just for inside of house 20,000. to fix front sidewalk and front entry 1,300. American Restoration wants me to pay then another 14,000 and apprasier that was here said don't pay it...house is coming in at 120,000. I have a loan that needs signed by next week to lock in my fixed rate. But I need contractor to sign document that I owe them nothing. Not sure where to go from here, I knew I wanted the word out about them so no one is subject to this. Going to file a complaint with the BBB also. This is a 2 Bedroom, one bath house is about 1400 square feet, 2 1/2 car garage. My master bedroom that I wanted was cut down so now the furniture I wanted for it will not fit everything. I can only get chest of drawers and not dresser, both will not fit. They all drove on yard causing me to have to hire a landscaper due to the mud slide I would have everytime it rained. Just waiting for what else I have to pay for due to their unprofessional work. Tell everyone NEVER EVER use AMERICAN RESTORATION in URBANDALE IA THIS MATTER HAS BEEN SETTLED BETWEEN CONTRACTOR AND MY SELF. CONSIDER THIS MATTER CLOSED...THANK YOU JANET HOFBAUER