CARMEN CONSTRUCTION

We had a serious flood in our entire basement. Everything was destroyed. We only had one room that was actually a finished room. We signed a contract with Carmen Construction in the amount of approximately 72,000.00. They started with the speakeasy/ bar room. There were several arguments. The first argument was when we asked them to check areas on the ceiling because they said they were ready to paint, and we did not agree that the ceiling was ready to be painted. We kindly asked the contractor, David O'Connor to call us when he got to the house. We told him that we knew he would see what we were seeing. He argued profusely. He never called upon arriving at the house. When we asked him why he never called, he said that the ceiling was not done. Therefore, he agreed with us, and he could not admit that, rather he just argued with us and never validated our claims. The next argument was that they said our insurance company only paid them for one color of paint. This was not true; we had replacement value; they could have charged us in the contract whatever they wanted. He yelled over the phone, twice, and we hung up on him. Next, our contract stipulated oak pilaster, base/shoe/cap and molding. We paid him for that. We asked if it could be painted white instead of being stained because the Oak was going to be much darker than the maple floors. He insisted that staining is much easier than painting, but he would do it at no upcharge. When I picked one of my paint colors ( a shade of red), he said that it would require more coats, and they would need to be paid more. Our contract never read that we could only have white. On December 30, 2010, we were emailed a new BILL for the room. We called the contractor, David O'Connor, and we told him that the insurance company gave us money for what was on the contract, and that he could not suddenly make it more. On New Year's Eve, even though I told him I was busy and having company over, he insisted on waiting until we got home from work to discuss the charges. This discussion took over one hour, and we argued over the new prices. We even called a union electrician to ask what the going rate was for particular aspects, and Carmen Construction was way over charging. We finally had an agreement. We paid them the next check, and they left. David then callem me and said, "You're a wonderful girl. You're so smart. I knew we would work it out because we're all good people." This was a line of crap. He was trying to butter me up so that he could try to stab me in the back later. I must admit that they had us so mad this day that my husband was yelling a few times. However, they had yelled at us in the past. My point is relevant. You'll see why later. It ended that day on a more amicable note. After this date, we came home to find a pile of primed Poplar, not oak. When confronted, he started yelling, and he really had no logical explanation for the switch. I called three places that sell the exact baseboard and found that poplar was much less expensive than oak. Therefore, there really was an upcharge. He only put the base and shoe, no cap. He said it wouldn't look good. There was absolutely not talking to him about the change in wood or anything. He would just talk louder and argue. A short while later, we came home from work one day, and his worker, Desi (his worker who types everything up and does construction) came up to our car in the driveway, motioned to unroll the window, and he starts stating geometric terms and using hand gestures to go with the words, i.e., spoon, oval. One of us knew what he meant and said, "I told Dave I wanted to pick out my own doorknobs." He replied,"Well,we need them tomorrow. We're going to be done tomorrow. (As if they were not going to be around anyway to finish the rest of the basement). We said, "This is the problem. It's been the problem from the beginnning. Nobody communicates anything. We'll get the doorknobs tomorrow." As we pulled into the gargae, Desi sarcastically says, "We're not going to wait around to get paid while you're out shopping for doorknobs." That was it. We both were mad. One of us wen to David in his car and said, "I've had it. I don't need this. I'm going to call the police." David followed us inside the house and said things like, "I can't control everybody's personalities. He shouldn't have talked to you that way. We said, I think that when you're done with this room we should part ways. He agreed. On their last day at our home, I told them that I would like the radiator thrown out, and David said, I can't do that. I reminded him that it was in our contract, and we had already paid him for it. Awhile later, he said again, I can't throw out the radiator. I said, Dave, it's in the contract and Desi said he would throw it out. Desi quickly interjected and said he would throw it out, and they did. I asked if we could keep the extra wood. Dave put all the extra wood into his truck. I asked if that was flooring in his truck. He said, no it is 2 x 4's. I asked, "Well, didn't we pay for that?" He said, "No I did." I highly doubt that anything was bought, in the end, with his own money. All the while, David was being so nice (just bullshitting us), saying things like, "I hope you're going to invite me to your first party, " "our daughters should get together one day," and "If you need any help finishing the basement, I can get you people." He always bragged, "I know everybody. I have a ton of friends." He was so insecure, he said these things all of the time. He would also talk your ear off, and he would talk bad about past clients. He also talked about suiing people. I was sorry I hired him because he was starting to seem whacky. On that day, we had him sign a final payment lien waiver and have it notarized. He and Desi both did this. They left our house, still being nice, like nothing was wrong. Five days later, once the check was clear, he left 7 voicemails on our work phone and 7emails on our cell phone. In these voicemails, he threatened mob violenc; he said someone would bash our head in for yelling, but it wouldn't be him (third party violence threat). He criticized us to no end. He kept saying that he had more money than us and he would drag us through the mud and bring us to our knees. He made a point of saying it was not about money; it was about integrity because we are not nice, and he loves holding people accountable to this behavior (as if he is innocent of the same). We had to get an order of protection against him. We also learned that our doors in the basement were not solid oak, as stated in the contract. Rather they were engineered would with oak veneer. They were never sanded or stained, as stipulated in the contract. I also have to hire someone else to touch up six incredibly bad areas of paint. His replaster work is very bad. He also painted hardware, rather than stripping it. I have since learned that he loves to try to get more money from people, throw mechanic liens on people. He even does this to his own family. Stay away. That's my best advice.