O'Connell Construction & Mntnc

This was a nightmare experience. Jay is a big talker who doesn't deliver, and he plain out cheated us; we paid for work he never did. He told us all about his craft as a mason, how he comes from an old-school family of masons--and he outsourced the work to another company, not lifting a finger. We explicitly told him what we wanted done and even gave him in writing a simple description of what we wanted--the brick chimney should be rebuilt exactly as it was. We came home one day to find a completely different chimney style! He told us that he thought a colonial style would look better on our mid-century modern ranch, so that's what he did (?!). We insisted he tear it down and rebuild it. We paid to have the chimney cleaned and to have the bricks on the chimney and house sealed--he never did either project despite phone calls and emails which he ignored. He scraped and painted the wrong windows, and used the cheapest paint--they started to peel within months. Jay promised us a detailed invoice the day we made the last payment on 9/29. That day he said he absolutely had to be paid but forgot the paperwork for the invoice; he promised to bring it on Monday, 9/28, when he'd finish the work. After countless phone calls and emails, he finally sent an invoice in April 2010 but never finished the job! I was an idiot for giving him money before all the work was done. He acted like a jerk and a crook. Beware!!! He also wanted all checks paid to him personally, saying "I don't want Uncle Sam touching this."