COPPER BEECH DESIGN

"THE ACTUAL FACTS Having served hundreds of clients in the last few years, it was only a matter of time before we ran into one who could not be made happy regardless of what we delivered. Some people seem to need to create their own facts regardless of the truth. PROJECT SCOPE [member name removed] contacted us on 12/19/13 to discuss his project. We met at the site two days later and he had a detailed proposal from us two days after that. The project: completely gut and renovate a mid-century modern house that had been empty for an extended period of time. Many ceilings had collapsed, the heating system had failed. There was extensive water damage and many of the windows had failed. He wanted to gut the interior of the house and restore the property, and needed a set of biddable plans that could also be submitted to the building department for permitting. A project of this magnitude would typically takes somewhere between 50 and 80 hours of work. At his request we bid an absolute minimum deliverable package that would take about 45 hours to complete. PROJECT TIMING After being sent the proposal on 12/22/13, [member name removed] did not return phone calls or emails for over a month. On January 15th he called to say he wanted to proceed with the work. Presumably this was after he received and rejected other proposals that were significantly higher in price. Then he went dark again. Despite numerous attempts we did not hear again from him until Feb 20th, at which point we received a retainer payment and immediately began work. ON-TIME AND UNDER BUDGET DELIVERY Contrary to what [member name removed] stated in his review, a set of biddable and permit-ready plans were delivered 8 weeks later, on 4/22/14, EXACTLY as stated in our proposal AND for LESS than the original amount we proposed. All of this was done with very difficult access to and little or no feedback from the client, who was rarely in town, spending the balance of his time in NYC and Florida. All of this is well-documented. WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON HERE It is hard to say why [member name removed] is unhappy. Maybe he just thought he could bully his way into a really good deal. Although Copper Beech Design can be very flexible on price and timing, unfortunately we do not get a vote on what the submission requirements are for a building permit. The specific Town Zoning and Building Departments, and the MA State Building Code mandate the contents of the submission. Likewise, no reputable contractor is going to make a bid on a $650,000 project using a sketch done on a napkin. They need a full set of plans before they will even consider a project of that size. When we are hired it is our responsibility to represent the client and also to protect them from bad contractors, problematic design issues, and the like. It is also our job to protect the client from making bad or ill-informed decisions. [member name removed] is one of those very few clients who, despite being presented with the facts of the situation, refused to accept the basic realities of what it takes to get a major renovation project done. He has instead chosen to take out whatever frustrations he is dealing with on us. While we regret that, we stand by what we delivered and the timing of that delivery. We came in on-time and under budget, exactly as we proposed. If after the fact Mr. Roche wants to change the reality of what he agreed to there is nothing we can do to stop that. He now has everything he needs to proceed. We hope that his project goes forward successfully."