MCKUSICK BUILDING SERVICES

Summer of 2020 I was remodeling a bathroom because of water damage in the subfloor. I hired John Mckusick to do the subfloor and joist work since I was going to DIY the demo and put down the new floor myself. John was also in charge of taking down a small piece of wall and moving a doorway to change the shape of the room slightly. The first red flag with John was when he didn’t get the plans uploaded to the City of Minneapolis website. I was wondering when I’d receive the permit so I contacted the city for an update and found out the plans were not yet in Pdox. If he had told me he wasn’t used to doing things online and needed me to upload the plans, that would have been ok. But he didn’t communicate with me. The only update I got on uploading plans came when I contacted the city myself. He should have told me he had not yet uploaded them. We were able to start work in mid August and a couple of weeks in I just was not seeing enough progress in enough time. It was dragging. In early September John told me that he needed to consult a structural engineer in order to get my joists properly dealt with. I was partly relieved to find out the cause of the delay, and partly annoyed that he had not shared that with me sooner. Tuesday September 8 he was supposed to come to my house and work on the bathroom. He texted me that morning to say that he needed to go to a funeral. Please note this is the Tuesday after labor day. After the engineer consult, we continued work… in a way. if John says, ‘I’ll be at your place at ten am on Tuesday” Tuesday will come, ten am will come, then 10:20 and he’s still not there. I’d text him, “what time today?” and he’s reply, “tomorrow around noon.” Suddenly it was a day later than we’d had planned!!! He pulled this SEVERAL TIMES. My original quote was ten thousand so I gave him five thousand in august to get started. Then a couple of weeks later I gave him another three thousand. Then I had some overages in my HVAC and electrical work which brought my full bill to $11,200. 8000 out of 11,200 is 71% On October 30 2020 my bathroom should have been done. it was not done, and John actually asked me for more money! I told him I would not pay again until his part of the job was done. Which left us back to more intermittent work. this went on for some time. on Friday November 20 he was supposed to be at my house but did not show up. when I texted him to see what was up, he said his truck got grounded. He was supposed to be at my house on November 30. He didn’t show up. when I texted him to see what was up, He said he had food poisoning. He was supposed to be at my house on December 14 but did not show up and I didn’t even text him to ask about it. On December 15 he contacted me to say his father in law had a stroke. He said he would be back and able to work on my house on December 21 but again did not show up. when I texted him a question mark, he said his flight had been delayed. On January 2 he was supposed to come to my house to work but texted me to say he had an antifreeze leak on his truck. On Wednesday January 6 I thought he was coming to my house to work but he said he was taking his truck back to the mechanic. On January 11 2021 I was seriously thinking about firing him, so I texted him, “I need your part of this remodel to be done by Friday afternoon at 5 pm January 15" he texts "ok no problem will do" On Wednesday January 13 he was supposed to be at my house to work, did not show up, and later said he had to “handle another flooded basement.” Thursday January 14 I receive a text from him saying, “do you have a check for the remaining of the bill” and I reply “I told you I want to see summaries of work done for all subcontractors and your work. that was weeks ago and I do not yet have those documents" Friday January 15, the deadline! He’s here working on some stuff. mudding the walls to cover drywall seams. He’s SO CLOSE TO BEING DONE!!! he texts me from downstairs, “back in 2 to 3 hours.” (my work from home setup is upstairs) and he leaves. I’m nervous. I get a text from him at 4:53 pm "the coat of mud I put on this morning probably wont be dry until tomorrow morning so i can sand that out tomorrow morning and put in that floor tomorrow morning or monday whatever you want" HE MISSED THE DEADLINE! THE JANUARY 15 2021 DEADLINE! This fool could not get my bathroom done in five months of time. I want to fire him but he left some tools here and it would be annoying to get them back to him. We agree that he will be here on Tuesday January 19 around 10 or 10:30 On Tuesday January 19 he was not here at 11:20 so I texted him a question mark. He texts back “working on the breakdown for the subcontractor invoices, I will not be over there until tomorrow morning and we will need to go over everything and get settled, so you tell me what time tomorrow morning works for that." I answer "I told you I needed those breakdowns on Halloween. Today is January 19." And in that moment I knew HE WAS SO ******* FIRED! It may sound dumb to fire a person who is 95 percent done, but I did it anyway. if I’m mad enough about something I’m willing to inconvenience myself to send a message. So. goodbye John Mckusick, goodbye forever.

Original project estimate included replacing countertops, fixing pocket door, and refinishing cabinets and mouldings. Total cost was $300 in labor for countertops, $300 labor and materials for pocket door and $650 in labor and materials for woodwork. We opted not to replace the countertops when we found we would be unable to put in a new cooktop (custom venting issues). The total for the remaining work was $950. We paid a deposit of $200 on Feb. 18 and $1,000 on March 15. This was paid as a deposit on the counter top order which had to be canceled. Because of the excess payment, I asked for a new sink to be installed thinking we would come out even. It is May 15. The job has not been completed to my satisfaction. After numerous re-schedulings, no-shows and poor excuses, John finally returned and installed my remaining cabinetry but refused to do the sink. He raised by bill by $420 for added materials and labor which we had never discussed. I paid him to just get out of my home.