All In One

We bought our home and it needed to be partially remodeled before we moved in. The realtor we used was rated very high, so I dealt with her through the internet and by phone for a year while my house was selling in Texas. Her and her husband spent a great deal of time with us and explained to us how we could go through an FHA program that could provide us the funds to remodel the house. I was told her husband was an architect and he redesigns the inside of a house, and then they remodel and sell them. They had told us that we could get a home, they would show me how we could redesign and remodel it at a reasonable price within our budget. I was under the understanding that the realtor and her husband would be heading up this job. Unfortunately, my mortgage company would not allow her husband to do the work because he was not a licensed contractor, just an architect. So her husband gave the job to Steve Elliot without telling me. Steve took the money, came in, and did shoddy work, and now says we owe him more. My husband has done a lot of the work on the house himself and has had to redo most of the work Steve did. Steve was supposed to install and supply any necessary accessories for our appliances that were included with the quote of remodeling the house which he did not do. My husband installed the gas line and range, the water line for the ice maker, the freezer and refrigerator. The crystal chandelier we bought for our home was damaged due to the way Steve installed just the body and left it hanging down on the chain so that all other workers banged into it as they came through. He was to install a double paned, thermal window in the front of the house, which he did not do. Instead he installed a much cheaper window that flies are already managing to get through because the screen doesn't seat properly and it steams up in the mornings when it is colder outside and there is a lot of dirt between the screen and window even though it is only 2 months old. We have told Steve this window is not good and we want it replaced but he won't answer us. He installed a $7000 Tigerwood hardwood floor and cut the floor to far from the doorways so now I have holes in my floor. He did terrible work in various other areas including caulking, drywall, and one of the vanities. He caulked the drywall corners between the ceiling and the wall and the wall corners and they are cracking as the house settles. My double vanity for the master bath has a shelf across the top for storage and of course the bottom for storage. It was made with cutouts in the back for the plumbing so that the shelves would not be messed up by pipes but Steve ran large plastic accordion pipes straight down the middle of the shelves and bottom of the vanity instead of through the back cutouts, and ruined my vanity. We told him we wanted copper plumbing not plastic but he put the plastic in anyway. He ran them up the wall between our master closet and bath to put in the shower head and handle. He then used about 3 feet of copper pipe to go from handle to shower head and put board braces to hold the pipe steady. He screwed the boards on from the closet side and made access panel from same side but he screwed the pipe brackets into the boards from the shower side and bent the screws down over the board on the closet side so the access doors did no good. You could not get to the pipes. The shower is leaking in the wall and out on the closet floor, so my husband just had to pull the brackets off and the boards to. He now has to replace the fittings that were not put on correctly and try to sturdy the pipes and rebuild the access doors. The boiler was disconnected to remove baseboard heaters on walls that were being removed, and the company was supposed to come back and put back any heaters needed in the new rooms and seal the pipes not being used any more so we can't get heat and the company that was working on it sent us the bill that Steve was supposed to pay so they are not coming back to finish things.. The second half of the money that comes at the end of the project from the mortgage company is supposed to be signed over to us by Steve but now he's saying he won't because we owe him more money. The bid was $2000 less than what Steve has already been paid. We have about $3000 worth of work that he did not do, that my husband and I did, which he had agreed to take off the bid because he just didn't do it. He was given $15000 up front, which he told me that my realtor and her husband were going to handle. This was an outright lie, because he ended up just taking the money and depositing it in his account. He started 6 weeks late, he would schedule various appointments and then not show up, he wouldn't call me, the work he did was terrible, and he hasn't even completed what he started or fixed what he messed up. Steve showed up between 8-9 even though he told us his work days would be 7 AM - 4 PM. He couldn't ever keep anyone working for him. He constantly yelled at his apprentice who was a very nice kid, and he worked so hard. The kid was learning, but Steve was teaching him entirely wrong! They grouted the floor 4 days before Father's Day and it was left on there until his apprentice came back in September. The tile is supposed to look like stone with gray around it, but now it has white grout all over it. The tile is ruined. There was a problem in one spot of the bedrooms on the floor. Steve said he'd take care of it by leveling the floor, but it was done incorrectly. He put the new subfloor underneath to support the old and he told us that would save us money. But when we called the A/C company for a different service, he informed us that Steve put the new subfloor underneath but he had attached it to rotting joists which won't do any good. He informed us that in our master bedroom where one area was squeaking that the subfloor was rotten in that area and Steve just put the new hardwood down on top of it without telling us the subfloor was rotten and needed to be replaced. This brings on the other point that we realized we have $30,000 in foundation repairs that now need addressed and weren't disclosed to us by the home inspector, realtor, or previous owner. I even called the realtor back, who I thought was very professional, this last week and explained what Steve had done and not done and requested she just come to the home so that she would be aware of the type of contractor he is. I just wanted her to see that I wasn't making things up, but she called me and told me he was a great guy and that she didn't want to get involved. My husband and I have remodeled every home we've lived in, and we wanted to take a break and have someone else do it for us this time. This has caused us quite a lot of time, money, and frustration and has set us back indefinitely. I would NEVER use Steve Elliot again and highly recommend you stay away from his services and any house he remodels! As of Feb. 3rd, 2014 the contractor is trying to get us to pay him an additional $6050.00-$6535.00, not sure which amount is correct since he has submitted 3 final bills with a different amount on each, which we do not feel is right or that he did the work he is charging us for. We have retained an attorney and will go to court. The contractor sent us a certified letter offering to settle for a payment of $5000.00 by Feb.3rd or he will put a lien on our house, start foreclosure on our house and file suit and ask for all legal fees. He can not file a lien because by law he had 60 days from the last day anyone in his company worked on my house to file and it has been 5 months so he is a bit late plus he can not foreclose on my house without a judgment from court which he wont get. There are a lot of things I found out that do not seem to be legal or at least not ethical and will come out in the suit. Will update with suit results when it is over.

When Steve was bidding my job he was all smiles and happy talk, but when his installation had a big problem he wouldn't return my repeated voice messages to his phone. When he finally called me back he had a lousy attitude both on the phone and at my home. He couldn't find the source of his installation problem and said it was the door manufacturer's issue and not his problem. It turns out he installed the door wrong. Someone else had to fix it for him.