Pleasant Renovation

STAY WELL CLEAR OF THIS CROOK! I MEAN THIS LITERALLY; AS IN, HE IS NOW THE SUBJECT OF MULTIPLE ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS!
BACKGROUND:
I first started dealing with Robert ?Bob? Gonzalez of Pleasant Renovation and Remodeling in October of 2013 when I hired him to the role of general contractor for a rehab property in San Antonio, Texas. Around the same time, a colleague hired him for work on 2 rehabs. The timeframe on my rehab and one of his was 6-8 weeks, with his second property to follow completion of the first. He offered a VERY competitive price to us, and I must say, he was one of the smoothest talkers I?ve ever met. We were assured by Bob that he had plenty of crews to do the work in a timely manner; come December, both properties were unfinished, and we couldn?t figure out why, with all the workers on the project. To sum THAT up in a nutshell, Bob had perhaps 6-8 part-to-full time employees of varying degrees of skill who he would pull off his other projects when he learned that the owner was going to be dropping by. Otherwise, he was just constantly, as in daily, reallocating his crews off our projects to those of new clients to show them how "hard working" he and his guys were and to convince them of the need for more funds to "keep up his progress", then when he got them, he'd move on to the next victim...I mean, client. Of course, much of this was only learned after the fact.
Two months after starting work on my project, Bob was barely done with half the work on my property, and perhaps ¾ finished with my colleague?s first property. At this point he had done most of the aesthetic work interior and exterior, but had not finished the interior, or the HVAC, electrical, appliance and kitchen installation, bathrooms, etc. At this point we both started to pressure him, though the latter (more expensive) draws had to be paid to get the HVAC, final electrical, etc underway. Once he received the funds for these, Bob slowed to a crawl, with workers not showing up at all, doing shoddy work when they were there, etc. In light of this over the next couple of months, my colleague literally ended up kicking Bob off of his jobsite and supervising Bob?s guys himself while searching for deficiencies. This particular search found the following (off the top of my head): HOT wires loose under the insulation in the attic; non-working plugs and switches throughout the house; numerous aesthetic QC issues; showers/sinks with no hot water owing to incorrect plumbing; a hot wire SPLICED INTO A METAL LAMP CORD found in the attic? In a nutshell, his entire house had to be rewired because Bob had turned it into a FIRETRAP; on top of this, two dishwashers were ?removed for faulty (insert excuse here)? and replaced with inferior models, in addition to a stove, during the three or so week period.
Now, let?s go back to my place. Between January and April, I pressed Bob repeatedly to finish up, particularly after he received the draws to finish the more expensive final work. Towards early April, Bob stated that a number of burglaries had occurred in the area, and that he had removed my oven and dishwasher ?so they couldn?t be stolen?, though I know for a fact no oven or dishwasher was ever there. Long story short, Bob disappeared in late April with mine and my colleague?s remaining (paid for) work unfinished. Immediately before his disappearance, the above-mentioned appliance removal occurred at my colleague?s property, and mine was broken into shortly after with no signs of forced entry, with the exception of the loss of about $3,000 worth of flooring and other materials, and the door being unlocked and ajar. In the case of my property, Bob had been seen a couple weeks prior to his disappearance by my colleague, who helped keep an eye on the property, changing the locks; only my colleague and Bob had a key to the new lock.
After Bob vanished, I was left with about $10,000 worth of paid for, unfinished work, plus the additional $10,000 I had to shell out, and my colleague was out approximately $15,000 for starting his second property.
ITEMS AND OBSERVATIONS AFTER THE FACT:
Bob had about six investors (that we now know about), both local and out of town, who had the exact same issues in the same timeframe;
When he disappeared, Bob had approximately $100,000 in paid for, unfinished work between the six owners, not counting tens of thousands of dollars in shoddy work, ALSO not counting the losses of items stolen afterward (by whom, we'll leave open...);
After Bob?s disappearance, EACH one?s property was broken into, with the loss of appliances, HVAC components, granite countertops, and all varieties of building materials, adding up to tens of thousands of dollars...we'll leave that open to the imagination;
Bob is known to have used fake and unrelated addresses, claimed possession of properties he didn't own, and generally changes his stories when pressed, especially when called out.
To summarize this review, STAY AWAY FROM THIS MAN AND HIS ASSOCIATES!! HE IS A CROOK, and near as we can tell, he has NO ASSETS, so no one will ever get their money back. LET THE BUYER BEWARE!

Bob was very personable, presenting his well-priced rehab proposal on site in an enthusiastic and professional way.  The first week was awesome.  His "team" did the demo of old ceramic tiles to get ready for new, pulled out cabinets and old carpet.  Then...it all stalled out. 
There was a complete and amazing lack of oversight.  A week would go by and he'd never show up.  On any given day he had no idea who had/had not been on the job, what they were/were not doing.  Wall paint was applied to the trim and visa versa--really?  This was after we'd had to correct the purchase of the paint--we paid for Behr and got leftover generics from his last job.  Lights and switches went in wrong or not at all--one light installed upside down.  Toilets not fastened down...later when the tenants tried to use them, they rocked all over the place and we had to call him back out.  Twice.
It was easier to go by after work ourselves than to get him to do it, but we have jobs, and well, we WERE paying him to rehab the house.  Got to the point we had to threaten to fire him before he showed up to move things along.  That day he almost put a cabinet in the dishwasher space.  The dishwasher itself--that we'd just brought and showed to him--was sitting out on the driveway.  So finally the dishwasher was in, but he'd put it right at the wall by a window and didn't realize the door wouldn't open until the next day when the counter-tops were on and tiled.  He "fixed" this screw-up by cutting a notch out of the window sill so the dishwasher door could open.  Nice. 
The tiled counters in the kitchen have warped and cracked and now have to be replaced.  He said he stood behind his work, but a year has gone by and he has yet to return any calls or emails on it.  There were several items on the initial proposal that he never did, but we were so sick of dealing with him and his excuses that we gave up.
Things go wrong on a job...that's life and stuff happens.  But 90% of what went wrong on this job was a direct result of poor planning, non-existent management skills, and cheap attempts to cut corners.  Scheduled to be completed in four weeks, the job was still not done eight weeks later.  Our tenants had to move in while subcontractors ran around doing sloppy, last-minute work.
We paid a competitive price for work that was nowhere near competitive.  This guy will take your money and give you big smiles, inferior work and lots of excuses.  
We feel strongly that feedback should encourage good work and warn of bad work.  Had we read this kind of feedback, we would have avoided this individual and saved a lot of money, time, and headache.  Our extremely unpleasant experience with Pleasant Renovation is the very reason we signed up for Angie's List.