Mike Tezak

keep We hired Mike to do some work on a house we purchased. We had two weeks from closing to move in and he indicated he could do the work within that time period. Since he was recommended highly by a realtor, we agreed to pay him by the hour. We planned to add baseboards, window casings and moldings, install built-in bookshelves over the fireplace, and hang window treatments. We also wanted the whole house painted. He indicated he had a helper, but in fact he planned to do most of the work alone. After three weeks, Mike was less than half way finished with the work. Overall, his work was high quality (except for some nail holes in the window casings that were not filled and sanded before painting and some sloppy work around old door casings that had been removed and needed some sanding before new casings were installed). The main issue was lack of communication about his hours, his helper's hours, and a huge lack of urgency about getting the work completed. We stressed numerous times that we were on a budget and needed to keep track of what he was charging us for painting and what for carpentry (he initially agreed on $35 for carpentry work and $25 for painting, though he later said he had told us $30 for painting). He did not keep us informed. We reached our breaking point this week. The house has been a disaster area for three weeks and without letting us know, Mike accepted another job that took him away from ours for several days.His portfolio is very nice and his carpentry work was well done on the whole. He has the ability to do very nice work and If he had dedicated his time to our project and been more business-like about the financial part, we could have made compromises about his time. If you are laid back and have a project that doesn't have a time limit, Mike is probably a good fit. If you need something done quickly, expect a high level of communication about hours, or if you want a contract or a bid for the job, call someone else.