Andrea L. Danforth, Building Contractor

The first big oops happened when she forgot which way the deck boards were supposed to run and framed the deck (w/ the help of her children no less) w/ the supports running the wrong way. I had my earliest feeling things might only get worse about that time. I wish I'd listened to that inner voice saying how now would be a good time to look for someone else to complete things. As you can guess, it did only get worse. To be fair though, it must have been hard for her too given how little she actually knew about carpentry and her crew who knew even less. Her con was in the smooth talk that would placate my concerns with promises that things would all work out in the next step or, at the very least, in the end. Only she knew she wasn't going to finish it as promised. Handshakes are also meanginless her. Then one evening she disappeared w/ check, some of my possessions and many feet of lumber. Months later I'm still hiring people to fix or complete work that she'd promised would be done before winter set in, 3 months ago. The upside is that I've met a lot of very nice, skilled guys who do know what they're doing and I wouldn't have otherwise. Most importantly, I was able to cover up most of the truly horrible mistakes her crew made since she did little of the work that "shows". Except for the deck where some of the boards are slipping in their moorings already. And Trex had tried to design them work better. Don't ask how she screwed that up too but mainly, don't hire her.