Modern Yankee Builders

Bottom line: Extremely confusing communication and a huge budget jump after we had already put down our deposit. Horrible experience.

We originally hired Joe to work on a bathroom remodel after interviewing a few contractors and being impressed by his seemingly high attention to detail and his willingness to work within our budget.

However, while Joe’s communication skills initially seemed thorough, we quickly learned that they were, in fact, chaotic and confusing. It was frustrating to send simple questions to Joe and have to wade through pages of details and long asides, trying to make sense of what could easily have been a two sentence reply. His inability to communicate clearly and concisely became apparent when we didn’t even realize Joe sent us his initial budget because the numbers were buried within paragraphs and pages of text instead of being clearly laid out, as all other contractors we've dealt with do. Apparently we were the first to ask if he could send over a simple list of the budget so we could see the numbers easily.

The other main reason we chose to work with Joe was because he seemed willing to work with us to meet our budget. The number we initially discussed in person was met with a response of "that will be tough, but it can be done." No commentary was given at that point on the finishings we had been up front about wanting to use and he made it sound like we'd have to make a sacrifice here and there, commenting on things like saving money on mirrors and using a stock vanity.

We were pretty shocked when, after we had already signed with him and put down a hefty deposit, the budget he came up with was nearly 30% higher than the one we discussed in person, including hardly any of the finishings we had specifically discussed. We balked at the price and took the time to come up with several ideas to change up the remodel to hopefully bring the cost down. None of this seemed to make a significant impact to the budget and the price stayed nowhere near the number we first discussed. In the end, even with the most basic finishings, Joe told us that our original budget was impossible. When we expressed our frustration that this was not what we were told before, he got increasingly aggressive and hostile, a personality trait that kept coming up every time he was even gently questioned about something.

When we finally laid it all out, he claimed the bathroom that we originally discussed would cost more than double our original budget. Had he ever remotely mentioned this from the start, we would never have chosen to work with him because we simply couldn't afford it. His attention to detail might have resulted in a great bathroom, but not one we could pay for. In the end, we took a big financial loss and spent hours of our time trying to work things out with someone who became downright mean in the end.