Emerald City Design

I think they had good intentions, but had trouble juggling their other jobs and rather than be up front and perhaps reschedule, they were no-shows for 3 weeks shortly after the start of what was supposed to be a 4-week job. Even when they came to work, they worked about two hours a day, and at the worst possible time for us (when kids home from school, or would show up unannounced after dark and let themselves in!). This after WEEKS of an empty house waiting for them day after day, coffee pot at the ready... We learned some valuable lessons: never let someone begin work without first getting a clear quote, that INCLUDES payment dates aligned to work milestones COMPLETED so there are no misunderstandings. i.e. will pay this % to start, and then this % when walls up, toilet in or whatever... Also it must be clear when they quote a price for materials etc. - who is buying what - sometimes they wanted to go buy it themselves, sometimes they wanted us to do it. We were fine to go buy materials, but confused since their estimate included everything, so we simply expected the overages to be clearly laid out (i.e. this quote is with a $400 toilet - if you get a $600 toilet it goes up by $200 etc..). Essentially, it should not be done both ways: either they can show all receipts and charge us for them or we agree to an all-in price and we don't need to see any receipts and we pay them as agreed. Also their quote never mentioned tax at all, so the assumption could be it was included - but no, they added it at the end which is not the best customer experience. Perhaps they have improved their quote process by now but it was stressful being asked for another large sum of money early on, when there was nothing but a hole in the floor for weeks on end and nobody coming in to work. In the end they rushed to even get it done for us by Christmas (so total of 10-12 weeks of a construction zone) and it really shows in the finishing (we can see drywall tape through the paint, the grout was put in then walked on while painting = a charcoal grout is permanently dusty white in several uneven areas). It is a shame because I know they are capable of good work - if they had another bigger job come up, they should have asked to reschedule before starting and done the job properly at a different time. It boils down to communication - I could go on with several other things that happened that could have been avoided with clear communication about 1) design (they make assumptions and don't ask first about where we want lights, vanity, etc), 2) materials and 3)milestones.