Serenity Exteriors

Kansas City Homeowner

Unfortunately, James Allen of Serenity Exteriors LLC, got himself into a bind and breached the contract before the job was completed. Initially, James Allen seemed like a nice guy and we went over the job line item listing several times. He seemed like a very high strung individual and worried things over and over. The contract was signed April 22, 2014 and I paid the initial deposit. A dumpster arrived in our driveway and yet the demolition didn't start until May 12. James was full of excuses and complaints about not being able to get workers, or one thing or another that prevented him from timely execution of the project. At this point, I had a leg injury and was laid up, so we patiently let him do his thing. We never questioned his execution or lack of timeliness as he had originally said the project would take about 2 weeks. I just assumed that would more realistically be 6 weeks from start to finish. A lot of the time, he would be in working, or another person working for a few hours. And other days he would come for an hour or so. Always there were lots of comments about his subcontractors not doing what they were supposed to, getting in disagreements with people about the project, many excuses for things not going the way they should even though we weren't questioning him about them! James Allen is a very good carpenter, however, in my opinion, he was out of his league in doing a complete bathroom remodel. We left him to his business and the work that was getting done was good even with his occasionally trying to gig us for more money outside of the contracted agreement. James had inspected and OK'd the tile that we had purchased prior to the job beginning. Yet, when we got to the tile installation time, all of a sudden it was the wrong kind of tile and would cost more. I contacted other people in the contractor business that I knew from other states and they instructed me on what to say to his demands. I purchased porcelain tile per contract stated, and then it was going to cost more to install!! We got past that hurdle and were into the final of getting the shower door and glass surround when the lack of skill set became apparent to James, I believe. He initially ordered the glass from Fountain Glass. I was laid up so had no knowledge of what transpired at that point. James had apparently installed tile in the shower incorrectly and the door that he ordered would not fit. I received a letter from Fountain Glass indicating their frustration with James Allen and stating "he made false claims regarding our attempts to contact him and the condition of the opening when we measured it." James came by the house July 1st, demanding more money outside of the contracted amount in a listing of things. I wanted time to look over it and we were leaving on vacation July 3rd. I received an email from James on July 8th where he was quitting the job because he had not heard from me in 7 days! Now, mind you, this was someone who compulsively called or emailed me daily prior to July 1, and had not made a single attempt to contact me after that until he quit!. All of the problems James Allen incurred on this project were of his own doing and creation. I think he probably does deck work fine, as he is a good carpenter. However, any other project, including finish carpentry is out of his skill set, in my opinion. He does not have the organizational skills nor the time management ability to handle other things, it seems to me. If another contracted him, I would personally advise getting his SS#, driver's license #, and current home address. I would also advise only make step deposits up to 1/2 of the full amount and paying the balance upon completion as well as putting punitive steps into the contract for missing deadlines. I hired a tile guy to correct the tile, hired Binswanger for the glass surround and a friend came over and put in the pull latch for the pocket door (another fiasco story due to James' incompetence...!) In accordance with the contract, James Allen of Serenity Exteriors LLC owes me $446.55 for amount spent that was over our contract amount.