Hassles? You Can Count on It
Renovation Woes Add Up

By Marla Brin
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, August 24, 2006

I was dreaming of closet space. Of having enough room to hang my wetsuit, like you're supposed to, instead of having to stuff it in a cramped drawer. I was dreaming of radiator covers, something lovely and simple and white to hide my beloved but ugly old monstrosities. I was dreaming of upgrading my house, which was falling down around my ears after years of neglect by the previous owner, fixing it up so that the weather (and the spiders) actually remained outdoors.

And so I contracted to renovate my old house in Alexandria, planning an addition on the back and closet space galore. Heaven.

Everyone told me renovating was hell, to be avoided at all costs. But I could see my sparkling, glorious home makeover in my mind's eye. I knew I could do it. And besides, I was going to move out for the renovation, so I wouldn't be choking on drywall dust and trapped behind plastic sheeting, as are so many ill-fated renovators.

And people are essentially good, right? I could tell a con artist from a legitimate contractor. That was the source of all those oth er people's troubles. The twin pitfalls of renovations are living in the construction mess and bad judgment. I certainly would avoid those silly mistakes.

Well, here are the facts.

· Contract price: $196,000.

· Total price contractor pressured me to pay as renovation progressed, to cover necessary items "accidentally" omitted from the contract: $306,000.

· Price I actually paid contractor before firing the company 18 months into a "four- to six-month" project: $225,000.

· Price I paid to redo all the work the contractor did that was not up to code and could have resulted in my house burning down or falling down: $169,000.

· Money I lost paying my mortgage while renting an apartment for the extra 21 months the project exceeded the projected timeline: $45,000.

· Number of days between contractor preventing a judge from freezing company assets by swearing under oath that I was the only creditor, and the company filing for bankruptcy protection and listing 48 long-standing creditors: 12.

· Number of times contractor or contractor's spouse has filed for bankruptcy protection since my project began: 2.

· Cost for lawyers to try to get my money back for all the rework and to respond to all the contractor's bankruptcies: $47,500 and counting.

· Number of home equity loans I had to take out to pay for all this: 2.

· Number of times I vowed to myself I would never ask my parents to dig into their retirement account to help me pay for redoing the contractor's work in order to make my house livable: 4.

· Number of times I asked anyway: 4.

· Number of licensed tradespeople required for my job: 3.

· Number of licensed tradespeople actually hired by my contractor: 1. (Did that include the electrician or the plumber? No. They were unlicensed.)

· Number of licenses contractor claimed to have: 1.

· Number of contractor's licenses that turned out to be fraudulent: 1.

· Number of days between the day the state revoked the contractor's license (after I fired the company), and the day the contractor started a new company under a different name: 1.

· Number of times the contractor has been arrested on fraud-related charges since I hired the company: 2.

· Number of jurisdictions in which contractor has thus been charged with fraud: 2.

· Number of complaints to the Better Business Bureau, county consumer affairs office or the state regulatory agency that were far enough along for the public to discover prior to my hiring the company: 0.

· Number of children contractor has had since the beginning of my project: 2.

· Number of times contractor has asked me to "think of their children" since the firing: 2.

· Number of times contractor or any subcontractor actually used the portable toilet put on the premises solely for their use: 3.

· Number of times contractors' aim was true when using my brand-new bathroom instead of the portable toilet: 0.

· Number of times strangers driving by stopped to use the portable potty: too many to count.

And yet . . . I agree, as is so often remarked, that renovating is a tad like childbirth. I think once it is over, once I have recouped my money and the sharp sting of contractor betrayal has faded, I might forget all the bad parts and be persuaded to do it again in another house someday.

Just the other day I saw a great-looking faucet at Home Depot.