YOU HIRED A CONTRACTOR WHO'S LICENSE STARTED WITH A 9!!!!!
LICENSED IN 2014!!!!!
FVCK DOOF, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?
A previous license held by them was issued earlier, but only for painting. Their newer license was issued in 2013 and included the construction side. They had recently started including the construction side of things.
What was I thinking? I was thinking that after 3 years of trying to find a contractor that would show up on time and wasn't too skeevy and could give me a written bid that had the "right" building license, would be the one I would hire once I had 3 to compare.
Not sure why a license starting with a '9' is bad...does a recent license mean they must be worse than one that was issued earlier?
As I stated earlier, this is what I think where my side of things went awry.
1 I am a terrible judge of character, apparently.
2 I trust people to do the right thing
3 I expect licensed and bonded professionals to follow the law
4 I expect people to live up to their written agreements
5 I don't expect to be billed for work I never agreed to
6 I did expect blowback once we reported them to CSLB, and am still glad we did, but am surprised they continue to risk further complaint. Good thing the law allows for civil cases to be filed up to 3 years after the injury.
7 I didn't know the construction code beforehand
8 I should have been more pendantic and gone over the contracts 3 or 4 times with them instead of once.
9 In retrospect, should not have hired them.
As for total numbers, the original bid was $ 125K for everything. It ended at $202K. Of that $77K difference, from our point of view I would say $35K would have been justifiable. But then I remember pointing out to the GC and the Project Manger the differences between what the blueprints shear-wall called for and what had been put up and thinking, "If I hadn't caught this, would anyone," and all the other items, and yeah, that justifiable $35K number gets smaller.
I really don't think I know everything, hence the goofy name I use here to keep me honest. If I had known then what I know now, I would have run a credit check on the company and the owner, then also run a criminal check on them as well and then hired someone else.
Oh, another thing I should have done is wait until there is a downturn in local construction activity....but this may have been what one of my neighbors had been thinking when he broke through his stairs and tore up his leg.