MEND design

I have worked with Matt and Chrisi for over 3 years. As a contractor it is so nice to work with Chrisi, when I am done with the construction of her design I am totally blown away at the finish product. She makes contractors like me look good

We started a project with MEND design last April (2021) to do a whole-house remodel. There have been some good aspects to working with Matt and Chrissie, but overall the experience has been a nightmare. What we've liked: * Matt and Chrissie are super positive and passionate about design. They're super nice people. * Chrissie especially has always been super responsive and engaging whenever we've had design-related questions * We love most design-related aspects of what's been finished so far * When we ended up with something that didn't fit (for example, a light fixture that ended up being too big for the space), they helped us find a new one that would fit and in most cases were super prompt in helping to order a replacement. What we have not liked * They brought a builder with them to complete our job. They were supposed to complete the job by Thanksgiving 2021. They're still not done and we haven't been able to completely move into the home yet (it's now mid-April 2022). We found out a little over a week ago that this contractor is unlicensed. They used another company's contractor's license without their permission to get our building permits. Along the way, they would tell us that we needed to pay to keep the job going, to order materials, etc. We always paid promptly. We ended up in a situation where we had overpaid on the job. I was having to pay subs separately to keep them moving. When I confronted the builder about this, I asked if he had used our job money to pay for his other customer's jobs and to buy "toys". He confirmed that this is what happened and since they were out of money, they were now spending most of their time on other jobs to make money to finish paying for our job. * Matt and Chrissie told us they used this builder on previous jobs and assured us that they were competent. Matt told us that he would personally act as a project manager on the job to ensure things went smoothly. This has not happened. My understanding is that they are continuing to use this builder on other jobs. * There have been numerous material/supply issues. A lot of these were completely understandable, like some plumbing fixtures that were delayed due to global supply shortages. However, there were several items along the way that weren't ordered or tracked in a timely or organized manner, which added to project delays. At this point, it looks like there are still several months of work left. We're exploring finding a different contractor to finish the job and are also considering working with a lawyer to help us figure out how to clean up the financial mess that we might be left with.