The Stopanski story
September 13th, 2007
To Town and Country Homes;
After waiting over 1 year for our house, we were so happy to see it finally pull into our yard today, until we realized there was no main beam with it. I clearly remember talking to Regan, Jason and Bob about the beam. I called Bob and asked what kind of beam would be best, wood or steel. Bob recommended wood and I asked who was responsible for getting it, and Bob told me that he would take care of it. When Regan left the 2nd last time he was here, he took the trailer with him and said they would be bringing the beam the next time they came. When they returned without it, I asked him about it, he said it would probably come with the house. So imagine our surprise when we found out, you did nothing to get a beam for us. When Kevin called Bob this afternoon, Bob told him that who ever did our basement was responsible for the beam… Well, hello, who built our basement? We assumed, wrongly, again, that you would be supplying the teleposts too. So now we have had to scramble today to get a beam made, and teleposts in place at our expense over what should have been your responsibility.
We are also very disappointed in the number of mistakes that have been made in our house. I can’t help but wonder if it is because nothing is ever written down when we deal with you, so I am putting everything in writing now, because there are a number of things that you are going to fix.
1. The inserts in our front door and our french doors are still gold, I have asked three times now for them to be changed to silver, like we ordered.
2. You put the wrong colour carpet in the whole house and we want it changed. The carpet we picked was grey with green and burgundy flecks in it and you installed beige carpet, which in no way matches anything in my house that is grey and green.
3. The sink in the laundry room/bathroom was supposed to be a large stainless steel sink. You installed a porcelain sink. The sink in the island is way too big; we think that you put the sink from the bathroom in the island.
4. Where is my Deacons bench from the back entry?
5. I wanted a shower head in the master bathroom, there is no shower head. Am I supposed to stand in the shower and hold the hose the whole time I shower?
6. I talked to Iain and asked him to fix the hearth in the living room on the fireplace, we wanted it wider, that was not fixed either.
7. I called and talked to Steve and told him I wanted doors installed in my office over the computer table. That was not done.
8. We assumed that the door pulls on the cupboard doors would be the same as the ones on the closet doors. They are different.
9. The glass domes were left the lights in the pantry and the walk in closet when the house moved; they both fell off and broke.
10. I told both Steve and Bob that I didn’t want a granite back splash on my countertops, you can pick those up and take them back.
11. The movers hit a tree and wrecked the sofit on the front of the house over the porch; it all needs to be replaced.
12. The door pulls for the spice racks are on the wrong side of the cupboard doors.
13. The door to the spare bedroom was left open when the house was moved, now it won’t close.
When you add all this to the things that we have already let go, like the tower that I wanted in my laundry room, the sinks that I wanted in my bathroom, using Benjamin Moore paint when I specifically asked for Behr, and installing the ceramic tiles wrong. I have to ask myself, how do you call yourselves custom home builders. If the customer doesn’t have any say in what you put in the house, why give us the impression that it is our choice?
We are so disappointed to have waited so long for this house, to finally get it and realize that there is so much that needs to be fixed that we can’t even move in and enjoy it. My suggestion to you is to figure out who is going to fix this carpet and get on that right away, because my furniture has been in storage for months now, and I want to move it in the house as soon as possible.
We also want to know what your plan is to fix the basement windows that you put in the wrong way. We can’t even backfill, because the dirt will go through the window sills. Where are the windows? We thought they would come at the same time as the house.
Sincerely,
Kevin and Carmen Stopanski
Letter #2
Well this "comedy of errors" as you put just keeps rolling on!
1. Our heating guy was here, and the first thing he noticed was that you did not put in a chimney for our mid efficiency furnace that he ordered in June, so now, we have to upgrade to high efficiency, I hope you plan to pay the difference.
2. The second thing we noticed is that you made all the duct openings 4x10 and standard is 3x10. He has to special order boots for 4x10 and says you should have to pay the difference, or you can come fix the holes and make them 3x10, which is what we would prefer.
3. We ran the gas to come in the front of the house where the furnace and chimney were supposed to be. Because we have to go high eff, the gas now needs to be plumbed to the back of the house. Something else we feel you should pay for.
4. The appliance guys also noticed that there was no dryer vent installed, or a vent for the range hood, that you were supposed to install, but it is still in the box.
5. We also notice that when the range hood is installed the spice cupboard will be completely useless because the range hood sticks out as far as the rack pulls out. You can change that to a regular cupboard and put the handle on the left side.
6. There was supposed to be a turntable in the corner cupboard and you put in shelves. How will this be usefull if I can't even reach to the back, and would have to pull everything out to get to the back. We want the turntable we asked for.
7. I wasn't aware that these cupboards would be so narrow and shallow. My 10" plates will barely fit in the cupboard and there are 3 cupboards that are so small they are practically useless. Add that to the 2" deep drawers and there is not much storage in this kitchen.
8. The door for the laundry room is now interfering with the washing machine, should you guys not have seen this happening and suggested a pocket door?
9. The ceiling fan in the living room has a hole in the drywall around it 1/2 wide on one side.
10. I was wrong when I told you the hole for the fridge was 1 1/4 inches too small, its closer to 2".
11. Any suggestions on how to level the house on your foundation? The house is still 1/2" higher than the foundation on one corner. Do we shim it or let it come down to foundation.
12. When are you going to have some one come and cut the windows in the basement to the proper highth and width?
Your note to me telling me about the changes you are making to ensure this doesn't happen again is laughable. Tell me ONE thing that we changed our minds on, we are spending all this time making you do what we told you to do from the start. Look at the very first drawings Bob did of our house, there was a deacons bench in there because I told him from day 1 that I wanted one. I gave you a pictures of the sinks I wanted last September when we were there, but still didn't get. I asked you 3 times to change the inserts on the doors, still wasn't done. You phoned us on our cell phone to ask about the mantle on the fire place, Kevin told you to make it the width of a tile. I gave you pictures of the desk I wanted for the office. We talked to Bob at one time about putting 2 shower heads in the master bathroom, yet I didn't even get one!! I can't figure out what we could have done differently to get things done the way we wanted. I am so frustrated and disappointed right now, I can't even put it in words. We are so tired of the different service people coming in and telling us that we have to pay extra to fix what you built. We thought this house would be service ready when it got here.
Letter#3
While I was cleaning today, I discovered a few more things.
1. The island is 2” off square. The base is straight and the top is off by 2”
2. A bunch of the screens are broken on the corners, some of them have 2 corners broken. 2 or 3 have holes in them too.
3. I re-measured the fridge hole too, it is not deep enough either. Fridge will stick out 2 inches too far past the wood.
4. Send some white paint for the ceiling too, the paint job on the recessed ceiling in the master needs some touch up.
5. Corner trim on some of the doors doesn’t even touch, big gaps.
I sent you an email on Tuesday hoping for some kind of response and a date, and still, we have heard nothing.
My patience is wearing very thin when I have $8000.00 worth of appliances and $9000.00 worth of furniture that is being covered with dust from the 100km winds on tuesday and the 60km winds blowing today, and no basement windows to slow it down!
Kevin and I decided to take the fireplace apart yesterday to see how it works, and to our surprise, there is no fan in it. We both remember ordering a fireplace with a blower that heated up around 1500sq ft. Also we remember you being on the phone in Bob's office ordering it and ordering stainless steel trim on it. So how come this one has gold trim? Did you even give us the right fireplace?
For the fifth time, what is going on with the carpet?
Letter#4
Since you all seem to have forgotten we exist, I thought that I would write you all a note to remind you that we are still here and still getting angrier by the month that nothing is getting done to fix the deficiencies in this house. I'm sending some pictures to show you more of the problems that are going to need to be addressed. There is frost coming through all around the french doors, which still leak on a good day, never mind when its cold. There is frost building up on the ceiling above the stove and melting and dripping down the wall above the cupboards, I can hardly imagine that will cause any mold! Speaking of mold, the shower is still leaking and if you wait much longer, you will be ripping up the flooring clear into the kitchen, the whole bathroom needs to be ripped apart at this stage, and probably the master bathroom as well. There is nothing that we can do about the leak, our plumber thinks that the marble shower base is cracked and is leaking when we shower, since we can't finish the master bath, or the basement, we only have one working shower. We still have heard nothing about what you are planning to do about the carpets? I would also like my cupboard for over the fridge back, and my granite countertops leveled and finished. It would also be nice to curl up around the fireplace today, since it is
-30, but no one can figure out how the fireplace is supposed to work, because there is no power run to it and no thermostat for it. We still can't close our back door, there is a gap at the top that isn't stopping much cold. And lets not forget our nonexisting basement windows. We sure hope you plan on paying for some of our heating costs this winter when we don't even have basement windows! There are a dozen other things that need to be fixed as well, but you already know that too(window inserts, deacons bench, turntable for corner, office doors, missing light fixtures, changing sinks, changing kitchen cupboards, ect.). We would like to hear from someone addressing this, I cannot believe after all the promises that were made to us that you can be this negligent about fixing your mistakes. Where is our change order number, we must be getting close to being a priority!
Letter#5
This is a note to inform you that we met with our lawyer on December 18th; I asked then that they give us until after Christmas to get everything organized. I have compiled all the emails, a list of things to be fixed, and our contract for the lawyer, and we will be getting an independent inspection done to check for any other problems that we may not know about. Our lawyer said that the best way to resolve this is if we can do it between ourselves, but if we feel that the deficiencies in our house are not fixed in what we deem a timely fashion that they have no problems going ahead and opening a file. We are asking one last time that you give us a firm date that you will be here to fix all the problems in this house.
Comments (3) for "The Stopanski story"
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After reading all of this I can't help but laugh. Not at your misfortune but the fact that your story is so similar to ours. I see a pattern, incompetance followed by lying and then bullying. "I did not screw up. Its the way you wanted it. If you wanted it the other way you are stupid."
We too heard the "we have implemented a change order system to ensure that things like this never happen again'. We heard this comment in late July and actually had to sign the one and only change for our house in late summer. This 'Official" change has plauged to this day as it was never incorporated into any plans and all work done was around the old tub not the new one. When we commented on the extra sized hole around the light fixture in the closet they moved the light forward so the hole was at the back and harder to see. I do however know what is going on with your undersized fridge hole. We have the extra 2 inches. If I figure out a way to ship you the extra 2 inches I will. If you are planning on having the house shimmed, don't let Les near it, you will end up with your house leaning to the other side. The other common theme I noticed is that you have frost all around your doors. You might want to take the brickmold off in the spring and actually seal the door frame. We have 3 doors and not one of them was filled in with any sort of insulation. The frost on the trim is very festive this time of year but not so good for the paint that was not put on right in the first place. I also note the fact that your cupboards are not so good. Good thing he is a cabinet maker, we too had drawers that were 2 inches deep, but this was presented as an upgrade, what the heck do you put in a drawer that is 2 inches deep. I also think I know how to resolve your shower without a head problem, we have a shower with a head but nothing to contain the water, no doors/walls... perhaps if I manage to ship you the 2 extra inches you need for the fridge you could send us the shower doors, a sink that is the right size... Bathrooms seem to be completely above Iain's ability to do correctly. Our island is also in the wrong spot and we too had drifts of snow in our basement after we moved in due to missing windows. It is unfortunate that we live so far apart there are so many similarities to our situations that I am sure we could talk for hours. By Kevin Garratt - 1/3/2009 5:49 PM
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The similarities in the stories are amazing. I do wish there was a way to ship you our extra space around our fridge.
Kevin is definitely correct in his assertion that bathrooms are beyond what Iain and his crew can manage. We too have referred to our home and the situation with Iain as "the comedy of errors." Its funny, but only in a very painful way. Did you ever find out what was supposed to go in drawers that are 2 inches deep? When we questioned these drawers, we were told that they are "European" and an upgrade from what we selected. We were supposed to be be pleased. I was not. Most of the drawers (notice I say "most"--you wouldn't want to actually complete anything) were replaced, but the replacements are a carpentry disaster. Please see our posted pictures for screws sticking out, corners not lining up etc. Hopefully you got a real carpenter to fix these drawers for you. Our lawyer at the time kept directing us to allow Iain to return to "fix things." He seldom came. Instead Les was sent to tackle jobs that were clearly beyond the scope of his abilities. We would have been further ahead to have not allowed them to try to "fix" anything as they broke something each and every time they were back inside our home. It is both unfortuante and amazing that Iain has managed to do such similar things to people, but still our laws do not hold him accountable. By Tara Garratt - 1/4/2009 5:15 AM
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I was in tears (not of Joy) when I read your story too! Unbelievable what this man has done to us all! When I read what you wrote about not trusting your own judgement anymore....wow, that hit home! We thought that we did everything right, we checked with the better business bureau, we went and looked at the houses they were building... everything looked good from the outside! The people who are working on our house now are paying the price though! The one carpenter commented "You're not a very trusting person, are you?" I told him to take a look around and guess why! I still haven't figured out what to do with 2" drawers, I am still waiting for the rails Iain promised me that were going to "fix" the problem! I guess I can stop waiting now! When I called Iain while the delivery guys were trying to figure out how to put the fridge in a hole that was 2" too small, he told me that this had never happened before, but when the painters (who actually did show up and do about 3 things on my list to fix) came, they had another cupboard in their truck from the last house they had just came from with the exact same problem! I do have some sheets of marble here if you still need them, we had our carpenter put tile in after he ran a shower head in my master bath! Let me know if you want it! It isn't warped because even I knew not to put it in front of a heater! We should get together and have a visit, we obviously need to discuss our common disease! Tootrustingarewestupid! That's what I call it anyway! I was hoping that he would end up in jail for all his fraud? Why has he not been charged, even for the tax evasion? I haven't found a room in our house that wasn't beyond the scope of their abilities! There is not one room in this house that hasn't needed to be fixed in some way!
By Carmen and Kevin - 1/5/2009 4:08 PM
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