After receiving the quote for the job, work was initially scheduled to start on Thursday, November 21, 2013. About a week before that, we were asked if we could accomodate a start date of Friday, November 22; that was fine with us. We were also told that the job would take 2 full days, so we assumed that the job would be done on Saturday, November 23. We were satisfied with that as it would give us plenty of time to clean up the house before Thanksgiving the following Thursday. We paid a 50% deposit before work began. One important thing to note at this point is that our estimate initially called for Elysium to install quarter round moldings in our living room and paint them, in addition to the other painting we wanted done. <br /> <br /> On Friday, November 22, Rich and 2 workers arrived at our house close to the promised time. The job got off to a bad start immediately as Rich asked if I had been told that they couldn't come back for the 2nd day of work until Sunday, the 24th. That was the first we had heard about that, but we didn't have much of a choice in the matter at that point. <br /> Throughout the day, we tried to stay out of their way and didn't hover over them to keep tabs on the work. At one point during the day, we did hear a big crash upstairs and assumed that paint had been spilled. I was surprised at the large number of breaks they took from their work, but we felt we should trust their profesionalism and let them do their jobs. When they left after the first day of work, we were dismayed to see that they had painted the window trim, the doors, and the base moldings in the master bedroom the wrong color (they painted them the same color as the ceiling, despte the contract being clear that all trim and doors would be the same color). The chair rail was painted the right color, however. We also noticed that the quality of the work was far below what we had expected, with the lines between the walls and trim being very uneven and a lot of paint drips on the floor. They did scrape up some paint drips before they left and when they returned on Sunday, but we spent probably an hour or so that first night trying to remove as many of the drips as possible from the floor. In the corner of our bedroom, we noticed that paint had spilled onto the wood floors and seeped in between the boards. That paint will never come out. Even though we had been promised a two day job, not even one full complete coat had been done in all areas by the end of the first day. Needless to say, the quarter round installation had not happened either, and we both got the impression that they were not totally comfortable with that part of the job, even though Rich is the one who provided the initial quote. Rich eventually decided to try to find someone else to do the carpentry, but as described below, it never happened. <br /> I sent Rich a text that night about the concerns we had with the poor quality and with the wrong color being used in the master bedroom. The crew returned on Sunday as promised, minus one worker, leaving only Rich and one other painter. That day, they did a second coat on the lower half of the master bedroom walls, beneath the chair rail, and repainted one coat of the correct color on the bedroom doors and trim. The stairwells and landing were not finished, nor was the upstairs trim or the moldings and painting in the living room. We also noticed areas where spackle had been painted over without being sanded and a nail hole was painted over without being patched, even though we were assured that all necessary wall/trim repairs would be made during prep. <br /> A 3 man crew (including Rich) returned on Monday and did what we believe to be one coat of paint in the landing areas and in the stairwell. Later, we would notice that it appeared that only one coat was done in almost all the areas we had wanted painted and some areas were missed completely. Rich said we could mark any areas that needed touch up for when they would come back to finish the job on Friday, November 29. In the meantime, Rich was working on getting someone to do the quarter round and eventually we were told that this would also be done on the 29th. <br /> On the 29th, one painter showed up and touched up the areas we had marked. He also painted one coat on the base molding in the living room, but the carpenter never showed up to install the quarter round as we expected. Because the carpenter never showed up, the painter only did one coat on the base moldings and left. He did paint one coat on our fireplace mantle for free, which we did really appreciate since that was not part of the original quote. I texted Rich and later found out that the carpenter didn't show because he was supposedly sick. We were told to expect the carpenter the next day, Saturday the 30th, by 10:30 a.m. When he didn't show up on time, I notified Rich and he had the carpenter call us. The carpenter said he was in Lansing and could probably arrive by 1:00, but that he wouldn't be prepared to paint the quarter round as Rich had promised us would happen. At that point, I told him to forget it and called an end to the job. <br /> Another thing to note is that we had paid for the quarter round and the painter who came out on the 29th brought it with him. It is still sitting in our basement and we have no idea how it is ever going to get installed. They did reduce our bill by the labor cost that had been calculated to install the moldings. I also know that Rich felt extremely bad about the carpenter not showing up and not being prepared to do what we were told to expect. <br /> On December 2, 2013, I received an e-mail from Elysium Manager Troy Brown who apologized for the carpentry failure and offered to try to make things right. We were not interested in working with Elysium further since we had noticed many more areas in the meantime that had not been painted with 2 coats as promised and that were of poor quality. We also noticed that someone got paint on our brand new comforter (meaning that after the first day of work, our things were not protected as they had promised to do) and that there was paint in the grout between our wood floors in the upstairs landing and our upstairs bathroom, which is tiled. Those mistakes, in addition to the paint between the boards of our bedroom floor mentioned above, are essentially permanent. <br /> I relayed all this to Troy Brown in our e-mail exchange and he offered to send us a $100 refund to make up for the fact that we paid $95 for labor for the living room trim painting for essentially no reason. I told him, via e-mail on December 2, 2013, that we would appreciate a refund. As of the date of this review (written on January 18, 2014) we have not received a refund check as promised. I checked in with Troy via e-mail on December 28th and he said that the owner had been in California for a month and that he was sure we would be taken care of soon. At this point, I am assuming that we will never see that $100 refund. <br /> To summarize the bad points: 1) two day job took parts of five days and was never actually completed as promised 2) it is clear that most areas received only one coat of paint and other areas were missed completely (for example, some of the spindles under the stairway bannister) 3) paint was spilled or dripped on things that cannot be removed 4) after the first day, our belongings were not properly protected as promised 5) the carpenter was a no-show on the 29th and was not even prepared to do the required work on the 30th 6) we are stuck with no quarter round in our living room and paid for painting on the base moldings that will need to be done again when we eventually get it installed 7) we will eventually have to repaint or touch up areas on all surfaces that were painted due to areas missed an