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"very professional"

"First of all, we are happy with the finished product of our master bathroom and walk-in closet. We are NOT happy with the owner of this business and his handling of our project. Jeff took time to design our space over several meetings. He promised that he would be available to choose tile/granite/light fixtures/plumbing fixtures whenever we needed him. Timeline was discussed with a 6 week from contract start and a project time of 3 weeks. Permit submission was done by myself with plans drawn by Jeff. We failed the permit process with 14 items that were not addressed due to insufficient drawings. Additional time/effort was required by Jeff and us to meet the requirements to meet code, which pushed our project back several weeks. We also paid more for the project due to Jeff needing to insure his workers for our village (a cost he should have known upfront). With new drawings, we re-submitted and were approved for work to begin. I can't say enough about the FANTASTIC workers that Jeff has on his team. They were courteous and did excellent work and even suggested design modifications that made sense. One of our first tasks was to pick out a granite surface. Jeff gave us the name of a granite place and that he'd meet us there. He NEVER showed. We picked granite on our own that day. We ordered tile - on our own. We chose lighting, plumbing, fixtures, and paint colors - on our own. The next time and ONLY time we saw Jeff for the duration of the project was when he delivered the vanity and asked for money (same visit). The total project ended up taking over three months to complete. Due to various project modifications/additions, we had no idea what our final invoice would be. We waited and waited for some type of final figure. 8 months after the project was completed we finally received a remaining balance invoice for over $11,000. We were shocked to receive this invoice so far after the project was completed. Jeff explained that COVID and not having an office manager were reasons behind us not getting an invoice before then and that we fell between the cracks. While we don't argue the price, we did not appreciate the length of time it took him to get the job done, nor the amount of time before we received a final invoice. When we offered to pay $2,000 each month for the next six months we were sent a very threatening email offering us three options for payment in full NOW. Suddenly this money is due NOW when he has carried this receivable for 8 months already? We will NEVER recommend Artistic Kitchen Concepts (Jeff) to anyone in the future. His involvement in the project started out well, but dropped off to the point where we never saw him, had no further input from him, and didn't receive an invoice until 8 months after the project was completed."

"Ed Eichele has stated to us that he stands by his work and that he will do whatever it takes, that they are accommodating, open and transparent. Beware, Ed knows all the right things to say, just don’t believe any of it. Following are the issues we had with Eichele & Valene Remodeling: • Needed to hire a second contractor to rip out and replace our newly installed tile floor and takeover our project. • Had to remove and replace wood trim • Paint quality grade with option of 2 brands stipulated in our contract was not followed. An untrue story was given as to why a cheaper grade had to be used. • Promises of a building permit and an inspector appointment never materialized (3 months). After blaming the City of Wheaton building department for an unexplainable lack of action it turned out that the city never received payment for the permit we paid Eichele & Valene to execute as part of the contract. • Our walls were painted and floor installed before the plumbing and electrical work had been started let alone the drywall being finished. Our second crew took advantage of the floor being exposed to perform plumbing and electrical work by removing floor boards vs. access through the basement ceiling as was planned by John Valene. • Lack of a consistent work schedule; multiple no-shows without warning. • They still owe us money per their own records. Details: Tile – Through research of manufacturer’s websites, the Tile Council of North America, and consulting with a member of National Tile Contractors Association, we were able to confirm that the tile floor was laid improperly and needed to be 100% replaced. Some of the installation related issues: Our warranty for the subfloor and the tile was void due to the use of cheap drywall screws used to fasten the Durock subfloor rather than the required “1-1/4" USG Durock™ Brand Tile Backer Screws for wood framing (or equivalent) or 1-1/2" hot-dipped galvanized roofing nails”. As a result of improper installation, there was so much unevenness and lippage all over the floor that we were tripping while walking on the tile. Nothing sat squarely or level on it. The lippage of many tiles was the same thickness as a quarter or thicker. (See photos) Trim – We upgraded our family room from carpet to tile. It may not be obvious to all homeowners that the baseboards are installed prior to installing carpet, thus touching the floor that the padding and carpet are rolled over. For tile, the baseboards should be installed on top of tile, which put the baseboards noticeably higher on the wall. Since the baseboards were never removed prior to installing the tile the end result was a family room with oddly short baseboards as they did not sit on the tile where it should be if installed correctly. Furthermore, the staining and varnishing of the shoes was dreadful. Application of conditioner, stain and urethane was performed outside in 40 degree weather all within 6 hours. Per the Sherwin Williams website one needs to, “Let dry completely (usually 24 hours)”. In addition, the site states that one should; “Apply stain only at the proper temperature. For most stains, 70 degrees Fahrenheit is the optimum, with the safety range from 50 to 90 Fahrenheit.” The worst part about this baseboard fiasco was the calculated deception exercised where the eating area meets the family room. They removed baseboard from the eating area where it was installed at the correct height for tile to rip ¾” off of the bottom in order to match the height of the baseboard of the family room which was at the correct height for carpet. (See photo) Paint – We believe that painting before the drywall, plumbing, and electrical work were finished was a tactic employed to give us the illusion of progress after weeks of no work being performed. It was an obvious ploy to distract us from the fact that no progress had been made in weeks. We have since had to repaint all surfaces but 3 walls. Windows – There is an entire fiasco with regard to undersized windows being installed. The additional framing required to install windows that were too small led to the threat of additional “Change Order” costs. One might question why someone would install the wrong size windows. Menards remade the incorrectly sized windows as ordering the wrong size windows was their mistake. Eichele & Valene told us that we owed them the cost of a second installation even though they should have stopped when they realized that the windows were the wrong size. (See photo)"