McCracken Contracting

Our business dealing with Curtis McCracken began with his giving a great sales pitch about what a great house he wanted to make for us, meeting his father who works for the company, and our mistaken belief that surely, with the company having the family name that they had pride in their work and their word.
We signed a contractand placed a substantial and non-​refundable down payment for McCracken to complete a gut remodeling job of an older ranch home. The house was down to studs half of the first floor and the basement was unfinished. McCracken went with us room by room so we could make the floor plan in the basement and decisions designing the kitchen, master bathroom and closet, door ways for accessibility, flooring, cabinets, and fixtures.
We should have known to run when we were signing the deposit check and Curtis said something about our putting «one foot in the grave. The company had been working on the house when we made the contract and stopped within two weeks. Deadlines appeared arbitrary and were not met. Curtis was agreeable with our choices but did not write most down and many promises about details were not made. For example, the two old pocket doors were to be replaced with new pocket doors. We said that if there was a problem finding or making them, they could repaint what was there. I stopped by one day and one pocket door was changed to a doorless and narrower passageway between rooms. Two other doorways had been changed without consulting us and none were done with thought to daily use. For example, a light switch is now two feet from the 30 inch door whereas it had been placed properly for french doors. We have two doorways where I still reach for a light switch that is further down the wall.
Curtis readily agreed to a lengthy list of items that were to be done before closing date. A week later, siting a family emergency, he requested we give him a month after closing to complete the list. Since we felt pressed on time and moving, we agreed. Big mistake. A month after closing, little on the list had been done. We were told a few times that everything on the list would be completed in a day only for us to wait hours for one or two people to arrive and complete only a few items and they were not done well. We’re used to using Angie’s List providers and were sorely disappointed by the quality of work done by the McCracken team.
After they did a sink repair, the «repair» stripped the connection and resulted in water damage to the cabinet and floor, we had enough and I emailed Curtis that we simply wanted him to write us a check so we could have repairs done by professionals. Curtis was no longer responding to my calls or our realtors. I did get an email back from him stating that I’d agreed to have one of their repair people come to do more on the list but that was hours before I discovered that water was sitting then seeping from under the kitchen sink. Curtis asked for a fair settlement and I sent one but have had no further response from him or his company.
I could provide a lengthy time line and more detailed list of promises made and not kept, renovations agreed upon and not followed, shoddy work that surfaced months later, but I believe you have an idea of what you’d be working with if you entered a contract with McCracken.