Posts filed under 'K-Construction'
Kristof Pogorzelski of K-Construction has put a lien on our co-op. Despite their lack of communication, not completing their work, and doing electrical work that is not up to code, they feel they are owed money. We’ve hired a lawyer and we’re in the process of obtaining a bond against the lien. For those intrepid homeowners who are thinking of doing a renovation:
1) Don’t!
2) Insure that you have a lawyer review the contract before signing. Require that the contractor must sign a waiver of lien at each payment.
3) Recognize from the outset however much homework you do; you, as a client of the incredibly unregulated construction industry, will invariably be screwed.
September 30th, 2007
Last night was kind of horrible. Not only did we have to inform K-Construction that their contract was terminated; but we also had to confront the downstairs neighbor with the fact that we are not going to repair her deteriorating apartment, since our renovation work had a negligible impact on her already-decaying abode.
We met with Kristof last Thursday, and Luke went over point-by-point all the work that needed to be done, and made up a schedule for meeting deadlines. Then we gave him a new contract that stated that he needed to meet the deadlines for completion or incur financial penalties. We have not heard a word from him, so we called him last night to tell him that the contract is over. Meanwhile, we are scheduling a plumber, electrician, and woodworker to complete the work. Work by K-Construction for the month of June had trickled down to one worker coming over for about one hour once a week. We found this unacceptable, and did not want to continue in this manner. The bathroom is STILL incomplete–two pieces of mirror were not installed, nor the saddle grouted, nor the tile trim grouted at the top, nor two sets of hooks installed. It’s probably at most about a day’s work for two men, but it didn’t happen.
As far as the downstairs neighbor, the pictures say it all. The before picture was taken before we started construction.
July 10th, 2007
Must say something positive, despite kitchen, bathroom, electrical, and ceiling storage STILL being incomplete, instead of spiraling into insanity and extreme negativism towards K-construction for continuing to delay our job as if they were a slug-sloth hybrid rather than human beings.
So, the good thing is, we’ve not turned on the air conditioning at all this summer. True, it has not been an inordinately steamy summer thus far, but nevertheless; with the new windows, we have excellent cross breezes, and the few days that it has been very hot, it’s been cooler inside the apartment than outdoors. The second benefit of the windows is the light. I haven’t looked at the electric bill yet, but we do not have to turn on lights during the day at all (it was a necessity before, if one wished to use the kitchen) and can forego them until 8pm-ish (which will obviously change in the winter). We’ve also discovered, with clever arrangements of mirrors and interior windows at the top two foot perimeter of the bathroom walls, that the two tiny lights we have in the bathroom have expanded lumens due to all the reflected light.
July 3rd, 2007
…and such.
Because our plans were amended in January to retain the load-bearing wall rather than attempting the monumental task of rebuilding the structure with steel girders, we have now been held up–for more than a month now– in our task to have the plumbing inspection happen.
Our understanding, gathered quite piecemeal from phone calls with K-construction, is that the amended plans were not filed at the time of implementation, so now we’re going through the same process–seemingly–as initially having our original plans approved by the DOB, back in September ‘06, which dragged out for two months. The expediter, Sonia Dixon, neglected to obtain the actual perforated copies of the original approved plans from the DOB in November, and although those would have sufficed to proceed with the plumbing inspection (without the amendments); apparently since they are being requested now, four months after the fact, it is required that they be amended. Since they have to be amended, they have to be re-processed through the DOB as if they are brand-new plans again before the actual perforated copies of approval are granted by the DOB.
Once the perforated copies are in hand, the plumbing inspection can be scheduled. Once the plumbing inspection is passed, then closing up floors and walls can commence.
Can I just make a note here, that after originally trying to get our plans approved by the DOB, back in September ‘06 (with many delays and mistakes on Sonia Dixon’s part) that we asked the architect and the contractor whether we would be forced to use Sonia Dixon’s services again, and we were told, “No, no.” And furthermore, a huge part of our decision not to implement a steel superstructure to compensate for removing load-bearing walls was the fact that we could not countenance nor stomach the inevitable delays caused by the incredible incompetence of an “expediter” re-filing paperwork for DOB approval.
Therefore, only the smallest of moves are being made on-site. No windows, despite the fact that Kristof said they would be on-site last week. No response from him to my email asking for the status of the windows. No phone call arranging a visit to the veneer workshop. No workmen on site to accept the delivery of the kitchen range, despite a call from Luke to insure that someone would be there to sign for it.
And more troubling, our sublet is up and we are going to be forced to find a new living situation, albeit paid for by Kristof, since his mismanagement of his subcontractor, Sonia Dixon has unconscionably delayed our project.
March 30th, 2007
Here we are again, still focused on the plumbing inspection. We thought that this email, sent last Thursday, on 3.16.07 meant that the scheduled plumbing inspection was well on it’s way to being secured.
Dear Karyn,
>
> Papers were delivered to DOB same day as our meting 03/14/2007.
> I will keep you informed regarding plumbing inspection.
>
> All the best,
> Kristof
Friday, Monday, Tuesday, not a peep. Wednesday I looked on the DOB website to see what their policy is on scheduling appointments. This is what I found (emphasis, mine):
The following form can be used to schedule an appointment for a plumbing inspection. After submitting the form you will receive a control number and the information you provided will be e-mailed to the Plumbing Inspection Call Center. If you are not contacted regarding the date of the inspection within 24 hours, please contact the Call Center at (212) 227-2004. Inspection dates and times can be checked using the BISWeb.
This set off a barrage of calls to K-construction. If they had submitted the paperwork, why wasn’t the date in hand? Thursday, more calls, also to Dubravka and Sonia Dixon. Still no response from K-Construction or Sonia Dixon. Finally, this morning, three weeks after the start of requesting the plumbing inspection date, since it greatly impacts our ability to plan for living quarters for what we’ve now learned is an extra two months on the job–I really lost it. I finally got ahold of Kristof on the phone and we had an extremely tense conversation. It is still not entirely clear what went awry, but it has to do with the perforated DOB approvals that we were supposed to have in hand in November 06. All we know is, we had one long enough to make a photocopy of it, and Sonia Dixon took it back. It was never brought up again, until now. There is also something about the revised plans not being refiled.
I asked for dates. Realistic dates. It is March 23 today, so if whatever it is actually happens, the plumbing inspection should happen by April 6. That leaves three more weeks to do work in April, provided that the plumbing inspection does not fail. Then we’re into the month of May, our 7th month of work. We were told 6 weeks to complete the job!!! We thought more realistically, that it would be 3 months. We’ve extended our sublet twice, but our sublettor needs to get back in his apartment.
Kristof said that he will pay for our living expenses in the month of April.
March 23rd, 2007
As we try to untangle why the plumbing inspection is held up, K-Construction has continued doing work on the apartment. Today Joseph is getting all the glass for the interior windows. He spoke with Luke to confirm which glass is clear, and which glass is translucent (or acid-etched for privacy). Most of the ikea kitchen cabinets have been assembled, and some of the upper cabinets can be installed. Meanwhile, we have made calls to Kristof our GC, Dubravka our architect, and Sonia Dixon the expediter, about why the plumbing inspection has been derailed. There is also the matter of the missing perforated copies (approval for work) from the DOB. One copy is for us, one copy is to be onsite, and the third copy is for K-construction. Sonia Dixon gave us a copy; then took it back–ostensibly to obtain the other two copies–and never returned it. We have been hounding K-construction since March 5 about this issue.
March 22nd, 2007
I decided to look on the DOB website to find out how long it would take to get information on the scheduled appointment. Their website states 24 hours within dropping off the paperwork and filling out an application. Since this was supposedly done last Thursday, K-construction should have the date in hand and tell us what it is–which they have not done, despite multiple requests. I just spoke with Dana, and it seems that either the paperwork was not filled out properly by Sonia Dixon, or there was a problem with the plans. She is supposed to call me tomorrow with an update.
Still awaiting too, to hear about whether Joseph made contact with the veneer guy (Dubravka had volunteered to pick up the sample, but then said it wasn’t in the scope of her work after I took her up on it.). Additionally no solid information about the windows, despite many repeated requests. The hallmark of this renovation is ‘many repeated unanswered requests’ on the part of K-construction.
March 21st, 2007
We have a huge laundry list of minutiae-to-medium sized things to decide on, to purchase, to track, to keep on top of, to bug our contractor about… and it is manifesting itself in the form of brain drain, at least for me. Luke still seems pretty lucid. It would help dissipate my lassitude to see some more big moves– the bathroom tiled, the windows installed, kitchen floor installed; even one of these things would probably wake me up and make me more motivated. Right now, the sensation is that of a yawn on repeat… which will surely turn into hyperventilation as we have to move back into the apartment on March 31. We’ll have to go over to the site today and see what’s happened.
March 20th, 2007
Kristof was able to get the plumbing inspection paperwork over to the DOB yesterday. Now it is just a matter of securing a date for the actual inspection.
update 3.23.07: The paperwork was screwed up.
March 16th, 2007
At this juncture, it feels as though we are both so mouthwateringly close and so achingly far from completion. At any rate, we covered 17 topics in two hours, with Dubravka, Joseph, and Kristof, and it was very helpful to have all of them present. The mood was upbeat, despite a few issues. The newly drywalled walls were scribbled on to illustrate various points (although I used a pen instead of a pencil, which earned mock anger from Joseph, since it creates bleed through. I didn’t know!) And Luke’s faux pas was to squeeze through a freshly plastered opening…resulting in white plaster blotches on his bum.
The major hold up is the plumbing inspection, which is being held up by the expediter, Sonia Dixon. Dana, K-construction’s really lovely aide-de-camp, personally drove documents back and forth for Sonia, and yet Sonia is not releasing the completed documents for some unknown reason. Kristof is planning to go to her office today to wrest the paperwork from her and take it to the DOB so that the plumbing inspection can be scheduled. It could take 3 days or 2 weeks to schedule the inspection once the paperwork is filed.
Interjection here: If there is one thing we have learned in this process, it is to deeply mistrust “Expediters” of paperwork, since we’ve now been burned by two of them. Theirs is a woefully misnamed profession–or perhaps most ironically named, since our experience of their functionality has been diametrically opposite of their stated purpose to actually “expedite”! “Withholders” or “Procrastinators” would surely be more accurate monikers.
March 15th, 2007
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