We had used Daniel Mackey and his team for the design process of our remodel and had actually planned to use him for the construction part, but more on that later. To say the least, we were disappointed by the entire process and poor communication. The scope of the project involved a major remodel of the master bedroom and the kitchen and dining area. During the design process, we repeated ourselves on numerous occasions what budget we had in mind, but at no point did Daniel or his team properly communicate whether the concepts we had in mind were within the budget. In addition, we were the ones maintaining the project schedule and pushing Daniel to speak to the next steps of the design process. He would typically respond with a "Yeah, that's probably the next thing you should do," rather than having his team or himself guide us through the design process. And when we finally came to a design that we thought was acceptable, he provided us an estimate of the remodel that was twice our stated budget. What was worse was when we asked for ways to reduce costs in order for the project to be within our budget, he would not provide us with a very basic itemized list that would allow for us to appropriately determine what aspects of the remodel we did not need included.
Unfortunately, due to a poor working relationship, we had to part ways. We paid in full for the design process, but the drawings he provided us with were inadequate, and we soon discovered that his design ideas were not considered great. We ended up hiring a separate architect who admonished his drawings and had to basically start from scratch. The architect also said that his designs lacked a lot of straightforward design sense with regards to proper work flow in the kitchen and spacing in the bathroom. Moreover, the dimensions on his drawings were incorrect and they lacked a lot of the detail, including entire sheets, that the city would have required for permits.
What I found the most disconcerting was when we did part ways, he became extremely unprofessional and infuriated. He yelled at me stating that "he had been doing this since the day I was born and I had no idea what I was talking about. He did not need to listen to me."
Honestly, I would stay away from design-and-build firms, especially Daniel Mackey. We were able to hire a separate architect and a contractor, who we are happy with, for half the price. True, there is more legwork you would have to do on your own, but we found it to be much better to have experts at designing and building separately, rather than a single person who is not even considered mediocre at either.
In conclusion, I would stay away from Daniel Mackey Construction for his lack of professionalism, high prices, poor designs, poor communication skills, and poor project management abilities. read more