Short version: The worst experience imaginable. Nelson Lee lacks any attention to detail and is deceptive and abusive to both his employees and customers. Steer well away from this company.
The long version: Based on the recommendation of a friend, we had high hopes for Nelson Lee at the inappropriately named "Dream Kitchens" but our experience ultimately was one of the worst that my wife and I have ever had with a contractor. Nelson Lee misrepresents his company as being able to complete the highest end custom kitchen renovations but in reality, he is just a guy who can order cabinets with a loose association to a revolving cast of subcontractors who vary significantly in skill and attention to detail. Many of the pictures on his website it turns out are actually not kitchens that he did work on. A search of the Omega Cabinetry website does not list him as an authorized dealer. He is not a BBB accredited member. I wish we had known all this.
The red flags started on day one when plumbers and electricians showed up with no plans or idea what the new layout was. That's when my 2.5 months of full-time project management on our kitchen began, because it is clear that Nelson showed little interest in details. In week two when the cabinets were delivered it was discovered that Nelson had measured one wall incorrectly by 7 inches and placed our kitchen sliding door in the plans off by about as much. This led to base and upper cabinets that were too narrow on 2 of the three walls. Unfortunately for Nelson, I work at home and his employees were fond of using speakerphone to communicate to him the dimensional errors. They were instructed to "just put in blank spacers and filler" to make up the dimensional shortcomings and that "the homeowner will never notice" When we confronted Nelson about this he became verbally abusive to his employees, instructed them not to interact with my wife or I, then terminated one installer who was honest with us about the errors. It took many weeks to get Nelson to finally reorder the cabinets. The replacements came with unfinished ends that had been obviously spray-painted in the back room at Dream Kitchens to save Nelson a few bucks. When installing the replacements took longer than the day or two that he had budgeted, Nelson Lee accused the carpenter, who was trying to do things properly, of conspiring with us to drive up costs (!?) and then terminated him as well.
Ultimately, it became clear to us that Nelson Lee is ill-suited to the proper care and attention that a six-figure kitchen project requires, and he had no intention of completing the work to a reasonable standard. We terminated our involvement with him and hired a carpenter to complete the work. Despite paying Nelson Lee $72,874 for cabinets, sinks and countertops months ago, he has "reallocated" those funds to a 'slush-fund' invoice of misc install costs and is claiming we still owe for the countertops and sinks. My wife and I are looking forward to our day in court with Nelson, as are his former employees who will provide testimony on our behalf.
We've also incurred another $10,000 in costs to complete the kitchen. Our project began on January 5th after I had removed the old kitchen and set everything up perfectly for a quick and easy install. We did not have a working kitchen with a stove until April 30th. That's four months.
From our interaction with his former employees and other subs it became evident that he has had many unhappy customers in the past. Run his name though Better Business Bureau. Read the real Google and Yelp reviews. Ask yourself "How can Dream Kitchens have been in business so long and have so few detailed online reviews?"
Most importantly, don't repeat our bad experience with Nelson Lee. read more