I was pretty excited to finally make some improvements to the exterior of my house. I came across Nectar Spaces / Andrew Draper a year or so ago.
Andrew offered to do it all: New windows, new fence, painting 2.5 story stucco house, 2 sheds (large studio and small storage), concrete demolition, electrical, new deck, switching a window into a door and then, finally, landscaping (his license is a C-27 landscaping license).
I never wanted any landscaping since my goal was to do that myself since now I would have a yard to do it in after the concrete removal.
Since the only things that I had seen that he had done was the sheds and I didn't think painting and concrete demolition would be too much of a challenge, that's what I signed on for.
You see, foresight being equal to hindsight, I thought hiring professionals to install the new windows and fence would be a better idea. I was not comfortable with him doing anything inside of my house for one (the windows). With regards to the fence he could never measure the fence line correctly. At one point he had 're-measured' the area and came up with 80', when the actual footage was around 50'. Thankfully I heeded my own internal warning and went with fence and window professionals. (and both the windows and fence are AMAZING - windows under 1 day, fence 2 days - reviews on those companies to follow)
Let me just say the remaining projects have been beyond challenging. At what point does someone have to argue that a floor needs to be level? Seriously? In contrast to the shed's he has on both Facebook and his website Nectarspaces.com he chose OSB for the floor of both sheds instead of smooth plywood. This was seriously problematic in the large shed that I will be using as a studio. Because when it rained, as everyone in SD knew it would 4 days ahead of time, the floor was not protected and sat wet for 4 days (or more). With OSB, since it's similar to particle board, it expanded at the seams. Even without the floor becoming un-level (i could actually feel the joists under my feet) using OSB for a studio floor that I intended to paint is not esthetically pleasing. You can see the appearance of the chips. Amazingly, again, when he grudgingly agreed to fix this (PS i had to research and figure out how to fix this.. he felt he was done with the project) he chose plywood without the tongue and groove. He told me T & G plywood is atypical for flooring and he didn't see it at the store - which it's not - T & G is used mostly for flooring. Well, anyway, he did get the T & G but now there are huge nail holes that are left unfilled.
And the shed floor is just one of the many issues that I have had. But it's my favorite.
So.. what can I say? I guess True Review X said it best, landscaping of level areas are probably the most I would hire Andrew for.
Also, if you are looking for a shed.. i would look at both tuffshed.com and SoCalsheds.com, their prices are possibly better than Nectar Spaces and they offer warranties and ... and... installation of a couple days (my project turned from estimate of 2 weeks to over 5 weeks)
I would write more but now I need to: remove the gravel he left behind and an assortment of other tasks that have been left undone by Andrew. Does anyone on here know of any good handymen?
oh oh oh.. and i almost forgot to mention how he has bonded with my neighbors and not exactly sharing the love for me if you know what i mean. I guess like the American Express commercial says... that my dear.. is priceless. so remember, if you make him unhappy - it's very likely that your whole neighborhood will know. read more