So many problems with the house they designed and built for us in Maine. Overall, the house feels…read morelike a quality house, but there have been ongoing problems for years that they've never fixed that were under warranty including but not limited to: Major stonework mistake that could've been prevented had their subcontractor known how to work with the stone that was used. Their solution was to cover it with a faux finish which we refused. Ridiculous mistake in a bathroom that resulted in a destroyed slab of marble & an incorrectly installed tub. Truly awful lighting design that they failed to install properly. Mismatched cabinetry finishes. We had doors taken down to fix them, and they came back worse. Ridiculously poor communication in general happened. They assigned the wrong wood to cabinetry and then offered to do a faux finish to cover it. A faux finish. Dangerous falling snow and ice hazard on the roof near a doorway where they forgot to put snow hooks. Poorly designed landscape lighting plan so we've got an enormous electrical box right in our front lawn because they didn't wire it into the basement. No radon mitigation system installed, which meant our kids were poisoned the first year we lived there. Unbearable problems with heating and cooling. For the first two years we had no heating/cooling in our guest bedroom suite. And no heat in a child's bedroom. No one wants to help with that problem. There should have been more heating zones, we later found out. There may be a problem with how a radiant floor was installed (no heat coming out). All the doorknobs in the house had to be repaired multiple times. That's *every single* doorknob in the house. Finally they were replaced, after a year and a half chasing the subcontractor. We hired Knickerbocker, that is, we paid them extra, to be our project manager, but they have forced me to handle the things like this that had to be redone. The doorknobs are starting to fall apart again. Some of the replacements were not the same level of quality as what we originally paid for. Trim has been falling off since we moved in, in the kitchen and garage. Every few days we have to reattach it. Lights were installed incorrectly and we have to hire people to reinstall them. You won't see our house on their website. I suppose they're not proud of the work they did there. We aren't sure what happened when they were building for us, exactly, but I suspect it was a matter of problems in the organization with communication. When I would visit the construction site, I'd raise concerns about things I saw going on, and my concerns would be dismissed. This was the first house I ever built, so I know better now. Do not hire them to design without getting a commitment that you won't be dumped from one designer to the next. And do not hire them to project manage! They will not keep your costs on track at all! When I had to have my windows washed the first time after moving in, I got estimates from a handful of places nearby. The estimates ranged from about 450$ to 900$, with one at about 1800$. The 1800$ estimate crew said they'd done the windows on the house before, when Knickerbocker hired them to do a construction clean out. I don't know what was more shocking, learning that Knickerbocker hired the literally *most expensive possible window washers*, or that they had had the windows cleaned at all. Our house seemed clean but was actually filthy when we moved in. Every cabinet had sawdust in it, and all the filters in the HVAC system were thick with drywall. But they did windows. We did not deserve to end up with an over budget house that is full of mistakes for which nobody will take responsibility. I have not seen anything stunning about my home's design that makes me feel the sky-high cost was worth it. It's a pretty house, but it's a cold house, literally. It's a house where the doorknobs rattle loudly when you open a door, and things fall apart and have to be propped up again since we are not handy. If I could do it again it would've been with another company entirely.

Judy and the Mark Mueller architect group do not understand clients budgets. They cost me over…read more$6,000 of a uninspired plan I could never use, bids were over budget by $200,000 and they took no responsibility for it. They blamed 4 contractors bids to be over budget, not themselves. They wasted my time and money.

I began working with Tracy Davis at Urban Dwellings in Portland, Maine, in early August, 2018. The…read moregoal was to put a plan in place so that renovations could begin on my Old Port condominium in early October. Tracy assured me this was a realistic timeline, and she brought in a contractor who agreed to take the job. At our first meeting, I asked Tracy to explain how she was paid. She told me that her fees were exclusively hourly. There were no commissions on any goods or services she provides - any trade discounts she receives would be passed directly on to me. In fact, she explained, that's why hiring a designer is such a smart move - it often pays for itself in discounts! As weeks passed, there was little advancement on the project. Tracy sent a colleague to measure my place - nearly two weeks passed before I was contacted to look at the drawings. Tracy was out of town often, and the contractor began expressing concern to me and Tracy that without a plan in very short order, we would fall behind schedule. Tracy assured both of us she would have drawings and plans ready soon. Yet little was produced. This became a cycle. When documents did come in, they were laden with mistakes. Purchase orders were wrong - one for what was meant to be a refrigerator/freezer turned out to be an all-refrigerator unit. (This would not have been discovered until delivery, I am certain, had I not fired Tracy and taken over this part of the job myself.) Sketches were also wrong - a layout for the bar showed a sink installed over an under-counter bar fridge, a physical impossibility. In the kitchen, a 30" sink was incorrectly drawn into a 30" counter - the specs require a minimum of a 33" counter for said sink. Even basic material required by the City of Portland for permitting was unusable. The egress drawing had to be redone by another designer because the one drawn by Tracy was inadequate. After being strung along for several weeks - to the point where we were almost two months past the desired start date, I terminated my agreement with Tracy. To date, I had paid her $1800+ for the little she had done. She sent me a final invoice for nearly $9,000, but offered to "discount" it 25% as a "professional courtesy." She also cc:ed her attorney, essentially suggesting that if I didn't want to eat $6500+, she'd see me in court. She told that I could pick up some personal belongings of mine I left in her office as soon as the bill was paid. Yes - that's right - she held items that belonged to me hostage until I paid. You might wonder why, with such a strong case against her, I didn't fight this legally. Good question. Tracy's agreement indicates that the client is on the hook for her attorney's fees - whether or not suit is filed - in anything beyond a total loss for her. In other words, if a judge rules entirely in your favor but thinks you should reimburse Tracy for a postage stamp she purchased on your behalf, that would be a partial victory for her and you will be on the hook for all of her legal fees. A post-script: not only was the work shoddy, but once Tracy was fired and I began going through the purchasing process myself, I learned I had been misled on pricing, too. When I had specifically asked about some fixtures I was purchasing from Waterworks, itemized on Tracy's purchase order at over $5,000, and whether or not there was a discount included, Tracy told me Waterworks offers no discounts to the trade. I've since learned they offer a standard 25% discount to the trade. (The discount on these items alone came to over $1250.) And it wasn't just Waterworks - other suppliers' costs were discounted less than the actual amount of the discount offered. Good luck with your design projects - I wish you a smoother process than I had. Matt Roberts Portland, Maine