Nightmare Renovation in North Raleigh: Importance of Licensed Contractors & Permits

In this episode of Chicks in Construction, hosts Mikki and Jess dive into a harrowing North Raleigh renovation story that underscores the importance of hiring licensed general contractors, obtaining permits, and not prepaying large sums of money upfront. They highlight a homeowner's ordeal with a fraudulent GC who left numerous structural and compliance issues unchecked, leading to significant financial and emotional stress. Tune in to learn vital tips on how to protect yourself in construction projects and ensure your renovations don't turn into a nightmare.

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
00:50 Upgraded Studio Setup
04:53 Summer Break and Camp A
05:29 The Nightmare Renovation Begins
07:46 Unlicensed Contractor Issues
08:29 Importance of Permits and Inspections
15:18 The Inspection Fiasco
25:34 Deck Disaster Unfolds
26:27 Crawlspace Conundrum
28:40 Kitchen Catastrophe
30:36 Inspection Issues
33:10 Legal Battles and Resolutions
44:18 Lessons Learned
47:33 Final Thoughts and Farewell

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Creators and Guests

Host

Jessica Abreu

As a social media expert, Jessica has a knack for identifying what makes each business unique and translating that into powerful, engaging content that resonates with clients and customers. From crafting tailored strategies and managing accounts to recording on-site content and boosting engagement, Jessica and her team handle it all so their clients can focus on what they do best.

Host

Mikki Paradis

President & CEO at PDI Drywall Inc. Mikki founded her first construction company, PDI Drywall Inc, in 2005 while she was still a student at NC State. After growing PDI into a multimillion dollar company, she has become an accomplished entrepreneur, speaker, and advocate for innovation in business and leadership. With a passion for empowering others, she has built a reputation as a forward-thinking professional dedicated to driving growth and fostering meaningful connections. Known for her dynamic energy and ability to inspire, Mikki is deeply committed to creating positive change in her industry and beyond. Whether through her entrepreneurial ventures or speaking engagements, she consistently challenges the status quo and encourages others to reach their full potential.

What is Chicks in Construction?

You plan your renovation with excitement, trust your contractor, and hope for the best...until things start going sideways. That’s when most homeowners realize they didn’t know what they didn’t know.

From permits that were never pulled to “contractors” who ghost after demo day, the construction world can feel like a maze of hidden costs and shady shortcuts. Too many homeowners end up confused, overwhelmed, and out of a lot of money.

The Chicks in Construction Podcast is here to change that. Hosted by Mikki Paradis, a licensed general contractor with 20+ years of experience, and Jess Aper, a homeowner turned construction content creator, this show breaks down real renovation horror stories and teaches you how to protect your time, money, and home

This isn’t just another DIY podcast or contractor interview show. Mikki and Jess pull back the curtain on what goes wrong in home projects, translating industry talk into plain English and giving you practical steps to avoid common (and costly) mistakes.

After building a multimillion-dollar drywall business and helping countless homeowners recover from construction nightmares, Mikki is on a mission to make sure you go into your next project informed, not blindsided. And Jess brings the perspective of someone who’s been in your shoes and now knows exactly what questions to ask.

Want to renovate smarter and spot red flags before they wreck your project? Hit follow and get ready for real talk, expert advice, and stories that will make you say, “Thank God I listened to this first.”

Submit Your Construction Horror Story: https://chicksinconstruction.com/

15 Chicks in Construction
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Mikki: [00:00:00] Hey guys. Today on Chicks in Construction, we're talking about a North Raleigh renovation that turned into a nightmare.

Look, you

Jess: wouldn't get into an Uber with someone if you found out the driver didn't have a license, and that's just a ride home, not your actual home. We'll talk about how you can check to make sure that your general contractor is licensed, why you should never skip your permits or inspections. And the problem with prepaying $25,000 when your contractor gives you a sob story about he's a bit short on paying his crew Listen, learning the hard way is overrated.

Mikki: So let's get into it.

Mikki: hello and welcome back to another episode of Chicks in Construction. I'm your host, Mickey Paradise, and this is my co-host and Jessica Abram, and you might notice friends and [00:01:00] family, folks, friends, subscribers, all of you.

Please subscribe. We'd be, we'd be looking fancy up in here. You are very fancy. You might notice for those of you who have written me saucy emails about how bad my lighting sound and camera angles are, that my lighting sound and camera angles are much better. So much better. And that because we are in a podcast studio.

So, yeah. Your criticisms were received, not politely. Okay. And here we are now in a podcast studio and I hope you're enjoying how professional we look because oh my God, today, look at us. Look at us. We're amazing.

Jess: We're, we're, thank you so much for, thank you so much for commenting that we needed to.

Right. Thank you for lighting the fire under

Mikki: my behind because I was offended and it, it really wasn't, it really wasn't even like, like they meant the guy who who said it meant to offend. He [00:02:00] really was like coming from it as like a videographer perspective. Mm-hmm. And I just think like had a little loosey goosey of the mouthy.

Mm-hmm. And he was like, oh yeah, I, I could barely edit this. The camera angles are terrible. You only have one camera. You know, the lighting is horrible, the sound. And I was like. Thanks. Cool, thanks. So I was doing that in my basement also. I'm a drywall contractor, so maybe. Calm down a little bit. My guy. Uh, take it down a notch.

A little weird. Everybody's gotta be upset about something everybody does. And that's fun because I was a guest on a podcast here and I was like, oh, ho, we're moving. I was like, it's done. The deal is done. I was like, Joe, get ready because I'm gonna be all up in your podcast studio. We're doing it. And here we are.

And here we are. And look at this. It's great. It's nuts, sauce. It's amazing. It is amazing. So, and you

Jess: did a great job getting

Mikki: the background here. I did. Uh, I will, [00:03:00] I'm gonna say I loaded everything into the, my, my vehicle. 'cause Hector took the truck to work that day of all the days. It was that day, that day that he took the truck.

Of course, of course. Um, so I loaded them in, into the Rivian. I have a Rivian, SUV. Uh, if you're wondering, I'm real big into electric vehicles, mostly because I hate gas stations. I don't know, I don't know if you've ever had a weird experience at a gas station, but if you have, you know, just go electric, you can plug it into your house.

Anywho. Um, so I loaded all the, the, the panels and everything into the car, and Hector pulls up right as I've got everything loaded in and I was like, Dr. I looked like I had just done. A cardio blasts at F 45. I was covered. Oh my gosh. That orange theory place where like if you don't sweat you get yelled at.

Yeah. That it was intense. So he shows up right at the very end, loads the. Loads the, um, chairs in. You're like, thanks for the help. And I was like, you're getting them [00:04:00] out of my car. And he, of course, he gets them out and makes it, doesn't even bring a sweat. And I was like, rude. So like, we brought our, we brought our stuff and we're here and we're here now and it's amazing.

We're very excited. Joe says that people probably might not notice, and if you don't notice this setup, I will fight you. Yeah, call me me. Comment down below and we're gonna go full 50 cubs. You better notice this and I don't care if this is your first episode. Go watch the other ones and notice the, so the improve.

See how much better this is because you gotta, you gotta check it out. I will fight you. So yeah, guys, we're profesh. I've got a mug of water, just so you know, in case you thought it was something else. It's not. Uh, we're hydrating. Hold on, let me take a sip.

Jess: I gotta stay hydrated. Gotta stay hydrated. Warm in here.

It's a big thing.

Mikki: It's a big thing. So yeah, that's what I was doing. Jess has been gone for a minute. She has kids and summertime and kids equals You [00:05:00] see your friends a lot less. Yeah, I'm running. Unless you have kids and then, and then you can join in the festivities. But because I just got them dogs, it was like, all right Jess, we'll see you after summer.

Jess: Yep. I've been doing like camp counselor, like camp counselor. I call it camp A. Everybody asks me like, what do you do with your kids in the summer? I'm like. Camp a camp A. We're swimming, we're doing schoolwork. You guys do

Mikki: all the stuff.

Jess: We do all the things. Well, I have to keep them busy. 'cause I'm not a homebody, so I can't stay in house.

Yeah, you're like never at home. I'm like, no. So you hear that we've been here, there and everywhere, but I am excited to get into another horror story that Oh yeah, you are actually a part of this time. Right? This is

Mikki: the juice. This is the tea, this is the biscuits. Okay. It's all the things. Um, so. I got called in and this has happened to me multiple times.

I don't know why. Well, I do know why. I think it's because I give off a massive amount of just completely. [00:06:00] Unearned confidence is really, people are like, Mickey absolutely has to know what she's talking about in all things, and I'm like, of course I do. Expert of everything, everything. So even though on this show I have spoken, I have said several times, several that I am a licensed gc, but I do not use my gc.

I still get people that call me and they want me to consult on like the problems that they're having with their gc and I'm like, well, I do know about Bad GCs so we can spot all the problems. We're like, listen, this is what the whole podcast is about. My guy. So I get this call from a woman, she's local and she honestly, it's like, oh, it's, this is, it's like why I started this podcast because it's like the quintessential, are you kidding me?

Story when it comes to GCs. Um, so she has this house in like an older neighborhood in, in like kind of [00:07:00] outside downtown Raleigh. And it wa she's been there for like 20 years. It's original to like, I don't know when it was built. Uh, it a hot minute ago. Um, and so she herself is very hands on and has done a lot of like little renovations here and there, but she's like, you know what?

I love to cook and I love to host people and like the layout of my kitchen doesn't make any sense. And so I really decided I was gonna like do, like, do a brand new kitchen. Okay. So she reaches out to a friend who's GC and, but they were a commercial gc and they were like, Hey, I can't help you, but I used to work with this guy who was a gc.

Let me connect you. Okay. Unfortunately. The guy who was a GC actually was just telling people he was a gc. He wasn't actually a licensed general contractor. Oh no. Yeah. And that is, I love when people use

Jess: G like I'm a gc, and then you [00:08:00] ask them a few more questions about like what they actually do and can do, and they're like, oh, do you mean licensed gc?

It's like. Of course. That's what I mean. I wanna know if you have a license to do the work that you're going to do. Right? Right. We're not just using ge. This

Mikki: isn't Texas as Beyonce says, this ain't Texas. Or does she say, this is Texas? I don't know. But this isn't Texas. We have a licensing board. If you're a general contractor, you need to be licensed.

And here, here's the thing I learned, so. If you're a licensed general contractor, you have to do continuing education. And so I just finished my last continuing education class last week and they were like, put it in bold text on the screen. They're like, there's two things you need to know if you project is over $40,000.

You have to have a gc, like the whole rule where like Like a license. The [00:09:00] homeowner. A licensed, well, yes, a licensed GC because anything over $40,000 triggers needing the license. So like not just a gc. If you have a project and it's over $40,000, they have to have a license. If you have a project that's over $40,000 and there is a structural element to it.

And that is a very vague term that they did intentionally. So I think it like if, if you are moving a light fixture, that triggers needing a permit. So they're making it very clear, oh one, if you're doing anything other than 40 K, you need a licensed general contractor. And two, if you are moving anything, if you're doing anything structurally, you need a permit.

So I'm like. Clarification. I hot, hot off the press people. You need a, you need a license GC now,

Jess: now with the project, is [00:10:00] that all the materials to labor? 'cause I know some general contractors try to say it's every, the only

Mikki: thing, and I ask this question because so many people be like, oh, it doesn't include the materials.

Yes it does. The only thing. Got it, got you. The only thing it doesn't include is the cost of the land, but it does include the cost to. Get the land buildable. Okay? So if you have to spend, if you buy the land, okay, that doesn't count into your total. But if you have to spend $50,000 to clear the law and get the dirt ready and all that jazz that goes into the cost.

The only thing that doesn't factor in is cost of land or a cost of doing work that is like public right of way. So like if. You needed to work at a turn lane to a street. Oh, okay. That would not fall under your Yeah, and I don't think many home, and it would cost $9 million. Yeah. I don't think many homeowners are.

It might throw [00:11:00] off the project, the budge just a bit. It would be adding a turn lane. They had to do that on naturally on one of our apartment complexes. And when I found out the cost to put in a turn lane, I almost had a heart attack. I was like, you know what? I'm about to meet the Lord. You better get off those paddles 'cause I need to be defi defied defi me.

Oh my goodness. Okay, so this guy, okay, back the story.

Jess: He's not a real licensed

Mikki: general contractor. The guy recommends, the friend recommends this guy because this guy has always said that he was a licensed general contractor. And this is where like. When to the homeowners, when somebody recommends somebody, don't just land.

Like leave it at that recommendation.

Joe: Mm-hmm.

Mikki: Before you hire them. Um,

Jess: and now I'm always checking. Yeah. It's real quick. Google search, um, the state that you're in, Licens for the licensing board. Yeah. And then type in their name. Yeah. And if nothing pops up. Run.

Mikki: Run. Yeah. Like don't [00:12:00] walk, run. So that's the thing too, is, is like every state has a license.

Well, every state except for Texas. Because in Texas you don't have to have a license. Every state that requires a license will have a licensing board and you can go onto their licensing board and search for a general contractor. You can search by their name, you can search by the company's name, you can search by address.

Like they give you every opportunity to really check and make sure this person is actually licensed. But unfortunately. This woman took the, you know, just kind of took it and, and I don't necessarily blame her. This is why we do the show, right? Mm-hmm. So that. You watch, you learn. You're like, okay. Note to self, if a friend recommends a gc, actually check that they're licensed because so many people represent themselves as general contractors when they do not have a license.

That it is honestly alarming. I think that's one, one thing that has blown you away. Throughout the chicks in construction process is like shocking. It's crazy to me.

Jess: How many [00:13:00] people just say that they're a general contractor and I've actually had people contact me to wanna be on the show. Yeah. And then you just get into it a little bit and they're like, oh no, I'm not not licensed.

Do you watch our show? Like, um, I'm sorry. Do you boo? Um, right. We ain't having, but I cannot shenanigan on the show. We're not promoting that. No. And yeah, I have definitely learned so much from, from doing this show. And I know that if I'm a homeowner who had no idea that there are so many more of us out there who just have no idea that you just don't know that you can quickly find if they have a license or if.

They're, you know, quality, not just going by, you know, a Facebook group or Yeah. A review that you see on the internet, because,

Mikki: you know, I even think there's a way to check. Don't quote me on this 'cause it was a while ago that I heard about it. But I think there's actually a [00:14:00] way within like, for at least for our county, that you can pull, like go, go down to where the permits are pulled and find out how many active permits.

A general contractor has pulled, um, which, which kind of sig signif is, it signifies one, they're pulling permits, so Yay. That's great. Step one. They pull permits, but two. Okay. They're on, they're on multiple projects. Like, so, you know, you can kind of infer what you want from that. But if you, if you were to go and, and, and see that a general contractor hadn't pulled a single permit.

That's a problem. 'cause they're gonna try to talk you out of p pulling permits. So,

Jess: or they're brandy new and they have no idea what they're doing. Oh, yeah. Or

Mikki: they, this is day one and they just have a bang in a bang in website.

Jess: Yeah.

Mikki: Um, so, so then what happened? So sh she had a kind of a galley style kitchen.

Okay. It had a wall that between the living room and the kitchen and the wall needed to come out, but it was structural. [00:15:00] Mm-hmm. So she very smartly. Went ahead and hired a structural engineer, um, to design like what needed to be done in order to be able to remove that wall. And it involved some, some framing up in the attic and then adding an extra footer, um, adding like a, like a beam.

And so that was all done, but the GC didn't have it inspected. Of course, course. 'cause they didn't actually do it right. So they like followed the drawings, but not really, and then covered everything up so that

Jess: no would know.

Mikki: I don't know. I like, I, I think about this story and like, I know our permitting department and I know most of the inspectors in our, in our county.

Um, and this, this one, there's, there's a female inspector that obviously I, [00:16:00] because she's a female, I know of her because people, women, if you're a woman in construction, it's like we all know each other naturally 'cause there's five of us. So people will be like, oh, do you know so and so? And I'm like, oh yeah, that's my boo.

But so she was the inspector assigned to this? This house, and she comes in and listen. She, she don't miss a beat. So she comes in to do the inspection, which by the way, the homeowner called in,

Jess: the homeowner called in the inspection.

Mikki: Yes. Not the general contractor. So the homeowner insisted on inspections.

Mm-hmm. Thanks to her friend that, you know, gave her the referral, very sadly, gave her the referral to the really crappy GC that was not a gc. But the, the one thing, they were like inspections, you know, protect you, like you have to get inspections. Mm-hmm. So she understood she needed inspections. So the, the, the GC tried to talk her out of it, but she wasn't having it.

Um, and so [00:17:00] she calls it in for inspection. The general contractor gets notice because he's on the, you know, the inspection card, and so he gets an email notice that the inspection's been scheduled, and he calls the homeowner freaking out. I mean, well now that's gonna be a huge red flag.

Jess: The

Mikki: huget of red flags.

Jess: Like if your general contractor is freaking out about being inspected, they must have done something wrong. Something

Mikki: has gone awry, so. The, the homeowner is like, and he's, he is very aggressive. Like the way she describes this was like she was a little bit afraid for her safety. My God. He was losing his mind, like talking about, oh, you wanna be the general contractor now.

You wanna act as the general contractor, you know, it's my job to call in the inspections. And she's like, but you haven't called in an inspection. And they covered everything up. Almost done. And none of this has [00:18:00] been inspected and we have, she like her, her, she was shocked by his response because like, they did the right thing as far as she knew.

They got the structural engineer, which she, she paid for all of that. Like they had the drawings, like, right, all you have to do is build the thing to, the drawings, have it inspected and we're good. So when he sees that the inspection has been, has been called in, he loses it. He tries to manipulate her.

Tries to quit. Um, all the stuff and what, mind you, a little back, a back hop about two weeks before this inspection gets called in. Um, he comes to her and he tells her. That he's on this other job and they're not paying, and oh my God, you know, he can't pay his guys. Is there any way that she can, you know, 'cause they were getting close to the end.

Is there any way that you could just, you know, pay the rest that's [00:19:00] owed And it was like $25,000.

Jess: So now listen, I have a bleeding heart for people too.

Mikki: Yeah,

Jess: I understand that. Not everybody has. The money. And with doing construction, a lot of it can be, you know, waiting and stuff. But at $25,000. Yeah. Like if you can't pay your guys, that's like a thousand dollars.

Right? Do you have 25 guys? Right. Like, where are they? Why aren't they on the job? Right? Why aren't they doing all this work? So is that when, when contractors come to you and say that they can't pay their guys. Red flag and try to get more money from you. Is that like a major, like you shouldn't give them more, you should stick to the pay schedule.

And I also

Mikki: think, and this is just speculation, but I also think he wouldn't have done it to a man because I think a man would've been like, sounds like a you problem, my guy. You know? Like, I don't think a, I don't think [00:20:00] he would've done it to a man. But he used it. But I think he thought, oh, a woman's gonna feel bad for my guys.

And she's, and, and unfortunately she did. She did. Yeah. So reinforced that, you know, that stereotype, very manipulative. And then it was like, oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. And then nobody shows up for, for two weeks. So that's why she scheduled the inspection. 'cause she was like, I don't know what's going on.

Can't get ahold of this guy. I want my kitchen. I know, I know the work has been done. Let's at least call the inspection in. See what the inspector says. Goodness. Then she gets the call from him and he is like so irate that she was scared. Like she literally called a friend and was like, can you come spend the night at my house because I'm afraid that this guy's gonna come to my house?

Like she was terrified. So what did the inspector find? Because now I'm dying to know God have Lord have the mercy first of all, he didn't even build any of the structural things, the structural [00:21:00] components. that were on the paper, two on the paper. To the specifications of the paper. So there was supposed to be a footing that was, that goes in it it like it's a load transfer thing, but it goes in your basement.

Okay. And basically, if you're moving a load from one point to another. That load was sitting on a footer, which is in your basement. Well, now we need to move that load and where, where we're moving, the load doesn't have a footer, so we have to put a footer in. So it's aqua beam type thing. It's like basically you dig 12 inches down.

It's like 12 by 12. Okay. And depends on what the structural engineer says. So it could be a 24 by 24, whatever, just depends on what the plans say. Mm-hmm. You dig that out? Here's the, the process of inspection in Raleigh, North Carolina. You dig out the footing. Okay. You have the dugout footing inspected so that they can see that it's deep enough.

Mm-hmm. That it's the right size according to the drawings. So the empty footing gets inspected. Now does that sound like paint in the in the [00:22:00] rum pump pump? Sure. Yeah. But you want to make sure your footing is the right depth and the right. They, they check to make sure that it's the right kind of concrete.

Like there's a lot that goes into this. It's a structural part of your house. It's really important.

Jess: Yeah. You don't want your house to fall down, right? Because your footing right is not properly done. So

Mikki: you have, you have that, that the hole inspected. Okay. Then you, they come in, they fill and, and when it's just a, a single footing, they just mix the concrete by hand.

They fill it in, and then once that's dry, they can build. The rest of how the structural engineer speced the, the, the, the support column to be. Okay. So sometimes they'll say, you know, masonry block. Sometimes they'll say that it needs to be a specific kind of wood. Mm-hmm. Um, homeboy don't do none of that.

He's like, I know how to dig a footing. I know how to fill, put concrete in a hole. I got this. I don't need no inspector. So he digs the, the footing. At least I [00:23:00] guess we could say at least he did this, my God. But then decides why waste money on like masonry blocks when there's a bunch of old bricks? No, he didn't.

Laying around

Jess: in the cross. No, because the masonry brick is so expensive. Right? A masonry

Mikki: blog.

Jess: Like

Mikki: they're 52 cents at Lowe's. Now, I don't know, with inflation and tariffs, they could be, could be a dollar a dollar 52 right now, but like, it was one footing that at at best would've needed like four or five masonry blocks.

But this guy's like, nah. Look at, look at us. Reduce, reuse, recycle my guy. He just went around her freaking house

Jess: and found bricks and found old ass bricks, like not even that. Probably could just like, oh, crumble, crumbling. Oh my. They were left over from the

Mikki: construction of her home. No, no. And he stacks the bricks.

Doesn't use a mortar. Nothing just stacked the bricks in his [00:24:00] leg. Boom, footing. Woo. Did it. So that was

Jess: that. So the, the engine engine, the, I can't, I would love to see the inspector's face, oh god. When this happened.

Mikki: So I know this inspector and I can imagine like the look on her face was professional 'cause she keeps it cool.

Okay. Especially with like the homeowners. Mm-hmm. Like when she's on a multi-family job, she will. Rain fire. Mm-hmm. Because you know, they're supposed to know what they're doing when she's dealing with a homeowner. Like she understands that like, she's gonna be nice. This poor homeowner is, has

Jess: no

Mikki: idea the world of hurt that she's my God exposed to.

She's very game face, but she goes, okay. So none of the structural things that you had. A structural engineer. Engineer have been done correctly. The inspection process wasn't done correctly. And now some inspectors in this case would leave because it's like you've already failed the [00:25:00] inspection. Right? Why waste time going through everything to find more things?

But I would be this case, excuse making

Jess: you point out every single thing that done wrong. She did. Oh, she did went. I mean, we must be everything.

Mikki: It was literally everything. Um, he didn't pull a permit for the deck, so it was a 20 by 20 foot deck. He did not pull a permit. Oh my God. Now she had an existing deck that was about six foot by like mm-hmm.

Four feet. It was a baby deck. It was like a, it was like a Romeo, Juliet type of, of a deck. Right. And she's making it bigger. And she made it bigger by a triple. Yeah. Uh, I'm not, you know, math isn't my strong point, but let's just say triple. She tripled the size of her deck. It required footings, our favorite thing, and they probably have done wrong too, which didn't get dug, no.

Or inspected. Um, and also the way when they extended the deck, it covered her crawlspace access door, [00:26:00] and so. That it there, that, that, that access door needs to have certain levels of clearance, which of course the deck in infringed upon the clearance. So in order to get into the crawlspace, I may have to attic access door, but I meant crawlspace access door.

No, you said crawlspace. Sorry. Yeah. I'm using all the brain cells that I have today and it's not many. Okay. It's Tuesday. Calm down. Um. So that cross space access door is supposed to have a certain level of clearance. Mm-hmm. And because they would've had to raise the deck, which then would have raised it past the door threshold, they just said, you know what, we're just gonna go right, right across the cross space access.

And you would think the plan was, oh, we'll just move the cross base access store. No, they didn't do that. They just left it. So you literally have to like. Crawling your hands and knees. Imagine like how a seal like

Jess: slides. I was [00:27:00] hoping that you're going to visually try this out because that that is gold right there.

And so if you're only listening to this podcast, I highly recommend you go to YouTube. Check those out on YouTube because check out that. And she keeps doing it. It's amazing. Amazing. It's like, you know what? You know who does it? It's a penguin. When a penguin's like going down, like, yes, please. Please visually show us that again.

It's a penguin. Or dying. It's a penguin. And now I'll never be able to see a penguin again. Not think of Mickey. You'll

Mikki: never think of without thinking of major in Penguin. So essentially that's the only way to get into this lady's cross base is penguin. Um, that is a okay. Is a massive. Do you need, do you need a sip?

Do you need a

Jess: sip? I think, I think I need to, I gotta take a sip. After

Mikki: that, she wasn't expecting me to bring out the penguin, but here we are in the new studio. We're pulling out all the stops. Oh,

Jess: Lord. Lord. So, okay. So [00:28:00] we have no access to the crawlspace, so there's no

Mikki: access to the crawlspace. No footing.

The deck didn't get inspected at all. No permit was pulled. There was no footings. Um. It wasn't, oh, it wasn't actually attached to the house, so it was just a free floating deck. Like the wind could have moved it and it would no longer be attached to the deck. It was just hanging out for a good time.

Jess: He didn't put it to the house.

He didn't attach it to the house. I mean, you know, that seems like a small detail, you know, just.

Mikki: Minor.

Jess: Minor. A

Mikki: minor a minute if you will, detail. So it wasn't attached to the house. My gosh,

Jess: I can't even imagine what he did to her poor kitchen then.

Mikki: Oh God. So she wanted to have like this, she didn't move.

Well, I don't know. She might've moved the sink. I'm not sure. She probably had to, if it was a gallery kitchen, she definitely added like a bigger, like, you know, the dream sink. Mm-hmm. For me, it's the dream sink because it's like the, you can fit many [00:29:00] dogs in the sink and wash them all at the same time. I mean, not optimist Prime.

He has his own shower. Downstairs, like a human-sized shower for my 250 pound English mastiff. Mm-hmm. But all the other ones, I have this dream of having one of those farm sinks where you can just put all your dogs in there and just wash 'em all at the same time. Do the chaos at once instead of one at a time.

You just rinse 'em. Anyway, I digress. She did have, she did get that. Yeah. The beautiful farm sink and then the, the, what was supposed to go in was one of those huge picture windows, I think, where she could like put plants and stuff. Ooh. I mean, who doesn't want that? Um, that window never happened. So he claimed that he ordered that window and it was like a $1,200 window, um, and that it never came in.

And, and he just installed what came in instead of like going to her and being like, Hey, a little bit of a problem. He just installed the window that came in, which was probably a $300 window from Lowe's

Jess: and [00:30:00] like. Where did that extra

Mikki: $700 exactly go? That she had already paid him because she had paid him in full, because he played the song and dance and unfortunately she fell for it.

Joe: Mm

Mikki: mm-hmm. So when, because the window opening got bigger, that was supposed to be inspected, didn't get inspected. Um, the sink Did, I think this, there was plumbing that, that was supposed to be inspected. Mm-hmm. Didn't get inspected. Of course not. Electrical that had been done, didn't get inspected. So basically the inspector goes through and.

Writes up all the stuff, the structural stuff didn't get done, all of this stuff. There was no permit pulled, none of it was inspected. Mm-hmm. Everything that was covered up had to be the drywall and had to come down so that they could see the structural framing members and make sure that everything was framed correctly.

Um, so not necessarily [00:31:00] like making the ki Kitchen non-functional, but it's, but like in certain places, taking it back to like demo phase, oh my god. Um, I will say to this homeowner's credit, like when she called me in, this woman had more photos of than any like this. She had like crime scene photos. Like she had photos of every single thing that they did in that kitchen, and she was telling me, she was like, you know.

I, because I asked her, I was like, were you worried about like what they were doing? Mm-hmm. And she was like, no. I was just so excited. She was like, I just, it was in the group chat. Like I was sharing all these pictures with my family and my friends because like, oh, the, she was so excited. The new hardwood floor was going in today.

And oh, we, you know, this, that and the other. And, uh, the kitchen turned out beautiful. I will give her some, some credit that she. [00:32:00] Went out and, and found the cabinet company that she liked to the best and, and ordered the cabinets through them. So he just installed them. Um, did he do that correctly?

Jess: Were they, were they actually attached to a wall?

Were they free floating? They were attached to the, maybe cabinets. He didn't

Mikki: even install them. Maybe she paid for the cabinet company to install because they were perfection, and she went like. Mid-century modern. Ooh. So she went with this like beautiful wood and it was just like earth toned wood with the white countertops that kind of, did they do the, this thing where it's called, um.

Water falling where it goes all the way down the cabinet. It's a chef's kiss, let me tell you. And then instead of doing a backsplash, she just did the same countertops all the way up the wall. I mean, this, she's ready to party in this kitchen. Amazing. Like she could get pasta sauce everywhere and it would be fine.

There's no grout anywhere. Anywhere. That's awesome.

Joe: So

Mikki: [00:33:00] luckily, like none of that stuff had to come down.

Joe: Mm-hmm.

Mikki: But like all of these things that she paid him. I think it was about $50,000.

Jess: So then what happens? 'cause obviously like you don't want him to continue doing the work because he's doing it all wrong, girl.

Mikki: It gets so spicy. So he gets, and you've paid him all this money. Yes.

Jess: So then what happens?

Mikki: So of course she didn't want him to come back, especially after the yelling because she was very freaked out. But she had also paid him all the money and none of it had been done. Right. And a lot of stuff was gonna have to be undone.

She's gonna have to bring in other people. Right. Especially for that structural stuff, because it couldn't wait like it needed to be done that way for a reason because now we've got Right. Her house is gonna fall down. Right. Pretty much. And that was her big fear was that the house would just, the, the kitchen essentially ceiling was gonna fall in.

Um, so. It gets so spicy. So you can't do this. And just in [00:34:00] Wake County, this is not a thing, but you can try and get people fired if you want, but it's not a thing, and I don't recommend. So homeboy must have known somebody in the inspections department because he gets his name removed from her permit ticket.

Once the permit, like once the, the, the failure. Gets reported. It all goes online and it is epic. It is like this is gonna be, I was, I was reading it going, I wouldn't be surprised if the next time we do our continuing education, 'cause they'll use like real life case studies, right. I'm like, this is gonna be.

Jess: An example of a real life case study of like, so the person who removed it can probably be fired, right? Well, they did get fired. Oh, well there you go. Yeah. You're gonna get caught. Yeah. Don't do dirty work. You're gonna

Mikki: get caught Stupid games. Win stupid prizes. So who he, I like with the level of. [00:35:00] Failure on this and then, and the inspector spared no expense.

The inspector tore this GC a new one. Like she was very specific to note like all of his failures. Mm-hmm. There was issues with the exterior siding because when they did the window that needed a permit that he didn't do, he hadn't finished the siding, like there was all this and she went. In on this guy.

So he turns around the next day she and the homeowner gets an email that he has been removed as the general contractor on her permit. So she calls the inspector 'cause the inspector gave her her number, right? And she was like, Hey, how is this possible? He's been removed? And she goes, it's not possible. So she goes back to the office, finds out who took, took him off the permit, they lost their job.

And then the inspector herself [00:36:00] puts his ass back on that permit and is like, no, sir, you are going, you're not coming off this ticket. No. Until you fix the problems. So, needless to say, he has ghosted her, like not responded to anything. Right. Um, she has spent another about $20,000 to fix all his issues to bring, especially on the structural stuff, like bringing people in, like fixing the plumbing, like doing all of this stuff.

Mm-hmm. Um, fuck. Like she kinda like, I, I, I, when she brought me in, I was like. You should do some research like, 'cause basically she brought me in to help her build her case. 'cause she's gonna sue him. So she was like, help me kind of like put together a report, which I've done for other, for other people, right.

Like put together a report of like all the things, the order in which things should have happened, like a roundabout, what they should have cost and like mm-hmm. You know, so I can bring that to court court. So I come in and I'm like, [00:37:00] you know, given just the level of shenanigan that we're dealing with here, you should research.

Because you can research whether people have judgements against them. Uh, and you should research if he has any judgements against him. Turns out the does. IRS Ooh. It's like my, that's, that

Jess: was his guy that needed the $25,000. Pretty

Mikki: much. I'm like, I think that's who needed. Yeah. Yeah. So there was like, I'm like, man, if you mess him with the IRS, you ain't right.

Mm-hmm. You ain't like, you don't have enough fear in your heart. No. That's just, that's just the thing. You need to fear the IRS because they'll come for you. Death and taxes. The only things that I would talk with, so

Jess: is, is her kitchen complete now? Is she, so

Mikki: her kitchen is like, air quotes complete. Okay.

Like the structural stuff is done. Um, they, they uncovered all the things they needed to uncover, got that replaced like so it is done. Mm-hmm. It's functional. [00:38:00] She loves the kitchen. Just so that's the one benefit. Whereas like, she doesn't have that like spicy PTSD where it's like, well, the kitchen's done, but now I don't wanna go in there like a lot of our homeowners have shared.

Mm-hmm. Like every time I walk in here, I think of this horrible experience. She just loves the kitchen. She's so happy with it. But she's gonna have to take this guy to court. And given the amount of judgments that he has against him, she's like, never gonna see a dime. Like she's never gonna see that money.

So she's trying to keep it like in some small claims so she doesn't have to involve a bunch of lawyers. But, um, my God, today, like I was just, I could not believe. That's awful.

Jess: The levels of, so how many, like what is the, what was the time? Frame. So like she had this started, oh God, a couple months ago. It's

Mikki: been, it has been well over a year.

Oh my God. The kitchen got done like I would say in like a month or two. [00:39:00] Okay. So it got, it got done relatively quickly, but. The from, it's been at least a year from when she called the inspector and had that inspection to like, to where we are now. And it's funny 'cause like she, when she had the structural stuff done, she called that in for inspection and like, she's kind of going through her acting as her own gc essentially going through and like ticking off the things that the inspector found and failed them for.

So like, one by one, she's getting things inspected, but like the permit's not closed. Because it's just like, there's like, there's just so much stuff that needs to be done. And so, and you know, she spent $50,000 on the kitchen originally. Right. And then is like amassed another 20. Mm-hmm. And so it's kinda like as money becomes available, we're going through and we're, and we're fixing what we can.

But I like when I think it, like things that were not present in this story, were. He didn't ask for a crazy deposit. So that's one thing where I [00:40:00] was like, oh, I think this is like the first time we've had a homeowner horror story that didn't start with a ridiculous deposit. So I know, and it's,

Jess: it's disheartening that it came from a referral, right?

That things seemed to be going good, the homeowner did what she needed to do as far as getting the plans and expecting this person to follow the plans because. They were a referral. Most

Mikki: homeowners wouldn't even go that far. Right. Most homeowners were to, would expect the general contractor to get the structural stuff.

Mm-hmm. But he like, I don't think he had that in like in his. Repertoire. Mm-hmm. So she knew enough to be dangerous in that sense, to get right, the structural things done and have that information. So I'm like, dude, all you had to do was follow, was follow the plans. This isn't guesswork. It's right there.

Like structural engineers, it's so easy. Get down and dirty like they, like they'll tell you what kind of screw to use. Like they tell you what kind of wood. Like [00:41:00] literally the type of pine you're supposed to use on things. Like there is no, there's no guessing. Well, the plans were a little vague. There's none of that when it comes to structural engineers.

Mm-hmm. They live and die by being so precise that it's ridiculous. So,

Jess: but thank goodness too, that she had that friend. That referred, I mean, it stinks that they referred the back contractor, but I'm assuming having that, um, person as a friend, that's how she knew to do the inspections and stuff. Yeah, because I could just imagine what a horror story we would be having if they had none they had known because that, oh,

Mikki: Lord, have the mercy that,

Jess: I mean, somebody could have gotten hurt walking onto a deck that's not attached to a house.

Yeah. House

Mikki: would've fallen down. What in the world? What in the world? Yeah. So that, that's the what, like I was, when I was asking her, I was like. So if you talk to your friend and they told you, make sure to get permits, like where, where did the disconnect happen? On the permit of the deck. And she was like, oh, well, he said, I [00:42:00] don't need a permit for a deck, because I had an existing deck.

And I was like, I could see where if you didn't know if you weren't in the industry, right? You'd think, oh, well we're just, we're just adding a bigger deck. No big deal. Mm-hmm. But it's like, yeah guys, it's a big deal. It's a, it's a big, I'm gonna break the fourth wall. It's a big deal guys. You, if. Get the permit.

Get the inspection. They are there like, and we've told stories, saucy stories of times where I've wanted to put hands on inspectors like you, you know, I don't hold back, but. They really are there to protect you as the homeowner to make sure that the general contractor and the tradespeople are doing their work correctly.

Um, even if sometimes I wanna go 50 cuffs with an inspector, like I really value what they are doing because they are genuinely protecting homeowners and all the people that are gonna occupy, you know, these buildings. Mm-hmm. So. A w just wild story. And, and this, what's [00:43:00] crazy is it's ongoing. So there's there she doesn't, there's no end, there's no end in sight.

We'll have to give an update when we, yeah. We'll have to give an update. We'll see. Um, a lot of times, so I've done this choice now, consulted like this and kind of created this report mm-hmm. For people to go to court with. A lot of times they don't. Mm-hmm. Which is very dissatisfying to me because I'm like, why did you pay me?

This money and I did a 26 page report with photos and arrows that I had to insert to point to things to show the thing. And we know how

Jess: good she is, right? Y'all know how good, good I am

Mikki: with technical stuff. I 90 point 99% of things. I'm like, Jess, dear Jess, I'm like on my phone, Jess, can you add a such and such to this?

And she's like, done. Literally in the time it took me to text Jess, she did the thing. Yeah. Um, so I don't do arrows. Yeah. But I did arrows and then the, the first one, they didn't [00:44:00] go, they didn't pursue. Um, and so this one might not either. 'cause I think a lot of people are just like, is it worth it? Mm-hmm.

I'm like, justice is worth it. Yes. Also, he's got judgments against him from the IRS and I'm pretty sure the IRS is getting paid before anybody else. So I think yeah, that's a, I think in her mind she's like, the point might be moot, but, so I think things that we can, like, take away from this is, it is so important to check that somebody that claims to be a general contractor is licensed.

Um, be because, there's a lot of 'em out on these streets that they say they're general contractors and, and they're, they're general. They're general. You know, I mean, like, listen, lemme just break it down for you. I watch a lot of, a lot of YouTube, a lot. Like I don't watch regular tv. I watch YouTube, so.[00:45:00]

Could I throw a stitch in an open wound because I've watched 10,000 solid hours of Dr. Pimple Popper. Yeah. I could stitch you right up and it would probably look all right, right? Maybe. I don't know. I could put the stitch in though. Does that mean I should? No. I haven't gone to school for that. I didn't take any tests for that.

Like general contractors take continuing education classes. We have to pass a five and a half hour test that will make your eye sockets bleed. There's a reason why this matters because it shows that like you care about the rules. Mm-hmm. It shows that it's important to you to do things right. That you have the ability to study, that you have some basic knowledge of how construction works to pass the test.

I am just saying it's I having a license is important. There's a lot of people out there that are, can swing hammers and they're amazing craftsmen and [00:46:00] they're really great tradespeople, but that doesn't make them a general contractor. There's a lot that goes into it and so checking to make sure that anybody that you're hiring that's claiming to be a general contractor is actually licensed is really important.

So I think that from this story. Is, is key, is one of the key takeaways. Mm-hmm. I love that she didn't, um, you know, get, get pick, you know, I don't wanna say pickled, that's not the word, pickled. She didn't get stonewalled, if you will, or locked into some like deposit situation. But she also just gave her money away.

Because he s sang her a sad song. Mm-hmm. We don't do sad songs when it comes comes to money. Mm-hmm. It's like that's a sad song. So sorry. I'm so sorry,

Jess: but No, you can break out all the violins, but break them. My wallet is going to stay closed. No miniature violin. You get paid according to the schedule.

And we stick to that contract. Yeah, we stick to that schedule.

Mikki: Yes. Like guys like contracts. [00:47:00] Contracts, contracts. In the last episode, I think we said 5,000 times. That we, you need to be in control of the money. Mm-hmm. That is how you protect yourself as the homeowner. Um, and so moving forward, be a, be be a little fire Drake about the money, hoard the money.

Or like one of those like, uh, those dragons And what was the, there was a movie with a dragon that hoarded gold. Be that dragon.

Jess: Don't be a penguin.

Mikki: Yeah, don't be a penguin. Be a dragon. And on that note, I think we'll, yeah, we'll, we'll wrap it up on a little penguin experience, but, so thank you guys for watching.

Thank you. Well, this homeowner didn't submit the story. Thanks for calling, uh, and having me write this report that I genuinely hope that you use when you go to court. Just for funsies, but, um, please remember how important the homeowner horror stories are because it really [00:48:00] helps uncover these new little things like mm-hmm.

You, you think every homeowner horror story is gonna be the same, but in this case. She didn't get wrangled by a deposit. She got in trouble because she felt bad for the guy and paid him in full when he wasn't done. Also, the inspections, um, inspections are key and she, they pulled the permit, so it was like they had, they did the, the one step, but making sure.

That somebody's actually like a permit and maybe we've never, have we ever discussed like a permit is so that an inspector can come and inspect. So don't let a general contractor just pull a permit and not actually use the permit to have it inspected at the end of the day. Multiple inspections have to happen throughout a kitchen renovation, especially when there are structural elements like adding footings that's a multiple permit [00:49:00] or, or not a single permit, but a multiple inspection situation.

So they have to get an inspection for the footings. They have to get an inspection for the electric electrical work, the plumbing, the, there's all kinds of things. So I thought it kind of went without saying. Let me just say it in case it doesn't go without saying, don't let your GC just pull a permit.

Also, they have to inspect the things that they're doing. I thought, I thought that that went without saying, but now that I think about it, I thought maybe, maybe that isn't as common knowledge. The permit permit is for the purpose of the inspection. So we need to, maybe we need to start driving that point home.

So low deposits your stories. Yes. We're like, we've got a list. We're gonna put stories together for you. Help us realize like, okay, here's another area that homeowners don't know about. Mm-hmm. And so it helps us educate the homeowners. It helps us bring more knowledge so that when you do have. [00:50:00] You know, your renovation of your, of your dreams, it is, of your dreams and none of your nightmare.

So all of you out there who have your homeowner horror stories, please go to chicks and construction.com. Just scroll down, you can share it. You don't even have to like email us. You can just put it in the little form there. It makes it so easy. You can check anonymous even if you don't. Jess is never gonna say your name on television.

I'm never gonna say your name. It not, so don't you worry about it. Uh, you safe up in here? Safety first. Uh, also, please make sure you like and subscribe. I am shocked that we don't have 9 million subscribers at this point. I clearly thought that my shining personality would result in much more subscriptions.

It's not, it's free. I don't, I always hear YouTubers say this, like, Hey, it's free to subscribe, and I'm like, I know that, but maybe other people don't. So. I'm just gonna repeat the stupid thing that I hear people say all the time, which is this free in case you didn't know. Uh, and it [00:51:00] helps support the channel.

So it helps support us continuing being in this fancy ass studio, which is not, it costs money, guys. It costs money. It's operating, it's beautiful. It's not, it's not a, it's not a donation. Okay? So like, and subscribe. We also have socials. Where are our

Jess: socials? We're on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. At Chicks and Construction Podcast.

Mikki: Chicks and Construction podcast. Come on y'all. Let's do this. Let's get, let's be liking things, you know. It's all about the algorithm and whatnot. Yes. I don't know. Anyway, we love you. We hope that you have a great week and that you have a great renovation, whatever it is. So we'll see you guys next time.

Bye guys. Bye.

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