Kitchen Renovation Nightmare

In this episode of Chicks in Construction, hosts Miki  & Jess share a spine-chilling story about a homeowner's kitchen renovation gone horribly wrong. Tackling issues from disappearing contractors to hazardous electrical work, they discuss the importance of hiring licensed contractors, securing permits, and getting inspections. Miki also delves into her upcoming travels, the challenges of family life during renovations, and the lessons learned from remodels gone awry. Tune in for expert advice, personal anecdotes, and tips to ensure your next renovation project doesn't turn into a nightmare!

00:00 A Dark and Stormy Renovation
00:48 Meet the Hosts: Mikki and Jess
01:08 Travel Tales and Future Plans
02:40 Living Life Before Retirement
07:34 Homeowner Horror Stories Introduction
09:55 Sarah's Kitchen Nightmare Begins
24:28 Unlicensed Contractors and Inspection Avoidance
25:12 Homeowner Horror Story: The Gutted Kitchen
26:24 Understanding Electrical and Plumbing Issues
29:30 Hiring Licensed Trades to Fix the Mess
30:49 The Cost of Fixing Shoddy Work
32:29 Legal Battles and Small Claims Court
33:47 Avoiding Scams and Checking Licenses
44:28 The Importance of Inspections
52:34 Final Thoughts and Viewer Engagement

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www.chicksinconstruction.com

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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 Abreu, 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.

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.

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

23- Chicks in Construction
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[00:00:00]

Mikki: It was a dark and stormy night, and somewhere a homeowner thought a kitchen renovation would be fun. Instead,

Jess: they unleashed the horror disappearing contractors cabinets that creek like coffins and countertop.

Scar it in a haunted house mirror. Forget ghosts in the attic. This nightmare lives right here in the kitchen. So grab your pumpkin spice latte, turn on all the lights, and join us for a terrifying tale of a renovation going wrong, because learning the hard way. That's a real scream. Ah.

Mikki: Well, hello and welcome back to another episode of Chicks in Construction. I'm your host, Miki Paradise, and this is my co-host, Jess. We're bringing you, we're bringing you [00:01:00] Hot Takes. Today we're doing a homeowner horror story. Uh, we were talking before the show started and Joe was like, save this. This is Quality Chi Chat.

Save it. About We have some traveling coming up. We are, we're gonna be traveling. We're, we're world travelers. We're globe trotters, if you will. We are. Um, I'm going to El Salvador. So my husband's from El Salvador. We have family in El Salvador. And then, um, we also have a family here that's from El Salvador, but they're like not as comfortable going back to El Salvador without like.

Somebody who knows their way around. Mm-hmm. And I don't know, so Hector moved to North Carolina when he was 18 or 19. So he's been here for like 20 plus years. Yeah. Um, but still knows his way around El Salvador. Now, I don't know if that speaks to his memory or if it speaks to the fact that like nothing changes there.

Like, I'm not sure. I mean a little of both. Probably maybe both. But Homeboy has a car there, like he, we have, we have family there, so he keeps his car with his family and like they come pick us up at the airport. We have our own [00:02:00] vehicle, like it's a whole vibe. So his nephew wanted to go, but he's like, I'll only go if you go.

I was like, oh, twist

Jess: my

Mikki: arm.

Jess: Oh no, I have to go on vacation again. Oh, poor me. I have to go on vacation. Make, get my little violin. Yeah. Hold

Mikki: on. Me, me, me, me. Yeah.

Jess: So,

Mikki: uh, I'm very excited. That's awesome. About honestly, just not being at work for Right. Seven whole days. Sounds amazing. Now is drama gonna unfold?

Of course, 100%. Mm-hmm. Is, are they gonna

Jess: shena and shenanigan They are. Yep. And then when you come back, you have double the

Mikki: amount of work to do. Oh my God. Because it's always the way's gonna be offensive. Mm-hmm. But listen, I'm doing it anyway. Okay. 'cause listen, you gotta choose. You gotta choose to live.

Now, I was watching this podcast, listen, I went down a rabbit hole. I was sick the other day and I was just laying in the bed, in the bed dead, watching the YouTube. And I got on this CIA. Like retired, CIA operatives rabbit hole. This one dude, he wrote this book called Shadow Cell. I've just [00:03:00] started it. Okay.

But he goes on this podcast and he is like talking about like basically the whole premise of the book. Mm-hmm. And I was like, okay, listen, I know I'd be the world worst spy. But it sounded like a good old, old time, so it sounds so cool. Oh God. But I always wanna say like, I'm a spy. He's talking about Spycraft and he's like, Tradecraft.

And I was like, get outta here. That sounds so cool. Um, however. However, one thing that he said that like just shook me was like, I don't want to wait to live my life to retire. And I was like, dude, I say this all the time. So if you're watching all 232 subscribers, by the way, thank you for subscribing. We appreciate you.

Appreciate you. Uh, it's, um, we're working to being famous. We're gonna need more than 232. So please, if you're watching and you're not subscribed, subscribe so that we can be famous and we can do more traveling. 'cause that's really what it's all about. We can do the podcast

Jess: from anywhere.

Mikki: We can do this anywhere.

Um, so Joe Joe's down to travel. He, [00:04:00] he's here for it. I just have to be rich and famous. Um, so like, he was like, I don't wanna wait to like to retire, to live my life. And I was like, I say this all the time, and I'm just like, yeah. So listen, I might never retire. Mm-hmm. Because I'm spending all my money traveling.

Traveling. Mm-hmm. But it's fine. I'll just work till I'm dead. That's, that's the plan's.

Jess: Yeah. Well that's what Drywall for life. Yeah. That's what my husband and I do too. Like, we. Plan out what trips we're gonna go, what countries we wanna go to. Do guys travel a lot. We do. Like your kids are little world travelers.

They are. And that's how we, like, we didn't get to, yeah, so we both grew up, you know. As they would say, macaroni cheese, poor, poor, like really poor. Like paycheck to paycheck. Yeah. Him a little worse off than I was, but like we didn't get to see other countries until we were adults. Yeah. For the most part, my parents did take me to Columbia 'cause that's where my dad was born.

Mm-hmm. To see my grandparents. Um, that was a [00:05:00] choice. It was, it was a real life choice. It was, it's a beautiful country, parts of it. Yep. Yep. Um, but yeah. But we wanna make sure that our kids know that they are just a small little piece of this much bigger world and that all the things that we love and enjoy come from somewhere else.

Yeah. As It's so true. So, yeah. So we are going to, uh, Barcelona. Ooh,

Mikki: Spana.

Jess: Spana. Yeah. And we'll, we'll rent a car and we'll go to shut up.

Mikki: You guys are adventurous. A hector does that too. Like, I, listen, I'm not gonna lie, I don't, I don't participate in the driving. I'm not even here. Like, I, I would like to never drive anywhere.

So another country it is 0%, but, uh. He drives. Mm-hmm. He like when we go to Turks and Caicos, they drive on the other side of the road. Yes. And Hector, he's, he doesn't, he can do anything. Right. Like the man is the most versatile human.

Jess: I don't understand how they can do that. 'cause like we went to Ireland and it's the other side flopped.

And I was like, oh, you're gonna do all the driving? 'cause I'm not, and when we went to Portugal, [00:06:00] when we went to the island of Madera, their roads. Go up a mountain and there are no guardrails on the side. So like you are driving down this little tiny road with a cliff right there. Death cliff is looming and they like people will pull over on the side of the road.

On the side of the cliff. No, no. To get outta their car to take pictures. Oh my God. And so. There's a person coming this way and a car coming this way, but this one has to move. Oh. And it's just like, it's chaos. It's absolute chaos. You actually have to beep your horn coming around certain turns when you're, oh, they did that in Italy because the roads were so narrow.

Yeah. You beeped to say, I'm coming around. Turn, I'm coming. You better. I beeped first, so I get Yeah. Right away. I get to come. It's a rule. It's written somewhere, so, but Spain will be fine. It's, you can drive on the right side of the road. Okay. We're going to be more, um, driving down the coast, and then we're going to another country called Endra.

What? Yeah, so it's this little tiny country. It's a country. It's a [00:07:00] country, and it's like a little circle in between Spain and France. Okay. It's completely surrounded by both of 'em. Okay. So. Um, it's only a couple hours from Barcelona, so we're gonna go check that out for a couple days. 'cause why not? We get to check another country.

Why not? Off the list of wild

Mikki: animals. I know. Crazy. That is amazing. I'm very excited for you. Yeah, I'm excited for myself. We're we're excited for each other. We are, we're excited to, to not be working. Let's be honest. Like Jess is like, Mickey don't even text me about whatever's happening on social media.

I don't wanna know. And I'm like, okay. I can do that. Yeah, I can do it.

Jess: We're

Mikki: just off the grid. We are, we're off the grid. So, uh, today we have a home In our horror, horror story we do, and I wanna preface this, so listen, when I can't ask follow up questions. It creates a little bit of a sitch. So if, when you, when you write in, 'cause you're gonna mm-hmm.

You're gonna go to chicks construction.com and you're gonna mm-hmm. Just scroll down and you're gonna fill out your home. In our horror story, if you could put in a real [00:08:00] email. I promise we won't like add you to a list. Mm-hmm. Or spam you or sell your information. We're not that serious. We have 232 subscribers, so it's not that serious.

Um, but when I would love to be able to ask follow up questions. This one had a real, I. This one. This one I think has a real, this one is good. We have another one that we're gonna read next week that I have questions for, but they didn't give a real email. And so we're gonna still share the story because listen, that's, we asked you to, to write 'em.

If you took the time to write 'em, we're gonna share it.

Jess: Mm-hmm. But give us a real email address. Yeah. And if you, if you're watching this and it was yours.

Mikki: Yeah, yeah, but we haven't recorded it yet. So if you know who we're talking about, you maybe wrote it and shared a story and you didn't push a real email, maybe you could just email us.

Email. Just go, go right back. I'm to check construction com. Like here's my real email

Jess: or message is on Instagram, or Yeah, whatever it is. You know, it doesn't matter. Judgment, [00:09:00] however you

Mikki: choose to communicate it is helpful for us to be able to ask you some follow up questions. 'cause we don't wanna come in here and kind of throw shade, but when we are not, when we can't ask questions, it, it can seem kind of shady and I don't wanna do that to you.

I don't wanna, do you like that? Mm-hmm. So when you're sharing your homeowners horror, horror stories, if you get, at least leave your real email so that we could. You know, just ask some follow ups. That would be great. Follow up questions. So, but this one, I

Jess: think, oh yeah, she, she got into some detail.

Mikki: Okay.

Yeah. We, which will keep sending 'em. We, we appreciate you guys. Yeah. We love it. Yeah.

Jess: Um, so this is Sarah. Sarah,

Mikki: probably not a real name. Not a

Jess: real name. I was just gonna say the real name and then I was like, oh wait, I haven't given like, wait, fake changing the names. I haven't thought of her fake name yet.

Her name is Sarah. Sarah. Um, and she's in North Carolina, north cac. Okay. And she says. Back in January, I decided to remodel my kitchen. Mm. It's a [00:10:00] 1958 ranch house. Oh, nice. And the kitchen was tiny and outdated. My budget was $45,000. Solid budget. Sarah, good job. And so she's, she's on, she's on point. Yeah. I posted in a local Facebook group, asked for recommendations, and got three bids.

Good job. Good job. Would've liked four, but I'll take three. You know, can't, bakers can't be choosers, right? So number one was $51,850 in six to eight weeks. Damn well, well high. Well then they only get higher. Number two was $64,300 in 10 to 12 weeks. And the last one was $58,900 in nine to 11 weeks. Okay.

So they have, it's wild to me that not only is the budget so different, but also the timeframe. The timeframe for every

Mikki: one of them

Jess: were just like wildly different. Crazy. Yeah. Like, um, three months to do my kitchen. That seems like a lot, right? Like 12 weeks. That's, that's three months. Yeah, yeah, [00:11:00] yeah. We can do math.

I'm like doing the math in my head. I'm like 4, 8, 12, 3 months. Um, so they went with number one because it was the cheapest and fastest. Oh. You know, moves were made there. The guy told me he was licensed and insured. He even showed me a certificate and texted me his license number, so I believed him. Oh, I have a feeling I know where this is going.

Oh, we do the foreshadowing. We've done this enough times. Mm-hmm. We signed on two 10. The payment schedule was 30% down, 30% at Ruffin, 30% at cabinet set, 10% at punch list. I gave him a check for. 15,555. So specific, thank you for that. The devil's in the details as we learned last week. Very much so. And demo started on March 3rd, so that's, that's a long time.

So there in January, started looking for. Quotes and now, oh, March demo is starting in January, February, [00:12:00] March. Wow. Okay, so they're already, yeah, three months. Three months. Oh God.

Mikki: Oh boy.

Jess: Foreshadowing. Oh my God. What? So sound effects day one. We're so good. I know. We hashtag sound effects. The dumpster came.

Mikki: No, I'm good. Sorry. We're gonna stop. We're gonna stop. We're gonna stop.

Jess: Maybe Joe's like, please stop. I paid 525 to the hollerer. Oh, the why were you paying for the trash hauling girl at $51,000? Right. His crew gutted the kitchen fast. By three eight, they found eight foot of rotted subfloor under the sink.

He wrote very common. He wrote a change order for 3,200 for subfloor. And I paid a $1,600 deposit. I mean, y'all, eight

Mikki: foot of subfloor was rotted. Okay, continue. Is there, like, did she go into like

Jess: the, they did [00:13:00] hardcore framing. I. Um, once the kitchen was gutted, our whole house felt upside down. Yeah. My husband and I were trying to keep things together, but it was hard when you don't have a sink or a stove.

What, which we talked about on one

Mikki: of these podcasts, the importance of not living through a

Jess: renovation.

Mikki: No. You

Jess: move, don't do

Mikki: that. You move the kitchen. Yeah. Or like

Jess: your main bathroom. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Don't be there. Don't do it. We were washing dishes in the bathtub. Oh God. That's a move. That is a move. So sorry.

Living off, I'm sneak out and microwave meals in the living room.

Mikki: That's my everyday life. I'm just gonna like, that's not Reno, that's just Mickey on a Monday through Friday. Yeah. Situation. I would

Jess: love not to have to cook.

Mikki: Oh God, I hate it so much.

Jess: If I had my way, I would have a personal chef. Yes.

Obviously this is why we need you to subscribe so we can be rich one day and have chefs. God. And then I can fridge skate because I won't actually need to have any food in my fridge. The chef, the chef's gonna bring it. It hashtag goals. Hashtag goals. [00:14:00] The kids started joking that we should just camp in the backyard.

Oh my God. 'cause it honestly felt that way. Inside. The kids were throwing

Mikki: shade. They were like, Hey mom, maybe we should

Jess: just set up shop in the backyard. Let's just get a porta-potty out there. Really, really rough it. I'm sure

Mikki: there was one out.

Jess: Oh, there probably was. Yeah, probably. Guys always use that.

It's fine. Uh, the dust was nonstop, even with doors closed, it found its way into the bedrooms, onto the laundry, into places. I didn't think dust could go. Magical fairy dust. Oh,

Mikki: it's

Jess: awful. Yes. Drywall dust. Construction dust is, it's just magical fairy dust. Mm-hmm. It gets everywhere and once you think you cleaned it, you come back and it's back like, yeah.

Somebody just, it's like

Mikki: growing. It grows. Mm-hmm. It's alive.

Jess: Facts. Sorry about that, Sarah. It's Oh, yep. That and glitter. You can never, it we don't. Hay is of the craft world. Yeah. We don't allow glitter in my house. No. A hard stop on glitter. Yeah. There is none. Yeah. Um, every time we thought we adjusted something else came [00:15:00] up.

Oh. It wasn't just the kitchen that was torn apart. Our routine, our family meals, even our peace of mind was all disrupted. Mm. On March 7th, his carpenter was patching the subfloor and reframing the wall. On March 10th, this so-called electrician showed up. Uhoh.

Mikki: Mm-hmm.

Jess: Uhoh just been moving. She'd been moving a Z formation.

Mm-hmm. Snaps. Yep. Uh, he ran some new wires, but the way he did it didn't look right. He left wires hanging loose, nothing stapled neatly and even had some exposed ends. Just dangling. I'm no electrician. Me neither. I'm a little bit, but I. But even I knew it looked sloppy and unsafe. I asked about permits and he told me not to worry that the GC had everything covered.

Mm. So like when you do a home renovation, I. Is that the general contractor that has to [00:16:00] go pull the permit, right? Yes. And then so

Mikki: the GC like starts the permit process off. Mm-hmm. And they list all their subs. So they list like what a licensed electrician they're using, the licensed plumbing they're using.

Mm-hmm. And normally the trades will schedule the inspections because the G, the GCs like not there every day. Right, so the trades like, okay, this is the day I'm gonna be finished. We are gonna schedule it for inspection the next day. If they're responsible trades, I will say, I. I think this is less common in home renovations.

Mm-hmm. Like it's very new construction. Everybody's, you know Right. Scheduling their, their own inspections, but it might be in renovations that the GC schedules it, but most like, like when we renovated a friend's kitchen, they were moving their gas line, which needed to get inspected. Mm-hmm. So, but the, the contractor that, that moved, that they scheduled the mechanical inspection, so it was like we pulled the permit, but they, they scheduled their inspection.

So I don't know, that might just been, 'cause he [00:17:00] works for me and he knows maybe what I'm capable of.

Jess: Then on three 12, a plumber came out to move the sink. He cut holes in my studs and ran the lines without any protection and the pipes were just hanging there crooked. It honestly looked like a rush DIY job, not something I was paying a professional she has there in air.

She well

Mikki: quoted it. She quoted it. We're air quoting it

Jess: to do again. I asked about permits. The GC swore everything was fine. Mm-hmm. But I still hadn't seen any paperwork. Would you see paperwork? I mean, one, you have

Mikki: to have a permit box, um, somewhere, somewhere on the property. Mm-hmm. So any kind of renovation is part of the required, I mean, here, I don't know about every county.

I don't every North Carolina, so, so here, yes. She would've had to have a permit box somewhere prominent so that the inspectors could access it outside of the house. So like if there's, if you're doing a renovation where you're moving, stuff like that, and there's no permit box, you have questions [00:18:00] immediately, you're asking questions.

Yeah. Lots of red flags there. Yeah. Yeah.

Jess: So by three 17 he started pushing me hard to let me set, to let him set the cabinets. That's when alarm bells really went off for me. I knew once the cabinets went in, I. All that rough work behind the walls would be hidden. If there were problems. I'd never know it until it was too late.

Oh, and I, she knows, we'll, up. We hadn't had a single inspection and that didn't sit right with me. Okay, lady. Good. Okay. It's like you watch our show, you're picking up on rough flags. Ah, yes. It still

Mikki: didn't end well for her because she's on the show. She's written in, but she. Listen, she's doing the Lord's work.

Jess: Mm-hmm. So she was trying. Yeah, you try, I mean, sometimes this is, you can only do your best. It's all you can do. That night I went onto, I guess I can say the name of the county, right? Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. Yeah. Henderson County's permit portal and typed in my address, nothing came up. [00:19:00] Oh, no permits had ever been pulled.

The next morning I asked him straight out what's the permit number? When is the inspection scheduled? He dodged it, gave me excuses about his office handling it.

Mikki: Your office, dude? Yeah. Right. You mean the closet? You're quiet. Yeah, pretty much. I'm just like, yeah, you have an office. Okay. That's adorable. An office

Jess: manager online.

Real quick. Hold on.

Mikki: He's like, babe, act like you don't, you're not my wife. Yeah.

Jess: Real quick. Oh, he is got his buddy. Yeah. I need you to, okay, Joe.

Mikki: I don't know why I said Joe. It's just he's there. Sorry guys. Sorry. Joe or Mike. Hey Mike.

Jess: Oh God. Um, when he couldn't provide anything, I asked for his license number.

Instead he texted me a screenshot. I checked it on the NC licensing board's. Yes. Website. And sure enough, [00:20:00] okay. Nothing matched. So the

Mikki: move would've been, I'm just throwing this out there, Liz. We are here to learn. Mm-hmm. So the move would've been to check that before you hired him. And I get, I get that. We just, we trust people.

We, I think I was watching this podcast. I'm a podcast listener, also a producer, you know what I'm saying? Uh, but I was watching this podcast and they were talking about like. We, you think that humans aren't that trusting, but they're actually excessively, overly, overly trusting. Mm-hmm. Like we are, we are just like, oh, you say you're a licensed general contractor.

Okay. Yeah. And it's just, we go with it. So listen out of abundance of caution, we don't wanna like, encourage you guys to be like conspiracy theory junkies that don't trust anybody. Like that's not what we're doing. But so many people. Say they are licensed when they are not. Mm-hmm. I don't know why they do it.

I don't like there's, there's. Technically nothing wrong with being an unlicensed general contractor except for you can't do [00:21:00] certain projects right. But there's nothing wrong with it. So like, why people lie about having a license is beyond me. It's so, it's so researchable. So like it isn't a secret who is and isn't licensed.

It's not like your medical license number that everybody like, it's like your social security. Mm-hmm. This is different. It's searchable. You don't even need their license number. You their name. Name. You can type in their name. The business. Yeah, their business name. Even if you have an address, like there, when you go onto the licensing board search, there's so many ways that you can search.

So like. This is something you wanna be checking. Mm-hmm. Before you hire anybody, before you, any money is exchanged. Mm-hmm. You're checking into this because it so many people

Jess: just, and I. Noticed the other day. 'cause I was on there looking up someone's license number. Get it girl. Yeah. Because I know, I know.

I'm learning. I'm checking on, I'm learning. Um, that it can say under their name, a license number. Yeah. If they at [00:22:00] one point had a license, but it will say that it's inactive. You have to scroll, scroll down. You have to, you have to click on it. Yeah. To make sure that it is active. So don't. Just go type their name in just to see if they have a license number.

Yeah. You have to click on that number to see if it's active. To see if it's active. Yeah. That's, that's, that's good advice where you know Exactly. Yeah. Yes or or no. Or WW because this guy, he might, I mean, she says he has. Nothing but, oh God. So he gave her some like a, like somebody else's license number?

Well, it said that I was scrolling back while, while you were talking and I was like, she said that he was licensed. The guy told me he was licensed and insured. He even showed me a certificate. And texted me his license number, so, so she had it from the beginning. She didn't look

Mikki: into it. And then once she's like, there's no inspections happening, right?

She's like, all right, for real though. What's your license number? What's, and he sent her somebody else's license number, I'm guessing. And then when she went on to find it,

Jess: nothing matched.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jess: Oh God. [00:23:00] Okay. Which is, that sucks. So the number he gave me actually belonged to another contractor in a different county.

Mm. That's when it hit me that he'd been lying from day one. Oh God, it's not, that's

Mikki: not good. So the reason why somebody would lie. So, so the, the threshold is $40,000. So he automatically quoted her like, was it 50 1051. So he was over the threshold from the gate. Mm-hmm. So that's another thing for you as the homeowner to know if you, if you wanna do a renovation and they come in at over four, over $40,000, that automatically triggers needing a license.

You always need permits. You automatically need a license at over $40,000. So when somebody comes back with a, with a quote that's over 40 K, you as the homeowner say, okay, well that's over the threshold. What's your license number? You immediately look that up, and if they're not licensed, you move on.

Mm-hmm. Because the reality is. They're not licensed and they're doing, they're, they're [00:24:00] breaking the law. It's illegal to perform work over $40,000 without a license. So it's a big deal. And it affects you in a lot of ways. I mean, yeah, not having, did, did she And get

Jess: inspections. Well, we haven't gotten that far.

Okay, sorry. Sorry. So there were no inspections yet because he didn't pull the permit. Because he couldn't pull the permit. Because, because he wasn't licensed. Licensed,

Mikki: yeah.

Jess: This is,

Mikki: we're all,

Jess: it is all come together now and all in trouble. Like

Mikki: if an inspector comes out and you are not licensed and they know like, listen, inspectors aren't stupid.

A lot of people think they are and I'm like, they're actually not. Um, so they come into a project, they see the amount of work that's happening. They know that this is over $40,000. Right. So that's why they're not getting inspections. 'cause the inspector's gonna come and be like, dude, where's your license?

Mm-hmm. And so at that point is when the then and the, the inspectors will report them. So it's, if they're not licensed, they're not getting inspections. So that's what you need to understand is like they literally can't because they'll get themselves in trouble. And nobody wants to get themselves in trouble.

Nobody's trying for that. You know? It happens. It [00:25:00] does.

Jess: That's why we have homeowner horror stories. That's right. That's why we're here. That's why we're staying in business kind of for free at a cost. To me, that was it. I stopped the job on three 19. Oh God. He showed up angry, demanded the next payment. I refused.

Get a girl, Sarah, not Sarah. I called Henderson County Inspections on 3 21. An inspector came slapped a stop work notice on my house. He confirmed no, no permits were ever pulled the nerve. Now I was standing in the middle of a gutted kitchen with wires hanging out of the walls, plumbing that looked like a kid had done it, and no permits or inspections to back any of it up.

I couldn't sleep at night knowing my house wasn't safe. What if something sparked, what if lik started behind a wall,

Mikki: which happened on one of our homeowner horse, right? Is they cut the [00:26:00] pipe wrong and it flooded the downstairs room. Yep.

Jess: So

Mikki: that's was

Jess: very real fear. It's, I mean, and just having your house in that kind of together and know that the person that was doing all of the work straight up lied, straight up, lied.

Yeah. And then all of his. Like guys, like the electrician and the plumber probably weren't really licensed or anything either. They're not. Especially, it looked like a kid did it.

Mikki: I'll say though, again, I wish I could have asked some follow up questions. 'cause one of the things that is really common is the electrician will leave a bunch of wire.

Mm-hmm. Like where? Where a light has to be pulled. They'll leave a bunch of wire just hanging in the cavity. Oh. Because they don't know exactly where that fixture is gonna go. Mm-hmm. So what will happen is they'll hang the drywall. Well, they won't, but we will. We'll hang the drywall and the electrician decides where the fixture is gonna go, and they've got all they know, they have all this wire.

So they'll poke a little hole where the fixture's supposed to go and [00:27:00] pull the wire through where they need it. So not to say that this was that, but Right. For your peace of mind when you're going through a renovation, just know that like sometimes the wire can appear to be just hanging there because before they attach the fixture, it has to hang.

There's nothing that they can do with it. Mm-hmm. Like so it's it Sometimes they, they. Put it exactly where the drywaller needs to pull it through. And so the, as the drywaller is hanging. Mm-hmm. But like we know when a wire is in the cavity mm-hmm. We are not to pull it. Okay. If a wire is left out mm-hmm.

We pull it. Okay. So like, that's. I know it doesn't make a lot of sense. We're doing the best we can here, but when you are going through a renovation, if you're seeing just wires hanging, they have to hang until they're connected to something they have to hang. So that as long as it has a little,

Jess: has a little cap thing on it, right?

Well,

Mikki: not, no, if. Not even that. Like if, if it's not generalized, if it doesn't have power on it, it's fine. That's so if as long as the breaker's off, oh sorry. I just hit the, hit the microphone. [00:28:00] Classic Mickey move. That's signature Mickey move. Um, as long as the breaker's off you're fine. Like it's not gonna spark if the breaker's on call 9 1 1, like it's a problem.

You need an electrician stat, but if your breaker's off the power that is off, it's not generalized, it's not getting power, it's not gonna spark, but. I think this is one of those things where like, it's not communicated to the homeowner, like this is mm-hmm. The how messy this is safe. It's gonna be, yeah, this is safe, this is okay.

Mm-hmm. Um, and also like the thing about plumbing is. A drain, a waste line. So like any of your gray water, like the, your, from your sink, it has to be at a slope because plumbing uses gravity.

Jess: Mm-hmm.

Mikki: Um, to, to get water or waste or whatever out of your house. So if you are coming across a. You feel like it could be sloppy?

I don't know. I'm not there. I didn't have, she didn't send pictures. Also, do send pictures. If you have pictures, great. Send pictures. We'd love that. We won't share them, but it helps to give us context. 'cause like, [00:29:00] I'm guessing that maybe it wasn't as bad, but it could have been bad. I don't know. 'cause we don't have pictures, but, so, you know, plumbing does have to be sloped.

Mm-hmm. So like they, they, there's a certain angle, I can't remember what it was, but there's a certain angle they have to run waist. Waste pipes too. 'cause they're using gravity. So that's something to keep in mind too. It might look a little, so it could have been like somebody had been drinking on the job, but it might be 'cause they're just trying to hit that waste.

Mm-hmm. The angle for the waist. So just throwing that out there. It could be continue.

Jess: I had no choice but to bring in real licensed trades just to undo the mess. On 3 22, I hired an actual electrician. Mm. He walked in, took one look and shook his head. Oh, he said none of it would have passed inspection. Mm.

Why were. We're doing what? We can't hear people. It's almost Friday. Wires were the wrong size. Oh, connections weren't protected and nothing was to code. He spent the [00:30:00] day ripping out every bit of bad wiring, capping things off so it wouldn't be a fire hazard. God and left me with a bear, but Safe Kitchen.

His bill was $1,800. Damn. Wow. So it really was bad. It went, that's bad you guys. I'm so sorry. That's that. That's bad. But it's good to know that it, just because you see wires hanging, that doesn't mean bad. Yeah. Something you consider

Mikki: if, if like your gut is like, this is unsafe, act on that. I don't want you to override your instincts, but if you're just like, oh, this is messy.

It may, it may be messy. It, you have to kind of maybe Google it. I don't know. I, I rely on Google for way too much, but. It. Take a picture of it. Yeah. Do put

Jess: it in the Google. Be like, Hey, is this normal? And it'll tell you, uh, then I brought in a licensed plumber some. Oh, same reaction of total disbelief at the work.

Mm. He showed me where pipes had been cut, wrong joints weren't [00:31:00] sealed, and oh my God, studs had been hacked apart. With no support left. He kept everything off properly, so at least I wouldn't have water spraying behind my walls. It was another $650.

Mikki: Oh my

Jess: gosh. So before I could even think about rebuilding, I was already $2,500 out of pocket.

Mm money. I never planned on spending just to undo the damage this guy left me with right cabinet, sat in my garage. One got warped. Mm. Lost about $450. Wow. I wanna see these cabinets. Fancy. Four 50 for one cabinet.

Mikki: Wow.

Jess: Like gold

Mikki: plated? Hmm? Probably

Jess: not.

Mikki: If it warped, probably not.

Jess: No. I started over. Oh, got new bids in April.

This time I checked licensed numbers. Yes, my girl, she learned, chose another company that I verified, signed on April 5th. They charged $7,900 just to fix and [00:32:00] undo bad work. Then 3,800, uh. Sorry, 38,600 to complete the job. She's really in this. She is? Yeah. This is a lot. Oh God. This is Quirk Human. They pulled all the permits.

Yay. Permit fees, $786. My budget was 4,500. I spent almost 60,000 more. Wait, her budget was 45,000. She spent 60. Yes. I trusted the wrong guy. Yeah. I filed a complaint with the NC licensing board, filed small claims, won a judgment for $6,800 in September. Haven't collected a dime.

Mikki: Yeah, so that's, that's the really crappy part about small claims.

Court and lawsuit lawsuits in general, guys, like, I hate to break it to you, but uh, this is why rich people get sued all the time because, because they actually have money. When you are poor, you can't get blood out of a rock. And so that's kind of the thing is like [00:33:00] you can sue somebody, but if they don't have money to pay you, they literally can't.

Like you can get a judgment. They can't make them. No. They get, there's, there's certain things that you can do, but it has to be a really substantial judgment. Um, like they're not gonna, they're not gonna dock somebody's like paycheck or their 'cause I've heard of stories where like people get other people's tax returns.

Mm-hmm. So like if you owe somebody that much money, they're coming for literally everything. Right? I mean, you can ask Rudy Giuliani, he's really in it right now. Uh, go ahead and talk about the election workers one more time. My guy. Um, anywho, side note, tangent. Um. Yeah. It's like that's the really crappy part.

Like if they're, if they don't have anything for you to take, like you don't get anything, you have the judgment and the judgment is public record. So that's something to keep in mind. Like, and it's another thing you wanna look at. If you really wanna do a deep dive before you hire somebody, check on what kind of public records, sorry, that went, that went, that went a direction.

Mm-hmm. Check on their, what, what kind of public records exist [00:34:00] for the, in their personal names and in their company name. Uh, because if they have a judgment against them, um, they that will be there. So one of the homeowner horror stories we had. She learned this obviously too late and researched it. And it turns out that the dude had a judgment against him from the IRS, let tell y'all if IRS ain't getting paid, nobody getting paid.

So, but like if you look up a GC and they have a judgment against them from a, from the IRS, do not hire them. No. Because obviously they're not

Jess: good at paying their bills. Yeah. And that's, that's the big bill. And you know what I found out? Um. When we, we have that townhouse down by, yeah. Down by the beach.

Yeah. My husband had hired somebody to do some work in it who never showed up. Oh. And he paid a deposit for some materials. Not a lot. Yeah. And the guy never showed up and gave a sob story and like we checked out the sob stories and [00:35:00] they were legit. Like somebody did get in a car accident. There was, yeah.

Things happened. Okay, fine. You know, we're nice people. Yeah. Just give us the money back. Yeah. Like go return the stuff. Yeah. Because we can't use you anymore and yeah, give us the money back. And so like, I stopped thinking about it 'cause like my husband was dealing with me. Yeah. I don't like to deal with people because they're rude.

They are, people are so rude. I hate to brag it to you. Yeah. So he never, he never pays my husband back. Oh, he never does. So my husband calls the cops down there. Okay. And they're like, oh, normally he, like, back in the day we didn't do anything about this. Like, that's a small claims thing, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah. He's like, but since COVID, we now have a list. Of people who are scamming people on Facebook on. Whatever, Craigslist. Yeah. Just putting their name out there saying that they're a handyman. Yeah, a painter. Uh, this, that or the other thing. And, um, this guy's name wasn't on the list, but it is [00:36:00] now, but it's now, but it's, now's come at me, bro.

Um, and so they, they do go. To their house and like be like, you're on a listening. You are, you owe somebody money because you scammed them and Oh my God. But yeah, but so you can even call and like, I don't know if, I love that your husband called the cops. I wouldn't even have thought of that. Yeah. He's like, I'm gonna call him.

And like, he'd be like, Hey listen, this guy stole from me. He did technically. So, yeah. So that's another thing that you can do. Like, I don't know if every. Town and stuff has a list of people who are That's good scamming people. Yeah. But I mean, what a great thing to have. Yeah. So that if you are going to hire some this another way of like, 'cause they're not licensed, they're, yeah.

You know,

Mikki: like, here's how widespread this is. I was just watching the news. Wait, no. I was watching YouTube and it was the news on YouTube. I was like, you don't watch tv. I don't watch the news. I don't watch tv. I watch YouTube. I live in a bubble. So in Raleigh. The show. [00:37:00] Love it. Or list it. You know how I feel about HGTV.

Mm-hmm. I've made my thoughts known. Mm-hmm. Um, and they are in particular very bad. So I know somebody who was on Love It or list it. She had an amazing experience. But they sometimes hire a local general contractor. They don't. They as they should. They're not licensed in North Carolina, so they should not be operating, doing the large scale renovations.

Without a, a local or their own license. They, she's just a designer's, not a, she's a designer. And so they, they, on the show, they don't tell you this, but they're, they hire, they're supposed to hire a local general contractor. So in my friend's case, she had a really good experience 'cause they hired a good gc.

Mm-hmm. And I actually think. She was working with the GC first and the GC came to her and was like, Hey, do you guys wanna be on this show? Fun? And so she was like, sure. Um, so she

Jess: had no interest of actually selling her house?

Mikki: No, not at all. Which is actually pretty common. It's pretty [00:38:00] common. So, but I was watching the, watching the YouTube news and there this couple from Raleigh was on the show.

And they're suing the production company because the production company acted as the general contractor. They're based out of Canada. Yo, what if they're not even like local to the country? They're not local to our country. They definitely don't have the licensure to, to do your project. So that's easy.

Like, but, but that's how wild it is. Like, like people out in these streets. Filming themselves, breaking the law, filming themselves, breaking the law, and they mean like, oh, it'll be fine. Yeah. I'm just like, oh, they, we don't have video evidence. And so basically they, oh God, I was, it was like the renovation was $140,000.

I want you all to know I can build a house for $140,000. Now it wouldn't be a big house, [00:39:00] but it would be a house with a kitchen and bathrooms and drywall and carpet and paint. Okay. Like a house. So they, and like I saw, like they showed the house on the TV show. Mm-hmm. Or on the, on the news. And it was a regular house, like not.

Like smaller than my house, so not

Jess: worth 104, not

Mikki: worth $140,000. And then I think they had to take out another loan 'cause it went up to like almost $200,000 by the time, and they weren't. And it wasn't, it was never fully completed. And so these people never moved into their house. Because they, it was never finished.

That's awful. The, the, the HGTV people refused to come back and finish it, so they had to file a lawsuit. And you can look this up, you can look it up, you can Google it. But there are multiple companies or mul, multiple people in North Carolina that I know of. 'cause one of them was in my neighborhood. That was on h GTVs.

Loved or listed. That show in particular is a hotbed for lawsuits. Um, and they have been sued. I don't even know how [00:40:00] many times now, let's be honest. They've being en sued 'cause they know they got the money. 'cause they own tv. They got HGTV money. Okay? They're rolling deep now. Of course it's a shoe sides to every story, so I don't know, but that's how serious this whole situation is.

People mm-hmm. Feel so confident. To break the law that they're literally recording themselves doing this work and knowing that they don't have a license to operate in North Carolina. $140,000 is well over that 40,000 threshold. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. So it's, it's a really big deal. Yeah. Um, a $60,000 kitchen is a, is a substantial, if you will, kitchen.

It's like, I, I can't get over. I'm thinking about my kitchen because like, her house sounds similar to mine. It was built in the fifties, freaking 90 million years ago. Um, I think I spent $10,000 on my cabinets. [00:41:00] Now we installed them ourselves. 'cause like Hector can't stop, won't stop. But I, I'm

Jess: like,

Mikki: oh,

Jess: she, she changed the

Mikki: sink and stuff too.

Yeah. I mean. Huh.

Jess: Still a lot.

Mikki: The $45,000 I think was on point. Now we are clearly wrong because every single number she got was higher than that. So maybe there was conditions outside of what maybe. I also feel

Jess: like everything that we thought was like a normal price. Yeah. People come back with like, that's not normal.

It's like so much higher, much higher now, and I don't. I don't really get it because like, yeah. I mean, I know the cost of materials have gone up, but like, I feel like after COVID, like we, we started to kinda like level off. Yeah. But everybody is still like, oh, I'm just gonna Yeah. And I think because they can,

Mikki: yes.

That's the thing is like, listen, I'm in construction. Mm-hmm. I can tell you that during COVID it was wild. It was wild in those streets. Like the cost of a single sheet of plywood was like $80 a sheet. It was insane. It was [00:42:00] a supply in demand issue. Did that they have to be that expensive? No. But the manufacturers knew that they could get away with it.

Mm-hmm. Were they absolutely gouging us? Yes, they were because one, the pe, the administration was not gonna do anything about it. They, they were here for the, the, the plumming and the piling and two. If somebody was willing to pay it, they would charge it. Mm-hmm. So that was definitely happening and there was nothing we could do as contractors to push back because it, if you didn't, didn't wanna pay it, it was fine, somebody else would.

Mm-hmm. So it was a wild time to be in construction during COVID. Like I, like the prices went up so drastically, everything changed. But that's not the situation now, so. So I will say. They have not lowered the price of drywall, but they're not increasing it. So like while it's more expensive than it was.

It is not going up. That's good. But it seems like every time we talk to somebody, the prices of things are [00:43:00] going up. And I'm like, for who? Because it's not costing me more money than it was three years ago to buy drywall. Like, you know, we had, we, in our contracts, we kind of put an escalation clause in there ever since COVID.

'cause that was a nightmare. Um. We haven't had to use our escalations. Oh, that's good. Yeah. Be because like they, they've realized that like there's gonna be a point where if drywall costs that much money, people are gonna stop buying it. Just gonna stop. Gonna, we're gonna put, we're gonna put plywood up.

Like, I mean, just, it's a real thing. We'll figure it out. We'll figure out. It's gonna be fine. Um, post, so that's something. Yeah, like, just gonna put paper. It'll be fine. They do it in Japan, I think. Um. That's something to consider is like, yeah, there's material, there's some price materials that that have escalations on them, but really if somebody's like telling you, oh, we can't guarantee that materials are gonna be that same price.

Yeah, that's a COVID thing. They're trying like we're actually. I can't speak for every trade, but I know [00:44:00] drywall, they're like, yeah, we're not raising the prices.

Jess: Yeah,

Mikki: they say they might, but they never actually do, or they haven't for at least a year. So yeah, watch yourself with that. Like the, like understanding what's actually happening in the market I think is important too.

Like when, when you're going to do a big renovation, um, I'm trying, I'm thinking about this kitchen and I'm just like devastated for her. I think. I think the takeaways are. Make sure that you check somebody's license. Before you hire them, um, the second that anything happens in your house and they're not getting it inspected, so like the, the elect, some general contractors can say, okay, we're gonna run all of our inspections at the same time.

So they'll have the electrician come, they'll have the plumber come, they'll have the HVC come and. Get it all inspected at once and that's fine. 'cause it's what, if it hasn't been covered up by drywall or whatnots, you're fine. Mm-hmm. [00:45:00] But if they're going to cover it up, so her instinct was 100% right? Yeah.

So they're, they couldn't hide it. Yeah. But to cover it, they first had to put drywall up. So she, her instinct was right, they're gonna cover this up. It's never gonna get inspected. So I'm very impressed with like, where she was like, absolutely not. Um, she helped herself more than she knows. Um, it could have been much more expensive.

It could have been so much worse because think about it, if they had installed those cabinets, they had drywalled that installed those cabinets, put the tile up. She'd be starting from scratch. Mm-hmm. She'd have to take it all down. Like it would've been so much more expensive. So like that's one of the things, like if you don't find out at the beginning.

And you're watching this and you're like, oh my God, the chick's in construction said that I need to make sure my permits are being, you know, pulled and my inspections are happening. Um, you actually, you absolutely do, and I will say this 'cause there's a, there's a homeowner horror story that's coming up where the lady insisted that the general contractor had absolutely no plans on getting an inspection, which is very common.

Um, I [00:46:00] love that more homeowners are really pushing for inspections, but you have to know this, an inspection is gonna slow you down. So it could, they could fail, like in nor in, in Wake County, they cannot take more than two days to come do your inspection. So you need to know that they have a maximum of two days and then they are on the line.

So you can report a county inspector for not coming within two days in, in Wake County to inspect your house. So if you're here, if you're around hell, you have a little bit of, of, you know. Protection for it. Taking 10 days to get your house inspected. They two days, that's days max. But still, they could wait those two days.

They could fail. It could continued. They have, but the whole point of the inspection is if it failed, it's 'cause something was wrong. So you are so much better off delaying your project because you got an inspection, it took a couple days, you lost a week, maybe that week. [00:47:00] Is a lifesaver to your budget, to your sanity, to your project.

So do know, like when we're, when we're talking about the importance of inspections and we're talking about the importance of, you know, licensed general contractor and all these things, there's a cost to it. So a licensed general contractor is probably gonna be more because of the three people that she got quotes from.

I wonder if that higher number was actually a licensed general contractor. So when you, when you've put the time in. You have your license and you have the expense of having your license, obviously you're gonna charge for that. So it could cost you more and it could take, you cost you more to pull permits and do inspections.

Mm-hmm. And cost you time to do permits and inspections. But that is the protection. Yeah. Because if she had gone for one of the higher

Jess: ones, it was still would've cost her less than going with this guy and having all the headaches. And

Mikki: that's what we were like, we cannot stress this enough. Mm-hmm. The importance of doing it right the first time.

Um. But you could do it wrong and then do it right, it's gonna cost you [00:48:00] more. Mm-hmm. So understanding that the cheapest number is never the cheapest number. Mm-hmm. We haven't heard a story once. Nope. That it was like, I hired the cheapest guy and it turned out great. Never happens. If you have that story, send it.

We read it, we'll read it, like we'll read it, we'll put, we'll put it out there on the streets and it can happen. But listen, it hasn't happened yet. We haven't had anybody be like, and it was, it was, it was $2 and 50 cents and it was the best decision I ever made. It's never happened. No. So it's really important to understand, yes, getting inspections could slow you down.

Mm-hmm. But I think on this one story, it was like they got the inspection, they found that there was something rotted and, and like, thank God they caught that because. The general contractor, if you hire a good one. Mm-hmm. Yes. They're looking out for your best interest. If you hire a not so good one that you don't know is a not so good one.

The, the, the person looking out for your best interest in the best interest of your home and the best interest of your investment is that [00:49:00] inspector. So. While I'm not saying that all inspectors are great. I'm not saying all inspectors are are a delight. They're not. They're not. Some of them are horrible.

I've, listen, I've thought just let them, let, let them go do their

Jess: job and just be done

Mikki: with them. That's

Jess: it.

Mikki: I listen, there have been, there have been, there have been inspectors that I was like, if I see you on the street, Steve. If I see you on these streets, I'm coming for you. Like it's, it, it, Steve, he's a real guy.

He knows who he is. He's probably watching, he knows he's on my hit list. If I see you on the street, Steve, I'm coming for you. Well, listen, Steve is, but really, she's not really going. Isn't I mine? I don't know. I'm unstable. I'm unstable. Um, no. Probably, I probably won't lay hands like, listen, I'm 43. I've made it this long without slapping anybody.

So I feel like I could probably just make it to the end, the end without putting hands on anybody, but, mm-hmm. Well, listen, life happens. You never know. So I'm not saying all inspectors are a [00:50:00] delight. More times than not, they're not, 'cause they're doing a lot. They're overstretched, they've got a lot going on, but they're still looking out for your best interest because also their name is on the line.

So they have skin in the game. Mm-hmm. And skin in the game is what you want when you're renovating your house. Like anytime you're doing anything, the more skin in the game, the better and, and unfortunately. Given, you know, this lady sued, she won and she's still not getting any money and she's still not getting that money because again, if you don't have money to get it can't be God.

Uh, and there's like, there's all kind of rules. I don't know if they are, 'cause I'm not a lawyer. Should have gone to law school. I probably would be on this podcast, but I'm just saying I keep hitting the microphone with my face. I should probably move it a little bit. Sorry. Joe. Joe's like, oh my God, you guys are the worst.

Um. I'm like, there's laws that like prevent, like you can't take somebody's only means of transportation. Like there's all kinds of rules of like what can be seized assets wise. Um, [00:51:00] so yes, you have the ability to sue. Do you have the ability to collect? No. So really setting yourself up to win from the beginning.

Checking licenses, making sure the inspections are happening, making sure the permits are happening. If you don't have a permit box, call somebody.

Jess: Mm-hmm.

Mikki: Like, call the county. I, I love that she eventually called the county. Um, if you don't see a permit, if you have questions, if you feel like your general contractor's not being straight up with you, call the county a lot sooner.

Um, obviously you can't call the county before you put your deposit down. They haven't pulled the permits yet that you haven't paid your deposit, but. When you, when you start, when the, when the, the tingly feeling and your gut starts tingling. Um, call somebody, maybe a doctor, maybe the county, I don't know.

But you have options there. But the, the point is, don't sleep on it when so many of these stories, it's like people are like, I had a feeling and then I finally followed up on it and I was [00:52:00] right. And the thing is, do it from the beginning. Yeah. Do it from the beginning.

Jess: It doesn't matter if you hurt their feelings.

Yeah. I mean, listen.

Mikki: Listen, if they're legit, it's all good. If they're not legit, then you know, you

Jess: saved

Mikki: yourself

Jess: lots of money and time. Yeah. And headaches and all the

Mikki: things. So y'all, I'm this, this woman I am, I am heartbroken for her $60,000. When you are spending planning on spending 45, I mean, that's a chunk of change.

Jess: That's a lot of money.

Mikki: I hate the idea of people like taking out additional loans to mm-hmm. To fix shady contractors work like it's just the absolute worst. So please. Try to avoid that, do that by watching our show and to watch our show more consistently. You can always like and subscribe so that it shows up in your feet.

It's free. It's free. I think it's so funny that people say that, but I'm like, all right, I'll say it. Everybody says it, so I'm gonna say it too. I'm gonna jump on that bandwagon. Uh, you can go to our, if you have your own story, similar. Or different, whatever, if it's a horror story or I guess we're also opening the field up [00:53:00] to if you paid the least amount of money and it turned out well.

We wanna hear from you. You was great. I

Jess: wanna

Mikki: know. Listen, we just wanna know what's going on. Go to our chicks and construction.com. Uh, fill out your homeowner horror story or your, I had a great experience. Here's the story. Um, I would actually love to hear like somebody having a great experience 'cause, because I think that would be cool to like see the things they did right and be like, oh, we had this great experience.

Um. So give us your good stories. Yeah, give us your good stories on those things. We'll, we'll take your stories. We're here for it. We're, we're all about the tea, whether it's good or bad.

Jess: Uh, and where can they find us on the socials? All right, so we're on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram at Chickson Construction Podcast.

We are also on TikTok at Chicks in Construction. I

Mikki: checked out our TikTok the other day 'cause Hector's got the talk. And so I was like, oh, we have our tech TikTok now. And he goes, you do? And I was like, yeah. So we went and we checked out the videos. There's only three, but we're, we're gonna expand that eventually.

Yeah. They keep saying that.

Jess: It's like under review and I'm like, oh God, somebody probably

Mikki: reported us and you know who, [00:54:00]

Jess: so there's like four more that are there. They just say under review, what are they under reviewing? Oh, that. Yeah, one day

Mikki: we're gonna tell you a story about the worst human we've ever met.

It's not gonna be today 'cause we're out time, but I just want you to know it exists. One day we're gonna tell that story. It's not gonna be now probably you're gonna

Jess: subscribe, so you to subscribe. You find

Mikki: out. It's the only way you'll find out is if you're subscribed. Anyway, thank you guys for watching.

We appreciate you. Check us out on all the socials and we'll see you next time. Bye bye.