Finished, at long last...well except we still have to finish the inside.

Yahoo,
We are "substantially" finished with this house. It's been a rough time, but we made it. Our life savings are wiped out, but what the heck, it's only money!

The biggest hurdle to cross in the last year was not so reliable, honest or trustworthy Chris Jason Smith ( aka, Chris James Smith) of C. J. Smith's Custom Cabinets, a most misleading business name. I met Chris Smith on line in the spring ot 2008. He had a shop locally. I wanted to spend my money locally. We met up at Lowe's where he showed me a set of custom cabinets and told me that he would make me a better set of kitchen cabinets (with all the bells and whistles) for a slightly better price. I went and looked at another job that he had completed, with a contractor friend in tow. It looked like good work. He had a deal and I wrote him a deposit check as he promised me that he would have my new kitchen installed within six weeks. Six weeks came and went.

Mind you, every time I went to check on the progress of my house I had to travel over 2,000 miles. Over the next months, seasons, and year Chris Smith made many promises. He would call me very excited and ask me to come over to his shop to see the progress. The cabinets that he showed me looked great. He had more that he needed to do in my house. He wanted to make it his showplace. He wanted to complete the entire interior of the house. This included all cabinets made and installed, sheetrock, tape, texture, paint, all door and window trim, all flooring, bathroom cabinets, custom "California" style closets, shower installation, door, floor and ceiling trim (Crown moulding), wooden interior window shutters, a custom hutch in the kitchen, a bed frame and of course the kitchen. He was even going to make a miniature stage for "media room". But everything came with a large deposit.

During the winter of 2008/2009 I go see the so called "progress" on my house. There didn't seem to be much, if any. My good friend Ron noticed and the next thing I know we had a sheetrock party during the weekend. I was sick with a 104 temp., but we got the majority of it completed. Of course, this was sometime after I had paid Chris Smith over $6,000 to complete the sheetrock portion of the job. So spring of 2009 rolls around and Chris hammers in much of the unfinished hardwood that I had purchased. But he only installs the easy part of the job, I would call it the field. He does this before the messy job of sheetrocking is done. He left all of the detail work for "later"...much later. Over the next months Chris managed to get the kitchen and living room taped and textured (two whole rooms). This went on for several more months. And, of course Chris was always asking for more money all along the way.

After a while it got to be a joke, sort of a sick joke. Chris would fret over some miniscule detail (a small amount of oil got onn the wood floor) and he would use it as his excuses to do nothing. He kept telling me that he was "going to move into the house for a month and finish it". Several times he told me that. He was always asking for more money. The last big money that I sent him to complete the house with....he went out an bought himself a pick-up. Nice.

I asked a friend (a real good friend) to help Chris in his shop so he could finish my job. They worked on my project for weeks. Then Chris asked my friend to work on someone elses project, (without compensation, of course). The freind said no and Chris got mad.

Chris gets mad a lot. He gets mad over the smallest things. He blows up and says nasty evil things to everyone around (but never around the customer). He sent his girlfriend Sandra to tears on a regular basis. He struts around like a banty rooster and acts tough. Then a day or so later he acts like everything is fine.

Chris called me a lot also. He told me that I was one of his only "friends". He told me that he got depressed. He was crying on the phone. Then, usually, he would ask for more money.

I paid for helpers to try to move my house project along...to do the work that Chris should have done himself. That's Chris Smith's picture on the right. He even wears a tape measure to give the impression that he knows what he's doing! He was nice enough to have his girlfriend Sandra take this photo of him for me. Chris told me that Sandra loves him.

Finally, out of desperation I offered to pay additional money to Chris Smith, to make the actually get some work done in my house. I figured that this guy is so greedy that he will jump at the opportunity. He did.

Then a call comes from Big Ron. Big Ron tells me me that Chris offers to pay Ron to grout some tile. Ron says O.K. Next, Chris says to Big Ron, "and since your working for Dan be sure to charge him too". Ron was being honest when he called me and told me about Chris' offer, later that day.

The big day is upon us and Chris is going to deliver all of the materials that I had purchased. Some of the cabinets were dropped of in prior days. On this day Chris Jason Smith shows up without his girlfriend Sandra (who he is always with). Chris arrives late and gets out of his truck. He grabs his large toolbox; it looked so heavy that Big Ron offers to help, but Chris "has it handled". My guys notice that all of the finished materials are missing from the truck. Minutes later Chris is elsewhere and my guys need to move the big heavy toolbox. They went to move it and it was light as a feather, in fact it was empty! Imagine that.

While all of this is going on in Louisiana, I am in California driving towards the San Francisco bay area to move my elderly mother. My phone rings and I hear my friend telling me that Chris just "quit". I was driving so I let my buddy who was with me handle the calls from Chris. It all boiled down to this. Chris thought that he was the big joke on the jobsite (which was true at this point). Chris wanted even more money to finish the job that he was a year behind on and he had already been paid more than it was worth. He hadn't finished one portion of the job. He still had the materials that I had bought and refused to return them (I think that this is called stealing). He also refused to return my $3,200 wood engraving machine, which he later pawned. Chris called and attempted to throw Big Ron under the bus. Chris said that Big Ron was trying to cheat me. What a lame attempt; what a class act!

This guy told me for over a year (well over fifteen months) what a great Christian he was. All the while he was taking my money and taking me to the cleaners. I supported him for this entire time. He was living better than I was. I'll let others deal with C. J. Smith's Custom Cabinets. I think what we have here is called "Contractor Fraud". I am working with the authorities. Chris has a few surprises coming his way. But, the wheels of justice turn slowly. I lost tens of thousands of dollars, and over a year of my house rebuild time to that creep. I figure credit where credit's due. If this wasn't all true....I wouldn't put it into print! The truth hurts C. J. Smith! Let the light of day shine upon you and your shady underground operation.

Shady opertion? Here area a few things about how this guy operates. Here is what I learned after it was too late. Chris told me he has no valid driver's license. Something about the California DMV holding up paperwork. He drives a truck that he refuses to register. Either this tactic is to not have an attachable asset of maybe it is so he can just walk away, if he has an accident. I'm sure at this poing that there is no insurance on this vehicle. When the heat is on Sandra drives him in her car. He has no bank account. He cashed my checks at a check cashing place or he runs it through Sandra's bank account. He only "hires" people who are down on their luck and only pays in cash. He calls himself a businessman.

He told me that he spent my money while he was doing "other jobs" and that he needed to make more money to finish my job, bacause "that's the way it works".

So with that over, I called a recommended contractor. He finished most of the work that Chris was paid for. Most of the cabinet doors that Chris built didn't fit the frames that Chris built and many were missing altogether. The real cabinet man had to redo the entire kitchen. I had to pay for many items twice. What a nightmare. I have turned Chris over to a collection agency. Chances of collection are slim.

The smartest advice I got (after it was too late) was that if your contractor/tradesman can't afford to do the job with his own money, you should run away.

I will be enjoying our new place in just a few short weeks!

I will just have to work at my job for the rest of my life. Here's a link to my website, check it out: http://www.potteryequipment.com/