Ovation Design/Build

We hired Kevin from Ovation Design/Build to perform end-to-end renovation work on our condo, starting August 27th. 2 months later, it looks like only 2 weeks of work have been put in, and he has abandoned the project 60% of the way through, taking most of the money with him.

We were first-time home renovators, and we ended up being strung along by this guy. Constantly showing up 4 to 6 hours late, without notice, sometimes unreachable, sometimes continuously telling us "20 more minutes" and "I'm almost there". And we he does show up, he stays for 4 hours or less, spending significant chunks of time smoking on the balcony or out on 2 hour lunch runs.

When he actually did work, after giving us a plethora of silly excuses for being late, he often lacked all the required or correct materials to do that day's job. He often left important things to the last minute, only to realize his plan for that area wouldn't work. He often only worked 3 hours per day, after ruining our day as we waited for him to show up. We probably spent more time waiting around for him to show up, than the amount of work he actually did.

Aside from the constant lateness, short hours, lack of professionalism and unpreparedness, no task ever took even remotely close to as long as Kevin estimated.

He seems to work entirely off up-front cash, as he constantly asks for money along the way to pay "for the kitchen to go into production", "for the electrician", for "the deposit to cut the quartz slabs", "for the plumber to show up". In the end, we never saw a plumber and while we believe the electrician was paid, we found out that the kitchen fabricator was still owed money and we were told Kevin was ducking him for weeks. Finally, despite paying $3200 for a deposit for the quartz countertops, he missed twice on delivery dates for the countertops which he claimed were cut and ready. We called the quartz cutters afterwards and were told they haven't heard from him in 2 weeks and weren't paid a cent, and that the quartz was not even marked up, let alone cut.

After calling him out on this, apparently he finally had enough, refused to provide confirmation by the quartz cutters that there even was an order, and decided he would no longer work on our project since we demanded proof of the quartz, which we already half paid for. The very day he stopped working, was a day before he "had to leave town for 7 to 10 days". Also, he has also been charging us HST, despite providing us with no actual receipts or a business or HST number.

The sad part is, this is but a summary of this nightmare. Tip to everyone, don't go with the lowest bidder, check license, and check for references. I cannot stress this enough. I wouldn't wish Ovation Design/Build or Kevin on my worst enemy...