Jules by Trout Lake

This is my first review ever. I am compelled to write this because I do not want to see this happen to other folks. We had Breakaway Services (also operates as Upper Level Homes) quote on installing drain tiles, replacing front stairs and overhauling our laundry room (plumbing, new tiles and drywall, drain and hook up of existing washer and dryer). Phil quoted $26,000 plus tax (labor and materials) for all three items which we thought was a fair price as we weren’t looking for anything fancy, mostly functional. The project started out alright because Phil’s crew was pleasant and professional but now, I wished we had listened to our intuition and stopped the project when we received our first invoice for the excavation for the drain tiles. The first invoice was for $5,528.25 (after only 7 days of work) and the quote for the entire installation of the drain tiles was $8,538.00!!! Needless to say, all three items ended up substantially over the quoted price. The total cost of these 3 items in the end was $54,431.25! We did have some unforeseen cost which was an additional $31,000 so the total bill from Phil was $86,206.00 We wouldn’t have minded paying more if the end product was of good quality but to our dismay it wasn’t. Near the end of the project, Phil just vanished and we were unable to get a hold of him or his crew to fix the deficiencies. Not only did Phil leave us with a substandard renovation, he also left us with a lien on our house for over $8,000 as he neglected to pay one of the suppliers. We contacted Phil immediately but were unable to get a hold of him but eventually got in contact with his office manager, Shirley. We were assured the bill would be paid in full and the lien would be removed immediately, this was in November 2013. Despite repeated reassurances from Shirley only $1,000 of the $8,684.73 was paid. It is now June 2014, 7 months later; the lien is still on our house and we are now paying the remainder of the amount to the supplier in order to remove the lien as our mortgage is coming up. This seems to be the way Phil operates as another reviewer has had the same issue. This is unethical and I don’t know how Phil has managed to stay in business. Please save yourself a lot of heartache and your money by not using them. Phil is bad news.