KOS Home Renovation

Short version: We are involved in and were awarded judgement in a small claims legal dispute as an attempt to recoup the plumbing expenses we paid another company out of pocket to finish the plumbing job begun by MK Properties/MK Home Remodeling and never finished. The work performed by MK Properties/MK Home Remodeling is subpar, and we need to pay another contractor to complete the job as well. We have been trying to collect this debt for over a month. WE DO NOT RECOMMEND this company under any circumstances. He is refusing the pay the judgement entered by the courts. Long version: After receiving several estimates, we had our kitchen remodeled in March/April 2020 by MK Remodeling. Nick Kosmas came to our house, gave a detailed description of the work, drafted a design, and gave us a professional quote. While the actual work was not without its roadblocks, overall, we were happy with the result of the kitchen. In February 2021, the pipe to the kitchen sink on the exterior wall froze. We had to call an emergency plumber on Sunday, February 14 to thaw the pipe and check for leaks. He determined that the pipe had no insulation, and that insulation had been removed from the crawl space and not replaced. While he was here, he also pointed out several code violations in the plumbing that was completed the previous year. They gave us an estimate to rectify these violations, and it totaled $4,600. I reached out to Nick Kosmas outlining the situation, and he agreed to reimburse us for the emergency plumbing as well as send someone to bring the kitchen up to code. It took several more times of reaching out, but we finally received reimbursement on March 16. After repeated texts and calls, Nick agreed to send plumbers on May 18, 2021 to rectify the code issues. On this day, the plumbers disconnected our kitchen sink and dishwasher, removed the upper cabinets and cut a large hole in the wall to vent the pipes. They left telling my husband they were going to the village hall for permits and that they would return to finish the work. I stayed home the following day so the work could be finished, and no one came. The next day, Nick came, moved a cabinet into place, but no plumbers came. Nick repeatedly gave us excuses, such as he could not get a crew back, he was shorthanded, a crew left him, he's very busy, etc. On May 21, he agreed to reimburse us if we hired a professional plumber to complete the work. We had been without running water since the 18th. On May 22, based on Nick's promise to reimburse us, the professional plumbers came and completed the job. We sent the receipt to Nick the same day, and he told us a check would be sent to us for the reimbursement. We followed up again on June 4, since we had not received the check yet, and he told us it would be sent the following Monday or Tuesday. We have not received it yet. It is now a month later, and we have begun legal proceedings. In the meantime, the kitchen had been disassembled. Nick sent 2 workers to complete the punch-list of items to get the kitchen back to the state it was in prior to the plumbing work. They were here for two days on June 2 and 3. They did not finish, and the work performed is significantly sub-par compared to the work that was done last year. There are gaps in the upper cabinets, they overlapped the backsplash with the cabinet, the dishwasher is not bolted in properly, the backsplash tile looks uneven, one of the sides of the cabinet is wobbly. Again, Nick told me he was not able to send someone to finish the job and correct the errors because he is so busy, and all his crews are otherwise occupied. We are having some exterior work done on the house, and Nick spoke to this craftsman. The craftsman gave him a quote to finish the job, and on June 7, Nick agreed to pay him to finish the work. However, given the fact that we are still not reimbursed for the work completed on May 22, our craftsman required payment before beginning work. We are still waiting for a response. At this time, we are left with a poorly assembled kitchen, still no reimbursement for the professional plumbing expense, and many unanswered calls and messages. We have taken him to small claims court, and the judgement was awarded in our favor. He is refusing to pay what has been decided by the courts. We want nothing more than our kitchen to be put back to the way it was. In short, we DO NOT recommend hiring MK Properties. There is very little concern with the quality of work performed; nor does Nick review work to ensure it is done properly. He will do a great job to win the bid, but after that you will be left with excuses and disappointment.

Had a very bad experience working with Nick Kosmas (MK Home Remodeling) on our home remodeling project (cost 31.5K). Our project that was supposed to be done in 3 weeks in April, did not finish until June-17. I had moved to California in April and needed to put my Illinois home on sale end of April. Some of the things you can do to avoid taken advantage of and affecting your health: 1. Pay him the bare minimum advance to start the job and release more money based on progress made. 2. Make payments for the expensive items (cabinets, flooring, countertop) yourself, so you know it is being ordered. 3. Make sure he is paying his workers. If the workers are not getting paid, they will not show up and do a shabby job. 4. If possible, make sure your contract has an end date with room for reasonbable delay. Below are my grievances: 1. Put on laminate flooring on to the concrete flooring without the underlying padding, even after being asked to do so by me and his own workers. The floors ended up uneven at some places and made a noise when you walk over it. 2. Would not order cabinets/countertop even after getting payment and repeatedly promising to order them. Had to order them myself finally. 3. His workers who quit midway (due to not being paid), did not close the toilet in the home for more than a week after the old toilets were removed, causing the sewer bugs to fester and causing stink in the bathroom. Taking no action even after being made aware of the fact. His workers also allowed dirty water to get collected in the bathroom tub for more than a week. 4. Repeatedly asking me to make payment in advance and showing no traction in the work until money is paid, even though the contract stipulated that I only pay the balance at the end. 5. Ignoring multiple grievances about how inaction from his end was inadvertently affecting my health and my wife's health to suffer. Will not pick up his phone during most weekends when you are suffering due to no progress made. 6. Ignoring all pleas about expenses incurred due to utility bills, real estate bills, mortgage interest while the work on the house is not getting done and house is not being sold. 7. Forced me to take time off from my work on short notice and travel back and forth from California to Illinois, due to having to follow up on the work in person. Cost at least 2000$ in flight tickets, rental cars and time offs taken. 8. Gave home key combinations to the Cabinet store without permission from me, when he was supposed to collect them in person. 9. Continuously over promised and under delivered as evidenced from my 3 week project taking 11 weeks to finish.