I am finally ready to talk about how we had to hire a new designer. I have had a few people reach out to me and ask “Cassie why hasn’t there been a build update”? Honestly, I didn’t want to go into a negative blog. I also didn’t like to be talking about someone in a negative way. But this is life and sometimes bad things happen. Before I go any further yes this will be a little negative. However, we do have a good outcome in the end.
While on our last day in Belize, a contractor gave us a name of a designer to contact. This contractor made us feel so welcome. He was so inclusive and knowledgeable. We still have a positive opinion of the contractor. He did nothing wrong. He sent us to someone who he had positive results from in the past. We just were not as lucky I guess. This was not the contractor’s fault.
When we got back to Canada Raymond reached out to the designer and they started tossing ideas back and forth. There was a video call and a lot of emails and texts coming through. We were excited to start talking about our dream home. Once we received the first draft of the house design. We compiled a list of things we felt needed to change. Raymond and the individual discussed a partial payment. Several days later the money was wired to this person.
He sent us images of the money deposited into the account. There were no red flags at this point. Then came a text. Stating that one of the things we wanted to be changed within the design this person was not familiar with. This was simply going with Metal siding. He asked for us to give him some time to research. We did just that. The weird thing for me is that it went dead silent. He never gave us any updates on his progress or anything. I kept thinking… Is this normal?
Raymond started messaging him and emailing him. We were using whats ap, so we could see that this person saw our emails. He just chose not to respond to them. Raymond tried calling several times and he never answered. The last contact we had with this designer was at the end of March. We are pretty understanding people. If he felt like this was not a good fit for him he should have just told us.
It is now the end of July. This was so unacceptable. So the last week in July we sat down and had a talk. We are cutting our losses and moving on. Knowing we will never see the money we had paid this person. It’s heartbreaking to know there are people out there that would do this to someone.
Now for the more positive update and it’s now August…We have found a new designer and Raymond has been talking to her about what we want for our home. She had some questions to better understand some of our choices for the design. She has even asked for permission to go to the land. We hope this experience will put us back in a positive mind for our move. I was starting to feel a little defeated. So now we start again with a fresh and clean slate.
Our new designer has been in constant contact with us. She has sent us wind and sun pattern information for us to better place the house. We have seen a digital design of what the house will look like once it is built and we are finally getting excited again. We now have so much more to look forward to when we head back in November. I want to tell you more. However, this is a new start and we will update everyone as we move forward.
