Florida Avenue Grilling
This story will appear in this week's issue of the Washington City Paper.
Florida Avenue Grilling
A D.C. homeowner and his contractor agree on one thing: They hate each other.
When Christopher Turman wanted to take a shower, he didn’t stroll over to his bathroom like most people in the civilized world. He’d wait until his neighbors went to bed. Then he’d sneak out back, turn on the garden hose, and start scrubbing.
Turman wasn’t homeless. He owned a place with three showers. They just didn’t work right, and Turman blames his contractor.
In spring 2007, Turman bought a small row house in the 1300 block of Florida Avenue NW for $460,000. He then signed a $135,000 contract with Sheldon Roseman of Life Long Construction. It called for heightening his basement ceiling, remodeling his kitchen, fortifying his roof, and doing a variety of other upgrades to “his perfectly livable” house.
The work started in early April and was supposed to be done in October, at which point Turman would move in, stop paying rent at his old place, find a tenant for downstairs, refinance—and all would be dandy.
Turman had found Roseman through a recommendation from his real-estate agent—intelligence that he supplemented with some due diligence of his own.
“I searched on Google and didn’t find very much information,” he says about Life Long Construction. “I was led to believe that it was a company that had been in business for 20 years. It had an office on Capitol Hill, and a secretary.”
Less than two years later, Turman was forced to sell the house to avoid losing it to foreclosure. His contractor had walked
off the job, and he had had to hire workers to rip out poorly installed plumbing, fix the roof, and re-do everything that had been left in shambles.
Turman, 38, who works in nonprofit advocacy but is currently without a full-time job, ended up moving into the house five months behind schedule. But there was hardly a reward for the long wait: The place had no hookups for kitchen appliances, skylights had been installed in the wrong locations, and a variety of other things had gone wrong, says Turman. Basic items—like window ledges and faucet handles—looked like they could be ripped out with hardly a tug.
The toilets were useless—they did not flush things, they ejected them. Turman learned that cement had been poured down a sewage pipe, which caused flooding on the first floor whenever something went down. That problem had to be fixed fast; Turman claims he kept part of the pipe as a reminder, like an injured soldier holding onto the bullet that pierced him.
Turman later heard that some of the subcontractors hired by Roseman were third-party inspectors from the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA), who completed their plumbing and electrical jobs, inspected their own work, and signed off on it. DCRA investigated this claim but has not acknowledged any wrongdoing; one inspector involved, a DCRA employee, stopped working with the department more than a year ago, according to the department.
Despite Turman’s ever-expanding list of grievances, Roseman always acted genially, doing favors like picking up his client at his old apartment so the two could visit the job site, and offering constant assurances. “He kept on saying over and over again like a mantra, ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to get this done,’” recalls Turman.
Turman stopped believing that soon enough. And, by mid-summer, Roseman had halted work for good, according to his client.
Roseman has a different spin on his times on Florida Avenue. He says he had no choice but to leave: “He kept adding and adding and adding work. So we had to say, ‘Chris, we can’t do any more work for that price!’” says Roseman. According to the contractor, there were always new side projects: more lights, a cathedral ceiling, TV hookups.
“He asked us—which he never really paid for—to put in locations for televisions in 10 different locations in the house,” says Roseman. “I mean, who does things like that? He wanted to be able to watch television, and he doesn’t even own a television!” (Turman insists he does.)
There was also the issue of Roseman’s wife, Claudia Louis. When the going got tough, Turman started calling her at her office at a lobbying firm, sending her e-mails, and pressuring her to lend her husband some money so his renovation job might be completed, according to Roseman.
Turman admits to making several calls to Louis’s office—but only because he’d been given her number and Roseman had said she was intimately involved with the company. On the question of additional renovation demands, Turman acknowledges that many things did indeed change along the way, but he signed an amended contract bumping up the cost to $178,000 to reflect his new expectations.
Turman eventually decided he couldn’t sort out problems alone with Roseman, so he called DCRA for help.
In a statement to Washington City Paper, DCRA director Linda Argo said her department had “easily spent more than 100 hours in mediation, walkthroughs of the property, inspections of the property, and legal time reviewing this case.” The result: Sheldon Roseman still has his license and Turman has been urged to get a lawyer, if he’s still dissatisfied.
“It is extremely rare for any regulatory body to revoke a home improvement business license based on questions of workmanship raised on a single job site,” Argo wrote. “However, repeated instances of poor workmanship can provide the basis for a license revocation.”
But have there been “repeated instances of poor workmanship”?
A search of D.C. Superior Court records shows that Roseman has had nine lawsuits filed against him since 2001. Some were in small claims court—demanding $5,000 or less in damages—but three were civil court cases (one was not directly related to a construction complaint).
Wilda Dear filed her claim in 2003 after Roseman allegedly failed to fix leaks on her roof that she says led to widespread mold, dripping, and a carpenter ant infestation. Unlike Turman, Dear never actually hired Roseman—she purchased her home in 1996 with a two-year-old roof and a 10-year warranty that Roseman was supposed to honor. Dear says she eventually won a cash settlement that made her “whole again,” and allowed her to fix all the problems.
Her take on Roseman: “He’s a guy who decided to do home repair, and he finds skilled workers. I’m not even sure he has the insight, the technical skills, himself. Personality-wise, he’s great. He means well. He wants happy customers. But he doesn’t have the ability to self-critique himself.”
To get his house in livable shape, Turman had to do pretty much what Dear did: hire other contractors, including Stuart Davenport of Davenport Design and Construction.
“We had to do a lot of work to get the place finished,” says Davenport. He remembers taking out bad drywall, rewiring “a lot of stuff,” and fixing an inexplicably placed hot water pipe that led to Turman’s toilet—when was the last time anyone wanted to wash their face in the toilet bowl?
“There were some really significant things that were screwed up. It seemed like it wasn’t really planned out very thoroughly,” says Davenport, who is an ANC Commissioner in Bloomingdale and owner of the Big Bear Café there.
All told, Turman says he paid out $170,000 to Roseman—the two agree on that sum, if nothing else—and between $80,000 and $100,000 to subsequent contractors. Once Davenport’s work was completed—it took him three months compared to Roseman’s year-plus on the site—Turman put his house on the market. It now has new brick stairs, decorative wrought iron banisters and bars, and overflowing purple flowers and shrubbery by the sidewalk. Turman sold it for $690,000 in late 2008.
Turman says he tried to purchase a condo in Columbia Heights after the sale but was turned down because of his credit score.
He lives in a small apartment north of Dupont Circle. Just last week, Turman received a letter from DCRA’s Argo, providing a hint that Roseman is perhaps not quite free and clear yet. She wrote: “DCRA officials are evaluating the evidence collected from your complaint, together with the evidence collected from other consumer complaints against Life Long Construction, to determine if there is good cause to suspend or revoke the company’s license.”
Image by Darrow Montgomery
12:50 pm
Chris Turman is probably one of the singly finest gentleman I have ever known in Washington. His character is above reproach but a tool belt was never his style. Mucking about at DCRA would not be his milieu. He probably should have stopped being hands on right after he hired the decorator.
It sounds like Mr. Roseman isn't all bad either. I think this might just be a case of two well meaning but naive folks who got in over their heads.
Perhaps Chris needs to consult a higher authority as to all his woes, an ambassador perhaps. They solve things diplomatically, and Chris Turman has that velvet glove quality so valued in the diplomatic corps. Am ambassador to a small european country would be good, mountainous, neutral, known for its banking and its cheese. Some place where a good, sturdy car like a Volvo would come in handy. Hmmmmm?
The right help might keep Chris from turning into a detters!
3:21 pm
Sounds to me like the contractor is a good candidate for losing his license. It's nice that he's a nice guy, but really he has to also know what he's doing before attempting to fix up other people's houses. The other client, the second contractor Christopher brought in, and the DCRA all seem to suggest Rosenman has serious problems. Good luck Christopher.
5:44 pm
Wow, see what their saying over at Yelp.com:
Sean G: “Steer clear of Life Long Construction -- a Capitol Hill-based general contracting firm run by a fellow named Sheldon Rosen or Roseman. He’s a notorious figure of somehow long-standing on Capitol Hill.
Not a scrupulous chap. While his crews (Kevin et al) are pleasant and professional -- the firm's work is atrocious.
We ve spent the last 2 years chasing Sheldon to repair our roof after he hired unqualified subcontractors (read: NOT roofers) to build our roof. His record of disputes with others is long.... Check the DCRA and Better Business Bureau.
Note: If you want your roof replaced - hiring a roofing firm, not a GC. And definitely NOT Life Long Construction unless youre looking for a life long on headaches.”
ChristopherT: “Life Long Construction ruined my life. DO NOT EVEN THINK OF USING THIS Company.
I hired them to renovate an entire row house.
Life Long Construction:
Performed grossly negligent construction
Failed to get Building Permit
Used unskilled workers
Used unlicensed subcontractors
Walked off with my money without completing the work
I could go on and on...
As a result, I was forced to sell my home.”
Chris W: “Wow do I wish I had read Yelp before deciding to go with Life Long Construction. I don't think I've ever seen a business with all one-star reviews before...
We hired them as we were preparing to move into our row home on Capitol Hill through a recommendation from our Realtor. They were to do three pieces of work: remove some cabinets the previous owners installed in the master bedroom, some light carpentry work for installing some home theater equipment, and repainting the interior of the house.
The only thing that didn't go without a problem was the carpentry. The guys who did the cabinet removal were slow, left some small pieces behind, dinged up the walls (which were luckily going to be painted), and when they were done complained about how hard it was, and were strongly implying I should give them some gratuity.
The painting is where things really went badly. We had a very interdependent schedule, with other contractors depending on the painters finishing, and a hard date that we had to move in. The painting was to be completed by our move-in date. When our move-in date came, the only room that was "done" was the guest bedroom (and it wasn't even done, since they "forgot" and only put one coat on one of the walls).
They don't know how to manage their crews and prioritize. Luckily I was on vacation from work during this period and could babysit, but they still took about double the time they said it would take.
(Lesson learned here: if you have a hard schedule you must adhere to, put financial penalties into your contract)
When it was all said and done:
- there was paint and joint compound in our wood floors
- there were specks of paint on our counters, bathroom fixtures, etc.
- there are rooms that they only put one coat on the ceilings thinking we wouldn't notice (yes, even when changing shades of white, you can see roller marks with just one coat!)
- the cheap rollers they used left lint behind in the paint film
- I keep finding areas where they forgot to touch up the wall after painting the trim
all in all, it was a half-assed job. I would call them back demanding they fix the mistakes, but I don't want them getting paint all over the furniture, and I frankly just don't want to deal with them again.”
Brandon B.: “Awful. I am really disappointed after receiving Sheldon at the recommendation of our realtor. We hired his services to do the interior painting of our house. The guy has no idea how to do a cost analysis nor does he have any idea how to follow a schedule.
We also made the mistake of using his men to paint our house using the top-of-the-line Benjamin Moore Aura paint collection. It was a waste since they used super cheap rollers and left behind strands stuck on our walls. Oh, and they finished way behind schedule and asked for more money more times than once.
Me and Chris ended up having to be the project managers for the work - luckily we have experience in management b/c he would've ripped us off worse than the shoddy work they did on the walls.
Don't use Sheldon for painting!”
MoK. “Sadly, I had the very same experiences of most of the reviewers before me with this frighteningly incompetent firm. Sheldon was recommended by my realtor, who must know by now that the work is highly problematic. An air conditioning system installed in May is still not working. The project was a nightmare--wrong equipment delivered, unlicensed staff used for work requiring specific training, wrong carpet, un-plumb doors hung, and theft (my grandmother's engagement ring). They even stole tools from other workers on the job. DC needs to see about this license.”
5:49 pm
That line about supplemented with his own due diligence is laughable...How do you not get information/referrals/feedback from other customers and 3 different estimates? Someone is tearing your house apart, you'd better damn well know they are capable of doing the job. You don't write a 135k check without some certainty dude.
Hell, I spent 8 grand on expanding my basement half to a full with a shower, drop ceiling and ceramic tile for the outer basement area, ceramic tile and new bath fixtures/vanity/toilet in the bathroom and that was after I saw this guy's previous work with my own eyes. And some clown quoted me 12k and another 16k.
8:46 pm
This is Christopher Turman. The story covers two years of my life in a few paragraphs and there are many things that I could clarify or expand upon in the article and subsequent comments. However, one thing is certain; my heart is not capable of "hating" anyone.
10:55 am
Christopher- I really hope you have resolution to the investigation soon and will finally have some closure. Good luck with everything.
12:55 pm
Christopher-This firm has obviously been grossly negligent with disastrous results. Good luck with finding some kind of resolution.
2:34 pm
Chris Turman is totally yummy!
4:49 pm
Lolita is right, Chris Turman is really cute.
10:42 pm
Chris Turman is probably married, the good ones always are. I'd do him. Wonder if he went to 'Men's Party".
1:14 pm
Lifelong construction probably means you will probably be waiting your whole life to see your work done. We wasted so much of our time and money in trying to get this work finished and feel so harassed that we are going to take some legal action against him -we have some who are already interested in joining us and if any of you are too, please contact us. The contractor is a cheat -he took our money and never finished the work. Made false promises, overcharged for things and then gave a whole range of excuses - he has no scruples whatsoever! He promised to finish our basement in 2 months and dragged it on for 16months till we got fed up and got someone else. . He was also recommended to us by a Realtor and I think they are running a scam together - they start working on people's houses, destroy things and then try to buy the property at a lower price. He should be stopped from cheating Dc residents in broad daylight.
http://dc.kudzu.com/merchant/reviews/12269197.html
1:52 pm
So a group of government bureaucrats hire themselves out as sub-contractors to renovate your house, do criminally bad work, approve it themselves in their role as government inspectors, and then refuse to let you sue them or even pull their front man's license.
And we want to turn over medicine, banking, and the auto industry to these people?
4:53 pm
after reading this little blurb on sheldon and reading what others have said about him ,, and knowing him for 35 years ,, I must say no one here really gets it,, first off he seems to be a nice guy ,, PT Barnum said it best,, a sucker is born every minute,,he ain,t that great all he wants is your money,, he is a salesman !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! first and for most !!!!!!!!!! he could give a shit less about you he wants the money !!!!so he is nice to the fool that goes for the cheap price and give him their check, and something else is anyone that trust a real estate agent must be goofie,,
there a damn few in this town that are really honest.. and you know them seem to be nice guys too !!!!
And I dont know of any third party inspectors doing any moon lighting they make more money being inspectors than picking up hand tools !!!!!! so I think that might be a fluke..
And last but not least ,, Mr Roseman is a lawyer!!!! so he can write a contract beside riffle thru your pockets..
and he runs with a great lot of folks too,, they are all bandits,.
my sujestion is when you have a contractor come in and sounds good and gives you a great price ask him to hit the door it is going to cost you more to fix his screw ups.. because the bottom line guy has to make his price up in a couple ways ,, takeing short cuts,, tacking on extras, or walking off the job leaveing the owner with work needed ot complete
10:43 am
From Google: Looks like Louis is a lobbyist for American Heart Association.
9:12 am
I have been a resident of Capitol Hill for over 30 years. Like most people I know, I have remodeled my home, room by room as my budget allowed. The only contractor I have ever used has been Sheldon Roseman of Life Long Construction. It was therefore with surprise, no shock, that I read the article “Florida Avenue Grilling” in the City Paper. I couldn’t believe Ms Samuelson was writing about the same company. Starting with a new roof, 25 years ago, I have found the men who worked on my home to be very competent, and Mr. Roseman willing to go the extra mile to get the job done just as I wanted. I have had new bathrooms installed with a beautiful tiled shower,new cabinets, new kitchen floor, recessed lighting, new and larger doors,old oak floors refinished, a tiled basement floor... and the list goes on. One of the reasons I first used LifeLong is because Mr. Roseman is also a long time resident of Capitol Hill, so I felt that he would not be a”here today, gone tomorrow” contractor. That sure proved to be true as evidenced by his sending a crew to fix a leak in my roof 11 years after it was installed. No charge. Equally important is that his master carpenter, Kevin is fabulous. His work is beautiful and he can make anything fit. My the way, I still have the original roof.
9:48 pm
What a coincidence finding this thread on the web. I hired Sheldon a few years ago to do about 20k worth of work. His thing is he is personable but then farms out the job to a mixed bag of contractors that may or may not do a decent job. Supervision is minimal. So the odds are you'll get a mediocre job. I feel bad for the guy in this article who entrusted him to do his whole house.
2:50 am
If you agree COlts are going to lose become a fan of FB page Colts Will Lose Super Bowl 2010!
11:41 am
OMG: Check out reviews on Yelp.com (a consumer ratings website): http://www.yelp.com/biz/roseman-life-long-construction-washington#hrid:njLII4YsgX4okPmI0Rsytw/src:self
12:15 pm
and 50% of the comments are "Not recommended" in Washington Consumers' Checklist, a nonprofit consumer information and service resource.
1:41 pm
What a mess! I don't care how nice this guy act or is, he's a miserable excuse for a contractor. These are people's homes-- not some school paper you can fake your way through. I hope he's had his license revoked.