Erika Bruder Interior Design LLC

Unfortunately, I am not surprised to receive this review from the Helmstedter's. Initially, they did not want to hire me to do any construction plans, or project management. However, because they were referred to me by a very dear client, I decided to assist them anyway. This was the first (and will be the last time) I will work on a project without drawing construction plans.
Chris, the husband insisted that he was going to do all the work, except for the tile install. I charged them my time to space plan, select the plumbing and tile design. I also extended my plumbing discount to them. I communicated that I would not be on the project any longer but would stop in when the quartz was being installed. They agreed to these terms. After materials were ordered. Dianna began emailing me stating that Chris was getting upset with her because she was unable to find a tile man. She asked me for referrals. I gave her a couple of referrals. She again reached out saying the resources were not responding and if I knew of anyone else. I gave her a name of a friend of a friend to help her out and clearly identified him as “tile” resource. After meeting with him they hired him to do the entire construction project, including plumbing.
As per our initial agreement, my obligation to the project was fulfilled. Soon after the contractor began calling me asking me where I should place the lighting, the mirrors, the trim etc. The clients had insisted on not hiring me to do any drawings. This alone would have made the build much easier to implement and would have answered several unnecessary questions.
The stream of questions from the contractor upset the homeowners and Chris called me to say that all of this was my fault because I referred him. Even though I referred him as a tile installer, and as it states in my contract that I am not responsible for contractor works. The client still blamed me. To try to help move the project forward I made a few visits to the job site free of charge.
There may have a slight shortage of tile ordered as I try to prevent clients from paying for more than is required and extra pieces cannot be returned. The tile quantities were calculated by the tile showroom and the plumbing components were given to me by my plumbing rep.
The installer also couldn’t figure out how to install the tub, even though I sent several emails with the installation instructions and other related information from the manufacturers tech support person to help. It is unfortunate that this client does not bring this up in their review.
I work very hard for everyone of my clients, but I can’t work for free and that is what these clients wanted me to do.
In the end I gave them a beautiful bathroom and they know it.

Thank you so much Irene and Manuel, I truly appreciate the review. See you soon.