If you’ve followed this blog, know us or even watch the local news occasionally, you might have received wind of our story – we had the unfortunate experience of having money stolen from us during our construction process…something we later found out happens more often than not in this business. This money was taken by a builder that we hired by the name of Jimmy Mills. It has taken us months and months of stress, anxiety, and heartache to get where we are to this point. It has forced us to take out a home equity loan as well as maxing out our credit cards in order to recover some of the money that was taken. Not only that, it has put us under a tremendous amount of stress and it has made us almost want to give up finishing our dream home together.The reason I mention this is because we recently got a letter from a local law firm. It was a letter in reference to Harry Cardile and it threatened legal action against us for posting slanderous accusations on our blog. The law firm states that Harry Cardile just “introduced us to Jimmy” and only “acted as a consultant to Jimmy and never worked for us directly.” UNBELIEVABLE. If Harry were a true consultant to Jimmy Mills then we, Kelly, the architects and myself, would have never come in contact with him…something we did on a consistent basis. If you search Harry on our site you can read about his involvement since the beginning of this project, but let me take this opportunity to explain further in greater detail.Harry Cardile was referred to me by our bank loan officer and was the first person we talked to at the beginning of our working relationship. He told me that he had ownership in a local construction firm by the name of Braselton Custom Homes, but that this company would not be available to do this type of house. He then went on to tell me that a good friend of his by the name of Jimmy Mills had a company that he had just started and they wanted to work together on a project such as this. The name if this company was called Visibility and they consistently reinforced to all of us that the two of them would be working together, within this company, as a team. It was no way explained to us that Harry was just a consultant to Jimmy.When we first met with the two of them, Harry defined his role, without a doubt, as an integral part of the team. They told us that he and Jimmy Mills would be involved throughout the entire process of building our home. Harry made sure to mention Braselton Custom Homes over and over again and if you want to know the truth, this is how he hooked us all. Let me explain, if you look in the emails that he sent and the conversations that we had with him, he basically sold us on the fact that he was an owner in this successful, home building business called Braselton Custom Homes. He always brought it up in conversations and meetings and even sent us emails from his Braselton address. He even went so far as to invite all of us to see some of the homes that Braselton Custom Homes had built…even though this company would not be doing any of the work on our own home. He was successful in convincing all of us that we would be better off hiring he and Jimmy because of his experience with his company…well it worked and they were ultimately chosen as our builders, not only because of his experience with Braselton Custom Homes, but also because of how they presented themselves.I want to clarify that Braselton Custom Homes never worked on our project and Harry Cardile was not under contract personally to perform any of the work on our house, HOWEVER, he consistently and without a doubt represented himself as part of Visibility for this project with whom we ultimately were under contract with. It’s important for us to mention this because we believe that the general public has the right to know what Harry Cardile did. For instance, this email excerpt below. Read it and tell me what you would think. 

“Hi Calvin, It was a pleasure meeting with you on Tuesday. Jimmy and I appreciate the opportunity to work with you and Kelly on your house construction project. We have considered the various aspects of the project and propose the following: 1. Visibility LLC will be the primary construction manager for the project. Jimmy will take the lead on construction activities, with either himself or one of his superintendents on site full-time during critical phases of the project (e.g. concrete pours). I will be more heavily involved in the up-front planning phase and throughout the project from an oversight and business standpoint.2. We would propose to perform the project on a cost-plus basis under the AIA contract (using A111 or A121), tailored for the terms, fees, activities and deliverables associated with the structure of this project. For projects that we perform with Braselton Custom Homes, we typically begin work under a $5,000 fee for the pre-construction or planning phase, and then actual cost plus 16% for the construction phase. We can discuss fee structure in more detail once we have some estimates on cost to construct.3. The following are references for you to contact regarding work that has been performed under Visibility’s responsibility and direction. These are the most appropriate, since Visibility is the primary onsite construction manager. I would also be happy to host you on a visit to some our homes in Braselton. Even though they are quite different homes in style, it would give you a sense of the quality that we expect and demand.Visibility References: —————— —————— —————— ——————We expect to have rough pricing prepared early in the coming week. We’re certainly intrigued with the unique and creative design that you are developing and would welcome the opportunity to work with you and Brian on the project. Let us know if there is any other information that you would like to have in order to make your decision on us as your builder.Please feel free to contact me directly at ———Best regards,Harry” 

So what do think when you read that? Do you feel like Harry is a part of the project, process, team? We sure did. Not only that, we were happy that there were two of them because that would mean that there would be a system of checks and balances between them and there would be more people involved in the overall process. Harry was present at many of the meetings we had which were held on and off site and he participated in conversations we had through phone calls, conference calls and emails as well. He was heavily involved in the contract negotiations and throughout the entire process, before and after contract signing. He continuously represented himself to us and our architects as an active and consistent member of our building team.When Kelly and I met to sign the contract, only Jimmy came to the meeting. We did not think that this was odd because we took it as Jimmy signing for the both of them under “Visibility.” We never questioned Harry not being there because as we all understood it, they were a team working under the name of Visibility and that only one person needed to sign the contract for the team.Still not convinced? How about this email from me asking what his role would be in the process? 

“Calvin,Sorry for my tardiness in getting this to you, but I owed you an answer to your question regarding the roles that Jimmy and I will play during the construction phase of the project. Obviously, Jimmy is the project manager and therefore the primary point of contact and decisions for all things construction. In that regard, I am actively supporting the construction process in areas that include financial management, contractor identification and selection, finish selections and onsite supervision, where appropriate. I will visit the site at least every two weeks to monitor progress, and Jimmy and I are in constant contact during each week to stay in synch. You have both of our brains and eyes on the project, which is a net positive, I hope. I’ll also attend the status meetings as we get underway and will sit in for Jimmy if and when needed. Let me know if that answers your question.Best, Harry” 

After the contract was signed, we all noticed that Jimmy was not holding up his part of the bargain and we began to worry. I, on several occasions, called Harry to talk about my concerns with Jimmy’s performance or lack there of and Harry told me that he would talk to Jimmy and get all of this worked out. Never once did Harry stop and say to me that he was just a consultant and could not remedy this situation because he was not a part of Visibility. In fact, he told me quite the opposite and that he would speak to Jimmy and get everything worked out…again, he always participated and yet again, showed that he was working for us…and not just a consultant to Jimmy Mills. When our working relationship with Jimmy became unbearable and we realized that he was incapable of doing the work, we put a temporary hold on the project so that we could try and fix everything before continuing. Long story short, Jimmy refused to give us back the money he had in his account that was supposed to be used to build our home and we had no choice but to pursue legal action to try and get our money back.When we contacted Harry to tell him what was going on, he suddenly started breaking ties and saying that he was just a “consultant.” When the four of us, me Kelly and our architects heard Harry say that he was just a consultant, all of us were absolutely flabbergasted and could not believe what he was saying. Never once had we EVER heard him or Jimmy express, acknowledge or label Harry as a consultant. We were all totally shocked and stunned!!We perceived his actions and words to be that as a partner in Visibility…period. When Jimmy took our money, it was only then that we realized that Harry had no legal ties to Visibility. At this point, we had to go through the process of firing Jimmy Mills per the contract and to this day we have not received a penny back from him. Not only did he take almost $40,000, but our total loss after he left due to non-conforming work that needed to be replaced (such as the foundation for the house), legal expenses, sub-contractors filing liens ( Jimmy did not pay them forcing us to pay for work twice to dismiss the liens), remobilizing a new contractor and refinancing loans made our loss close to $100,000. We did not have to formally “fire” Harry because, as we found out, he was not a part of the business on paper, even though in actions and in words, he had presented himself as such until this time. Harry Cardile is now acting as though he was never formally involved in this project. He verbally and in writing (as these email references show), was very much involved from the get-go, and consistently represented himself to be formally involved in our project and Visibility.Harry Cardile told us that he couldn’t do anything to make Jimmy Mills give us our money back. But, he could have at least stepped up to the plate and made good out of a situation that went wrong. This is the guy that brought us all together, was an active team member, consultant, participant, whatever you want to call him. The truth of the matter is, we have so much more documentation than this and it’s really sad that Harry Cardile is more concerned about his reputation than concerned about how he mis-represented himself to all of us. When Jimmy took our money and we turned to Harry, as we had turned to him for help in the past, he would not even acknowledge that Jimmy did anything wrong in the phone conversations that we had with him. After many phone calls and heated emails, Harry did finally agree to step in, talk with Jimmy and bring him to the table. But nothing ever came of this and we have no idea if he ever spoke with Jimmy Mills at all.Harry never offered to return any of the money that he made during this process knowing our financial situation that Jimmy, his friend, left us in and knowing that he put this team together. Furthermore and most importantly, Harry Cardile never even offered to finish the work and or job that he told us in writing and face to face on many occasions that he was going to do. Instead, he ran so quickly away from the project and left us high and dry. He has spent most of his energy and time screaming the word “Consultant” which we now call him since he is insisting that is what he was even though again, he never described himself in that manner before his friend, Jimmy Mills, took our money.I’m really sad to have to bring all of this up again because we have all tried to get past this and it has been a really, really difficult experience for us. I cannot describe the amount of heartache and stress we have all been through this year.This blog was never intended to be used as a means of “slandering” someone, as his attorney puts it, who we felt had done us wrong. This blog was meant to document the process, and the experience of building our dream home. However small our website is, we feel it’s our only tool to let people know what has happened to us, who was involved and to help someone else not make the same mistakes we did. So after all we’ve been through so far it’s unbelievable that Harry Cardile would even consider trying to sue us…. The Audacity.

You knew it was coming. I’ve mentioned it briefly in other postings, but never had the energy to write about it. As we slowly get further away from our unfortunate experience it makes it harder and harder to recall the anger I feel towards the guys we chose to build our home. This feeling comes at the most unpredictable times. Riding down the road on a Sunday afternoon, waiting in line at the store, zoning out while having dinner and every time I feel the same way – mad as hell. People that know me know that me being “mad as hell” is hard to imagine. Knowing that Jimmy Mills took almost $40,000 from Kelly, me and my family while his “Consultant/Team Member” Harry Cardile did nothing, then it’s not so hard to imagine.The General Contractor/Builder we hired to build our modern home – Jimmy Mills and and his “Consultant/Team Member” Harry Cardile – put on a good game face. Several items were incorrectly performed, leading to improper work that they insisted we fix on our dime. There were continual delays and excuses at every step in our construction process. We were continually promised a clear picture of our budget which they never delivered. In addition, the contract terms – such as issuing applications for payment before requesting draws, showing accounting for the project, letting us handle our own money after we requested it, etc., were not followed.How did Jimmy Mills take our money? After signing the contract, Jimmy Mills of Visibility Construction Management, took payments from us, declared bankruptcy, and then skipped town to Baton Rouge – so he says. And his “Consultant/Team Member” Harry Cardile – who is an owner with Braselton Custom Homes, took payment for his “services”, then washed his hands of responsibility, and walked away from the project. Our money was taken. They violated our trust, and left us with a hole in the ground and work that didn’t even meet state building code standards.We plan to outline in future postings some of the details, issues and trials we had with these guys to reveal just how poorly they handled our project. Even though we’re moving on, we feel it’s important to reveal our unfortunate experience so no one else works with these guys again. I really don’t like being so negative. So I’m sorry if we go on a few tangents in between a lot of positive things currently going on with the building of our house, but this needs to get out there and into our past.