Custom Curtains by Design

My mother, 92, moved into an independent living apartment. She needed a window treatment for a 101″ wide rectangular bay window with existing vertical blinds. She was given a recommendation for Custom Curtains by Design. I believe it was Kris Novak that came to my mother’s apartment and proposed a valance. The cost was $ 871. But good news… She told my mother that if she did not mention it to the company, she’d discount the sales tax. From what I see on the webpage, she *is* the company.
She provided a plain tan unlined waterfall type valance using what my mother was told was inexpensive fabric, $ 21/​yd, that was stapled to two uncovered boards with a loosely attached bracket between them. The valance was too narrow for the window, and the swags butted to each other with almost no overlap. You could also see where she pulled out a hem and re-​sewed it, and overall the swag pleats were not crisp, more saggy and pulled. I’ve had several swag-​style valances made by three different decorators over the years. These were by far the worst looking, most poorly put together, and most expensive, even when accounting for inflation. Yes, that’s what my mother got for eight hundred and seventy-​one dollars.
While my mother was in rehab for a fall, I called Kris. After a long discussion, she did agree to re-​do the valance. She was 45 minutes late to uninstall the valence, but other than that, it went well. After 8 weeks she and her son came back to reinstall the valance and it was still too narrow, and I mean like 8 inches too narrow, so they left with it.
Another month went by, she and her son came back to install again, again she was extremely late, maybe an hour. She did add spacers to hide the narrow swags That allowed for the additional width, and it did look much better, not professional, but much better than it looked originally. She had the nerve to complain that she had to buy 3 more yards of fabric. But… this time the valance was too wide. The son took out a keyhole saw, opened up the now covered plank of wood and took off almost a half inch and folded the covering back sort of into place. The son then tried to use, what was maybe, a standard drill bit to drill into a metal header (used in the floor-​to-​ceiling bay windows in the high rise building). After realizing his drill was in reverse, he broke a bit. It took him at least 4 drill bits. I’m not exactly sure since there was a point where I left the room to avoid either laughing or screaming. When I asked about steaming the wrinkles out, she said the polyester fabric would stain. I guess at this point I just wanted her out of my life.
In summary, this woman basically tried to soak my legally-​blind, elderly mother. Shame on her. I would not recommend this woman, or her ‘company’.