In late 2004 our family drove to Eastern Oregon in search of some property to purchase to build our dream home. We sealed the deal and purchased 4 1/2 acres in Cove Oregon. We searched for a builder and ended up meeting with Callie and Jon Calhoun of Caldeen Construction.
We recieved a bid from them in May and worked on getting a constuction loan, we signed a contract with them in June and they promised to get started right away.in July we sold our home and moved to La Grande to supervise the construction of our home. We were ignored and ignored and finally after many phone calls we were told to meet them at the property to stake out where we wanted the house to be. I met Jon Calhoun out there and we staked out and measered and left steel stakes in the ground.
Three weeks later Callie called me and told me to meet her out at the property at 6:00 pm becasue they were going to put in our driveway. I drove out to the propery and witnessed Bronson Lumber owner Mace on a DB Cat digging out our driveway in the wrong spot. I told Callie that our house was to be on the other side of the propery and she basically told me to shut up and watch that Mace knew what he was doing. When he was finsihed I said thats not going to even get near our house and showed them where the stakes were in the ground.
OOps this was there first mistake.in late August our driveway was finally finished in the right place. We were then promised to be moved in by Christmas 2005. The building permit was issued in September and things finally got rolling. While Jon was excavating for the foundation I came to the property with my children to see what was going on. Jon lauged and said that we should drill our well where the foundation was going because there was a spring. I questioned him and said won't that be a issue and he said no it happens all the time and contined working. The foundation was installed and they started framing. I must say they were quite dedicated to be out there framing after 10 pm in the dark with their headlamps on so they could see. The walls were stood up in the next week or two and the house wrap was installed. This is their second big screw up. They installed the house wrap on the inside of the OSB sheathing. It clearly was installed wrong and I was told I didn't know what I was talking about and that anybody who installs house wrap on the outside of a house (like the instuctions and building code states) is a idot and they are uneducated.
This lady is a bitch and I have every right to say that after all she has put my family thorugh. The trusses were next. We were promoised to be able to start roofing in a few weeks and this was in September. I got our crew scheduled and figured we should give them a few extra weeks due to the delays we had already encountered with them.
Our crew was ready November 18th and our house was not. This was 6 weeks from when the trusses were due to arrive. They had a hell of a time installing the trusses and overspanned most of them. One of their employees warned us that we should have somebody look at them because they were installed wrong. I asked them on two different occasions if they were installed right why it was taking so long. They promised everythign was correct and it took so long because there were soo many pieces. They finally got the sheething and the inspection done and we began roofing while it snowed. While roofing we witnessed several occasions where we questioned their work. We had a few small meetings and eveything turned into a argument. We were dumb and she was the professional and we didn't know what we were talking about.
We contacted another contractor to have him come and inspect the structure due to all of our concerns. He was baffeled at all the screw ups on our house and could not believe all the water under the house from the spring. We had a few more heated conversations with Callie and Jon and decided we had, had enough. We fired them on December 9th and asked them to leave the propery. JOn told me he didn't have to and I ended up calling the police and they made him leave. He left with all of his equipment and some of the materials from the property. We immediatly contacted a lawyer and had him write the Calhouns a letter asking for a amount due so we could pay them fair maket value and both move on with our lives. They in tern slapped a 79,000 lien on our property. I was blown away we had put up with so much crap, we were trying to give them an easy wasy out and they wanted to start a war. I questioned the lien because I had not been given prior notice. (I had done several liens for my previous employer and I knew how the process had to work) My lawyer asked me if I had been given the "notice of right to lien" I had kept every single piece of paper I ever recieved from her and I knew that I never got one or for that matter signed one from her business.
My lawyer contacted her lawyer for a copy of this so call notice that she claims to have supplied us. 1 month later after several threats of filing suit we recieved a copy. I questioned the signature because I knew it wasn't mine like she claimed. My lawyer contacted a forensic handwriting specialist and we sent off moeny to have it analized. It came back as being fradualt and not being my signature.
Unfourtantly Callie claims I signed it and until it goes through the court systems there is nothing I can do about it and the lien remains. It is invalid and unfair. We have hired a engineer who found several structaul problems with the house.
I could go on for days about everything they have done wrong.
My only advise is to beware. THey are fradulant theives and our home will cost us over 25,000.00 to fix their mistakes not to mention the lawyer fees, engineer fees, and all the money we are out because they are crappy contractors and we have been forced to live in a travel trailer during this whole ordeal. They don't know how to build and nothing that they do will pass code if properly inspected. Please be careful and check out all contractors on the contractors board web site. Oregon is ccb.com
It will tell you some information on the past problems a contractor has faced if there have been any reports filed.
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