My story is of the modular home industry. Many ask the question of whether a modular and a mobile home/trailer are the same.in my case, a trailer would be a better option and quality, but according to news reports, better business reports, and of coarse, the modular home industry, trailers are totally different than modular.in my personal opinion, they are one and the same, modular is just a fancy name so they can charge a fancy price. The only difference I have seen is that the wheels are taken out from under a modular. Here is my rip off report that I hope will one day keep anyone from "building the way of Tomorrow!"
About four years ago, my husband and I decided to start looking for a house. We did not want to build because of all the horror stories we had heard from friends and relatives and wanted to take the easy way out. We searched our home town for over two years for the simple home that we wanted, but could not find anything in our price range under three years old with a basement. This was very disheartening because it took us a long time to get our finances straight after my husband's employer of ten years closed their doors and left us lingering with over $100,000 in unpaid medical bills from my youngest son's brain surgery, who at the time was just over a year old, and with numerous unpaid medical bills on our oldest son who has severe asthma and allergies, but God interviened (and my insurance company), and took care of those bills. My husband's next employer closed down just after he had been there a year and by this time I was the one having the surgeries and totaling up medical bills.
In December we decided to build a home on an acre my father gave to us. We wanted an 1800 to 2000 square foot home with a basement, with the normal 3 beds and 2 bath. The basement is a must since I have went through two tornados that resulted in loss of lives in the towns I lived in and one got close enough to take part of my double wide's roof off. My first choice of a home was to be built with the poured concrete walls using the styrofoam molds, but no one around here did such building that I could find, so they next choice was traditional.
We decided to use a home builder that frequently advertises their services in a seemingly professional way, through billboards, newspaper, and radio. The only ones around here were America's Home Place, Built-Rite Homes, and Tomorrow's Homes. We went to A.H.P. First and really liked what they had to offer but had too many extras that we would of had to pay for, like the flooring and foundation grading. Then I called Tomorrow's because they had a billboard in our hometown. When I talked to Gib, the owner, on the phone about what they charged for a home the size I wanted, not once did he mention that they were modular. I found out they were modular from the owner of Built-Rite when I called him about some estimates and I mentioned talking with Tomorrow's. His words to describe modular were, "If it comes in on wheels like a trailer, looks like a trailer, it ain't nothing but a damn trailer!" After talking with him, I almost called and canceled the appointment with Gib because we have a house near us that was built by the R-Anell company, in which they consider their homes modular, and they had huge signs in their yard telling how they got duped! Unfortunately, I didn't listen to my intuition.
We met with Gib and his salesman, Mike O'Connor, around the first week in January. Of coarse they had this big sales pitch (Gib did most of the talking) about how well constructed their homes were, energy efficient, the usual blab about home building. Then we told them we found out they were modular and about the home down the road from us, (in later meetings Gib would tell us that he checked and found that R-anell went out of business due to the lawsuits against them) and that when we mentioned modular everyone associated the term with trailer. That fluffed his feathers a bit and kept saying that no home built now is better than modular and that you couldn't find a stick built home built better than any of his homes. He also said that he has never had a lawsuit against him and that all of his customers were 100% happy because he goes above and beyond to make his customers happy. We went and looked at one of his homes a few miles from his office (only on the outside), that had a basement like we wanted, and from that look, it looked good. We asked how long it would be before the house was completed and he said it usually only takes two to three months to complete their homes, no longer.
Gib told us our home would be "turn key and that all you have to do is move your furniture in with you." Gib said they provided the dumpster, porta potty, and even a maid to come in and clean the house from "top to bottom". It was emphasized that we would not have to lift one finger during the construction of the house, they even had a "clean up crew" that kept the job site spotless.
The man was good at his sales pitch, very confident, and could give us a solid, no matter what, unchanging cost for the home which was $115,000 for a ranch style, 3 bed, 2 bath, with full unfinished, poured wall basement. We questioned about leaky basements, etc., and he and Mike said they have NEVER had one of their basements to leak and if one ever did it was guaranteed for 10 years so they would have to fix it if anything did go wrong, at no cost to us. He even offered to give us a one percent discount on our interest rates if we decided to use one of the banks he normally dealt with and at that time the rate was 7 1/2% and he was quoting 6 1/4%.
On January 15, we signed a contract with Gib to buy the home for $118,880. The extra costs were from the septic tank, $2300, stubbing for a third bath in the basement, $1200, and a 10x15 concrete pad for under our back deck at the basement door for $300. We decided to use Regions Bank out of Athens, Ga, Gib said they usually used Athens First but wanted to try Regions because his long time friend Mason McWhorter was president there and if all went well they were going to direct all of his clients to that bank. When the one percent "buydown" came into play at this time he wrote out a paper saying he was giving us a discount of $8094 that included the cost of the buydown and some upgrades on the home that they were in the process of making standard specs that consisted of the walls going from 2x4 to 2x6, normally $361, and the windows to double hung that used to cost $240. The only stipulation was that we paid our down payment before the end of the month was up because that's when the offer for the one percent buydown expired, so we wrote out a check for $15,000 out of our personal checking account.in coming months the buydown was a permanent advertisement in their foyer. The digging of our basement started within four days of this signing.
January 29, after two weeks of trying to reach her, we met with Sissy Herring, the loan officer at Regions Bank. She did explain that she had been super ill and had been out of work for over a week with her daughter who had the same thing. Sissy explained that we wouldn't have to pay any money until the house was completely finished and inspected by the bank. Her loan papers had the loan at $109,000, in which, after our down payment should have been only $107,800 counting the closing costs. When I questioned this she told me no house can be built with a concrete amount, that something always happens to effect the closing price. I told her Gib guaranteed the price not to go up regardless, and she said we needed to go see Gib and see what he says compared to what she was telling us. We went ahead and signed all papers and paid a $325 application fee, and with Sissy's promise that if things didn't work out with Gib, the money was ours and could be used to pay another builder since the loan was not through Tomorrow's Homes and if we didn't want to have our loan with them we would get a refund of the application fee.
Upon leaving the bank, we went straight to Gib. He and Mike both had some smart ass comments about her being out of work with her child to the effect that she should have hired a nurse to come in and care for her child so the rest of the world could move on, which didn't set too well with me since I have stayed out of work for periods of time to care for my seriously ill boys.in contrast to what Sissy said, Gib just said they are new to their work practices and with modular, prices are concrete because of the way they are built, in controlled environments, and by buying materials in bulk, etc. We told Gib to call the bank and re-emphasize with Sissy how he did his prices with guarantees. At this time he did offer for us to use one of the other financing institutions he dealt with. We said no we already spent this much time with Regions and already paid the fee, we would just stay. Gib said we weren't supposed to pay a fee and that we weren't even supposed to go to the bank ourselves, that they usually did everything from their office and sent the papers to the bank. We said we would keep everything as is. So in thinking now, they probably finance everyone else through Tomorrow's instead of their clients going out and getting the loans in their names only.
On February 19, we went to the local real estate lawyer that we chose to handle the first closing of the construction loan, Alton Adams, who is also a state judge. He explained that the papers basically say that we are to call the listed number when a payment is ready to be made and that the money would be put into our construction account and WE would write the check for any disbursements. He showed us a paper for us to sign that authorized a disbursement to him from our loan account for the first closing in the amount of $1096.50. Alton's parting words to us were, "if you need any help in the mean time, just give me a call."
On March 5, we had an appointment to see Lavonne according to her, to make sure all the colors, etc. That we had previously picked out were correct. We get there and go over all that and she tries to say that we would have to putty some nail holes, paint the molding around the marraige walls, and some other really unimportant issues, but we brought up the "turn key" guarantee from Gib, who was standing there, and finally after about 15 minutes of not giving in, she said she would get their handyman, Robbie, to do all the painting and punch out work. I had questioned the quality of the vinyl siding because from the way the worded it, all the siding would be put on at the home site, well, on this day I find out that only the two ends come without siding. I asked her if they guarantee the siding not to wave, because I was weary of factory installed siding due to what the siding on trailers looks like. She come straight out and said their siding was top quality and that it would not wave. Eventually she gives us a "contract of sale" paper to read and sign that states mainly that we were to pay her in three installments. Our down payment was the first, $15,000, the second, was $91,920, when the house was delivered, and a final $11,880, using her spoke term of "when you are ready to move in", but in the papers it states, "upon substantial completion", which didn't register with me until later when I went to a lawyer and he pointed it out. We immediately launched into the sales pitch from Sissy and what the lawyer told us when they said no money until the house is finished and Gib said they always get paid in installments due to the fact that its modular and they have to send their payment in when the house is delivered. We told them they needed to get everything straight between what the bank is saying and what they are saying, Gib said he would call Mason, the bank president, and straighten this business with Sissy out. Two weeks or so went by and Gib never called me back to see what the bank said, in which at this time I was already getting pissed, so I called Mason, and he said he hadn't seen or talked to Gib, so I filled him in. Mason said they could not determine how much their disbursement will be until the bank inspects and that if the bank feels $91,000 worth of work hasn't been done, then they will get what the bank determines, I told him to call Gib and tell him that.
On March 21, my home pulls up on my road without any notice. My husband had went to town and when he came back, the house was in the middle of the road. It had snowed two days before and North Carolina was still slushie, but here they were and we called our foreman Chris, he didn't even know the home was on it's way until the drivers called him when they hit the Georgia line and didn't even call us to say they were coming. On March 23, the crane came in and put the house on our basement walls that had just been poured less than a week before by Georgia Foundations. Our floor was poured by Cornelius from Tomorrow's Homes which we found to have many high and low spots and had the plumbing for the bathroom stubbed in the wrong place. We did point this out and they promised to get the floor fixed, but the stubbing was to remain. This was the starting point of the shitty work we were to constantly encounter.
After the house was put on the basement, the peak of the roof had to be shingled. The rest of the shingles were done in the factory but Tomorrow's had a roofer to finish it and when my husband noticed they were not applying felt, he pointed this little fact out, and got his head bit off. The ends of the house were left without siding and had plastic covering them, well when they got put together, they tore the plastic off and left the wood exposed to the elements. When all the feltless shingles got put on that was the last time anyone would work on the house for a full week. Cornelius came back to talk about the uneven floor on the 24th and basically told me not to ruffle anyones feathers or it would go hard for me and my house would have nothing but crappy work. Oh what an omen!
The next week my husband called the number in our loan papers that is specified for getting draws made on our construction loan. When someone finally did answer they told him that the number he was calling was not the one for making the disbursements. The person gave him another number, no one answered, so he calls Mason and gets his voice mail. So we wait for Mason to call back, my husband called him again around April 7, and told him about the number being wrong and that we had to make the second payment to Tomorrow's Homes to keep in accordance with our contract with them. Steve, my husband, told Mason that our finish date from Gib and Lavonne was the 3rd week in April, Mason said, "Well, since it is so close to the house being finished, we will just make one payment to them instead of having to come inspect for this payment and having to come back again so soon for the closing inspection. We told this conversation to Tomorrow's.
April 2, Toccoa Heating and Air came and cut out the duct work and on the third brought the heat pump in, well, the set the thing right in the middle of our basement, my husband told him to put it on the end of the house, the installer said Tomorrows told him to put it in the center and that's where it stayed. My husband immediately complained to Lavonne about this. During this week my side, rear, and front decks were installed along with the basement stairs and they started putting the siding on one side of the house, these guys didn't even have their own ladders, and my foreman had to let them borrow his. It took those guys 7 days to put the siding on about 95% of that one wall. One of the installers girlfriends was showing up everyday to "keep him company".
The plumbers showed up on the 10th and installed the pipes and the water heater. The water heater was put beside the heat system, instead of the fall wall where my husband said and they refused to move it, saying this is where T. Homes said to put it, " we do what they say". I stopped them and told them to leave until I contacted Lavonne, which didn't do any good. The basement is 9 feet high and these ding dongs had some of the pipes hanging 7'10' off the floor. We bitched about that also, they knew we were going to finish out the basement and couldn't have a high enough ceiling with that hanging so low, they came back and raised the plumbing on the 23rd.
Our front porch, if you would call it that, it's basically a stoop, is 8x5. When we didn't want the traditional ranch style roof, we were told the porch would be big enough to have 2 rocking chairs on it, hell, two skinny people can't stand side by side on that porch! Well, the space for it was precut out of the roof and covered with plastic, when they built the porch and the cover to it, they felted it, but didn't shingle it.in the three times it rained before the shingles got put on, the water was running under the shed and in between the walls. Our entire living room wall was completely soaked, the sheet rock was peeling, and the floor at the front door got wet. We noticed after the first rain that rain had got into the basement and we pointed it out, we couldn't figure where the water was leaking from. Come to find out, when it went through the walls and was leaking into the basement. The next day on the 9th, the shingles were put on the porch. I raised hell and said the wall would be completely replaced, they didn't want to do it, said it would dry out and not hurt it. I kept bringing up their web site advertisement about none of their materials got wet, but it didn't phase them. Eventually Lavonne said they would replace the sheet rock and insulation but had the man cut a large hole in the wall and show me that the sheet rock and insulation was dry, I said I would accept it but if the wall showed signs of bulging, molding, etc, it would be replaced, they agreed.
April 14-16th WB construction came and put my septic tank in and had cracked the collar and broke the lid. We had also contracted them, ourselves, to grade our front yard flat, which it took a couple of days and charged us $1000. They couldn't grade one spot because we still had the temporary power pole and they said they would finish that part when they came and fixed the septic when the house was finished. They were upset because they told us we should of already been ready to get our permanent power by then, we didn't get permanent power until late May. WB said they had just come from a house that had been set and two weeks later the owners were moving in. Go figure.
On the 18th a guy came and patched some of the cracks and said that he was doing it as a favor because everybody had either quit or was fired by Tomorrow's Homes that worked sheet rock. When we would point out some chips or scratches in the wall, they would say they told me to only do this, not what you say. We heard this comment out of every single contractor that worked on our house. They would not do anything but specifically what Lavonne told them. Needless to say, he didn't fix all of the walls.
My husband was finally getting seriously mad and kept trying to call Gib. Finally after about 3 weeks, Gib called him back. Steve told him all of the problems we have that no one seems inclined to fix and he wanted them to come see the house. I had been e-mailing these people like crazy mentioning all the crappy work and kept telling them I was trying to get the bank to get a disbursement to them. They still didn't mention already having the money. I was also trying to get to see who was coming to work on the house because they had agreed to send us weekly schedules on who was going to work on the house, they never did, if they did mention anyone was supposed to show up, half the time they came a few days after the fact.
LaVonne, Gib, and Chris, our first foreman, came about the middle of April and I taped the conversation. I had found some wavy siding on the back (factory installed) and on one side (Tomorrow's work), and said I wanted it fixed and she said all siding has waves in it. I mentioned the little talk we had about her guaranteeing their siding not to wave and she denied ever telling me that. We showed all the sheet rock cracks, the back deck that was bad, and the trim work around the eaves of the house were horrible! We argued about the heating system, the basement stubbing and about their 10 year no leak guaranteed basement that leaks, and of coarse the wall that got soaked in the living room. The house came with 2 return air vents and only one got hooked up. Chris said the house didn't need but one and he said our system wasn't big enough, nor did we pay extra for a system that could push air from one end of the house to the other. Later that week the man Tomorrow's said was supposed to fix everything on my house (whose name is also Steve) patched the extra return air vent up. Then on the 24th Baskins Heating and Air came and brought my air conditioner. The electritions came on the 26th to hook everything up and put power to the rest of the house. We went through a time when half of the houses' power wouldn't work, it was due to when the two halves of the house were connected they didn't plug the wires from each side together.
May 2 our water line to our tap got put in and I found a paper in the cabinet under the kitchen sink that had some specs on it and one of the specs indicated that 8" of insulation was supposed to be in the attic, we measured and didn't have but about 3". I called Lavonne and she tried to explain that some was blown out during travel and that alot is usually piled up in the corners, but on the 7th, more insulation was put in and later I found that spec paper was replaced with a new one but no one seems to know anything about it.
Between May 8 and the 15th T. Steve put the railing on the front porch, painted a little, started the back steps, and not much else. The linoleum was installed on the 18th, toliets on the 23rd, which I might add I can't even find toliet seat or tank covers to fit. I got a man I worked with that is licensed to repair heating systems to come and get the serial numbers off the heat and air systems and after he called some dealers, friends, etc, all said that the heat pump (3 ton with a 10k strip) was not adequate for my size home, this is just for heating the upstairs. I called Georgia powers representative, Austin Arnold, and he said he never had any complaints about Tomorrow's Homes customers systems. A dealer in Toccoa, C.C. Dickson said he personally went through having to deal with a unit that size on one of his homes and said that it wasn't large enough to heat the house that was 1,200 square feet Finally Toccoa Heating and Air called me and he said just try the system out and if it didn't heat good this winter, he would come and put a 15k strip in it. I said if it didn't heat good, I will only agree to you saying you will put a large enough system in, not just a strip upgrade. I e-mailed the Goodman manufacturer and asked for what size units the recommend for a house my size and they responded back that they didn't have that kind of information, they left that decision up to the heating installer. Baskins came in and put another return air vent in the master bedroom and beside the wall in the breakfast area, to bring a total of 3 return vents, Rocky Baskins also said the heat unit was large enough to heat the house.
I made an appointment with one of Alton Adams other real estate lawyers, David Gunter, because our house looked like crap and when I would ask Lavonne for a closing date or why things were not being fixed or done right, she would say people are out there every week working on your house. Yeah but the work is terrible and she would not even listen. David looked at our pictures and contracts, asked how much money did we put down, said that we could have the house disassembled and only lose the down payment plus a few more thousand to make up for the 10% of purchase price cost if such action is taken. He said attorney's fees were not sought, that it would take about a year's worth of litigation and from $10,000 to $20,000, and then with no guarantee I'd get anything. At this point in time I was only having trouble with the siding and trying to get a guarantee on my heat system in which Lavonne refused to give me. I also said the bank was not calling me back on getting my disbursements and he said as long as we don't give them any money, we had the advantage. He told me to wait it out some more and see what happens and if anything comes up, give him a call.
By this time I was tired of keeping exact track of what was going on but one window out of two, got put into my basement on June 2, it got cracked and they had to replace it. I didn't get my second window until late June. My decks and part of the house got pressure washed on the 5th.
Between May and June, Tomorrow's Homes fired everyone that worked for them, even our foreman Chris, and Deidra, the planner, under some suspicious circumstances. Word had it that they were taking Tomorrow's for a loop but that was just gossip. Then we met our new "foreman" Randall Keene on June 8th and bombarded him with all of our complaints said he would work on getting all fixed, but when he later came back and talked to my husband about a week later, he was marking his list off as the work being done and initialing my husbands name beside each job. My husband told him he hadn't done "jack shit" at this house and he is not to mark nothing as saying he told him it was satisfactory. Well, Randall got pissed stormed off, left, come back, and had some more words with my husband, took his vinyl siding guys with him and left.
I caught the county inspector at the house one day doing the electrical inspection, all he did was look at the power box on the wall and left, well I was there when he showed up to do a final inspection on my house on June 25, and I told him my house wasn't finished. He only checked the structural integrity of the house and the power. He found my house wasn't bolted together and some outlets were dead so he didn't approve the final inspection and told the foreman he had to put some joist hangers on the back deck. I was supposed to be called anytime an inspection was done and I never was. On the 28th Larry the inspector came back out and approved the home for occupancy but Randall had to nail all the holes on the joists, not just one or two. My husband just happened to be there that day when the inspector came and needless to say he was pissed.
Now to the juicy stuff. We go on vacation for 4th of July week, when we get back, Mason left a message on the answering machine stating that Lavonne called and said our home was finished and she was wanting the $11,880 final payment. I thought I misunderstood, I called Mason on the 9th and asked why did he say the final payment of $11,880, don't you mean all of it? He said according to your contract you were supposed to pay when your home got delivered and I paid them the $91,000 on March 26. I was so mad I'm surprised I didn't call him every name in the book. I asked what happened to all those times I called him leaving voice mail messages and when we spoke on the phone numerous times about a draw, that he never told me he paid them. He tried to say he thought I was trying to make another draw besides the $91,000. Which is bull shit because Steve or I always said the $91,000 payment. I asked if an inspection was done on the house since it was set on Friday and he gave my money away on Monday, he said he didn't need an inspection from the bank, he was assured the house had been delivered. He later changed his story saying he did an inspection. No such thing happened between those days because 1. My grandmother, brother, and I each have our trailers directly across the road from the house. 2. After every one left Friday, in which Steve and I were there all day, no one came to do any more work for an entire week! Not a soul showed up at that house, my father lives right below, and my mother's grandparents live at the end of the road, and my Aunt has a completely unobstructed view of the house. NO ONE CAME.
I never received any authorization, documentation, nothing, about a draw being made on my account, my bank statements say zero transactions. The interest payments I thought were just because I had the loan, I didn't realize I wasn't getting a credit to my loan. The interest payment bill had "credit" then amount on there but I wasn't getting that credit for me! Like I said, I continuously e-mail or spoke to Lavonne or Mason and they never would tell me the money changed hands! The first documentation I received was dated July 19 from Lavonne in the form of an invoice saying they were paid on March 26 and that on June 30 they went to the bank and petitioned for the rest of the money. The only reason Mason called about the final payment was because laws prohibited him from issuing the final payment without us signing the papers. Mason claimed he didn't know we were having problems with our house, etc.
My husband went to another lawyer, Shawn Black, and he said he really wasn't that qualified to take up such a case but he was the one that gave us the number for Tim White.
Steve and I were supposed to meet with Lavonne and Gib to do a "final walk thru" on July 10 but we called and cancelled. We called and got an independent home designer and certified inspector to come and inspect and he, Tim White of the Optium Group, found 4 pages of bad workmanship and code violations on the house. We went to the lawyer that did the closing, Alton Adams, and dropped off a copy of the inspection report for him to mail to Tomorrow's Homes, well, a week or two went by and finally after calling about 5 times to ask what the hold up was, we were told that Alton was too busy helping his friend and partner in subdivision building, Elliot Caudell, fight against the State Representative, Jeanette Jamison. Elliot held seats on the hospital board and was a commissioner and Jeanette got a law passed that prohibited that situation, so Elliot sued the county. He won the battle but lost the war, he was not re-elected to his commission post.
We met with the lawyer Alton's office recommended, James Irvin, and he said that if we fix the repairs ourselves and go to make a draw on the account to pay and the money isn't there then what's above and beyond the $11,880 we could sue as damages. He recommended us to small claims court that costs $50 filing fee. He felt confident that we could win there but if we didn't want that he would charge $300 an hour for litigation which could take up to a year and total over $20,000. I had heard this before from Alton's office.
I filed a complaint with the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta and on line twice with the better business bureau. The federal reserve said they had no legal pull in this situation in a letter to me but when I called and asked why were they condoning the actions of the bank, Juana Escobedo Teixeira, said they didn't condone their actions but felt that if we sued we had a strong case against the bank. I asked if any discipline at all was bestowed upon Mason and she said not by them, that would have to come from Regions headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama, who did get a copy of the complaint. I haven't heard nothing from Mason since his hearing, nor have I gotten any bank statements, I am still getting my interest payment bill like clock work.
After I sent the inspection report certified mail to Lavonne and the bank, we met with them in August. I videoed, audio taped, the meeting. We had a new foreman Tom. My home inspector led the walk thru pointing out every detail in his report. At this point we found out that our refridgerator didn't fit in the spot that we gave Lavonne the measurements for. Her, Gib, and Tom, watched the opening being measured and Tom measured himself, that what was there and what was on paper were different. The opening was 1/4" smaller than what was specified. During this I asked Lavonne if they were still dealing with Carolina Building solutions, she said yes and that they didn't deal with All American anymore. It all came down to Tom said the repairs would be done in 3 weeks, easy like we specify.
A few weeks went by and Steve called and asked when was the work gonna get started, Lavonne said they drew up a repair contract detailing the inspection report and our list of repairs. That finally got signed on October 11, which clearly states all repairs would be done within 30 days. Lavonne got someone from Carolina Building Solutions out to the house on Oct. 25 to check out the fridge opening. Lavonne wrote saying that the opening was the measurements that was submitted and they didn't plan to do anything to it. So, I get a guy to come in and shave some of the sides off of the cabinets and had him to cut one of my countertops off by 1/2" to give my fridge a tight squeeze in the hole. It was only after Steve went to see Lavonne and refresh her memory about measuring the space right in front of them, then she decides to send CBS out.
This nut did nothing but screw my house up even more. We told him about not having felt under the peak shingles and that we now had wrinkles coming up on the rest of the roof. He goes in our attic, cuts about 20 holes in our roof, approximately 6"around, to see where felt was applied on the roof. We saw this after he left. The man didn't have an explaination as to what was causing the wrinkles. He was also supposed to anchor the hot and cold supply lines, the plumber had to do that when he came and moved the hot water heater. We have those big round lights over the mirrors in both bathrooms, well, the panels and the light sockets were super loose, he fixed one out of three panels.
Steve calls Lavonne again wanting to know if the repairs were to be finished by the 11th and she sends a letter saying the repairs will be finished approximately November 26. I e-mailed her to remind her of the 30 day rule in the contract. She counters back saying it has "proposed" on the papers.
A man named Allen was contracted to build me a new back deck because the first one was already buckling and twisting and was not built according to the contract, screwed only, no nails. The only thing that had screws in it was the part you walk on. It took him four weeks to build my deck, that's the only thing on my house that looks great! He got pissed at us because Lavonne promised him all the extra wood and the wood from the old deck, we said nothing is removed from the property, we considered that something we bought and paid for. Like I said, he built me a pretty awesome deck, I just wish the front one could be that good. Allen was unaware of the 30 day contract and when Steve asked the foreman why nothing is going to be done by the 11, which was 3 days away, Tom goes and chews out Allen. Allen said he was going by the schedule they gave him. We also complained about the front and side decks not being nailed and Lavonne wrote they had no plans in fixing them. Allen put new pickets on the railing on the front porch steps, he left the rest of them for the rest of the porch the way they were.
Allen was supposed to paint all walls like new on the inside, Lavonne sent someone else out, Tony, who said his wife was the new help in the office. He never mentioned her name. Tony painted the walls alright, and my linoleum, my carpet, and got splatters of paint on the new, never used bed room suit in the bedrooms. We went through and pointed out some more area that needed to be fixed he said he would do it the next day. He came the next day and left and said he'd be back tomorrow, we checked and he didn't do any of the things we pointed out, one of which was the molding he admitted to chipping at the door to our basement stairway, we haven't seen him since, and that was two weeks ago. His sudden departure might have to do with him saying he just came from helping to finish a home they were doing and from working on our foreman's house and when Steve asked Lavonne why everyone else's house was getting worked on and finished like Tony said, she said no one has moved into their homes since the repair work started on ours and that Tony was not telling the truth. Steve asked her why would he lie, and she smarted back, "Can you get him to put it in writing?" We had a list of over 24 things that still needed painted or fixed on the walls.
Another one of the workers from Tom's house showed up, Micah, to fix the ridge vents on our roof and he said he had came straight from working on Tom's house. He came by last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, to put some siding on the house that was specified to be "removed and reinstalled all siding this end of house." He said they told him just to replace the bad pieces on that one wall. Monday, 26, Micah is back to do siding, he cuts a large, square hole out of the OSB board that is bowed, turns it over and nails it back. We both have a hissy. I got the camera and took pictures and asked why he was "-rigging" our house. (No offense) He said that what he was doing was a "feasable" solution to the bow in our wall. I told him the entire wall is to be stripped, assessed, fixed, and brand new siding put back on. Tuesday Steve watches him put the old siding back on, with replacements for a few torn pieces, and Steve told him he deliberately went against the contract we had from Lavonne and what we specified the day before and that he would be sued along side of Tomorrow's Homes. Micah did some other odds and ends, like spray foam in between the concrete wall and the framed wall to call it "sealed". I don't think so. All of the work on my house is half-assed. No other polite way to put it.
Our heating system and duct work was moved like we specified but doesn't have the power back to it yet. No word on when that will happen.
Yesterday the men showed up to put insulation in the floor or basement ceiling. We had to fight for this also because Lavonne said it wasn't in our contract and Steve asked if they did or did not consider and sell all their homes as "comfort homes", she said they did, so Steve said comfort homes require R-19 insulation in the floor, regardless of it having a basement. Our basement steps are a code violation and they weren't restructured according to the contract, Allen put an extra board under the landing.instead of replacing the glass front door where the glass frame got cracked like Gib said, Allen puts some kind of compound in it and sands it down smooth but the frame is light brown and the compound is a blue gray. He did this with the chipped up molding at the basement door also.
Here is a list of all that is not done against the repair contract...
1. All damaged and wavy fascia and siding had not been replaced
2. Molding around doors and trim not connected properly
3. Strip at bottom of utility and atrium doors wavy, needs replacement
4. All damaged molding in house not replaced
5. Small pieces of siding used on back wall not replaced
6. Exterior doors not fixed/painted properly
7. Lock strikes not properly installed
8. See daylight through door seals
9. No screw hole covers for front, side doors
10. Rail pickets not properly attached
11. Drawer slides loose
12. Vanity light fixtures loose
13. Carpet not anchored at vent openings
14. Remove carpet tack strips and replace with transition strip
15. Walls chipped, scuffed, and not sanded or painted properly
Found out past Friday the supporting boards for the trusses are half off the boards, do not line up. We found this when it was raining and we checked the basement to see if the back wall was still leaking, it was along with a leak right beside the power box. I videod the water dripping there, coming in the basement wall, water coming in the atrium doors, which in turn got water into my duct work, and water coming into the utility room door. I went the next day to Tomorrow's, showed Arlene, another life long friend of the Gibs, who is now their sales consultant. She said construction was closed down until Monday, (don't forget that Micah came on Friday to work) and it would be seen to then. I asked her to get a hold of Tom because he wasn't answering my pages or Lavonne, she said no. I told her she has seen the tape and is refusing to look into getting it fixed promptly, and that if anything happens to the house, I was going to sue. She said the only thing that would happen if water got into the power box would be the fuses would blow, she knows, she's been in construction work for 30 years, yeah, so has Gib and look what I got. We argued a bit and I left before the situation got worse. So here we are today. Wednesday November 28th., still not in my needing repairs, brand new house, and still making interest payments.
I almost forgot about the second CBS man that came. He shows up after Miccah fixed the ridge vents. David Tucker, the service manager for Carolina building solutions, got out of his car, looked at the roof for about 30 seconds, told my husband it was the felt wrinkling under the shingles, and when my husband told him to reserve his opinion until they got into the attic, David refused to go into the attic! Steve said it all needs to be looked at, David pulled out his business card and told Steve to get whoever he wanted to come and redo the entire roof, and CBS would pay for it, then he left. When we had the leak last week in the basement beside the power box, we went into the attic with the video camera and then we noticed about the trusses not lining up and the rest goes from there.
I had 5 workers show up on Thursday, 29, and said they were going to fix everything on our repair list. NOT! They did alot, but it rained last night and my newly sealed basement wall still leaks from the door and the atrium doors still leak also. I'll see if they send me a final bill wanting to close again, this time they won't be given a chance to repair anymore! I called the John Marshall Law School in Chicago today and waiting for someone to call me back.
Tina Brock
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