My husband and I got married Nov. 15, in January we started looking in to building a home. We ended up in Tampa, Florida at Jim Walter Homes and after long consideration we decided to go the their model the Lakeside on pilings. January 28 we signed papers to start our home. We were then promised that it would take no longer than six to seven months at the most. We had decided to only do partial completion and that we would put in our cabinets, flooring, paint the walls, the septic tank and the well but that they would do the rest. As of August days before hurricane Charlie hit they stil had not broken ground. Then a few days after Charlie came through with all of the devestation that it brought they decided they were going to start digging the footers. Of course with all of the rain that was aquired during the hurricane the footer simly filled up with water and then it was to wait for them to dry out. Months went by and finally they had our pilings up then it was to wait for an inspector to come out so that they could move on to the next step. Finally after a few more months they started doing some of the framework.By christmas time all we had was the pilings, the floor and one and one half of the exterior walls. After numerous calls all they could tell us was that they had run out of supplies and that they were having to take materials from other Jim Walters home sites. Slowly the house started to come together or so we thought.By the end of March and into mid April they finally had our walls up, they plywood on the roof. Then all they did was put the felt paper on the roof and so when it rained where do you think the water went? Into my house and settled on the plywood floors causing stains. At one point the county inspector came out and opened the front door only to see water everywhere. He then contacted the office and tampa and of course no one would talk to him but he gave them a deadline to have the shingles on. They then started call telling us that they had ran out of the shingles that we had originally picked out and they were 4 months backordered. So we decided on a different shingle and finally after a few weeks they had them on. Then it was to wait on other sub contractors to come out and do the electrical work and to paint the house. The painter refuse to finish his portion until they got him the correct pain for the shutters and the front door, and wanted them to replace the front door because it had a very big dint in it. He was the only sub who was actually looking out for our best interest. Not to mentin 2 of our collumns were twisted and they blamed it on the rain. They did manage to straighten one of them. Finally in August i believe it was our fourth contract manager but it could have been the 5th i cant remember because there was so many of them. We asked him when were they going to bring out a dumpster? He said that he would check our file and see if we had purchased that as part of our package. But if it wasnt included we would be responsible for picking up the mess that the subs had left. They cleaned out their trucks, left all of the scrap lumber everywhere. Finally once they brought a dumpster out there they had so much mess that they had filled the first dumpster in a matter of a few hours and had to bring a second. Then in september they for some reason suddenly got on the ball and had secretaries and everything else from the sebring office out picking up garbage and getting things completed. The one of the girls from the Sebring office started pushing for us to sign off on the paperwork. She called my husband and said ok we are all done now are you going to come out and sign the papers today? My husband told her no I am at work and so is my wife, it won't be today. She then said you mean i have been out here busting my ass and you arent going to come sign the F@#$*! # papers? He said no and you dont have to speak to me that way. Later that night he and i went out there to see what all they had done. You could tell they had just left because the paint on the doors and shutters was still wet. A week or so went by and my husband met with the contract manager Darryl and signed off. Then it was time for us to do our part. On December 30 we finally moved in to our house. If anyone is thinking about building a Jim Walters Home. DONT!!! Believe me you will regret it.
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