stephanie, pictures hon, pictures? LOL Don't worry, I didn't even realize you said April and I'm not sniffing paint fumes.

creekside, congrat's on getting started. What a magnificent view. My goodness, how I envy you folks who have nothing but trees for neighbors. May I ask where you're building?

We are building near Knoxville, TN.

Brutuses- more pics!! I LOOOOVE your porch-- sigh...

We are Hoping to clear attorney review next week. Permits are in.. god willing the start will be this summer (june/july?)

i will TRY and post pics later! when we left for our vacation the GC said the roofing would be done and he'd be ready to pop the windows in. we get back and it looks EXACTLY as we'd left it. it had rained non stop the entire time we were away. i guess that april showers song pretty much sums it up; although we're having a torrential downpour as i type this. better today than tomorrow, so hoping for the best.

brutuses: more pics, please and i LOVE the paint you chose! what is it?
and yes stephanie, where are your pics? (ok, i'm not one to ask...)
CONTINUED GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

This is my first post on a 'How's your build coming along'. We broke ground in April and then came the rain! Does it always rain this much in the spring? We are in Kentucky and I'm tired of the rain. So we have some progress but not as much as I'd like. We have basement walls, the big piles of dirt and rock have been used as backfill and we now have a flat front and back yard. Framing crew started on Thursday and by Friday our basement was framed and first floor joists were near complete. Just looked at the extended forecast, more rain! :( Excited to be able to finally post. We have owned the land for almost 3 summers. We put our house on the market and waited to start until it sold. It sold in 7 1/2 months and now we are renting a patio home in the same subdivision we are building in so we get to see the progress (or lack of) as it happens!

Here is a link that might be useful: [http://i42.tinypic.com/15oecg1.jpg/IMG]

suzie and kate, thanks for the compliments. So you haven't seen photo's of my house? I know some on here are sick of seeing them. LOL Here they are for those who haven't seen them. The paint color in the office I pictured earlier is BM Nantucket Gray

Another shot of office

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Mock up when my curtains are made

Older photo of entire front of house

Front Door

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Older photo of back

Foyer - Ceiling BM Grecian Green - Walls BM Tree Moss - This is old photo.

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Guest bedroom - RH Silver Sage, custom mix by BM

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Knobs throughout house

Pantry on right, laundry on left

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Beveled glass is going in upper cabinets. Cabinet company couldnt' seem to get cabinet doors made properly so we had to wait 6 months for those. Now the glass is on order and I should have photo's of cabinets with glass any day now!!

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Laundry Room - BM Rich Cream

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Great room - BM Rich Cream

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Forgive all the mess - view from kitchen to back of house

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Beginning of entertainment center being built

Looking at wall where dining area will be

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Master bath - BM Gray Cashmere

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Transoms

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Guest Bath BM Yorkshire Tan

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Master Bedroom - SW Misty custom mixed by BM

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Older photo of door from master leading out to back porch

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This is my first post in "how's your build coming along".

We signed our contract with our custom builder on 1/26, broke ground on 3/2, and started framing on 4/9 and by Friday, 5/1, we were complete with framing, the roof was on, and they were installing HVAC! We had our post-framing walkthrough with our construction manager on Friday, 5/1 and went through and marked everywhere we wanted phone and cable outlets, added outlets we needed, and chose some other details (upgraded insulation to blow-in, chose interior/exterior and garage doors). They expect to be drywalling by the end of May and that should take 2 weeks and be complete by mid-June when we should get an approximate close date (should be sometime in August). It's been a very fun, nonstressful process for us so far, let's hope that continues!

thanks brutuses. i remember the other pics, looks beautiful! i guess it's the first time i noticed the color in that room. i'm making a note of it. don't be surprised if it shows up in my house! thanks again.

Love to see all of the progress, even those at the very beginning stages. (Takes me back)

Well, we finally moved in last Friday after 26 months to an almost complete house. Sorry no pictures yet. I'm stuck unpacking and getting the old house ready to go on the market. I promise to post pics soon.

Great progress everyone! I can't wait till I have something more to post than a big hole in the ground!

Brutuses- I always love seeing pictures of your house. I think I asked before but lost the link- what is the lighting in your bathroom? It is beautiful!

We are trying to finish in in the next two months. We've had a few setbacks (ie., two landslides behind the house requiring 50 tons of retaining wall that wasn't in the budget). Our builder and crew are doing an excellent quality job that we're very excited about. Here are a few pics. Continued good luck to everyone.

Ipe deck off of kitchen/family room side

Cypress ceiling that just went up

Our bedroom porch just finished

mtnlaw, looking great. That deck, is to die for. Yet, I'm so afraid of heights I'd be unable to enjoy it. LOL The view is unbelievable.

crescent, thanks for the compliments. I didn't know which bath you were asking about. The modern lighting in the master is Thomasville Roxbury collection. The guest bath lighting was discontinued. I actually bought the last 2 sconces that were for sale on this earth. LOL

Thanks Brutuses- guess that explains why I have thomasville lighting as a bookmark- just couldn't remember the reason why ;)

You must be so excited that you are almost done- your hard work has paid off- it looks terrific!

Thanks for the info.

Brutuses.....STUNNING home! The colors that you have picked out are just beautiful together. I wish I had the knack that you have with knowing what to put together with what, if that makes sense!
I love so many things about your home, but I was wondering if you could tell me where you got that Gorgeous bench in your foyer, and also...what color and species are your wood floors? They are to die for!!!!
Great to see all of your beautiful homes....good luck!

Thanks newhome3 for those lovely compliments. You need to go hang out on the decorating forum. They are a great source of inspiration and expertise. They helped me with that "knack" you speak of. Gave me the courage to do things I hadn't thought of doing.

The bench is from Tuscano. I posted their link below. They are great to do business with. They had that thing packaged like it was fine crystal and it was shipped asap. I would definitely recommend them to anyone. The bench is fabulous and comes with 8 way tied springs. Very durable and not very expensive. I waited for a sale so the percentage off covered the shipping. Every little bit helps. LOL

It's listed under furniture, benches, classic benches, The Wren Mahogany Bench. It's priced at $349.00

Here is a link that might be useful: link

newhome3, sorry, I forgot to tell you about the flooring. It's not hardwood, it's Bruce Park Avenue Makore laminate. Everyone who sees it in person thinks it's hardwood. It is a beautiful floor with lots of durability to hold up to the punishment of our big dogs claws.

Whew, it's been a busy month. Our roof sheeting is finished as of today! So bring on the shingles! Underground plumbing passed inspection & we'll have concrete poured next week. May will be a great month...hopefully less rain!!!

Tried to post these last month after someone asked to see the floor plan, and had downloading difficulties...sorry!

We're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Today was organized chaos. Had the tile setter doing his thing, electrician finishing up, septic guy finishing, and the mason installing the stone on the fireplace. We found out that the first electrician didn't run loops behind the fireplace framing and that the hearth is 2" too high (we are using a thick stone block now instead of tile). So, no sconces and called some guy who'll drive out and re-do the hearth.

I've also noticed I've grown 10 new grey hairs today.

On the bright side, we locked in at 4.875% interest rate last Friday.

Brutuses, THANKS so much for the info, and link to that bench.

And your floors are laminate?? Wow.... I would never have known (and neither obviously do the people who see it in person)....they are truly beautiful!
That color is just exactly what I am looking for. And very good points you make about the durablility. When we move into our new home, DH has promised DDs theat we will get a dog, so I am going to have to do some hard thinking on my flooring decisions!

I haven't posted here before (in this thread), but we are getting our light fixtures in.

This is for the "billiards room." There will be blue grasscloth wallpaper over this paint.

This is in a little room off of my master. It is a kid's chandelier, but it makes me happy.

This is in my foyer.

I also got kitchen counters last week. Costa Esmerelda.

This whole process has been very stressful. It is finally becoming a little fun.

newhome3: I'll second the durability of laminate flooring. Our downstairs is all wood: cherry in the LR/DR, and a bamboo laminate in the high-traffic kit, fam, entry, & halls. Nobody can tell the laminate is laminate. And after 12 years or dog & kid abuse, the cherry is scratched to heck and the laminate has nary a blemish.

BTW, brutuses: Gorgeous details on your home. Nice choices. Are those cut glass door knobs new or salvage? Also, what architectural style is your home, something plantation/low-country?

kell, beautiful!!

oicu, thanks for the compliments. The door knobs are new and yes they are crystal. The house style is called Acadian, from the bayou's of Louisiana.

WAHOO!!! After firing our builder in early February we have FINALLY been given the okay by our bank to finish our home by GC-ing it ourselves. We've hired a site supervisor who will get subcontractor bids for us and boss the site on a daily basis. However, we will make the final choices on which bids are accepted, and we will handle all the money. The site supervisor will be paid like any other subcontractor and our bank will have no say in it if we decide things aren't working out and we want to get someone else to do the job.

Long story re the previous builder but to make it as short as possible: We got hit with a $54K lien in October for our window and door package. Builder had NOT paid supplier even though Builder had indicated on his draw request that he HAD done so and therefore was given money to reimburse that payment.

In investigating that lien we also found out that Builder had lied to us before we ever entered into our contract about a number of important matters including that he had never been sued by any previous client. He had also given us a false number to call and talk to his banker to verify his financial solvency. The number he gave us was his GIRLFRIEND'S number and she pretended to be his banker.

We told our loan officer then that we wanted to fire our builder and needed to find out what we needed to do to substitute in a new builder.

But bank's loan officer insisted that we could not fire the builder due to the way the loan documents were set up. So instead of firing him right then and filing suit, we agreed to pay off the lien out of draw funds in exchange for Builder agreeing to fore-go his next scheduled draw which basically covered mechanicals installation, exterior painting, and roofing installation, and which was for almost exactly the same amount as the window and door lien.

Builder also signed a document at that time saying everyone one else who had worked on the property or supplied any materials up to that point HAD BEEN PAID (including mechanicals intallation, exterior painting, and roofing company as this work was already finished - except for some punch list kinds of things - and was included in the upcoming draw that Builder was agreeing to forego).

Builder also admitted to being in a severe cash crunch so that he could not afford to purchase the insulation, sheetrock, interior paint, direct vent fireplace, and other supplies or pay for work necessary to reach the NEXT draw point.

Loan Officer suggested, and we agreed, that all future suppliers and workmen would be paid by draw checks made out directly to them so that builder would not have to invest any of his own funds. This also meant that no more money would flow into Builder's hands which meant he could not steal anything more from us. Whatever money was left when the build was completed would be his profit.

One would have thought that since he didn't have to invest anything but his time, Builder would have gotten his tail in gear and finished building my house ASAP so he could collect his profit. Didn't happen tho.

Between October and mid-December, almost no work was done on our house. What little was done, we paid the suppliers and workmen for directly. In mid-December tho, Builder calls saying "we need to talk about getting me more money." He NOW wants us to pay him the mechanicals draw he had agreed to forego in exchange for our paying off the lien he wrongly allowed to be filed against our property! Apparently he has totally forgotten that he agreed to forego that draw so we would pay off the lien and not fire him for breach of contract for letting it get filed in the first place.

When reminded of our agreement, Builder starts whining that he has invested more of his money into my house than he has been reimbursed and needs to be reimbursed for his "out-of-pocket" expenses. No explanation as to where he spent the $54K that he was given to reimburse him for (supposedly) paying for the window and door package had gone.

But, because the mechanicals draw amount was a couple of thousand more than the window and door lien, I thought there might be a chance we owed him a few thousand. Plus, I wanted to find out where the $54K had gone if I could. So, I told him to provide me with invoices and canceled checks showing all the amounts he had spent on building my house and, if they totaled more than what we had already paid him, we would reimburse him the difference but other than that, he had to finish our house before he would get anymore money.

From mid December through early February he slowly doled out some documents that were supposed to prove what he claimed to have spent. Problem was, while at first blush the documents looked like they supported his claims to have paid money out on behalf of my build, upon closer investigation many many of them turned out to be totally fraudulent:

* Canceled checks written to roofers before my foundation was ever poured;

* "invoices" that turned out to be bid sheets from suppliers/workmen that he had not hired or supplies he had not purchased;
* canceled checks that the recipients themselves indicated were for work done on a spec house Builder was building at the same time;

* canceled checks that, on their face, showed they were for materials delivered to another house in our neighborhood that Builder was also building at the same time.

*invoices for materials that simply were NOT used in my house. eg, an invoice for over $12K worth of 2X6 lumber showing a delivery date AFTER my house was fully framed and roofed and had the siding put on... besides which my house is 2X4 framed so there just isn't that much 2x6 lumber in it anywhere! Funny thing is, Builder's spec house is 2x6 framed. Same thing on several other material's invoices for stuff not in my house... In every case, I found the stuff in the builder's spec house or in the other house in my neighborhood he is building.

All totaled, he is at least $90K short of being able to show where the money that went INTO his pocket for my build was spent.

Then, while we were going through all of this, I got a call from the guy that installed our Hardiplank which was done in late September. Remember that way back in October, Builder had signed a document saying this person had been paid. He had also recently given me an invoice for this work that was marked "paid" and bore a check number and a payment date from late September. Sure enough, Builder's original check to this guy bounced! Around mid November he paid him about 1/3rd of what he owed in cash promised to pay that rest ASAP. In December Builder gave him another check for the remainder and swore it was a good check. Sure enough that check bounced as well. Now the guy was threatening to file an $8K lien if he don't get paid!

I dig through the paperwork Builder has given me and start calling every company name/individual I can track down to figure out the status of payment and whether they actually worked on my house.

Turns out, some of the invoices builder gave me are documents BUILDER himself created by copying the company's invoices then inflating the amounts of the payments. I collect copies of the originals from the various companies. Also turns out there are still several small companies/individuals that have been paid either. $300 owed to the porta-potty company; $400 to the guy who dug the hole for my propane tank; $600 to the guy who put the exterior trim over my windows and doors; $350 to the roofing shingle supplier for extra shingles b/c builder didn't originally order enough. All totaled, about $15K of unpaid bills hanging out there.

At that point, I decided to H--- with what the bank says about "you can't fire your builder." I AM GOING to fire him and we'll work things out with the bank afterwards. So I did.

Loan Officer was not happy. For some reason, loan officer continued to want to believe that Builder was a "good guy who can and will build a great house, but he just isn't any good with keeping records." Had to pretty much shove the documentation down loan officer's throat to convince him.

Then it took almost three more months, and multiple presentations to bank president, bank's loan committee, bank's underwriter's and THREE sets of bank attorneys to get them all convinced that Builder defrauded us and that we can and will prove it in court and, more importantly for bank, it is in bank's best interests to work with US so we can get our house completed.

Fortunately - but only because I cut off monies flowing to Builder as soon as the first lien showed up - we can probably finish our house (or at least come very close to doing so) with the money that remains on our loan. But only if we GC it ourselves and thus don't have to pay another Builder's profit margin and if cut down somewhat on the originally planned quality of some of the finish items.

Meantime, we have filed suit against our original Builder who tried to duck service of process and, once served, failed to timely answer. So, we are now filing for default judgment against him which will include a fraud finding so that the judgment is not dischargable in bankruptcy.

Builder has threatened to file bankruptcy but if he does, he will wind up in jail on bankruptcy fraud. I tracked down where he and his daddy (who happens to be rather wealthy) tried to hide Builder's assets in that spec house he was building by skimming money off of me. Basically, he had his daddy file a sham lawsuit in another county which alleged no facts sufficient to state a claim. But, one day after daddy filed, Builder entered an appearance without even waiting for service of process. He and daddy then "settled" the suit by Builder giving daddy a judgment lien interest for $500K in the spec house. By itself, this is fraud on the court. And, if builder files bankruptcy and fails to disclose his interest in the spec house, it will be bankruptcy fraud. Bankruptcy trustees often don't dig too deeply but if someone (like me) puts the documents necessary to show bankruptcy fraud into their hands, they WILL follow up. And bankruptcy fraud is a federal offense.

Plus Builder has not paid his taxes in several years AND he has a couple of outstanding judgments against him that included fraud findings and therefore are not dischargeable in bankruptcy anyway.

I've also spoken with the local DA about filing criminal charges and DA is definitely interested in seeing the documents I have. He tells me he has been trying to get a criminal charge that will stick against this guy for two years but that most people he has swindled haven't had the documentation to prove it up.

However, I was advised that I should get my civil lawsuit out of the way first and get Builder's lien against my property cleared up or it could look like I was bringing the criminal charge just to force him to settle the civil matter. So, that is on hold for now.

Ah the fun and games of building! It has been 6 months of torture.

But I am so excited about FINALLY being able to move forward with our house again. High hopes that we'll soon have new pictures to post.

Kell, I just noticed the daisy chadi. I love it!!

Well we are finally moving on to phase 2 of our build. To get the barn/shop/garage in place. This is a year after original date due to land owner that has to approve things told us one thing when we purchased the property and later changed his mind.

We had to come up with an extra 30K to build it and we had to scale back on several things.

They are doing dirt work now.

Bevangel...what a nightmare!!
As if building a house is not stressful enough in its own right, you have to deal with the details of billing, receipts, and your own investigative reporting on your builder, plus convince your bank that your builder is a scumbag!
Here's hoping that the "It's June, how is your build coming along?" thread will bring us good news from you.

Brutuses, thanks for the nice words. i am excited about my lighting. I love your house. It has tons of charm--that is what I like--uniqueness (is that a word?). Anyway, great job. You are really close--you have furniture and everything. or, are you in?? Also, I like the mock up of your curtains. I plan to do that look somewhere too. They are darling.

Bevangel, I don't understand how a lawyer could get in that situation. Really, I don't. Why couldn't you tell that loan officer that his refusal to consider firing an obviously shady contractor could come back to bite the bank where it hurts. That should have gotten him off the dime in a hurry.

My God, if an attorney can get caught up in a mess like that, it surely is a cautionary tale for the rest of.

Good luck with the rest of it, and I sincerely hope you can prevail on the District Attorney to prosecute once the civil proceedings are concluded.

BRUTUSES: I love the pictures of your house! Who is the maker of your dining chandelier and kitchen pendants? Also, where did you buy the transom windows? Were they custom made or from a window company? I love the latches! And your door knobs!

BEVANGEL: Our bank required that before every draw, our contractor has to present signed lien waivers from every subcontractor and company he might "owe" money too. That extra step protects the bank and us from a situation like yours. It was a new requirement, unfamiliar to our attorney who closed with us, based on the number of contractors going bankrupt and out of business with the downturn in the economy. I believe I'd be speaking with that loan officer's boss at this point, wondering if he and the builder aren't in cahoots!

Despite all the rain, we made a lot of progress in April!
Ready to put on the shingles and then I'm told the ducting goes in next/simultaneously. My builder so far has done most of the work himself, but I'm hoping there will be more parallel progress this month with other people coming in to assist him.

Tunnel to turret in attic

-Dan

intheville, thanks for the compliments. Those lighting fixtures are Progressive brand.

My DH built the transoms and ordered the latches from one of the online hardware stores, but at the moment he can't remember the name of the store. When it comes to him I'll let you know!!

The door knobs are from Homestead Hardware and I posted link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: link

intheville and creek_side -

Believe me, there were many many days when I wondered if the Loan Officer and our ex-builder were in cahoots! I'm pretty sure they were not tho because, much as I hate to admit it, DH and I brought this scumbag to the table.

Loan Officer is just a small-town banker who was taken in by builder's charm and could NOT seem to wrap his head around what I was telling him... not even when I showed him the numbers and the documents proving my contentions. Then, once he figured it out, bank was so scared of what kind of trouble it could get into that bank became afraid to make the decisions that needed to be made.

Bank did NOT require that builder get signed lien waivers from everybody. In fact, they didn't even require that he even list everybody who had worked on the house or supplied materials. So for example, on his first bank draw, even though I knew that at least two companies had provided labor and that he had also used several different crews of laborors and had gotten supplies from at least 3 additional companies, builder's first bank draw request basically read: Supplier A - $x; Supplier B - $Y; Labor - $Z.

Because we funded the first $50K of the build ourselves (we decided to spend our money before drawing down the loan) Builder got one draw directly from us. I tried to get lien waivers for the draw we made to him directly and that was like pulling eyeteeth. Took him 3 weeks to provide wiavers after he first asked for the draw. Then later I found that some of the documents he gave us for that draw were fraudulent! For example, he had one person (who turned out to be a day laborer who could barely speak English) sign a waiver that supposedly covered about $18,000 worth of form labor and foundation work. Then months later he gave me checks showing that the $18K was paid out to at least six different individuals. Builder's explanation was that all six worked together but the one who signed the waiver was sort of their leader and the only one who could read English. But then, I tracked down one of the men and he turned out to be the owner of a small roofing company who had roofed a previous house for builder and had done no work of any kind on my house. And he spoke and read English just fine!

Maybe the man who signed the waiver signed the document Builder put in front of him and Builder later filled in the amount. Maybe they conspired. Who knows?

But, a couple of months later while trying to convince me that I owed him for out-of-pocket expenses, Builder did basically the same thing with a waiver from the manager of a major supplier who should have known better. Manager admitted that he merely checked that Builder did not owe his store any money then took Builder's word for it as to the amounts he had spent on my house. A review of delivery receipts showed that Builder had spent way less than half as much as claimed.

Unless there are valid $$$ amounts on the waivers a homeowner gets, there is no way the homeowner can even guess if EVERYONE who has worked on his house or supplied materials has been paid. The homeowner could pay out $100K to a builder based on what appear to be $100K worth of waivers only to later discover that only $70K worth of work was actually done on the house and $50K of that was never been paid for.

Fortunately in our case however, builder actually only made two bank draws (plus our original $50K) before the s--- hit the fan. His 3rd bank draw was the one he agreed to forego and he never reached the milestones of draw #4 at all.

Once I saw how little information the bank required from him for him to get his first bank draw, I insisted on a much more detailed budget and much more detailed descriptions of the milestones that had to be met to reach a draw point before I would sign off on bank draw #2.

That insistence slowed things down enough that builder was not able to take draw #3 before a supplier who SHOULD have been paid out of draw #1 filed the lien. Otherwise we would have been in a far worse position.

Trust me, I did point out to bank's president that while I did not WANT to bring an action against the bank, Loan Officer's actions COULD easily be interpreted as conspiring with Builder. That's when bank brought in a second set of lawyers (a litigation firm) that was so intent on protecting bank from a possible law-suit they almost CAUSED me to file one against the bank out of sheer frustration with the run-around I was getting. LOL!

Fortunately I think the bank finally figured out that their litigation attorneys were doing them no favors and that the last thing they needed to be doing was p---ing me off.

So they brought in Attorney #3 who both knew what she was doing AND was willing to be upfront about the issues. We worked out a solution in about 45 minutes. Funny thing is, the solution was EXACTLY what DH and I had asked the bank to agree to do 3 months earlier when we first terminated our agreement with Builder - except now Bank has also had to agree to extend all the terms of our loan by several months to give us time to get the work done. And they've agreed to swallow the extra interest (about $3000) that built up while they were giving us the run-around. LOL!

I honestly don't know how people without some background in the law could possibly have survived this. I imagine it is why so many people wind up paying out money they don't owe just to get the unscrupulous builders to go away. But of course, every homeowner who caves in under such pressure just encourages the bad guys to rip off someone else.

After surviving this mess, if I ever decide to change my field of practice from intellectual property, I will set up a firm to advise homeowners BEFORE they contract to build and to help those who get into trouble with unscrupulous builders. It is definitely a minefield out there and there aren't many attorneys who specialize in helping the homeowner.

But, before I change my practice (which would definitely result in a whole lot less income for a while at least while I built it up), I need to focus on getting my own home built and then pay down some of the money I owe and finish up my lawsuit against scumbag Builder. After that, who knows. This is definitely a field of law I could put my heart - and sink my teeth - into!

intheville, below is the link for B & M Hardware where the transom hardware came from.

Here is a link that might be useful: B & M hardware

Whoohoo!!! We're in!! We moved on April 30th. I'll probably do a separate thread of lots of pics, but here's the front (landscapers should finish in the next 2 days)

brutuses: looking great - I can appreciate even the little changes!!

kelleg: I'm loving the first glimpses - can't wait to see more! your kitchen is gorgeous.

bevangel: glad to hear your saga is getting better, hang in there.

dan: you have made a lot of progress - the architecture is really cool.

mtnlaw: that deck is BEAUTIFUL - WOW! glad you survived the landslides - yikes.

shamrocks: didn't realize you were on waterfront - is the floating pier new?

Bevangel Your story is fascinating and I hope that you will continue to post about what happens with your law suits against your builder. Id definitely like to hear that this guy gets some punishment he deserves. Not knowing you were a lawyer at first, it did seem you knew an awful lot about the law. Having a mother whos a lawyer, she has always tried to drill into my head how important it is to document everything. When you need that documentation, it really goes a long way. But for a regular person, you are 100% correct that often people dont know what theyre dealing with and are easy to swindle. I guess this guy finally picked the wrong person to mess with. I wish you all the luck in the world for fighting the good fight.

Wow- everyone is making great progress. Bevangel, best of luck as you continue your build.

Our interior trim is wrapping up this week. Priming is done and the kitchen cabinets go in next week. Wood floors, tile, septic, porch finish and well are on the horizon.

I don't know if anyone else has seen this but our Hardie siding has some "issues." The rep was out and said it all needs to come down and they will be replacing the product in the next few weeks. That is slowing us down a bit.

mdev - we are currently trying to decide between hardi and vinyl siding. do you mind sharing what went wrong with your siding and if you would still recommend it. i love your color -- in the bottom pic it looks like evening blue. that's the color we are leaning towards if we go with hardie.

We're there! We moved in on Friday May 8. We signed closing and got our C of O on Monday, which was my birthday. Pretty awesome birthday present. Now it's just a matter of "smaller" tasks: I need pulls on the bath cabs, rod in the closet, etc.

This will just finish Stage 1 of our building plan. We'll be converting a "storage" into a master suite later (maybe not until we NEED a second bedroom), finishing the office, doing a minor amount of landscaping, fencing for both dogs and horses, and the barn. Whew! So, not completely done, but done for now!

Everyone's homes look so good: mtnlaw--wow! jananla-yay for you! mairin-gorgeous!

arewethere, well I suppose you are. Congratulations. Don't forget to post so pictures when you can. We love pictures. LOL

md, love the style of your house. I too am anxious to hear what happened with the hardie. I had heard stories about some of the prefinished hardie. We chose to paint ours rather than buy the prepainted variety. Sorry you had problems.

pdessena & brutuses- It is evening blue hardie. There were a bunch of nicks all over the siding as if each sheet hadn't been protected properly during packaging and shipment. Builder initially wanted to paint over it and hardie said no- that would void the warranty. That's when the rep was sent out. Builder spec'd the prepainted hardie AND a coat of paint so I think they're going to owe me a credit. Like I'll ever see that money-LOL. Once I get the final scoop I'll post an update.

I guess we are officially underway. Started with Demolation of our old house yesterday.

Bitter Sweet is how you would describe it I guess. Both happy & sad.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Progess

mdev - love your house. Who is the architect? Would love to see the floor plan.
Keep us posted.

Archie,

You are too kind :) We purchased a plan online and retained a wonderful architect who made several design changes (www.topdrafting.com).

footings in.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1438896}}

Gutters will be installed next week and that will finish the exterior. Drywall will be finished this coming week.

{{gwi:1438944}}

Bevangel,

Thank you so much for posting the gory details about your situation. It is a great service to all who read it, not only because others will now proceed with their "eyes wide open" but also so we can benefit from the solutions you've developed to deal with unscrupulous builders.

I would SOOOO like to have found an attorney like you before we started building. I did all kinds of local and internet research, but in the end, I kind of threw up my hands and went about figuring out how to try to protect ourselves by structuring our contract and writing an intensive questionnaire asking many specific questions of the builders we interviewed. I even stated that their answers would become part of the final contract, and I stapled their responses to the signed contract. Ha...lots of good that did!

Unfortunately, about 6 wks into our build, we found out that our builder had lied several times on our interview questionnaire in response to such questions as, "have you ever operated under a different business name?" and "have you ever been involved in any legal/mediation issues?" He had been the subject of a huge lawsuit that actually brought about changes in our Contractors State License Board practices/rules - granted, his situation was 10 years ago, and he claimed that it was unfair that he was still haunted by it, and that a "crazy lady was stalking him", etc, etc. Also, all of his recent references raved about his work and reported that they had come in on time and on budget and quality was excellent, etc, etc, but still it was/is shocking and infuriating that his former shady practices had been lied about, and had somehow slipped under our radar before we hired him.

We came very close to firing him (and actually did but then rescinded) and now have all kinds of safeguards in place (most importantly, we have about 20% of the cost of our entire contract held until after we get our CO and final punch list resolved). We only have about 2 months to go with him and all has been fine for the past several months, but I still can't help but wonder each time we pay him or interact with him if he's telling the truth.

I remember in the beginning before building even started, we had to have the City building inspectors come out to our property to review and make a ruling on something (not a minor issue, but a major thing), and the builder told me he was of the mindset to just do what we wanted to do without asking, bragging that he always "asked for forgiveness, not permission". DING, DING, DING! Warning bells should've gone off in my head, and I should've listened to my instincts.

Anyway, I felt really stupid and extra angry about the whole thing because I had been so proud of myself for going through a lot of due diligence, writing my 2-page interview questionnaire and interviewing 4 builders, getting rock solid bids from all, being super specific about all our materials, etc, etc, etc. But, what I could not prevent was someone who has no problem lying, especially when it benefits him.

In hindsight, I would have liked to have better legal help at the start, specifically a better contract in place. It is pretty frustrating that government agencies like the state contractor boards go around helping consumers get out of messes with contractors but don't really help prevent them in the first place. I looked high and low for a good boilerplate contract but couldn't find one...instead, we ended up agreeing to his contract with some major revisions, and now I see how vulnerable it left us. I believe this is an area where someone like you could both provide a great service and probably fill a potentially lucrative unfilled niche...writing contracts or providing good boilerplate language to help protect homeowners would be awesome. You could even probably sell these boilerplate contracts over the internet for the thousands of people who do not want to hire an attorney (and probably feel that nothing bad will happen to them anyway!) but want some protection.

We feel especially vulnerable because we don't have a bank looking over our shoulder at each draw...we are funding this build with 100% of our own money. Yikes.

Anyway, at this point (knock on wood) things appear to be on track. We are incredibly vigilant about getting lien releases at each draw, not only from every sub and supplier but also a blanket one from the GC, but who are we to know if he's just lying as happened in your case? This whole process is so fraught with opportunities for bad contractors to swindle innocent and helpless homeowners...it's pathetic!

Anyway, thanks again for sharing your painful (but very useful to others) story. I wish you all the best and will eagerly look forward to seeing the progress of your home in future postings.

Susan

Here's a pic of our build. Gonna head up in a few days to work on it some more so will take more pics then. Thanks to some folks here on these forums, I can now post pics and am trying hard with the digital!

Here is a link that might be useful: First Picture of our build

Finally I can post something on how is your build coming Along?

We started excavation one day and the Census Bureau showed up the next day. The Census employee stopped the work of the $100 an hour excavator and demanded to know how many people were going to be living in the house and when they were moving in.

I happened to be there and intercepted the guy as he was getting into his car. He left in a bit of a huff after I got done with him.

The footers have since been poured. The rain has put a stop to everything else.

- The exterior is what the pic shows.
- Windows need the top coat(s) color.
- Wall board is up inside with two rooms
mudded/textured/primered.
- Front decking partially done

Hope that fulfills your requirements for
this post,Liz. Been around these forums for a
long time. Our build is rollin' slow. Just now
learning to take pics and post. Sorry if I took
up your space! :-)