So sorry you've had to go through all of that. I don't know if the incompetance and uncaring attitude of some people will ever get better. I think as time goes by it will get worse and worse because there is no work ethic. People do not take pride in what they do. They don't even take pride in themselves. It's very sad because it's people like you who suffer because of it.

My sister lost her entire home to Katrina. It literally was washed away, never to be seen again. She's not a wealthy person so she found herself having to get a Katrina Cottage from the government. She's disabled and lives alone. In talking to her the other day I learned that it took 6 months to finally get her cottage installed and livable because of the horrible workmanship and bad attitude of the workers who were being paid by the government to set up these houses. She finally contacted the head guy at some office. He came out and nearly had a puppy when he saw the condition of her living quarters. He fired the contractor on the spot and personally fixed all of the things that needed fixing.

Vent anytime you like.

My husband had a thought that the downturn in the economy (or maybe the absolute bottoming out) will bring about a better work ethic. Jobs will be harder to find and tougher to keep. Only the best contractors will stay in business. Restaurants where the service is crummy will fold, etc. It's an interesting thing to consider....something good coming out of all this bad.

Ajsmama, I am sorry you have had to deal with all this. As if it weren't enough to go through the building process, not you have to suffer some more. It is difficult logistically, but also mentally and emotionally. I have a really hard time reconciling crummy work. My house doesn't have major problems, but every time I find yet another stupid mistake or oversight, it rankles me a bit.

Hang in there.

Brutuses, does your sister live in MS? I know they built a lot of the cottages there, but read that LA was still "thinking" about the process. No surprise there.

Thanks - we don't have major problems yet (unless the cracked beam in the basement gets worse but it's only one 2x10, the other 2x10 on the other side is OK and they're bolted together in the center of the house so my uncle who's a civil engineer says it's probably OK). We think the few cracks that are coming back are just from settling (whereas the major ceiling cracks were a lot of bad tape joints). We knew there were some framing issues with jacks under the windows b/c we had 5 windows in the front of the house with cracks under them, 1 in the back. 3 of them the builder tore out the sheet rock and replaced it to "float" over the jack/stud instead of ending the seam on them. Had to do that at ceiling bottom of stairs too. But the ones they just taped and mudded again are cracking again.

Most things are oversights - outlets in weird places, not enough light in hall b/c they placed the 2 fixtures each 6' from end of 28' long hall, light boxes not centered over the vanity sinks (no countertop/sinks in master bath, but you'd think they'd be able to figure where they'd go since they installed the vanity. Even the bathroom they finished the lights are 9/16" off from sinks - we found when we put up mirrors centered under the lights).
All the doors in all the bathrooms, plus all the other doors downstairs, were set 1" off the subfloor b/c the builder asked me what kind of floor I was putting in - the fiberglas front door and the steel fire door couldn't be cut down. So I said 3/4" HW or tile, give me an inch clearance. I didn't know the doors were already figured for 1" clearance if the jamb was set all the way on the subfloor (he said they were "cut for carpet" so figured maybe only 1/2"). I'd have to look at the steel door, but the fiberglas door came with a 1" bottom sill that we could have tiled up to and the door still would have cleared. So we've lowered all the hinged doors in the downstairs, plus bathroom room upstairs (that looked really weird 1" higher than the linen closet 4" away in the hall - yes, they only raised the ones going over tile, plus the French doors that swing into the LR). Still have 3 pocket doors and 1 linen closet in 2 bathrooms to lower. The pocket door going from my bedroom into the (unfinished) master bath has to be lowered, at least the casing, but we might as well lower the jambs too since when I checked this AM I noticed that the jambs were thicker than the sheetrock so casing won't lay flat when I get it back on. We have to try to find longer bolts for the door hangers so we don't have to tear out drywall to lower the tracks. We can always build up the tile floor to 1" or more thick in the MBA, but that's not an option in half bath since finished floor is already in (and I wouldn't want my tile in foyer/kitchen/bath/laundry to be higher than the HW in the DR anyway).

I've had to tear up 1 prefinished HW floor when it checked/cracked 10 days after installation (wood wasn't properly dried), waited a year to get it replaced (hey, at least it gave me a climate-controlled workshop right off my kitchen), and replaced 30 sf of tile in the foyer, 30 sf in the kitchen when it was coming loose 8 months after installation (installer said we walked on it too soon but I think it was b/c he didn't use thinset b/t the backerboard and subfloor). We have more "crackling" tile in kitchen now, I had them leave a gap instead of installing T mold in doorway, so I can pull up that tile w/o ruining HWs. But it makes me think I'll never be able to get a front-loader b/c my laundry tile probably won't be able to take vibrations. I just hope I don't have to pull up and redo 400 sf of tile in my downstairs next year.

Whooo! That turned out to be longer than I expected. I just hope this doesn't turn into us tearing apart the house bit by bit and rebuilding - sometimes it seems like it.

Sorry, I wanted to tell you I was sorry about your sister's house. I know I'd lucky to have a roof over my head - just have to get it in perspective. It's just hard when you've waited for years to build your dream house and it turns into a nightmare. We built on family land so unless I want my dad to disown me, selling (even if we could sell a 2-yr old fixerupper) is not an option.

natal, yes, Bay St. Louis