For background, the rental we are in was built around 3 years ago. At that time the houses were selling for 350K to 450K in this development. Recent sales are in the 450K to 525K range. This house is about 2800 sq feet + a finished basement. We are renting this house while our new home is being built. We lived in a Toll Brothers house for 13 years before this and I have a lot of experience fixing Bob TollÂs "Toll Advantages". We live in Northern VA in one of the fastest growing counties in the country  this might explain why RA may have slapped these units together to keep up with demand (which has now slowed tremendously) There have been several houses in this RA development that have had basement flooding issues  one house flooded over 12 times (and we are not in a flood plane). RA has been unable to fix the problem. I can see that the cement work for porches was poorly done  a lot of erosion and cracking. Many of the homes have siding that has fallen off. ItÂs not isolated  there are numerous homes that have this problem. The facia boards on the exterior of the house are the cheap fiber board and are rotting. Many of the track builders use this stuff and it will fall apart over time. The garages in this house are silly  way too small. We can barely get two Honda accords (which arenÂt that big) into the stalls and we do not have a lot of crap in there. When I get my car just to the point of hitting the front steps coming down from the utility room  then I know the garage door will clear the rear of the car  by 2 inches!! Some of the rooms in this model do not hold furniture well. Get the floor plan and make scale size cut outs of your furniture (do not look at the miniature stuff the models have to make the rooms look bigger!). Make sure your stuff will fit in with plenty of clearance. The HVAC system they used is Goodman (it should be called Badman because it is crap). We have incredible noise pollution in this neighborhood. When the badmanÂs turn on, it vibrates that entire side of the house. None of the exhaust fan vents leading outside have flaps on them. We have had dozens of birds take up residence in the ducts  and all the neighbors have the same problem. The birds nest and crap inside the ducts and it stinks in our house. The flapped vents cost about 5 cents more than unflapped  this should give you a sense the RA cuts corners to save pennies even when it is dumb. The appliances in this house are garbage. I am sorry if I offend anyone  but the cheapo GE builder grade junk should be outlawed. I am the cleaner upper, DW is the chef. I have been tempted to take a crow bar to the GE electric stove, rip it out , and buy our landlord a new one  it is that bad! A Boeing 777 jet engine is quieter than the GE dishwasher (and I mean at max thrust on take off). The refrig has already had the icemaker changed and it is crap. Make sure you donÂt fall for the Bob Toll trick (we have learned the hard way) where the model has the great appliances and you get the crap. The faucets are complete junk. The toilets leak like crazy  I guess they double as water features. I tried to get replacement toilet parts and guess what  the values they used are such crap you canÂt even get replacement parts at HD or LoweÂs to fit!! The cabinets are for midgets (sorry for the height challenged folks). And they are really cheap quality. Ask them what brand cabinet they use and if they are pressboard or real wood sides and back- dovetail drawers. The electrical wiring was silly  but this is a common theme in the track building world. If you have rooms with multiple entryways  make sure they put in 3 way switches so you can control lights from either place. The windows are cheap cheap cheap. Get the brand name of the window maker and make sure they are double pain, low e, with argon gas. We got saran wrap - single pain windows!!! If you donÂt recognize the brand  there is a good chance it is poorly made and will make you freeze in winter. I cannot believe how much propane we used - even with DW keepin the Tstat at 65 and making me wear sweaters in the house. I hope that this is not the case for your development and the home you are thinking of buying. It is possible we are living in a lemon. But I would probe a little deeper into the areas I mentioned above. Talk to people who have been in at least 2 years so you get a feel for how the homes age. Best of luck.

Hi, Im over on the Southside and have gotten quotes from a man named Paul Arnett. I didnt use him, though, but not because I didnt think he was good. We just decided to go with semi-custom. He came out to the house and discussed what we wanted for a $75 fee and also provided perspectives. I dont have any info on him other than his email address....Its PDACustomcabinets@msn.com. Ive also heard good things about Martin-Star in the Fan Distric. Below is the link to their site. HTH Suzanne Here is a link that might be useful: Martin-Star Custom Cabinets

It depends on the type of cabinets you are considering. I live in the Lake Norman area and lots of people use Eudy's, but I don't think they do inset cabinets. I am planning to use Hogan Cabinets -- they don't really do any sales or marketing, so no website that I am aware of, but I've seen their work and it is beautiful (and I know several very happy customers). I have heard several stories lately about local cabinet companies --- about taking the deposit and disappearing, so I'd definitely try to check them out..... Good luck and if you want any more information or detail, feel free to private e-mail. Rachel

I had a whole family of cabinetmakers to love on my first kitchen, but did not meet most of them. They were great, did a fully custom kitchen cheaper than I could have gotten from semi-custom at HD or Lowes. Albers Cabinets at Richmond, Michigan. My true love is my contractor. Jim is a GC by license, carpenter by trade. He has done my kitchen in my former house, front porch including a ramp and front door replacement in this house, insulation and new bath heater/fan in this house, kitchen in this house, library in this house, and we are planning on the full bath next. The library included having to pull up a cracked poured concrete floor, working with my engineer on a plan for replacing it, and working with Jim's concrete contractor friend to do the floor replacement. In between, we had a different company do foundation repairs, and I think Jim coordinated with them, too. After all that, he did my library built-ins, replaced two windows, re-installed that front door and door sill, made the opening of the room fit the french doors I got off Craigslist after he drove 20 miles to pick them up for me, installed a new cork floor, did new trim for the foyer and library, and painted. Jim has one helper, a somewhat quiet guy who has no intention of making a career out of all the construction and carpentry skills he is learning. (I asked him one day.) I think Jim has given up on trying to find an "apprentice" type helper to teach. He is happy to have someone who does the work and does not complain. He has no intention of teaching his son. "I don't want him to have to work this hard." In our prior project, poor Jim was stuck with me using recycled cabinetry in the second kitchen remodel we did together. He had to deal with whether my design would work and work with me to adjust as we went. I asked him to turn a corner 27" double oven cab into a raised dishwasher cab. He rebuilt a sink cabinet. He suggested re-skinning any cab fronts that looked worn, and I always bow to his superior knowledge and experience. He knows I always do! He made the three cabinets I needed to finish the kitchen, too. He also built a new wall, replaced a ceiling and added a skylight. I, however, refinished all the door and drawer fronts and sanded and stained and poly'ed all the cab fronts and visible sides. What I love about working with Jim is that he will listen to my ideas, consider them, tell me if I am nuts, give me comparison prices to let me know if doing things the "hard" way is going to save me any money, keep a good sense of humor, give me expert advice, AND let me decide. He says, "you are paying for it. I'll do what you want." He enjoys my creativity instead of "humoring" me like many men in construction do. And he cleans and straightens at the end of every single day.