Americas Home Place has approximately 33 offices throughout the southeastern part of the United States. The company has offices in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Moving to Asheville, North Carolina in 2004, we rented a townhouse and proceeded to look for residential land and a builder. After hearing about Americas Home Place, we paid the local Asheville office a visit.
We met a young man named Chad that just graduated from a construction school in Utah and were impressed with his style. He was relatively new to the office and new to the construction industry on the whole--but we felt that a formal education in construction, a team of professional project managers and a well established office was better than hiring a local person with a construction license and a pick-up truck.
During that first meeting, Chad provided us with a series of glossy product sheets and an excel spreadsheet from which we could work out price-per-square-foot charges for each of the several dozen 'spec' homes Americas Home Place sells. We took the information home along with a list of potential properties and started our research. This was the first step to designing our dream home at, what seemed to be, a reasonable price for, what we thought, quality construction. Rather, in hindsight, our experiences with the Americas Home Place turned out to be one of the worst nightmares of our lives.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
The Americas Home Place Design and Contract Phase
Anyone who has previously built a house knows the design specifications and contract phase of building a home is one of the most important steps of building a home. Americas Home Place has it down pat. Our sales person, Arron, was the Asheville, North Carolina, office's previous Office Manger, whose role was to oversee all home construction and project managers for that office. He too was a graduate of a university in Utah with a major in construction with down-home and friendly manner, a good person all around.
We were very happy to sit down with him in August, 2005 to make custom changes to Americas Home Place stock plans, sign the contract after the plans were formalized, and get started on our new home that sits on a mountain top in Weaverville, just north of Asheville. As part of the process, the sales person and project manager walks the property we purchased to determine the best placement of the house on the property we purchased from a local developer in a new restricted community.
Everyone at the table was anxious to be starting on our new home, which was one of Americas Home Place most expensive plans, a 2351 square foot two story colonial entited the Hill IV. The base price for the house was $66 per square foot, plus the costs of clearing the land, the well, septic tank and any extras including a driveway, etc. So, the base price of the house was approximately $180,000 plus approximately $20,000 for allowances which can go up or down depending on the depth of the well, specific land parcel clearing costs, the septic tank and any extra block they may need placing the house on a the crawl space foundation.
Relatively few changes to the stock plans were considered, including a walk-in pantry, moving the half bath on the main floor to under the stairway, and something important for handicap access to all the rooms which was 36" wide exterior and interior doors. The rest of the house seemed acceptable as it was 'out of the box'.
The Americas Home Place office in Asheville has a 'mock-up' model home right inside the office complete with a standard master bathroom and a kitchen. So, we looked at counter-top and cabinet samples, vinyl floor colors, and siding colors, and shingles. As the Americas Home Place office was in a strip mall, ceilings were standard drop ceilings so the comment of what the ceilings look like never became an issue at the time.
The house plans were then sent to the home office in Georgia to be drawn up and came back several weeks later on 8.5 x 11 paper with very small type. Everyone seemed happy with the plans (pretty much the same as the stock plans), so the contracts were signed and Americas Home Place began the construction process with guaranteed money from the mortgage company.
We were very happy to sit down with him in August, 2005 to make custom changes to Americas Home Place stock plans, sign the contract after the plans were formalized, and get started on our new home that sits on a mountain top in Weaverville, just north of Asheville. As part of the process, the sales person and project manager walks the property we purchased to determine the best placement of the house on the property we purchased from a local developer in a new restricted community.
Everyone at the table was anxious to be starting on our new home, which was one of Americas Home Place most expensive plans, a 2351 square foot two story colonial entited the Hill IV. The base price for the house was $66 per square foot, plus the costs of clearing the land, the well, septic tank and any extras including a driveway, etc. So, the base price of the house was approximately $180,000 plus approximately $20,000 for allowances which can go up or down depending on the depth of the well, specific land parcel clearing costs, the septic tank and any extra block they may need placing the house on a the crawl space foundation.
Relatively few changes to the stock plans were considered, including a walk-in pantry, moving the half bath on the main floor to under the stairway, and something important for handicap access to all the rooms which was 36" wide exterior and interior doors. The rest of the house seemed acceptable as it was 'out of the box'.
The Americas Home Place office in Asheville has a 'mock-up' model home right inside the office complete with a standard master bathroom and a kitchen. So, we looked at counter-top and cabinet samples, vinyl floor colors, and siding colors, and shingles. As the Americas Home Place office was in a strip mall, ceilings were standard drop ceilings so the comment of what the ceilings look like never became an issue at the time.
The house plans were then sent to the home office in Georgia to be drawn up and came back several weeks later on 8.5 x 11 paper with very small type. Everyone seemed happy with the plans (pretty much the same as the stock plans), so the contracts were signed and Americas Home Place began the construction process with guaranteed money from the mortgage company.
The Construction Phase Begins – Absentee Project Mangement
We requested Chad to be the project manager on the house, but were unaware that Chad was also project manager on 7 other homes across a three county area stretching across 50 miles from the South Carolina border to 10 miles south of the Tennessee border. Again, in hindsight, one might say that Chad was hardly ever at the project site and trusted Americas Home Place 'low-bid' contractors to perform their work correctly in his (Chad's) absence when work was being performed by independent sub-contractors.
I had built houses in the past and was very much aware of the necessity of being on site whenever a subcontractor was on site based on my own building experiences in the past. And, unfortunately, as I was called away on business for several months when the house was being constructed--I missed the foundation, framing, decks, plumbing, electrical and HVAC phases of construction. However, based on the results, it seemed that the project manager (Chad) was also not present and didn't cross-check the work of his sub-contractors.
Again, in hindsight, when one is having a house built by Americas Home Place, the future owner of the house should know something about construction or hire a independent inspector to view the home in various stages of construction before and after the walls are sheetrocked.
My spouse, who I will call Jane (names changed to protect the innocent), believed with her whole heart, that Americas Home Place was working on her behalf, and that it was unnecessary to monitor the construction phase because "it's what I am paying them for". Jane learned to eat those words over and over again until her new motto became "I'll drive my car through their office window". More about that in future posts as this is a chronological log of dealing with America's Home Place.
I had built houses in the past and was very much aware of the necessity of being on site whenever a subcontractor was on site based on my own building experiences in the past. And, unfortunately, as I was called away on business for several months when the house was being constructed--I missed the foundation, framing, decks, plumbing, electrical and HVAC phases of construction. However, based on the results, it seemed that the project manager (Chad) was also not present and didn't cross-check the work of his sub-contractors.
Again, in hindsight, when one is having a house built by Americas Home Place, the future owner of the house should know something about construction or hire a independent inspector to view the home in various stages of construction before and after the walls are sheetrocked.
My spouse, who I will call Jane (names changed to protect the innocent), believed with her whole heart, that Americas Home Place was working on her behalf, and that it was unnecessary to monitor the construction phase because "it's what I am paying them for". Jane learned to eat those words over and over again until her new motto became "I'll drive my car through their office window". More about that in future posts as this is a chronological log of dealing with America's Home Place.
It's Not Americas Home Place Without Tyvec Wrap
I returned from my business trip two months later to see siding being put on the house. We just happened to take a drive one day to see progress on the new house and the siding sub-contractor was placing the vinyl siding on the house. As the standard Americas Home Place house does not include Tyvec house wrap, we asked the project manager to have the house 'wrapped' before the siding was installed. We wrote out a check, passed it to the project manager and told everything was taken care of and the tyvec would be put on the house.
Lucky we were passing by that day as we noticed 1/3 the house was sided, but the tyvec wrap was not applied. We mentioned the missing tyvec to the sub-contractor and he said he had forgotten about the wrap, it was in the truck and he would take care of it... What does the reader think? "Did he forget the wrap or was he intentionally skipping a step when Americas Home Place project manager was not around to make sure the work was being performed?"
We assumed that forgetting the tyvec wrap was an honest mistake.
Lucky we were passing by that day as we noticed 1/3 the house was sided, but the tyvec wrap was not applied. We mentioned the missing tyvec to the sub-contractor and he said he had forgotten about the wrap, it was in the truck and he would take care of it... What does the reader think? "Did he forget the wrap or was he intentionally skipping a step when Americas Home Place project manager was not around to make sure the work was being performed?"
We assumed that forgetting the tyvec wrap was an honest mistake.
It's Not Americas Home Place Without Drunk Sheetrockers
Several days later, we took another drive to the house and went inside when we saw a workman's pickup truck in the driveway. The workers were two sheetrockers that came in from neighboring Georgia, totally plastered (drunk) and one of the workers had sliced his hand with a sheetrock knife and was bleeding profusely.
Luckly, we had a first aid kit in the car and bandaged it up to stem the bleeding. Having done sheetrock before, I couldn't imagine sheetrocking and taping a house with only one hand. Guess you, the reader, can figure out the type of sheetrocking job that was done in our house and how many people they called in over the last 18 months to fix sheet rock related issues.
I know it's common for a sub-contractor to have a few beers when working on hot days just to cool off, but we believe that being completely plastered was an exception to series of tradesmen that worked on our home hired by Americas Home Place. But then again, we were hardly ever there when the various subs were working, so can't say for sure who was sobor, drinking or drunk when they did their work, especially when you continue reading our Americas Home Place Blunders story.
Luckly, we had a first aid kit in the car and bandaged it up to stem the bleeding. Having done sheetrock before, I couldn't imagine sheetrocking and taping a house with only one hand. Guess you, the reader, can figure out the type of sheetrocking job that was done in our house and how many people they called in over the last 18 months to fix sheet rock related issues.
I know it's common for a sub-contractor to have a few beers when working on hot days just to cool off, but we believe that being completely plastered was an exception to series of tradesmen that worked on our home hired by Americas Home Place. But then again, we were hardly ever there when the various subs were working, so can't say for sure who was sobor, drinking or drunk when they did their work, especially when you continue reading our Americas Home Place Blunders story.
It's Not Americas Home Place Without Popcorn Ceilings
Aside from a few issues encountered during the construction process, the house seemed to be progressing on schedule. The sheetrock was now on the walls and the ceiling was sprayed with a 1970s POPCORN CEILING. This sprayed-on ceiling is the DISTRESSING part of our new home, and NO ONE EVER TOLD US ABOUT the ceiling that would be placed in our new home.
Going back to the contract phase, the office manager / sales person never mentioned the variety of ceiling textures (smooth, textured or popcorn), nor was there a model home to look at except for the model kitchen and bath in the strip mall office with commercial ceiling tiles.
We brought this issue up with the office manager / sales person and after it had been sprayed on the ceiling, there is really no way of changing it. In this case, we believe that we were deceived by the Americas Home Place office manager / sales person as well as the project manager that was directing the construction of the home. Over the next year, we brought it up the ceiling issue to the three office managers and the last office manager recommended lowering the price of the home if the ceiling was a deciding factor on the sale of the home. He said this was a much easier solution than trying to change the ceiling type after it's been applied.
Each time, I recommended to the office manager to include the ceiling type as an option when selling a home, not that it helps us. After having the house on the market for a year during the height of the sales season in 2005, we got three separate comments from people that had considered purchasing the home--haven't seen this since the 70s.
Should have listened to someone I met in real estate school from the West Coast of Florida when I told him Americas Home Place was building our home for us, "They are well known for bad construction." At the time, I negated his comments saying we had a good team--little did I know the nightmares that would follow over the next 18 months.
Going back to the contract phase, the office manager / sales person never mentioned the variety of ceiling textures (smooth, textured or popcorn), nor was there a model home to look at except for the model kitchen and bath in the strip mall office with commercial ceiling tiles.
We brought this issue up with the office manager / sales person and after it had been sprayed on the ceiling, there is really no way of changing it. In this case, we believe that we were deceived by the Americas Home Place office manager / sales person as well as the project manager that was directing the construction of the home. Over the next year, we brought it up the ceiling issue to the three office managers and the last office manager recommended lowering the price of the home if the ceiling was a deciding factor on the sale of the home. He said this was a much easier solution than trying to change the ceiling type after it's been applied.
Each time, I recommended to the office manager to include the ceiling type as an option when selling a home, not that it helps us. After having the house on the market for a year during the height of the sales season in 2005, we got three separate comments from people that had considered purchasing the home--haven't seen this since the 70s.
Should have listened to someone I met in real estate school from the West Coast of Florida when I told him Americas Home Place was building our home for us, "They are well known for bad construction." At the time, I negated his comments saying we had a good team--little did I know the nightmares that would follow over the next 18 months.
It's Not Americas Home Place Without Concrete Issues
With Americas Home Place, putting in the driveway was the homeowner responsibility and we had to choices: blacktop or concrete. One blacktop company was highly recommended, but after we examined several driveways in our community, we noticed the asphalt would shift with the movement of a tire for weeks after paving, maybe because it was 'cut' with diesel fuel, so we opted for concrete. We called Americas Home Place and the office admin recommended "Kenny" who also did the garage pour. Kenny came out to the house, took measurements and gave a price of $9000 for 150+ feet of driveway and sidewalks. Coming from the Northeast, anything concrete (driveways, sidewalks, etc) always has steel mesh embedded inside the 4" pour to counter cracking for, hopefully, the life of the concrete. Additionally, expansion and contraction joints are always placed in the concrete at certain places for the same reason. I told Kenny that I had two pieces of rebar left over from the garage, so he could use that steel to reinforce the 150-foot driveway. The day of the pour, I came up to take pictures of the driveway and asked him when he was going to lay the embedded steel mesh. He said that he added 'fiber' to the concrete so it didn't need any steel reinforcements and everything would be fine. And, when he was pouring the continuous slab of over 150 feet, I asked him where the expansion and contraction joints were going to be placed to which Kenny replied, "not necessary as I (the concrete company) come back the next day to 'cut' the joints into the concrete. The next morning, I arrived at 8AM and found a 20-foot crack completely across the driveway and immediately called the Kenny, the concrete man. He came out and told me, "That's what concrete does, it cracks." In the subsequent weeks, I called many times to determine how he intented to repair it. Several weeks later, Kenny mailed a letter stating that fixing the crack would cost an additional $1650. In retrospect, if any concrete person from Asheville says to you, "I don't need any reinforcement, expansion and contraction joints", stop the concrete trucks and tell him to get off the property immediately. So much for taking a sub-contractor recommendation from Americas Home Place when the office admin is recommending her boyfriend to do the work. Don't know what you would call this one except for stupidity on my part for allowing the job to continue that morning and for this, have to call myself a blithering idiot. So if you see a 6'3" guy from Asheville named Kenny that does concrete work with a few possible illegal aliens in tow, well, after reading this, walk away…
It's Not Americas Home Place without Plumbing Problems
We moved into our new home to find out that there were several not-so obvious issues with the plumbing.
First, the kitchen sink faucet was never connected to the hot and cold water, so when the valves were turned on, it caused a small flood under the sink.
The second problem we encountered was the washing machine hookup. The nuts holding the turn-off valves were broken, so they were glued together with liquid nails and the walls were closed up so no one would know it was an issue—until, of course, we tried to use the washing machine.
Second, the dishwasher was never leveled and was pushed forward at a 15-degree angle and couldn't get Americas Home Place to fix it for over 12 months. When they finally got a plumber, rather than an Americas Home Place handi-man, it was found that the dishwasher outlet hose was wedged between the dishwasher and the wall, so every time we closed the dishwasher door, it caused stress on the door and the hose.
After months of not having a hot shower or bath, Americas Home Place kept saying to up the temperature on the hot water heater. They finally paid a real plumber, of our choice to look at the problem. The plumber found two problems (1) the hot water pipes were not insulated, and (2) the scauld hot feature had never been adjusted on any of the shower faucets or bathtubs.
First, the kitchen sink faucet was never connected to the hot and cold water, so when the valves were turned on, it caused a small flood under the sink.
The second problem we encountered was the washing machine hookup. The nuts holding the turn-off valves were broken, so they were glued together with liquid nails and the walls were closed up so no one would know it was an issue—until, of course, we tried to use the washing machine.
Second, the dishwasher was never leveled and was pushed forward at a 15-degree angle and couldn't get Americas Home Place to fix it for over 12 months. When they finally got a plumber, rather than an Americas Home Place handi-man, it was found that the dishwasher outlet hose was wedged between the dishwasher and the wall, so every time we closed the dishwasher door, it caused stress on the door and the hose.
After months of not having a hot shower or bath, Americas Home Place kept saying to up the temperature on the hot water heater. They finally paid a real plumber, of our choice to look at the problem. The plumber found two problems (1) the hot water pipes were not insulated, and (2) the scauld hot feature had never been adjusted on any of the shower faucets or bathtubs.
It's Not Americas Home Place without HVAC Hassles
The heating and cooling system is something a new homeowner should never have to worry about, unless, of course, your construction company is Americas Home Place from Asheville.
Because our house was finished at the beginning of summer, the air conditioning was fixed on the first return visit as the air conditioner was never properly charged so it blew warm, rather than cold air. All the heating and cooling company had to do was recharge the system, and it was good for the summer.
The real test of a heat exchanger is how it warms the house during the winter months. As owners of a new home, with two separate air conditioner and heating systems, we found the vents blew cold air through them in unisin with the wind (both upstairs and downstairs).
A year later, when it was necessary to remove the vents in the crawl space because of a mold issue (see the mold blog), the heating and air conditioning company found out that the vents had never been screwed into main trunk lines, and they were just hanging loosely against the main trunks—causing our heating and air conditioning bills to be abnormally high.
Because our house was finished at the beginning of summer, the air conditioning was fixed on the first return visit as the air conditioner was never properly charged so it blew warm, rather than cold air. All the heating and cooling company had to do was recharge the system, and it was good for the summer.
The real test of a heat exchanger is how it warms the house during the winter months. As owners of a new home, with two separate air conditioner and heating systems, we found the vents blew cold air through them in unisin with the wind (both upstairs and downstairs).
A year later, when it was necessary to remove the vents in the crawl space because of a mold issue (see the mold blog), the heating and air conditioning company found out that the vents had never been screwed into main trunk lines, and they were just hanging loosely against the main trunks—causing our heating and air conditioning bills to be abnormally high.
It's Not Americas Home Place without Cable TV, Phone or Internet
For our new home, we paid an additional $1000 to Americas Home Place to put cable connections into five rooms being the four bedrooms and the den. So, when we moved into the house, we called the cable company to have them install digital cable.
No matter how many installers the cable company sent to the house, they just couldn't get the signal strong enough to go through the cables run by the Americas Home Place electrician named Willet.
Seems that Willet uses high school aged students that work for him without supervision and that he or his workers had stapled through the cable wires so they were filled with micro-shorts and would not hold a digital signal, which was proved by Charter Cable's high-end digital multi-meters. After several months of dealing with Americas Home Place to prove the issue, we finally got an independent contractor to rewire the cable connections throughout the house.
No matter how many installers the cable company sent to the house, they just couldn't get the signal strong enough to go through the cables run by the Americas Home Place electrician named Willet.
Seems that Willet uses high school aged students that work for him without supervision and that he or his workers had stapled through the cable wires so they were filled with micro-shorts and would not hold a digital signal, which was proved by Charter Cable's high-end digital multi-meters. After several months of dealing with Americas Home Place to prove the issue, we finally got an independent contractor to rewire the cable connections throughout the house.
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