America's Home Place - Nashville Custom Home Builder - Almost a year later

Well, We signed in September to build our home with America's Home Place.  We chose them because they offered a Build on Your Lot experience and had several types of home plans that we could customize. 

Originally we were told we would be in the house by the end of May 2020.  Not we are sitting in August of 2020 and still aren't sure when we will move in. 

We have a huge punch list filled with things like "hole in drywall", Hole in ceiling" ,"damaged cabinet from granite install", "electrical needed", "flooring incomplete or wrong"...etc.

About a month ago we were told that we would be in by this week and still only a few items on the huge punch list have been done. 

Building with America's Home Place takes a lot of patience and you have to be very forgiving of the "lies" that some of their people say because you can tell some of them are just trying their best and aren't very good at giving bad news.

So here I am, ready to share a little more about my custom home build with America's Home Place near Nashville Tennessee.  I'm going to start near the beginning of the build and bring you up to today over the next few posts.  

Here is the house.  I love the color and the brick and I can't wait to move in.  Getting there is another story. 

From the time we entered America's Home Place, we felt that we would get a great deal from them and we were able to see that they were willing to take care of you to get you to sign on the dotted line. 

We didn't mind that and between them and the other builder we were looking at, America's Home Place had a much better and more professional sales staff.  So far, I think the sales department if by far the better department within the company.   

Next came the signing of all the paperwork and then the construction finally began in December for us. 

Our first snafu was not passing the foundation inspection and little did I know this would set the tone for the rest of the build. 

I discovered very quickly that I would have to be a squeaky wheel with this company in order to get the best built house I could possible get from America's Home Place.  I know now that I will get a quality home, but that did not come without me being involved every step of the way. 

The first large issue we had with the build was the house wrap and the window flashing.   

The foundation drains were an issue once we started seeing how they were non-functional in the rain but that came later. 

Here are several photos from February.  They put up the framing and floors and had put in the windows....the first time.

This photo of the floor was their original solution to fixing a huge difference in the the subfloor leveling from where it was placed on top of a support beam and where it was not. 

I have to say, I was not in any way impressed with this as it did not fix the issue.  

Fortunately, America's Home Place did finally take the flooring up, shaved the beam and replaced it with subfloor. The subfloor was not Advantech as it should have been for the repair, however, it was better than beaten and punched subfloor. 

You can see here that there is still a leveling issue. 

This is a photo of the first tub they installed. On the day the plumber installed it, they filled it with water. When I visited later that night, it was leaking everywhere and into the subfloor.   I tried to stop the leak to no avail so I ended up bailing out all of the water from the tub so that it would not be soaking into the flooring all night. 

This is a a photo of one of their first house wrap and door installs.  House wrap is suppose to lie flat otherwise it invites moisture to travel in the little crooks and crannies and can lay on the walls and rot the house over time.  It took a lot of attention and squawking to get this whole house unwrapped and re-wrapped. The original sub contractor would make shoddy repairs of this work and ended up just frustrating us more. My husband eventually made a rule that he was no longer allowed on the property because he was so upset.   It was a good call. We had the "rescue framers" come in and fix everything in a few days and our nerves were less shot. 

Here you can see the wrinkled house wrap  and if you look at the flashing around the windows, you can see that they are not layered correctly.  Correct flashing tape overlaps from top to bottom so that any water that does penetrate past the siding or around the window will flow downward.  If you look here, the side tape is overlapping the top tape of the windows.  This is not proper and it took a lot, on our part, to insist that this was done correctly.  What was interesting was that one half of the house was done correctly and then right side was done completely incorrect.

Here is a close up of an improperly flashed window. 

Here is the patio door.  You can see the house wrap is not properly taped and again the flashing is incorrect. 

More incorrectly placed flashing tape. 

Here is our first door. It has a replacement that has been on order since April 2020. It still is not replaced. The top window was broken by the painters and the left sidelight and lower threshold leaks.  It has now been installed three times on this house and we believe somewhere along the lines is when the leaks began.  The second time, there was door pan installed.  The third time, the door pan was not installed.  Currently this door will leak unseen into the crawl space and leave water droplets on the subfloor and into the framing.  The nails are already rusted from this and again, this took me bringing it up (even after they put flooring down) to get them to agree to replace it. 

Here is the back patio door.   It has been doing fine since the last install with a door pan.  Unfortunately the screen to it has been slowly falling apart on the bottom but it looks like and easy repair so this was not a huge issue. 

This is our side door. I believe I took this photo because I was concerned about the house wrap and whether or not the door was plumb. This door has since been reinstalled and works fine. 

Oh I almost forgot about this window!  Check out the right side. Here the flashing tape was literally placed on a bent back piece of house wrap. There are so many thing wrong with this and it was one of the last straws for me.  I really began to lose my faith in the company when I saw this.  I could not quite understand how any subcontractor or foreman would allow this to even be seen by the home owner. 

Close up of another incorrectly flashed window. 

Here is an issue with continuity with the house wrap. Again, this has been since taken care of...but can you see what I was dealing with?  I nearly lost it when they started to put siding up over this mess. That's when I turned to facebook and review sites to get more attention to have these issues taken care of. 

This was my first photo of the roof. I had noticed inconsistencies in the ridge vent early on but was told everything was fine, EVEN when I found rain in the attic under the vent. (More about that later).

This was a photo I took of someone's garbage. Someone came by (I believe the workers) and placed their garbage with my garbage.  It would be fine...except there was no dumpster. So this just added to the unkempt look of the site early on. I have since witnessed subcontractors bringing boxes and other debris from their home/truck and placing it in the dumpster.   It's not a huge deal, but it is noticeably unprofessional. 

This is the large amount of debris hanging out in the front yard of the house early on.  Why there was not a dumpster, I will never know.  

Here is a look at the house wrap in the corner by the chimney. Check out those huge wrinkles and the lack of tape. I was not ok with this.  

After several rains, the Advantech flooring lost it's smooth look.  The flooring did survive the rain, but it wasn't pretty for a while and I was seriously wondering how it would hold up. It turns out that Advantech is made to sustain weather like this and will not delaminate like other subfloors out there. I am thankful that America's Home Place used Advantech here.   I think it saved the flooring. 

This is a hole on the gable wall.   It's not a huge deal, but if I'm paying for a new house, I kind of don't want holes in it. Yah know?

Fire-blocking is a code issue. What annoyed me here is that they sprayed the foam around the drain from above and they only did it where they could reach it easily.  From below, you can see that they didn't even get the whole hole plugged. If there was a fire, this is a place where flames could cause potentially deadly issues by helping spread the fire faster to the second floor.  I think this was eventually fixed but I honestly can't remember now. 

I took a photo of these because the roofers forgot to put them up when they did the roof.  They had to go back and put them in after the fact.  It was just an interesting observation of many to come. 

I took this image for two reasons. 1. I had no idea what the little pieces of metal were for. Flashing for the siding?  I have no idea.  2. The roofing shingles were not Certainteed which was what I had been sold on.  This is where I found out that America's Home Place can do substitutions as stated in the contract.  Another example is that we are suppose to have Delta faucets.  We don't. (CORRECTION -- We do! They are Delta!)   Fortunately, I was told later by a contractor that these shingles were actually pretty good so no big deal unless they don't work...which I may not know for years.

When you select colors for the home, they ask you for the roof color.  I asked for light grey or just grey.  I'm not quite sure why it's black but honestly...I just don't have time to argue about a roof color.  My thought was a lighter color would help deflect the sunlight and thus make the home more efficient.  Oh well!  

This was the roof before it was shingled and yes...that is snow.  I was a little worried, but it looks like it's ok for now. The only issue we've had with the roof was the ridge vent (more on that later). 

I have no clue why I took this photo. I'm guessing I was questioning something about the roof. Perhaps the spacer?

Here is my foyer window that I can not reach.   It was missing a lot of window trim/flashing on the inside and they were laid on the ledge. They have since disappeared.  The window still needs it though.   Also, if you check out the lower right corner, it has damage.  Currently is is painted nicely and still missing a chunk of the lower right corner.   I have no idea if they will fix it.  I have it on the punch list. 

I took this so I knew what type of windows I had. They are builder grade and fairly decent windows.  Their energy savings and number (I forget what it's called) are lower than what the current recommendation for windows is but not by much.  I learned that there are all sorts of energy codes required in housing and the efficiency of windows is one of the things taken into account.  It's all pretty interesting to read about. 

This is a photo of the framing and just a reference for me.  I learned that these metal plates are code to help prevent nailing into the pipes when drywall is put up. 

This is after a rain before the chimney was done. The front of the house still got a significant amount of water in it during this time. I was curious about the pipe that came up and out.  It has a shut off valve on it now. 

This is the hearth of the fire place. It was originally missing.  I was glad to see it put up.  

Also, you see that little metal plate on the bottom right?  It was an issue brought up by my framing inspector.   They finally had to fix it.  The issue was the pipe was too far out and it caused a curve for the drywall. Originally, Travis, said they would just shave the drywall rather than actually repair it.  I'm happy they did it right.   I was starting to really feel like I was getting a new repaired house.

Here is all the lumber for various projects within the house. This sat out in the weather for a good while and had me worried. I have since learned that it's ok. 

Here's my leaky tub again.  Man, I tried so hard to get this leak to stop.  It just kept going. Bailing out the water that night was the only option. I was kind of upset that the plumbers left without checking to make sure this was not happening. 

Here is the tub with water in it. So you see all that dirt?  This tub came that way and I am now convinced it sat in someone else's yard before it came to my house. This tub was eventually replaced, but I can't help but think that this one, which has sat in my yard for months, will now go and try to be accepted by another unsuspecting home owner.  Why else would a brand new tub have dirt and algae in it?

I found this hiding out in the portajohn.  My husband suggested it was because there was too much water coming in the house. My theory was so that it could be taken later by a friend and used elsewhere.  Whatever the reason, it was strange to find in the port--a-john.

Here is one of the foundation drains. Basically what happens here is that the water comes in throught he cement around the drain and then enters the drain. If hydraulic cement was properly placed here, this would not be happening. The drains on this house have been a source of frustration for us. 

This is the back drain and the worst one. It's the one that didn't pass the foundation inspection.  You see it has light cement. This cement allows a lot of water (as you can see) to pass through as all the water from the french drains come up to it and dump into it.  We were told by the then project manager, Travis, that it was all installed correctly.  I had my husband dig up the drain on the outside only to find out that there was no drain attached to this pipe and literally all the water was just pooling there.  In addition, the french drain was actually going UP rather than down which completely defied physics.   It took more involvement than we wanted to get America's Home Place to dig up the drains and fix them so they were actually positive drains. They still have issues, but at least they aren't this bad anymore. 

Here's a look up the Chimney.  I thought it was interesting to see the boards there. I have no idea what they were for. 

After a rain, the subfloor often looked like this or worse. 

I suspect we got a used shower too, but it seems to be ok. 

So we will keep it for now. 

We had to have cement fiber siding put on the house due to zoning ordinances.  I'm glad we did. It looks pretty nice. 

This is the top step not completed.  It's where they make a little garbage can for the workers to throw stuff in.  Kind of annoying.  Just clean up properly please...

Here is a close up of the bad leveling of the second floor. I made a big deal about this even through we will have carpet initially. This will just be an annoyance if/when we choose to put hardwood or tile down on the flooring. I want it right the first time. 

Here is a hole in the gable that was eventually repaired. I believe it was from the when they lifted this and all the other pieces with a crane. 

Here you can see where there is daylight and gap between the second and first floor walls.  I found this to be irritatingly mis-measured. They did eventually fix it, but imagine me walking around this house finding all these issues just in the framing.  

My kids...Cutie pies.

Another hole. 

This is the flooring after they put up the studs.  There was sawdust everywhere you could imagine. My only issue with this was when it rained, it got wet and then the sawdust housed the moisture longer on the subfloor.   Why not just clean it up and avoid any issues?  

I found a few areas like this throughout the build.  Sometimes it was replaced and sometimes it was covered by drywall. I think it's ok.

This black mold freaked me out. After reading up on it, I got less nervous.  It was only on a few pieces but with today's crazy world of mold issues everywhere, I was a bit alarmed until I read more about construction and mold on lumber. 

This was the house after they put the walls up and then it rained. I have a hard time understanding the mess and I'm glad it has gotten better but my goodness, there were some moments where I almost cried at the complete lack of respect for the property. 

I took this photo noticing the gap between floor 1 and 2 and the hole here. 

I thought the wall being placed over the 2x4 here was totally strange. I am still not sure why they did that. They did take it down eventually but what in the world?

This was the day when the house was basically laying in lumber pieces on the lot. The only premade thing was the roof rafters. It's pretty interesting to think they framed the house so quickly. 

So that's it for now!  Those are my photos from February and the issues we faced early on in the build.  More to come of course, and it does get better but man...these photos remind me of the journey that's for sure!