It's JUST a GARAGE!

Ahhh...the garage.  Such a simple structure, with so much more to it.

We promised to share and we will stand by our promise to be honest and fair. 

Homes By Avi's website makes frequent statements about their customer service.  They clearly pride themselves on their extraordinary customer service, believing that it is a key component to being a successful company and builder. 

We offer our homeowners dedication and exemplary customer service throughout the design and building processes.  http://www.homesbyavi.com/Careers/default.aspx?city=Edmonton

Here is an example of the customer service that we received. 

Being that we purchased a corner lot, architectural controls stated that we had to purchase our garage through our builder.  We weren't thrilled about this, but we wanted the corner lot and considered it the price of having the lot we wanted.  We weren't told about any options that we could add to the garage, just that we had to have the garage included in our deal.  We signed our paperwork, life went on.

We eventually clued in that the garages could be made larger.  We inquired a few times into this, but received no immediate answer.  After several inquiries, we eventually were told that the change could be made and that we would have to pay the difference, plus a $500 fee for changes.  We sucked it up, and extended our garage.  Total value of the garage - ballpark $16,000. 

 We had moved in and watched other garages being built, all built for houses that weren't yet occupied, and a few that were occupied after we had taken possession.  After inquiring as to why ours wasn't being built, several Homes By Avi representatives informed us that policy states that if you take possession of your house from May-November, that all seasonal had to be completed, but if you miss that window, it gets done when it gets done, no time restraints required.  Despite the fact that we had taken possession at the end of May, there was no restraints on our seasonal work, and it would get done when it got done.

We called our lawyer and inquired if all of our money had been released to Homes By Avi.  There had been a certain amount retained until all of the seasonal work was completed.  Our lawyers informed us that all of the money had been released due to the fact that Homes By Avi had informed them that all of the seasonal work was complete.  We informed the lawyers that this was not the case, and were reassured that they would look into it.  We never heard from them again.  And yes, we had used the lawyers that Homes By Avi had recommended to us.

When our garage was finally started mid July 2010, we were excited!  Our garage was finally being built and would be done in no time!  I mean, its a garage...it couldn't take too long...

Only thing was, we had two apprentices building our garage.  (If you want to call them that.)  They both clearly had no idea what they were doing.  They took the whole first day to sort wood.  They were painfully slow, lacking in basic tools.  We were concerned.  Very concerned. 

Don't get us wrong.  We believe in the apprenticeship program, and have no issues with apprentices -- we have personally benefited from the apprenticeship program.

We gave them a chance. 

The garage went up painfully slow, and with a lot of errors.  We decided to contact our customer service representative and ask who we should be talking to in regards to the garage, the trades themselves, the site supervisor, or the customer service representative.  We informed them of our concerns, and was reassured that it would be looked at. 

The next day, there was a knock on the door.  It was the site supervisor.  He proceeded to, as some would call it, 'rip us a new a**hole'.  He didn't appreciate us and everyone else not letting him do his job.  We needed to trust him and allow him to do his job.  We needed to back off.  He wasn't going to let us and everyone else in the neighbourhood take him down.  He was the site supervisor, not us. 

He was at our door for an hour.  At the end, we were told that if we had an issue that we were to take it up with him and not with head office.  He left clearly very irate, despite our repeated attempts to simply explain what we had done, why we had done it, what our concerns were and what had exactly been said. 

You see, at the time, Homes By Avi protocol stated that we weren't ever to be in direct contact with the site supervisor, and that all of our questions, concerns, etc were to go to the customer service representative.  The only exception being for scheduled meetings. 

We directly emailed him that day stating that we would like to walk through the garage with him the following morning.  We wanted to give him some space and time to allow him to cool off so all parties involved could calmly discuss our concerns about the garage, in detail.

The meeting we wanted never happened.  Instead, we were met with a fight.  The site supervisor did not hold back.  He was swearing, yelling, ready and looking for a fist fight.  The site supervisor was angry.  In his eyes, we had no right to talk to anybody about the garage, look at the garage, or be near the garage until it was completed (yes, it was on our property).  He didn't even understand why we were so concerned about the garage, yelling "It's just a garage!"  

Yes, it is a just a garage, just a $16,000 garage!  He met our complaints about the structure by saying to us, "Unless you are a certified framer, you have no business telling me what is right or what is wrong about the structure of this garage."  Once again, did I mention one of us is a red seal carpenter?  And for those of you who aren't aware, there really isn't such a thing as a certified framer, and the site supervisor, his construction experience was plumbing.

When we expressed that perhaps it was just a garage to him, but it represented approx $16,000 to us.  We expected to have a garage that looked as though it was worth $16,000.  His response was, was that we weren't paying for a garage to look like $16,000...but we were paying for someone else to oversee the building of the garage, for others to build a garage and for it to be someone else's headache, not ours.

At the end of the meeting, he asked us to back off and let the crew finish the framing, they were apprentices and we needed to believe in the process.  When that was done, we could talk to him and he would fix any concerns that we had.  We reluctantly agreed.  After all, it would be Homes By Avi to fix it if anything was wrong (as long as it was in the first few years).

We did inform our sales staff of these 'encounters' with the site supervisor, who advised us to talk to our customer service representative.  We did inform our customer service representative of the 'encounters', who received it as though it was a very minor issue, stating that the site supervisor was 'stressed' by 'everything'.

The building of the garage slowed down, but we kept our end of the deal.  Framing wasn't done, so we wouldn't comment. 

We left a Friday afternoon to go away for the weekend.  We returned Sunday morning.  Our garage was completed, with the exception of the electrical, eavestrough and the main garage door. In less than 48 hours, the framing was finished, the garage was sided and the shingles were on.  None of our concerns were heard.  When we voiced them afterwards, we were met with denial, and what did we expect to be done?  The garage was built, it'd be fine. 

Sure, it'd be fine.  But where was the quality and service that justified the price?
 

Before final grade was completed.


 The garage was finished off in the months coming, September it was finally inspected.  (It passed, however, we have learned that passed does not by any means establish quality...it simply meant that it wouldn't fall down on us.  The inspector's words were 'I've seen them done worse by do-it-yourselfers.')  There was still a few things to be completed, most notably, there were holes on either side of the man door to the garage.  We had been reassured that they would be filled with concrete before the garage was done.  The electrical was completed and the eavestrough were eventually completed late fall.  The holes, on the other hand, received the classic Homes By Avi 'band-aid' -- final grade was completed, sod was laid.

After topsoil, before sod.

We never heard from Homes By Avi in regards to our garage, no one ever came to say, 'hey, its done'.  The garage still had all of the left over materials plus some garbage inside of it.  Eventually we called and inquired, winter was fast approaching and we wanted to use the garage.  We were told that 'of course' it was done, and could use it.  We asked about the holes on either side of the door.  We were reassured that it would be looked after and taken care of immediately.  We asked for the garbage to be cleaned out of the garage.  Actually, we asked repeatedly during the following months for the garbage to be cleaned out of it.  Never happened, at least not until we cleaned it out and disposed of it ourselves (at least two truck loads of 'construction stuff' was removed from the garage). 

Winter came, and we had issues with our man door.  At times it wouldn't close or it wouldn't open, and the snow freely entered into the garage through the holes on either side of the garage. 

Spring came, and the one side of our garage was filled with water.  The water ran right off our yard and in through the holes, forming a big pool of water by the main garage door.  We had issues with edges of the siding popping off, a light that hadn't been correctly installed, and the trim on the garage remained unpainted.

We informed Homes By Avi of the uncompleted garage list several times.  At the end of August, the door was fixed by Homes By Avi.  They had to remove the man door and build up the crib of the garage, raising the man door by approx 4".  The siding was also fixed.

September the lamp was correctly installed and early October the trim was finally painted.

In our eyes, our garage had finally been completed.

Almost 15 months, and quite a few headaches later.


As previously quoted in our blog, taken from http://homesbyavi.com/Default.aspx?city=edmonton,

A good name is a funny thing... the stronger it gets, the more we want to protect it.

We've earned a reputation for beautiful homes and extraordinary customer service. It is our belief that this reputation helps us take the first steps in establishing each new client relationship.

Mold.

This is our story of mold and water.

As you can imagine, this is a story that evokes a lot of emotion in us.  This all started at a time that we had hoped to be finally done dealing with Homes By Avi.  We already had a lot of work done in our house through warranty, and were finally starting to feel like it was a home, not a construction site.  We had just finished cleaning out all of the construction dust and had began unpacking, starting with a box of pictures.

We promise to be as accurate as our memory and records will allow us.

January 2011. 

It was exceptionally warm outside.  One of our bathroom fans had brown tinted water dripping out of it.  It was normal apparently.  Just frost build-up.  (as per Homes By Avi representative)

Then, our kitchen window started dripping water.  Brown water was dripping steadily onto the window sill. We removed everything that water could damage from the around the window, and lined the area with towels.

Homes By Avi sent over a service technician to look into it right away. However, this was due to our insist that someone come look at it immediately, explaining to our customer service representative that water falling out of the fans and windows couldn't possibly be normal or okay.
The service technician came over, looked at it, and determined that it was frost build up, in both the fan and the windows.  They knew how to fix it, and they would fix it. 

Interestingly enough though, he made a comment, which turned out to be an eerie foreshadowing of the events to come.  He said, "Unless it is raining in your attic, it is just frost."

As the days passed we found more windows dripping water.  When the service technician came to 'fix' the windows, he expected two, but had four to fix. The plans were to take off the top casing, pull out the existing insulation (which really, was not much at all, if any), spray in foam insulation, and place the casing back on.

This did not seem right to us.  First, if it was an insulation problem, why wouldn't they do the whole window?  And if it was a problem on one, why wouldn't it be a problem on all of the windows and exterior doors, considering they were all insulated by the same people?  (What else did they insulate as well?)  And why weren't they drying out the space where the frost was said to exist?  It was warm outside, but not warm enough to be without frost.

The work was questioned.  Several times.  And, several times, the service technician responded.  He made it known that we were to back-off and allow him to do his work.  We were to trust them and believe that the issue would not reoccur.  His direct quote was, "Leave it to the professionals."

Yup.  Leave it to the professionals.  It was clear to us that this was common sense, not something that required a professional.  But even then, wouldn't one of us being a red seal journeyman carpenter be classified as being a 'professional' as well? 

Not the first time we have heard this in one form or another from a Homes By Avi representative. (Another post for another day...)

As a home owner, at that moment, we took a step back, and let them do their thing.  Sometimes people have to learn the hard way, no matter how many times they are told.  We let them complete the work, knowing that it was a classic Homes By Avi 'band-aid'.

That was a Friday.


Saturday the windows were dripping again, plus some new windows.  Only the windows that had been fixed now had brown sludge dripping out of it. 

*Please realise, when we say dripping, some were mere drops, while others were a steady drip, requiring towels on window sills. If not watched carefully, water would run off the sill and onto our hardwood floors or carpet.*




And this is when we gave up on unpacking.  While cleaning up the dust left behind from the previous Friday, we had placed our pictures on the sill of a window that had just been fixed.  The brown sludge falling from that window resulted in picture frames being destroyed.  We packed up the remaining frames.  They still remain packed.

Sunday is the day we discovered the mold.  We came home to discover that both bathroom fans on the 2nd level were dripping water again.  When we looked up at the fan in the master bathroom, we found water marks on our ceiling.  We looked into our bedroom and found more water marks.  They were getting bigger.  And softer (one actually was soft enough that it would move when touched, and yes, left our fingerprint behind).  Water droplets starting forming on one of the watermarks.

When you sat in the room quietly, you could hear dripping.  Only thing was though, you couldn't find the dripping.

'Unless it's raining in your attic...'

Two times we had had Homes By Avi service technicians in our house regarding our falling water problem, one mentioned the attic, but neither felt it important to look in the attic. 

It was time for us to take a look and see what we could find. 

We lifted the attic hatch, and it snowed on us.  We moved the attic hatch aside, only to find MOLD, and frost.  It wasn't a good start, but it braced us for the rest.
 

We found the source of the dripping noise.  It was raining.  And it was in our attic.  The roof was a giant sheet of melting ice.

We can't even begin to describe the emotions that we were feeling.  

We came down from the roof and started looking around.  Drywall joints were beginning to show throughout the master bedroom, master bathroom and in the upstairs hallway, in some cases puckering. The walls were soft to touch.

That night, we went to bed listening to the water dripping in our attic.

Monday we called as soon as we could.  We had a meeting with the warranty manager and service technician that afternoon.  They went into the attic, looked around and came back down.  They weren't up there for very long (mere minutes), but were quickly able to assess the situation and come to a conclusion.  They said that it was because there wasn't enough ventilation in the attic, our attic hatch wasn't sealed or insulated correctly and there was a considerable lack of insulation (lacking 4" seems to ring a bell, but who knows, maybe it was there and was just compacted by the rain...)  They also suspected that our bathroom fans weren't sealed correctly, despite them being checked and resealed at our three month warranty check. 

When they were done in the attic, the windows were visually inspected.  We presented our case again of needing to do all of the casings on all the windows and exterior doors, and needing to ensure that the space was dry.  The warranty manager agreed with us.  We voiced concerns over moisture being in the wall, and he reassured us that he would open any wall we wanted. 

When they left, we felt hopeful, but doubtful.  We hoped that it would be dealt with in a timely manner, and fixed without any further issues, however, we knew better.  Nothing in our experience with Homes By Avi told us it would be that easy.  There would be more 'band-aids', more trade mistakes, more repairs, and more compromises and sacrifices on our behalf.

Wednesday - We already had an appointment with the duct work company for some ducts that had fallen apart.  They came, fixed the duct work, and went up into the attic to ensure that the fans were sealed correctly.  The tradesman double checked the fans, but mentioned that there wasn't enough air escaping to cause that much frost in the attic.  We called our Homes By Avi customer service representative to update them, and to receive an update, but getting voicemail, we left a message.  No return call.

Thursday - called again, left message, and finally got response.  Our customer service representative informed us that they would be redoing the insulation in all of our exterior windows and doors.  He had no idea what the plans were for the attic.  He had no notes about the walls and the potential moisture in the walls.

The idea that our house didn't have enough attic ventilation didn't sit well with us.  Homes By Avi is a big company, and the concept houses are almost as cookie cutter as they come, with our roof line being popular.  We just couldn't comprehend Homes By Avi building houses with a ventilation problem in their design. We were pretty sure that not everyone with the same roof line like us would have that much moisture in their attic.  And blaming it on the bathroom fan didn't sit well with us either. 

Once again, we went up to investigate.  We let common sense guide us, and followed the masses of frost.  Immediately, we noticed that the insulation was falling down in that area, between the bathtubs and the outside walls.  The poly has not been sealed.

Monday - We called Homes By Avi again, and talked with a service technician.  We were informed that there were plans to add more ventilation.  We informed them of what we had discovered in the attic and was reassured that the message would be passed on. 

Wednesday - We called and left a message for the warranty manager siting that we had some questions about the repairs and asked for a return phone call.

Two weeks later Homes By Avi was at the house to 'fix' the attic.  They went in the attic and sealed the poly around the bathtubs.  We asked about the potential for other holes, and we were reassured that there were no other holes.  We pointed out that there should be, given that the watermarks on our ceiling meant that water was able to escape the poly.  At one point they said to us, 'well it isn't like you had water dripping out of your ceiling'.  Nonetheless, they reassured us that they fixed the problem.  When we asked about the walls again, mentioning opening up some to assess the moisture levels, the answer this time was no longer 'anything you want' but, 'we aren't into destructive testing'.  We settled for the promise of a heat gun being brought in to detect the moisture in the walls.  Despite future requests, this never came.  Our walls were never investigated for moisture.  Homes By Avi representatives informed us that it would be impossible for the moisture to get in the wall, or for mold to form in the walls.

Another two weeks later, our attic was re-insulated.  No insulation was removed, only added.  This was the end of February.  (Side note - this resulted in our soffit being damaged, meaning, another repair, for another day.  The area where the soffit was repaired is still visible.)

Nothing else happened in our house until the last week of April, claiming that the weather needed to be good in order to ensure that the space around the windows was dry and frost free.  They came and re-insulated all of the windows and exterior doors on the main level. 

The mess that was left behind was unexplainable.

This time Homes By Avi had a company come in to our house and re-insulate the windows.  They made sure that the space around the windows was full of insulation, but they also made sure that the walls were also full of insulation.  At one point, a service technician had put his ladder down in a pile of foam insulation on a drop cloth (one of the only drop clothes used).  He then placed his ladder on our hardwood floor.  Luckily, we caught it and informed them of it in time...so it didn't become a permanent fixture on our floor.  When the company left, many areas of my house looked as though a year's worth of boogers had been smeared all over the place.  Foam insulation was on the window sills, doors and walls.  As time went on, the colour of the insulation changed too, only becoming more predominant (a yellowish-brown colour).

The service technicians did clean up behind themselves, at least they picked up the large pieces and vacuumed around their work area.  At one point, one service technician was vacuuming up a large amount of drywall and insulation 'mess'.  He hooked up the shop vac and started vacuuming.  He didn't have the filter on, and out came clouds of construction dust (drywall, insulation, dirt, etc -- it all makes dust).  The air was thick with it, blowing it right up onto the second level.  When a technician was told about it, he sauntered over to the technician to let him know, laughing about it.  They all laughed about it.

They laughed.  We didn't.  We spent the next day and a half deep-cleaning our house, again.

Homes By Avi finally had someone come over to test the mold the following Monday (it took a few phone calls, but we got it tested).  Homes By Avi representatives repeatedly reassured us that it was fine, a non-issue, simple soap and water clean up, that it wouldn't be spreading.  Forgive us for not believing them.  But, they did get it tested, and they were right, it was not harmful, simple soap and water clean up. This was the first week of May.

At the end of May, Homes By Avi came to finish the windows on the top level.  They started to do their work, which we immediately put to a halt.  We told them we were not going to have the same mess occur on the second level like what was left on the main level, especially considering that this is where we and our children sleep.  They hadn't spread any drop clothes, not on our carpet, and most definitely not on the beds.  We were told there was nothing they could do about it.  That the mess was a consequence of the fix and if we wanted it fixed then the mess would have to happen.   It was made clear to him that he was wrong, and that at the very least, he could put drop clothes down, call our customer service representative and have arrangements made to have the house cleaned that afternoon.  He made some phone calls and came back with drop clothes.  He assured us that our customer service representative would be calling us this afternoon with arrangements for the following day.  We accepted this compromise and allowed the work to continue.   

The service technician left just after lunch and said again, that we would be hearing from our customer service representative shortly.

No phone call came.  We called and left messages.  Nothing.

And yes, we had to go and clean the house again, another deep clean.  Everything from the curtains to the bedding to the walls to the carpet had to be washed down.  No cleaner ever came.  (Actually, an appointment with them is in the works currently, and is courtesy of Homes By Avi.  Homes By Avi has also agreed to have our furnaces cleaned as well.)  Once again, insulation was on our walls, windows sills, and only recently discovered (due to location), on our carpet as well.

We got one day of painters in before our household became sick.  We had to cancel the second day of painting due to the illnesses.  We were told that our customer service representative would be calling us back to reschedule an appointment. 

We never heard back from them for a few weeks.  We called and left messages, but received no phone calls back.  When they finally called and wanted to get into our house and to finish the work, we were going to be leaving on vacation and wouldn't be able to accommodate Homes By Avi. 

To be honest, it was June already.  The mold had been in our house for 6 months without Homes By Avi placing a priority on its clean-up.  We still had baseboards that needed painting from our previous fireplace re-do that had occurred the summer previous.  Obviously, Homes By Avi wasn't too concerned about the work needing to be done in our house.  We highly doubted that another month or two would change anything.  We actually really needed the time without Homes By Avi coming around.  As we mentioned before, dealing with Homes By Avi so frequently in such a negative capacity really took its toll on us and our family.  We needed some separation and time to enjoy our house without having to worry about upcoming warranty appointments, and the clean up that must happen before and after them.  We just needed some time in our house, without Homes By Avi.

While on vacation we received a letter from our new customer service representative(our fourth warranty/customer service representative to be exact).  They wanted to get some dates booked for the remaining work to be done.  We were not impressed with our new customer service representative.  To simply state it, our customer service representative was ill informed in regards to the repairs required, the length of time it took to complete the repairs, to what extent the repairs were needed, to our entire history.  It was up to us to inform her, to enlighten her to all of the described above, and at times, she was not the most receptive.

At this point, our patience, understanding, and tolerance ran out.  Too much run around.  Too much BS.  Too many broken promises.  All gone on for too long.

The service days came and went.  We had other issues that the technicians were here to do, plus they finally cleaned up the mold and painted over it with primer, and re-insulated the attic hatch.

That was the end of August.

After this appointment, we called our customer service representative, booked another service day and shared a few words, which lead to us demanding to speak to someone who could genuinely help us.  We spoke with the customer service manager, and enlightened them to our experiences with Homes By Avi.

The customer service manager did seem to care, and did seem to be a little dismayed by our experiences.  We were reassured that it would be brought up that week at a meeting, and that we would hear back from them in the following week.  That never happened.

Today, our casings and surrounding walls have been patched and painted, with the majority of the foam insulation being removed from our walls and repaired.  Insulation still remains on our window sills, as that was not the painter's job to fix (as per the painter himself, and Homes By Avi representatives).  We have, however, been instructed to just scratch it off, or try 'goof-off'. 

Of course, the painter's mark was left, and it is still obvious that the casings and walls have been patched.  The job isn't perfect, it isn't even close enough to say that its the best it can be...but it is good enough for us to live with, maybe.  We are currently at odds with each other in regards to the job done, one saying it needs to be done again, we payed too much money for a new house to have it look like a patch job, and one saying enough is enough, its time for our house to be our home, time for us to do the work ourselves and do it right. 

Our water marks are not as visible as they once were, as a matter of fact, you'd have to know where they were to even see any hints of them, that is, at least so far. 

One thing Homes By Avi has taught us, is to believe it when you see it, and if it stands the test of time.

We will see what this winter brings.

The fireplace...

We walked into the showhome, and it screamed at us.  Not a bad scream, a good scream.  We didn't notice anything else, just the fireplace.  It was the 'piece de resistance'.  It had function, it had style, and it was practical.  It was what we asked of every layout thereafter. It became a 'requirement' per say, one that we wouldn't settle without.

The fireplace is located in the middle of our open concept main level, jetting out from the side wall.  It is the divider between the living room and the dining room, directly across from the basements stairs and to the second level stairs.  We chose the upgraded three sided fireplace, which would blow air out of the the three sides, into every area of the main level, and up or down the stairs to the other level. 

We immediately pegged it as the best entertainment area. The height of the fireplace was perfect.  Placing a flat screen on a swivel bracket on the wall above the fireplace would allow for the tv to be seen from all areas of the house, including the kitchen.  It wouldn't be too high, it would be at an ideal level, and would easily fit a 42" tv.

As an added incentive, moving the entertainment area about the fireplace would free up the entertainment nook that was already designed into the house.  This area would then be used as a home office/homework space that the house (and our family) so desperately needed!

When we were at the design centre, we informed the designer that we wanted our fireplace to be exactly like the fireplace in the showhomes, listing off a few for their reference.  We were reassured that it would be exactly what we wanted.  We added (and paid for) all of the outlets we required above the fireplace so that we could use it as our entertainment area. 

We were excited.  The fireplace would be the main structural focus of our house, beautiful in it's design, and beautiful in its function.

When we met with the site superintent for our pre-construction meeting, we reviewed all of the uses for the space that we had already planned out.  We reviewed the importance of the fireplace to us, and the need to use it as an entertainment area as well.  We reviewed the designs, and were reassured that it would be great!

When the time came for our mechanical walk through, we were disappointed.  The fireplace was wrong.  According to our design, it was to be three rows of subway tile from the floor, but it was sitting on the floor.  We were reassured it would be fixed.  And it was. 

The fireplace box was lifted, and the remaining portion of it was built.  We were told that the mantle piece would not be done/added until other parts of it was completed.  While it seemed a bit high at the time, it wasn't too far from where it was supposed to be, so we let it go.  Life is about compromises right?

At least the backing and addition plugs that we had added were in place for the entertainment centre.

Once the fireplace was tiled, and the mantle piece added, we were shocked.  The mantle piece consisted of casing wrapping the top edges of the fireplace.  Nothing else.  The fireplace had three rows of tiles under the firebox, and three rows of tile above the firebox, with the little casing around the edge.  The tile edges were horrible, grout lines and edges beyond crooked.  The edges were plastic and were already starting to fall off. 

We were most definitely not happy. 

At the time, there were quite a few issues that we had with the house that needed to be resolved, ASAP.  (Yes, another post, another time!)

We called our Customer Service Representative and made it known that we wanted a meeting, and we wanted one as soon as possible. 

We had a meeting at the house.  We were surprised to see the amount of people at the meeting.  Where we had expected one representative, there was the Homes By Avi Construction Manager, Quality Control Manager, Customer Service Representative, Area Sales Manager, and at times, the Site Superintendent. 

As we went through our list of issues, we eventually got to the fireplace.  We had already found the meeting a bit rough, as it appeared as though Homes By Avi didn't really like hearing about how poor we found the quality of the build to be up until that point.  When we came to the fireplace, we were told that the tile work was fine.  We were reassured that the plastic edge used was actually attached under the tile, so while it appeared to be not attached, it was, and would not be going anywhere.  They reminded us that even if we wanted the tile work changed, that it would only push our possession date back, as it would delay other trades from getting their work done on time, acting like a domino effect.  Time was already not on our side (already having to beg to extend our lease by one month).  We were reassured that we were only seeing the tile as the poor quality that it was because we were not living in the space and that it would eventually be better once we had furniture and other items in the space.  It was agreed though that the mantle piece was not acceptable.  We informed them of the showhomes that we wanted our fireplace to look like, even offering to show them the picture of the showhome, right there in that moment.  This was refused, but we were told that it would be taken care of, and that a better mantle would be made.  No specifics to this mantle were given.

We reluctantly agreed to the purposed fixes.

When we finally saw the final fireplace mantle, we were, once again, disappointed.  The casing had been removed, and a mantle had been built and set on top of the already existing fireplace.  This added another 7" to our already too tall fireplace.  When we let Homes By Avi know that we did not like this mantle, we were told that there was nothing they would do about it because we had agreed to this fireplace and they weren't going to keep changing the fireplace.  We denied our agreeing to the fireplace that was now completed.  Our Customer Service Representative reminded us that she was present, and that we had agreed to the fireplace that was built.  We reminded her that we had even offered to show them the fireplace that we wanted, which was THEIR design, but that they had refused saying that they could look it up later.  We reminded her that we were reassured that it would be taken care of, not for us to worry.  We informed her that when we had agreed with them, that it was for them to adjust the one that had already been made to look more like the one we wanted, which was clearly not even close the one now existing in our soon to be home.

This was a battle we did not win.

Once we eventually moved in, our view of the fireplace did not get better.  No matter where you were in the house, the poor quality of the fireplace screamed at you, and not in a good way.  All of the grout lines were crooked.  All of the plastic edges were bending and falling off.  They were not actually attached behind the tile as we were promised, but the backing had been cut off and the edges siliconed on.  (This was a problem throughout the house.) 

We called and arranged another meeting, and yes, we had several other issues that needed to be discussed as well.

Homes By Avi's Warranty Manager and Construction Manager attended this meeting. 

When it came to the fireplace, it was agreed upon, something had to be done.  The workmanship on the fireplace left a lot to be desired. 

It was joked about how we would have to move out for them to redo the fireplace...it would just be that big of a job.

They left saying they would get back to us in regards to the fireplace, that they had to think about it and review their options.  They took pictures.

We must just quickly touch on one fact - The fireplace was not a custom design.  We must reinforce that we chose a design directly from the showhomes.  It was an option that they gave to us (that we paid for, of course).  We chose everything, right down to the tile, from a Homes By Avi showhome.  We changed the paint colour and added outlets and a reinforced wall to the fireplace design.  That was it.  We signed a sheet of paper showing the exact design.  Every step of the way, we were clear in our desire and intent to have THEIR design.  We find it remarkably interesting that despite all of the individuals who had a hand in building the fireplace, their design, that not one of them was able to come up with the correct design.


August 9th, 2010 we had a warranty appointment for a different issue.  At this appointment, the Service Technician told us that the fireplace would be redone.  He informed us that we would be able to change the design of the fireplace as well, as it would be completely exposed and easily done. 

August 19th, 2010 Homes By Avi came and started the work on the fireplace.  All of the tile was removed, along with the drywall.  All that remained, and remained completely exposed, was the framing and the firebox itself, along with mechanical components of the fireplace.  The following day the drywallers came. 

That evening, we looked at the job the drywallers had done, and determined it was wrong.  They had cut down the edges as if the fireplace would be mudded, taped and painted with rounded corners. 
September 8, 2010, we had an appointment with the tiler.  He came and looked over the tile work in our house, and found out which kind of tile we had so he could order it.

September 15, 2010.  This was the appointment that the drywall was done again, correctly this time.

September 27 the tiles were set, and October 6 the tiles were grouted.

No siliconing was done.  This was to be done at a later date.  This was finally completed on the fireplace in August, 2011.  (Other areas of the house had tile work done at this time too.  Some of these areas have still not yet been siliconed.)

October 13, 2010 - The painters came in to repair and paint the wall.

The baseboards for the fireplace were not attached (completed spring 2011), were not repaired (still remain), and were not repainted (completed September 2011).

13 MONTHS for a redo of our fireplace, which was still NOT what we had paid for or agreed with, or as Homes By Avi themselves had designed.


The redesigning of the fireplace never happened.  When we asked for it, we were told no, as it would do more damage to the drywall than they were willing to do. 

Our entertainment centre is not above the fireplace.  Once we measured, only a small tv would fit, and no components would fit.  The tv would be awkwardly high on the wall.  We remain optimistic that one day we will find a use for the extra plugs we had added to the fireplace wall, or find a creative way to hide them.

Over 18 months for us to realise our 'compromise' was much greater than we had anticipated.
The fireplace today still has its issues...the plastic edges still appear to be falling off in areas, although, this time we KNOW that there is a piece behind the tile, and should be fine.  It is still quite high oddly high, but hopefully with the help of strategically placed decor, it won't appear so high.  The baseboards still need to be repaired, but at least they are on and painted.  (Beggars can't be choosers right?)  The grout is cracking and falling off in many areas as well, however, according to Homes By Avi, this is completely 'normal'.

This fall, one of us did receive an electrical shock from the fireplace while trying to open the bottom grill (which gives access to control panel and fan).  We only ever opened this to turn the pilot light on and off.  A loud noise was being made by the fireplace whenever the fan was on, or anything in the house vibrated.  Upon investigating this noise one day, one of us was shocked (literally) when a finger was placed on the clip that helps to hold the grill on, and followed it as it closed.  We were unaware at the time, but the clip was pushing against the motor for the fan when the grill was closed.  The damage can be seen.  Being that our one year warranty had ended, it is up to us to repair.  It was incorrectly installed (common sense dictates this).  Luckily, during an appointment this last winter, a warranty technician did fix this while waiting for other trades.

Please know that we do sincerely realise that we live in a house, a house which must age and show its use eventually over time, and was built by humans, which means that allowance must be given for human error.  We are not naive to this fact.  We do appreciate this fact.

Simple irony at its best. A fireplace, simple in design, beautiful and practical.  A fireplace designed by Homes By Avi and proudly showed in every showhome using our floorplan (a very popular plan).  But what really became of that simple, beautiful and practical fireplace - a pain in the a**. 

What do we really think of our fireplace today?  Well, it is still the main focus in our house, and upon first glance, it is 'nice'.  Its entirely too high for any use other than collecting dust and nick-nacks. The potlight above it is off centre considerably (and not purposefully or beautifully either), which even makes nick-nack placement difficult (yes, we are kinda the perfectionist when it comes to designs). 

It's not what we wanted, its not the design we agreed to (or ever have), and it is not the fireplace that Homes By Avi so proudly displays in so many of their showhomes that we so diligently let everyone know we wanted.  BUT, it is in our house, and it is not going to go anywhere anytime soon.  And, we have to say, it is uniquely ours.

Lets just say, it's another dream that Homes By Avi promised that was never achieved. 

Still, More Than My Mom...

Curiosity killed the cat the other day. 


We decided to sit down and go through our calendars and count just how many days we have had service appointments or meetings for our house since our possession date in late May of 2010. 


We tweeted...

"This month we will exceed our 20th scheduled @HomesbyAvi warranty appointment since 01/01/2011. That's more visits than my mom has made."

We were wrong.  And we promised to be as accurate as possible. 


It is actually the 20th DAY of service appointments or meetings since Jan 1, 2011. 


It is the 40th DAY of service appointments or meetings since our possession date in late May, 2010. 


And these numbers are only based on what we have written down on our calendar.  And we did miss writing down a few appointments, especially appliance appointments, and a few spontaneous meetings with Homes By Avi representatives along the way.


But, 40 days of appointments.  All on business days.  That is 8 solid business weeks.  That is 2 months worth of weekday service appointments or meetings.  2 months out of the almost 17 months we have lived in our house.


40 days of service appointments or meetings is A LOT.  We never would have imagined it would be that much.  BUT, in efforts to be fair, we must acknowledge that it does mean that Homes By Avi has not abandoned us.  It does mean that they are here, taking responsibility and ownership of these issues. They are here, fixing what wasn't done right, or has failed.  But the truth is, a lot of these fixes and failures could have been altogether avoided, had 'the i's been dotted and the t's been crossed' during construction.  Homes By Avi is here, they may take their time coming, need a few phone calls to get them moving, they may argue with us about the fixes required, they may not be the most efficient while here, and the fixes may not be of the best quality (as one service tech told me, sometimes the fix is worse than the original).  BUT, as the ever optimist inside us says...they are still here.


And, in being fair, we must state, 40 days of service appointments or meetings is including the appointments that take 30 minutes.  But it also includes the 'service' or 'trades' days that have a varying amount of trades people coming through our house to fix or redo something, where someone had to be home the entire day.  And yes, there was a time when they did call wanting to get in to our house and get work done, but we were unable to be home for long period of time (aka...we went on one 3 wk vacation).


We are not sure what the average number of service appointments or meetings are for the average homeowner who built through Homes By Avi.  And we are not sure what the average may be for homeowners who built through other builders.  We really have nothing to compare it with.


What we are sure of though, is that if someone would have told us these numbers, we never would have built, at least not with Homes By Avi, regardless of their reputation of quality and service.  And these are just the days since we took possession.  We are not counting the various meetings and appearances we had to make that were out of the 'norm' before we took possession.  Because yes, we did have several meetings in regards to our house leading up to possession.  Many more...(but we will save those topics for later).


We wanted to be fair and honest.  Our twitter wasn't as accurate as it should have been, and for that, we apologize.


But, it is still WAY more than my mom has been here...and no, she doesn't live out of the city.

Welcome To My Home Building Nightmare!

*sigh*

We never really thought that our home building experience would lead to us learning how to tweet, or blog, but here we are!  You see, when we decided to build a home rather than buy a 'used' home, we had many reasons in mind.  First, purchasing a 'used' home would have cost a little less, but would have come with some (or a lot) of renovations and repairs to be done.  Second, we had just finished renovating our condo, and didn't want anything to do with renovations or repairs for a long, long while!  (We are sure that anyone who has ever renovated can understand this)  And third, we wanted our house, complete with everything we wanted in a house, and maybe a little bit more. 

When we finally made our move and purchased a house, we did a lot of research.  We researched the companies, the developers, the neighbourhoods, we googled, we got word of mouth, we even canvased neighbourhoods.  We stopped at nothing, looking into every corner and under every rug we could.  When we finally chose Homes By Avi, we drove to every showhome that we could find, in Edmonton and Calgary.  We inspected each house looking at the quality (one of us is a red seal carpenter, so experience and education is something we do have!).

We chose Homes By Avi because their reputation was solid.  We chose Homes By Avi because any complaints about the quality and service were few and far between, and quite minor. 

What we got however, has been our nightmare.  No jokes. 

We are not here to say that Homes By Avi is a bad builder, who builds crappy homes, who doesn't take care of their customers.  Homes By Avi has built our house, and we are here to say that they have left a lot to be desired in our experience.  The quality of our house can be judged in many ways.  Yes, it is still standing and has no threats of falling apart any time soon.  But, it has had more than its fair share of repairs and re-dos.  For the most part, our house is an example what happens when a job isn't completed, when the i's aren't dotted, and the t's aren't crossed.  The service that we have received has been unreliable, slow, repetitive, and required far too often.  At every step of the way, we have met with managers due to the excessive amount of issues.  We have met the sales manager, the customer service manager, the quality control manager, the construction manager and the warranty manager.  And at the end of the day, it is still us who must push, follow up, and all too often, discover and fight for the real problem to be recognized so we don't get the Avi band-aid.

We put our deposit down on our house in May of 2009.  We were excited to embark on our adventure of building our own house.  But today, we are burned out.  The issues our house has and has had, has affected us in ways we never would have imagined.  When we drive up to our house, we don't look at our house and feel as though we are at home (heck, we still haven't unpacked...all attempts have been met with the need to repack for repairs), we don't look at our house fondly, thinking of the happy memories it represents.  When we look at our house, we feel stress and anxiety, sadness with a hint of anger.  

While we realise that our history can not be rewritten, we do realise that it can be written.  It is time that we tell our story.

And tell it we will.

Welcome to our blog.  Follow us on twitter - @AviNightmare  Contact Homes By Avi, go ahead, ask for their part in our experience, let them know how it has affected your perspective on building a home. 

At times, business' tend to treat each individual customer as just that, one individual customer.  What they are missing out on, is how many friends we have told about our experiences, how many friends of friends of friends have now heard about our experiences, how many are reading about it via social media, and now, how many are reading about it on our blog. 

We do appreciate you reading about our experiences.  And we do appreciate you passing them on. 

We promise to keep them as accurate as possible.  We promise not everything will be included...so much has happened it is just hard to remember it all!  And we promise to be fair. 

We are not here to bash Homes By Avi, but we are here to tell our story.

We may even add a few pictures!