story of my summer with hubble...

[Farmer Joe]

some of you may know that we were building a home here in caldwell. we used Hubble Homes LLC to have have the place built.

 

began this story in april when we started looking for a house to buy. we came across one that was literally across the street from our current place. we thought it was too old, and moved on. looking back we should have jumped on that. in any case, i digress.

 

finally after trying to buy a house, we got fed up with looking at houses, just to find theyd already been bought. alot of the listings here in idaho are just empty lots waiting for a house to be built. came down to where we met up with hubble, found a layout we liked, and we got down to having a house built.

 

we started that with Hubble on may 11 of this year. they projected the normal few months to get it going, and said wed be ready on august 11.

 

from there we waited, and finally in late july they broke ground. took em a month alone to get a permit from the city of caldwell. our friends house took a day. again, i digress. at this point they had to move the completion date out by another month to september 17. we figured, fine, it should be done by then, right? nope. during august the call us up and tell us that theyve had 'so many home orders, that they cant get ours done on time again. waiting on plumbers before the roofers, shit like that.

 

middle of september rolls around, and were still looking at a house with just the frame, exterior walls, and half a shingled roof. they got around to the drywall, and the HVAC system, and this is where it gets really fun. they tell us that theyll need another month to ge the place done. so now to were to october 17 as the closing date.

 

unfortunately, Hubble got the lowest bid on these half rate fuck ups to do the interior and exterior work. we started finding the eves on the outside of house getting nailed down super twisted. using short pieces of scrap to makeup for where the 2x6 was too short. the corners of the eves noting even lining up, or nailed together.

 

so this is where i call the superintendent for the build site. asked him what was goin on with the build. he gives me this bullshit story about how everything looks great from what hes seen. then i asked him if hed actually been to my build site. he replied no... how the fuck can you answer one question about the work looking good, when you just told me you havent been to the site. no answer, just more bullshit about how he'll take a look at it and make sure itll get fixed.

 

at this point, he make a meeting at the site, and we meet him there. by this time the drywall is finally in. this was sept 24 that we had the meeting. he looks at the place with us and again is fake blown away about how the place looks.

 

the windows were wrapped in sheetrock. the top and the sides of each window were fine, but the bottom sils of each were so twisted that you can obviously see that one corner of the window is lower that the opposing. the triple set windows in the living room didnt even line up with eachother on the bottoms. the vent holes cut in the sheetrock were not even square.

 

super says that hell crack down and get shit handled.

 

come back in 2 days to find they havnt fixed any other windows other than the triple set in the front room, and then that was only the center sil they were trying to fix. they had tried to make the vent holes well by making one side of the crooked vent square, but the other side was still fucked. they really needed to put all new sheetrock in and start over, but they didnt.

 

called the super again, and chewed him out for this shit not being fixed correctly. he gives me this sob story about how hes got soccer practice and cant always check on the place. right then was when i was ready to pull out of the deal altogether.

 

but wait... theres more.

 

so the super says again that hell get on top of it.

 

check the house again in 2 days and they covered over the shitty outside eves with sheetmetal all the way around the house. you could still tell where the scrap pieces were under the metal. the one side of the house, the eve had prolly a whole in a variance from the front to the back. it was warped to fuck. they had also started the exterior siding, and that stuff, which looked like ass, too.

 

also at this time that had started painting and texturing the walls that hadnt been fixed yet. the wrapped windows all got painted, and they never fixed the bottom sils on any of em other than one in the front room. speaking of that, they painted and textured the shit when it wasnt even done being fixed yet.

 

looking around at all the trim around the doors, and the corners of the hallway, we find all this busted and marred up crap from them dragging their power cables and air/paint lines through the house. they scraped up the laminant flooring that was installed, and put a bunch of marks, cracks, and hole in the drywall.

 

also we find that the front rooms wall is bowed out from the frame by like 3/4in for like 4 feet on one section. it was plainly obvious since there was a small gap between the sheet rock and the floor for the most of the wall.

 

called the super again, and again chew him out about the quality control on the build, and again he give me this sob story about how hes sorry and that theyll make it better for sure.

 

now were into october pretty far, and they arent fixing any of the issues, and keep trying to go forward.

 

the last time i checked out the house before we were completely fed up was when we found the trim had been installed.

 

normally from how ive done it, trim gets a 45 deg cut so that they fit together to make a 90 deg corner. this tried doing this and failed, so they just finished the rest of the house by butting the flat trim ends up together. it was horrible. some of ya might have already seen the pics i put up on facebook a few days ago.

 

we were done at this point. the shitty drywallers fuckup of making the holes too big, and crooked really showed up when they put the vent grates on. the one in our master bed was so out of whack, that they filled the gap with orange expando foam. then in the other spare room, the vent in the ceiling was spilling out insulation from the attic. the windows werent fixed, and that bow in the wall wasnt either. they had done the trim around it, so that now the trim was bowed out too.

 

we finally were able to get ahold of our shitty real estate agent, and let her know what kind of shit had gone down. we got the 'oh im so sorry' bullshit from her. we informed her right there we werent going to take possession of the place being in this bad of shape. she starts asking if there anything that could be done to fix it, and we told her no.

 

from there the builders are still trying to finish the place i think even as i type this. they emailed us today asking if we could get one more week on top of the oct 17 close date. we told them there to stop building and that we were not going to take the house in the current state. they asked if they could fix it, but i explained with all he times they said theyd fix it, how was i to be sure it would even get fixed?

 

Don Hubble, the owner of the company came by i guess to look at the place and said that he was 'appalled by the bad work', and that he was so sorry about the whole ordeal.

 

so now their at this point where theyre still emailing us and letting us know theyre still trying to fix the place, and if we might still want it.

 

so we sent em this email back:

 

 

"Hello,

 

My real estate agent forwarded your email to us. Its obvious that communication, completion time, and customer satisfaction are not key points of your business venture. At the very beginning of this whole process we were ecstatic that we qualified to build a brand new house. We started this process in April and it is now October. We have thought this whole time that we would have a new home. We felt that since it was a new build it would be something that would have been built better than the 45 year old duplex we currently reside. We were proved wrong. There is nothing that will sway us at this point. We will not go back and purchase the current home that was built. There was such poor work ethic and quality control. If a broken piece of drywall behind a stud could be overlooked what else could potentially be wrong with the house?

 

We do not feel comfortable in any way moving forward with your company. Honestly, the only way we would consider is if we had a brand new house built for us from the ground up and the same price that we were locked in for. But what is to say the same stuff won't happen again? That the same half rate contractors won't be used again? Theres many things that went into this home being built so poorly. Literally, this was just a big waste of our summer.

 

We've also noticed that there are other houses that have been built within the same neighborhood that have been sitting there with no occupants. Looking at these homes, we find the same build quality. The most important aspect of your company is your customers. Without customers you would not have a company or any work. I hope that in the future you ensure quality and satisfaction to your customers.

 

We are highly disappointed and feel that we have wasted a large amount of our time waiting for something that you could not provide. We do not know what else there is to say. We're really perturbed over the shape of the house. We felt it was one of the happiest times in our lives. We want you to know how much this impacts us personally. We feel it is important for your company to consider this!

 

The Sjobergs"

 

so now weve pulled our loan, were going to sign an other lease with our current landlord, and they get to eat the house.

 

its been such a shitty summer cuz of this.

 

anyone in the boise area, STAY AWAY FROM HUBBLE HOMES! id have to say stay away from any home builders in the treasure valley.

 

now heres the best part... the OICS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lemme know what you think... makes ya not wanna build a new home, huh...

 

mkay, /rant

[DaBlist]

Sorry to hear but glad you didn't buy it. Companies like that need to shut down.

[izzo]

dafuq

[datsunaholic]

Holy hell. I can do better work than that, and MY woodworking skills are crap.

[Eagle_Adam]

wow, i could do better with one hand and a bottle of whiskey - sry man. Home builders are trained to do a slam bam thank you sam kinda job, bu that....... that is really bad. Ive done custom carpentry for years and installed windows and trim in houses. Ive newbs do a better job - you should send this to a local news station

[pharouh]

Holy shit Farmer!

 

I didn't know they allowed blind people to build houses!

Seriously, I can see why you're upset. I would be too. There's no excuse for such sloppy building practices. From what I've seen and heard it's getting more common. The contractor hires sub contractors,and he hires some crew of people that have never hammered a nail,but they need a job.

 

I'm an avid do-it-yourselfer ,and have done a lot of work on my house. I'm not great at it,but that shit makes me look like Norm Abrams.

 

Hope you get it worked out. Good luck!

[bananahamuck]

Yeah so many people just go with it ,,,good for you that you got the bank to pull the loan...If they were willing to over look what you saw what they hid must be horrifying..

 

 

 

Adair homes is just as shoddy as this crap you posted..

[MicroMachinery]

I saw the title and got my hopes up for a riveting story of passion and romance with a telescope.. what a let down.

[datzenmike]

America has given up...... last one, shut the lights out. This is true everywhere. Lowest bid drunk and high looser contractors and workers. They should be shot i the nuts with their own nail gun.

[HRH]

Wow. Just wow. I don't even do that shitty of work in my 1908 shit house with walls out of plumb by an inch or more. To not even cut the edges of trim pieces in a corner? Holy hell batman, that is shoddy build quality reminiscent of a Daewoo.

[Farmer Joe]

im glad i wasnt the only one that thinks it was shit..

 

looking back on the post, ive never typed that much up before on here... lol

[datzenmike]

It ok.... get it out, you'll feel better. Ever notice when you let something out of your body it feels good? Like a good venting or shit or vomit or sex or fart or.....

[SlottedMagz]

First off i only got half way through and lost patience. If you haven't closed legally back THE FUCK OUT. Ive been building houses since july and may not be the best however the quality of this build is appalling. And if something like that happens we take the super or head contractor (hvac, roofing, windows whatever) we take him through

and bitch/show what they did wrong and have them fix the issue but we're also there from start to finish. Its not uncommon at all to have a finish date pushed back a month shit happens and they have to be fixed. With that said the amount of halfassery is unacceptable, we use a medium between quality and price with of our contractors but we don't skimp on finish, plaster, painters. And windows/insulation is done through Anderson who have good workers and decent prices. On the hvac side they get paid shit (their jobs aren't hard no offense to anyone who might do it) and so good work in that field is nonexistent. my two cents but if you can back out. Also in general if you can baby sitting the workers is a must, and sounds like the general contractor you have is no good, I'm sorry for you it really sucks to have your home ruined by half ass bitches. sorry for my rant and ill go back and read the rest.

[SlottedMagz]

Ok realy glad to see you backed out

[Draker]

I saw the title and got my hopes up for a riveting story of passion and romance with a telescope.. what a let down.

 

This is why I didn't click on this thread for the longest time. I thought it was a thread about a telescope... Then I finally clicked it and I was like

 

If I saw that kind of work... I would have been like why don't you pay me because even though I've never built a house I could do better work than this. That is the type of shit you see on Holmes on Holmes.. Just fucking awful. Spray foam to fill a fucked up drywall cut? This is work of people that don't give a fuck... At all. Can you imagin all the fucked up shit you can't see?

 

As I was reading this.. I was like this dude sounds like he's being too picky... Then I saw the picks and I was pissed that someone calls this craftsmanship. Send this to the BBB.. Or contractors board... Or as mentioned before.. The news.

 

Glad to see you dropped the house on them. They were trying to fuck you over and you did the right thing. Sorry you had to waste your time and get your hopes up. I just bought a house recently and dealt with a bunch of stuff like this. Real estate is a fucking scam... Most of these people are just like car salesmen. I looked for over a year before finding a house and even then got dicked around every single step of the way. Made it work, now I own it.

 

The right place will come along. It's a shitty process.. Everyone is out to get you... Or your money. They don't care about you.

[Ratwagon1600]

Wow!!!!

 

Seriously, these fuckers couldn't cut a 45 degree angle?

[datsunaholic]

Some of these "Workers" do shitty work because they know they're paid by the hour. They might get a minor ass-chewing, but they get paid to FIX all their own screw-ups. Contractors hire these fuck-ups because they cost less than good workers, even WITH the rework, plus the contractors know that half the screwed up work never gets noticed until they're gone anyway.

 

This of course is why I want to do all the finishing work on my house myself. But most contractors I've talked to DON'T want to do that. They want to do all the way to painting and carpets. All I want is the box. Walls, roof, siding. I'll do the rest, or hire someone myself to do the drywall after I've installed the wiring and plumbing.

[thisismatt]

Maybe they just forgot to cope the interior corners? :D

[thatguy]

If this is what you can see, consider all the plumbing, hvac, electrical and framing that has been covered up by the lack-luster final touches. Serious lack of quality and attention to detail. Some are easy fixes, but like I said, who knows what lies beneath.

Glad to hear you cut your losses.

[Ranman72]

WTF that is only the parts you see that is horible workmanship

I wouldnt buy that house either

if that is their finished product they will be finished being in buisiness shortly

your duplex is a safer place to live