American Nightmare

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Our NEW LENNAR Home

My Wife and I both grew up in less than 800sf, mine a family of four, hers a family of EIGHT... It was our dream, as is the case for millions of Americans, to own a home... THE AMERICAN DREAM. We worked very hard to give our daughter something we never had: a room of her own...

This house was our American Dream, instead it is now...

OUR AMERICAN NIGHTMARE

Below are our major problems which we have dealt with, or we are currently dealing with. It would take me weeks to write all the details about our "new" house. Click HERE if you would like to see our house on DVD instead.

ROOF TRUSS ROTATING- We don't have a report for this yet and have almost given up hope on receiving one, we only have a drawing on how to brace it. The structural engineer thinks that the truss on top of the monster crack rotated causing the crack. On top of this we have a 2x2 ft hole in the ceiling for "explorative surgery" patched with plastic and duct tape. It is now leaking water and the carpet under it is wet. It's been over a month now since the hole was made. We have a bucket so the carpet doesn't get wet and it is right outside our bedroom. It is hard not to trip on it in the morning.

STRUCTURAL AND/OR FRAMING ISSUES - The drywall has more than 50 cracks and one long crack in our staircase opened so much you can fit a finger in it. Drywall nails are popping in three of the upstairs rooms and the drywall is bowing in at least three places. We have 3-4 new cracks per week and the old ones are getting larger. With the birth of the baby approaching we were anxious for news and we had to beg and plead with them to offer a solution to our distress. They offered us a "beef up" that would cover anything that will, if nothing else, "make the walls stronger". We aren't questioning that this will fix the problem although this new finding and the "beef up" fix appears to contradict what two other engineers have said. However, it is too soon to make any conclusion since we haven’t received the report yet. As usual we have to beg for a report from Lennar because ALL engineers will not send it directly to us until it is “approved” by Lennar. My understanding is the house MOVED one inch and is still moving. In addition a wood truss has rotated. The work would take a month (experiences with them tells us it will be much longer) after already three months of distress, loss of work, loss of sleep, now we are going to have our first daughter in a construction site or in a hotel. We don't think this is right!

LIST OF EXPLETIVES WHEN VIEWING OUR MONSTER CRACK FOR THE FIRST TIME BY: FAMILY, FRIENDS, CONTRACTORS, NEIGHBORS, EVEN LENNAR'S EMPLOYEES: "Jesus", "Mother of God", "Oh my god", "holy #hit", "fu#!", "wooooooow", "I've worked on many homes but I've never seen a crack that big", "I've inspected many homes but I've never seen a crack that big", "YOUR WEBSITE DOESN'T GIVE YOU JUSTICE - IT IS MUCH WORSE IN PERSON" and almost always they say: "Lennar should give you a new home"....

ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS- Whenever a Laser Printer or anything that requires more WATTS than a light bulb runs on a circuit (with nothing else major hooked up to the circuit) the lights on that circuit "flicker" excessively until the laser printer is turned off. We are concerned that this problem is ruining our electronics, especially since we have had damage to our computers after a month that we moved in, which is unusual. We personally had the power company come out twice. Lennar had their electrician come out three times, one time to replace the whole breaker panel. Two county inspectors that the electrical would have NEVER passed the initial inspection but a stress test is not done on new construction and they cannot go back and revoke the approval that was given before we moved in. NOW- after their electrician failed to discover the problem, Lennar tells us we are responsible for further contact with the electrical company to see if they have a solution. We didn't think it was right that we should bear the responsibility when electrical is covered under warranty but when we tell them this the response is they, "Are not Xcel".

MOLD ISSUE - Significant amounts of moisture was discovered in the home and presence of MOLD. Toxic mold poses dangerous health risks and my wife is in her last month of PREGNANCY. Also, a leak in the living room turned up MORE mold. They mitigated the mold (thank god) and after much distress, and TWO weeks of my wife crying, we finally got our living room back. Now the moisture in the crawl space is BACK and it's been getting worse since the industrial hygienist's visit 12/23/06.

MOISTURE IN THE CRAWL SPACE - This is what caused the mold on the crawl space’s north wall (above grade). The cause of the moisture, was at first said to be our humidifier since the humidistat was not working properly. However, since the moisture is back and the humidifier has been off THE CAUSE IS UNKNOWN. The pictures below are recent (about a month after the mitigation).

MOISTURE ON THE NORTH WALL- The Industrial Hygienist discovered elevated levels of moisture on this wall and was concerned with mold growth. They removed the drywall (that was applied directly to the concrete) and the industrial hygienist asked to be replaced it with a moisture resistant board so that mold could not grow on the drywall in the future.

PIPE-LEAK (more MOLD) - The ceiling between the living room and kitchen had evidence of water leaks. The plumber, on three different visits, said that there was no plumbing where the leak was. The CCR suggested to "paint over them and see if they come back", which was not an acceptable solution for us. We asked that they removed the drywall and sure enough there was a leak. The cause of the water leak was the incorrect installation of a copper pipe. More MOLD was found and (thank god, again) was mitigated (I'm allergic to mold). The area was supposed to be contained through the whole process but during the texture and sanding process the plastic containment was taken down, which allowed for the dust to propagate the WHOLE house.

INSULATION IN THE AIR DUCTS- The dust in the house was unmanageable following the mold remediation and patching of the living room ceiling. We requested that they send someone to clean our air ducts and were told it should take about 1 1/2 hours to complete the work. The contractors thought that the builder failed to hook up two of our cold air intakes that appeared to be back to back and were blowing out insulation when they attempted to flush them (we even asked them to write down what the problem was, see picture). When they opened the trap on the furnace they discovered the first of SIX loads of insulation, which was actually the problem. The ducts were hooked up but were compacted with insulation- HENCE the dust problem. The job actually took six and a half hours, which was not the fault of the contractors but rather a lack of quality control when the house was built.

FOUNDATION CRACKING- Six (known) cracks have been discovered in the foundation, which grow larger as the days progress (they all started as small hairline cracks). Three cracks are between the basement and the crawl space and three cracks formed exactly opposite the largest crack on the outside foundation wall leading into the garage.

SLAB CRACK- was a small hairline crack when we bought the house but has lengthened and widened beyond hairline size. There are at least two additional hairline cracks in the slab, however the large crack IS our concern for now.

WINDOW PROBLEMS- Many of the house's windows are detaching from the frame and the stucco on the outside of some of the windows has detached. The last engineer that came out said this is normal but we don't think so. Condensation forms on the windows, sometimes covering 3/4 of the window. Water pools in the tracks and on the windowsill.

MOISTURE IN GARAGE- The garage door is soaking wet. Warm cars can cause moisture inside the garage to form but the problem was present even when we didn't drive for two days (snow bounded). The door is dripping water, it freezes SOLID during the night, and the wood is very wet and is starting to rot. Sometimes it is so frozen ON THE INSIDE that the electrical garage door opener has trouble opening it. There is a lingering musty smell and even our cars have begun to smell like mold.

FIREPLACE MANTEL CRACKED- Not a big deal, however it cracked when the big cracks started to appear thus it is worth to report.

LIST OF SMALLER PROBLEMS (MANY SMALL PROBLEMS = BIG PAIN IN THE NECK)

NO HEAT - Many of our heating vents produce no HEAT and no air comes through them. Ironically, this got even worse after the air duct cleaning.

FIREPLACE- On numerous occasions we reported a lingering smell from the fireplace. We followed Lennar's CCR suggestion, which was to run it continuously for 12 hours. The company that installed the fireplace said that it should take one 12-hour burn off cycle to eliminate the smell. The smell is present if we keep it on for more than a couple of hours and the smell stinks up the whole house. The fireplace makes cracking and hissing noises and the fireplace's mantel heats up excessively with two hours of usage (I compared it with our neighbors').

FRONT DOOR DEADBOLT- Our front door lock has NEVER worked since we moved in. We reported the problem on multiple occasions. It was not our largest safety concern but it worried us that the front door lock could be thrown with slight movement, especially after dozens of workers, contractors, strangers saw this first hand. It was finally fixed January 2, 2007- MANY MONTHS after we reported it.

EXPLORATIVE SURGERY'S HOLE IS LEAKING - It is dripping on the carpet.

MOISTURE ON THE FRONT DOOR - Odd occurrence but nothing surprises us anymore in this house. Most of the moisture is accumulated on the deadbolt.

DOORS - About 1/3 of the doors are missing a coat of paint and you can see the wood grain, many doors don't latch or require force to open and close. It might be related with the farming's movement or the high level of moisture in the house.

GUTTERS - When we first moved in the gutters were really full of construction debris. After they gently dumped most of it in our yard, I spent the summer collecting nails and debris our of the yard while working on the landscaping. While hanging Christmas lights I saw more construction debris (nails, stucco) in the gutters and on the roof.

MANY MORE SMALL PROBLEMS - It's 1:27 AM and I'm toooooooo tired to list more.

LOSS OF WORK, EXTRA EXPENSES, STRESS, ETC.

On two occasions, during the mold mitigation, the contractors did NOT show up at all and did not bother to give a courtesy call. They schedule something, then they cancel, they are always late... it is hard for us when you need to work to pay for our "dream".

Our utility bill was at least double the amount it normally is because of the contractor's equipment. We were out of town for a week on that billing cycle.BASEMENT - We normally could not have afforded to finish our basement, not a CHACE. However, the opportunity came up for my wife to trade her real estate services with a general contractor. He would get his house sold without commission, a rebate of his commission when he bought a home and we would get our basement finished! We would have a basement completed by December 31st~ It was TOO GOOD to be true. Well, just one short month after this was arranged and my wife had already extensively marketed the home, we realized (and Lennar confirmed) that finishing the basement was NOT an option. With a heavy heart, my wife informed the client that the deal could not go through but since it was no fault of his, there would be no charge for the work that she had done. Thanks to our ABOMINATION, we lost the basement finish, all of the money we spent on marketing and a client.

LAST MONTH OF PREGNANCY - This has been a VERY stressful pregnancy for my wife, and a great deal of stress for me too, but I don't count since I'm not carrying the little bundle of joy in my belly :-). We ALREADY had workers in our house for months and only ONE major issue was really remedied: the mold. We gave them almost unlimited access to our home for three months, we gave up having a Christmas party and our Baby Shower, and yet they accuse us of not giving them enough time or access to work on the house and now they want more. My wife is a REALTOR, and she works primarily from her home office. She has NOT been able to work for the past three months because the fixing of ONE problem required her constant presence in the house. We rely on her income to pay for our "DREAM". Our work is disrupted, our lives are disrupted, why don't they buy back this ABOMINATION?

WHAT WE DID FOR THEM

When we bought this house it made sense to reduce the purchase price of the home by my wife's commission. For Lennar's contract to reflect this, the sales team itemized it as a "Marketing Allowance". The day of closing Lennar's closing company wrote us a check for $13,348.50 for her commission. We could have walked off with that check and nobody would have ever noticed. We gave the check back, asked them to modify the closing documents and later we got thank you phone calls from Lennar's employees. We gave it back because that was the right thing to do and we would do it again.

We built a website to describe how much we liked the community (during the first months) trying to help selling houses.

Our neighbors bought their place because we helped overcome their final doubts.

WE DO NOT THINK LENNAR IS DOING THE RIGHT THING CONTINUING TO DISRUPT OUR LIVES!!!

WE LIVE IN COLORADO AND OUR FAMILY'S FUTURE HAPPINESS CURRENTLY RESTS IN LENNAR COLORADO'S HANDS! THEY CLAIM THEY ARE FOLLOWING "THE PROCEDURE" BUT I NEED TO KNOW AT WHAT POINT DOES LENNAR'S PROCEDURE ALLOW FOR THE END OF OUR LOSSES AND DISTRESS?