JVI CONSTRUCTION

Initially we loved this house. It was newly built, a great floor plan and fit our needs perfectly. It was dressed out with all of the things we loved including granite counter tops, crown molding and beautiful touches everywhere. Unfortunately we were so dazzled by the beautiful touches we didn't look much further. When we took possession of the house we had to re-sodd the front yard immediately because they didn't water the grass and it died. When I questioned the condition of the yard at closing, we were told it would come back when we watered it - it didn't. Within a year, our lovely wood floors were separating beyond an acceptable level. I went to JVI and told them of the floors, they initially told me all wood floors separate and this is to be expected. Truthfully, the foreman tried to make me feel like an idiot and talked down to me like I was a silly women. I persisted with my complaints and they ended getting a crew out to replace wood and redo the floor. During this process, we had to remove ALL of our downstairs furniture and leave the home for three days. On the first day the workers were there, I had come home during lunch to see how things were going. I found the workers filling in the cracks with putty instead of replacing the wood. I tried to speak with the foreman on site which was difficult because he barely spoke English. I finally was able to piece together that they had run out of wood and that's why they were filling in the cracks with putty. They were just going to putty it up and finish it as if they had replaced the wood. Obviously I complained and they ended up getting more wood and fixing the problem. The project was supposed to take 3 days from start to finish but it actually took 4 days. I had to take an extra day off of work and we had to spend an extra day with relatives. Incidentally, the workers managed to get stain/varnish on a good portion of my baseboard which I ended up having to repaint and even my blinds. If that were the only issue, I would not be writing this review as problems are to be expected with new homes; however, that is not the only issue. Shortly after the flooring fiasco our roof starting leaking. My husband dealt with them on this issue because I was disgusted with JVI and did not want to deal with them anymore. My husband assured me they fixed the roof and it hasn't leaked since but my contention is that the house was less than 2 years old, the roof should have never leaked in the first place. This past spring (2013) the motor in our AC blew. We had a tech try to come out and fix it. The tech gave us some interesting news that the 10 year warranty that was SUPPOSED to have been submitted by the contractor never was so we would have to incur all the cost of the fix. Furthermore, the contractor who originally installed the HVAC is no longer in business. We ended up spending over $6000 for a new HVAC system because we felt that the inferior system which was originally installed would end up nickel and diming us. Again, this house is only 6 yrs old and we shouldn't have had to replace the HVAC system yet. Currently, I have an appointment with an electrician for tomorrow (yes I used Angie's List for the electrician) because last night I plugged a kitchen appliance into an outlet in my kitchen and it started smoking and that burnt electric smell filled my kitchen. I am no longer confident that my house is safe and I'm having an electrician inspect all the wiring to make sure it was installed properly to begin with. Breakers have tripped for no apparent reason. I have children and pets, and with all of the shoddy workmenship that is already evident in this house I am not confident that the electrical inspection will pass. So far we have spent over $12,000 on issues that should never have been an issue with a new house. The money we have sunk into the house are not upgrades but to fix what should never have been broken to begin with. There are other issues with this house including ill fitting windows and a bulge on the upstairs landing floor, presumably from the house settling, which are a problems which we haven't addresses yet. Furthermore, the crown molding that we loved so much is coming apart. Apparently they used excess wood and pieced and puttied our chair railings together instead of using one long fluid piece of wood. Definitely substandard workmanship. We have not spoken to JVI since the roof leaked because their general attitude was, you bought the house, it's your problem now. They are like so many other business's these days and do not back up their work. My neighbors who had their house built by JVI have had similar problems with flooding and leaking roofs and overall shoddy workmanship as well. Once the housing market improves, we will be selling this house and building our own. We truly had thought this was our dream home and although it's not a nightmare, it certainly isn't what we thought we were getting. My recommendation is to stay far away from any home built by JVI construction. It looks pretty on the outside but it's a coin toss whether your getting value for your money - I know we didn't.