BARON CUSTOM HOMES INC

NOTE: this contractor has more recently been listed as Baron Custom Homes, Inc., 306 Oxcroft St, Cary, NC. We've owned half a dozen houses, from 60 years old to brand new. In the new houses, there have always been hiccups in the first weeks and months. Then, it's just been a matter of routine maintenance. The Baron house, built in 2003, that we've occupied for many years, is a pathetic exception. With the first tropical storm, we discovered that two windows were installed without weatherproofing. Wind driven rain POURED in around both of them, nearly 1quart of water per window. When the house was 5 years old, we developed a massive leak in the water main. On digging it up we were astounded to find poly tubing that had been gouged on installation. The damaged section was replaced. A year later there was another major leak in the remaining section of the water main. We had it completely replaced with PVC. We've since discovered that a bathroom fan is venting into the attic and another has a duct "connected" to the roof where the opening was shingled over (no vent was ever installed). Roof flashing has leaked at 3 completely different locations. For that matter, all the roof shingles were incorrectly installed, so that in many areas water runs off the roof and down the fascia rather than into the gutters. All the house fascia, like ALL exterior wooden trim is made of untreated, unprimed wood. By 8 years of age, the rot on the front porch columns warranted their replacement. In the coming year we'll have to rebuild the other two porches for the same reason. Our front porch has 4 weight bearing columns. During the restoration we found that ALL of them were inadequately constructed. Two did not contain any cores; the two stories above them were held up by the exterior shell of 3/4" boards. The two that had cores were only secured by the weight of the overhanging structure (no screws, some tiny brads) and they weren't tied to structural joists. They were sitting on porch planks under which were no joists and one was bearing the weight from above through MDF crown molding (I never suspected that stuff was so strong). As a result, the midpoint of the porch roof had sagged over 1 inch. In recent weeks, we had to replace the main electrical service panel which had been installed incorrectly, resulting in excessive internal resistance that, over the years, had overheated so much rigid plastic components melted. There have been additional comparatively minor problems. We've learned from other Baron home owners of similar problems, particularly with leaky roofs. How has Baron responded to our bringing him some of these complaints? Any sense of "responsibility" evaporated when the original owners sold this house after just 2 years. (Judging from his lapsed NC license, he seems to have evaporated himself.) If you're thinking about buying a Baron home, we suggest you RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN! If you should fail to heed this warning, set aside a few thousand dollars. The projected cost for all identified necessary repairs will run over $10,000 (with me doing much of the labor!).