Allen-Barnes Builders Inc

Description of Work: This builder was referred to me. When I met with him at his home he was the consummate professional and his home was beautiful. We discussed my floor plan including my budget and he told me he would review the plan and get back to me. He did and his price was not unreasonable at $238,500. I worked overseas, but left my husband to guide him. I told the builder to just make my house like yours - it wasn't difficult since my plan was only a 2075 sq ft. ranch. We made one change to turn a bedroom into a closet off the master bedroom and move the bathroom up so that the bedroom could be expanded. The buider started mid-March and I was gone until early June. By the time I arrived home, a lot of the work had been finished, but the quality of the workmanship was extremely poor. I had hardy plank on the exterior and the painters ran the paint color into the trim color which was white. The builder suggested arches in the interior, but charged us for them. We thought this was part of getting a custom home. This turned out really bad because the painters could not paint a straight line separating paint colors from one room to the next. Not only that, but there were paint drippings that were not cleaned up. There were drywall issues that were not cleaned up. It was an awful paint job. The builder fired the first painters after we complained, but the second painters were no better. When I complained about them, his excuse was about trying to hire grade B painters because you couldn't afford grade a painters. Now to the deck. The deck was not level with the entrance of the door. It was a step-down deck. What got me was the piece of wood under the door where the rest of the house had hardy plank siding. This builder started charging me for every little change that was made. When I really discovered what was going on, he had called in landscapers who wanted to further clear my backyard. He called to tell me that they were doing this, but then wanted me to pay an additional $1,800. I flat out said no that he should have cleared this when he cleared the lot for building. Not to mention that he did not do a good job of clearing the lot. I now have a lot of rain drainage that will require another costly solution. He even put rubber wall plate covers on my walls. Talk about poor quality workmanship. Oh, wait! Let's not forget the air returns. He build these tacky looking wood boxes that have open seems. The only thing custom are the lighting fixtures and the appliances. We purchased all of the lighting fixtures ourselves and made him give us a credit. We provided the names/models for all our appliances, which of course were over the allowable amount and they were only from Sears. It wasn't like we went to Ferguson's for everything. This builder allowed us $3,000 for landscaping. After begging him repeatly for bottom line figures, he finally gave us estimates. We had initiately asked for irrigation along with landscaping. He was charging us $6,645 for both. I said no, only do sod. Then he came back and said he purchased $2,600 in sod. So I never would have gotten any trees or shrubs out of $3,000. There is a gap in the rear kitchen window framing. The bathtub is positioned such that there is a hairline between