Hemlock Homes

Our experience with the ownership and management was less than exceptional. Communication between members of their own team seemed nonexistent, communication with us during the building process was the same. Someone on the team would tell them that something had been completed or fixed and it was clear that no one would come out to inspect the work because a lot of the time the work was not complete. This happened a lot during this process. Changes we had made along the way were not communicated between the team and often missed. Pricing was not always correct. We would be quoted a price for something and then it would change, or square footage would be calculated incorrectly. Both of these things caused issues with our budget and changes to the plan that we had in place. Items that were not even changed were missed from the original plan. If the builder was making changes we were never informed we saw the changes or delays ourselves. An example of this was our flooring. It was discontinued due to covid. Hemlock homes decided on a different flooring and decided to tell us it was the same flooring under a different name. It was not, leading to more delays. We drove well out of our way to meet with the supplier of the flooring. Who had pulled and selected new samples for us. We were told directly from the supplier that the new flooring would not incur an upcharge to the builder. The next day we received an invoice for a substantial amount of money to “upgrade the flooring” from the builders. We had to get our realtor involved at every turn. I can’t speak for our realtor, but I am imaging working with them would have been a nightmare. Hemlock first failed to tell us that the backsplash we picked came in a multi pattern and not just the single pattern. This was missed / ignored all the way to the time that the backslash needed installed. When we gave them the final decision in the backsplash tile, it had caused delays, only to find out when they did, they order and installed the wrong backsplash. When we informed them of the error they failed to acknowledge their mistake they tried to tell us that there was a third option of tile that “we picked” after some research on the options from the manufacturer that third option did not exist, and they had simply not ordered the correct tile. We made an agreement with them to leave the backsplash and they in turn would install an Oak post, and handrail on our inside stairs, stained to match with two coats of Poly to seal. They would also finish off the area of the back yard that was left as weeds and not completed with the original landscaping. We had asked for that area to be raked of debris, seeded and hayed. They went the quickest way out by cutting down the weeds and laying seed. We are currently working on removing all the bricks and debris that was left behind. Our crown molding was completely installed when we saw that it was the wrong crown molding. Again another issue of having to change something because of the lack or organization. Organization was also a huge issue from the very beginning. Multiple items that were meant to be included or excluded were missed because of Hemlock homes lack or organization and follow through. We had stated to them multiple times in the process that things were not listed on plans or missing from the house. One instance of this is the hose bibs. 4-5 times we mentioned that the bibs had not been installed with the pluming. It went all the way to the end of build before the hose bibs were installed, meaning that the builders had to cut through the brand new cabinets and drywall, instead of just following through originally. Our front entry steps are also another example of this. We told them multiple times that the stairs did not match the design plans. The stairs that they did completely lacked craftsmanship. There were endless details that were poorly done from siding to roofing to the decking. The concrete cracked at the beginning of the driveway, it was repaired but is now sinking due to the fact that mailbox was set to far back into the yard and the mail man is driving over that tiny section of separate driveway is causing it to sink much lower than the rest of the driveway. I can also talk about the lack of pride that is taken in the care of your house along the way. Every time someone entered our house to fix an issue or a punch item, something else would be damaged along the way. We had a water leak that destroyed a section of the owner suite ceiling and a section of wall needed removed from our daughters wall. During this process when the drywall was being repaired, they took the water with some sort of white solvent or drywall and washed it down a sink in the bathroom leaving the dark sink fixture stained white. There was also an issue with the install of the counter tops. The cabinets must not have been completely covered during the install process and some of the lower gray cabinets now have some sort of white glue or solvent on them. The Quartz counter tops are stained with what we were told is some type of glue. This happened during installation. Our upper cabinets and light fixtures also have bits of white paint on them. Punch list items totaled around 33 items. We signed a contract that those items would be completed within 30 working days. It is now over a week past that date and the list is still not completed and they are in breach of the contract. They have stopped communicating with us. I contacted them twice the week these items were due. They told us that there were only 2 items left to complete while there was still around 15 items left. They told us there will not be that many item done. They were rude and disrespectful stating to our realtor that they were tired of trying to appease us and were not going to send someone out every time I did not like something. After that , they came out and completed some items, which were done with poor quality. There is still blue tape marks of things they need to fix inside the house, that is in our punch list. The front door was installed and was not the door that had been shown to us originally, it took weeks for the new door to come in (but given COVID that is understandable) it took several more days for the door to be painted and installed. This misstep with the door caused a huge delay in Guardian setting up or service. To say the paint on the door is awful is an understatement. The also scratched up the seal when installing. We were told multiple times that the house was on schedule for completion. We sold our home and were ready to be moved in. Come to find out, that again the lack of communication between one owner and another caused a huge issue for us. We were now being told it was going to take an extra 2 months to complete construction. This misinformation would not happen if the owners would communicate with each other. We had to rent back our sold house for 2 months. Luckily the buyers of our house agreed to this. After the 2 months, the construction was still not completed. The buyers of our house had to move in, and because of this lack of communication, we were forced to find another place to live and had to find a place for our belongings for 3 weeks. Several of our new neighbors made comments to the fact that no one seemed to be consistently working on our home. Very frustrating also when you are essentially homeless, and watching other projects get completed and posted to social media. On a personal level I feel when you are going through a process like this you have to get along with the person that is building your home. From the very beginning some very unprofessional emails were accidentally forwarded to us, the client and it certainty left a bad taste for the remainder of the build process. Some of the interactions we had with hemlock Homes were very childish on their part and very unprofessional. On the points of communication, attention to detail, and professionalism we could not recommend Hemlock homes to anyone looking to build or buy a house and for our sake we hope to not find any more issues from the ones we have already have. We had an issue with almost every phase of construction, from designing the blueprints to not receiving keys to all the doors in the house, areas were left dirty and building supplies are still on property. There are also more issues that we have that were not listed due to length of review.