NORTH CREEK CONSTRUCTION

We signed a contract in March 2013. When the house wasn't under construction by the beginning of 2014, e signed a contract addendum in Feb saying that the house had to be completed by August 31,2014. It is now Sept 2014 and our house is no where near completion. We have been patient and cooperative, and we have given the builder every opportunity to build the house. But we are out of patience, and we have resorted to legal action. In short, this has been the worst home-building experience we've ever had, and it has taken the joy out of the entire experience. Such a shame for everyone.

My contract to build a house stated completion (turn key ready) within 6 months of signing. This was the understanding between myself and the builder (David Edmundson). It has now been nearly 9 months and the house is not complete. There was a Punch List contract signed at closing that stated the "punch list" items would be complete within 2 weeks of that signing. That contract is also unfulfilled. In addition to the contract failures, there are latent defects and damage as a result of construction. Erosion protection was never installed after final grading and seeding. Now there are numerous trenches cut into the yard and rocks are exposed everywhere. A lack of protection to the tile floors during construction has damaged and stained the finish. A few of the frustrations created by this builder are listed below. Schedule: Lack of effort and progress. North Creek Construction has continually delayed to failure despite being given assistance and additional time for completion. Time and time again there was the promise of progress to come and that everything was ?pretty much? on track. This never turned out to be the truth. I required him to create schedules at about 5 months in, and they were behind those schedules almost immediately. We ended up creating about 4 of them as the project went on from months 5-9 and he didn?t come close to meeting any of them. Errors: Mistakes and rework have plagued the project from the beginning. i.e. The foundation was off by 1 1/2 feet, the bump out was put on the wrong side, three rooms were framed incorrectly by 1 1/2 feet, and the hardwood finishing was so poor that 3 attempts were needed to get it somewhat acceptable. Additionally there were too many smaller mistakes to list here. My observation of his building practice is to hire cheap labor, and leave it to the customer find all the mistakes. Planning: Poor planning was a consistent theme of construction. Last minute redesigns were needed for the recessed shelves and the tile pattern in the shower due to the placement of framing and plumbing. The same lack of planning in the placement of joists lead to lights having to be relocated, and a drop down for the hood vent. This drop down lowered the hood to an unacceptably low height, which the builder failed to remedy. Some windows were forgotten, and some ordered with the wrong grill pattern, gas shutoff valves were forgotten, and the list goes on. Much of this he has blamed on his project manager, but I have seen that David has been just as bad. He didn?t even give the project manager the full set of plans, pictures, drawings, and other details that I had provided until the project was 5 months underway! He didn't even provide the project manager with a schedule that we had just worked on together! Quality: A lack of commitment to quality was clear in both the execution of the project and the decisions made throughout. The drywall is so poorly installed that in some places it has a bow of an inch in just a 3? span. The constant lack of progress led to the hardwood sitting in the humidity for 5 weeks before being installed. North Creek then wanted to install it without letting it acclimate to the conditioned space even after I showed them via a moisture meter that the hardwood was outside of the specifications provided by the manufacturer. The response I got was a rude and aggressive attempt to bully me into installing it anyway. David even tried to tell me that my decision to let the hardwood acclimate delayed the project, and would cause the interior to fall behind the rest of the project. However it was clear then, and turned out to be true that the exterior items (which still aren?t done) were still the furthest behind. Professionalism: North Creek Construction showed a lack of professionalism and courtesy in multiple areas of the business. David Edmundson rarely returned phone calls or emails within 24 hours, often 4-5 days and only after repeated attempts. When I contacted his office manager to ask for her help in getting in touch with him during key decision periods in the project I discovered that even she has trouble getting in touch with him (for me and multiple other customers as well). I found out that the employees of North Creek had just as much trouble communicating with David. It is clear why the performance of North Creek Construction was dismal. There were a few hard deadlines that I informed him of at signing; the moving of my goods from the relocation company, my lease, and the peak work period at mine and my wife?s job. He carelessly blew past all of these deadlines after he had blown past the contract deadlines. At about 8 months into the build I attempted to have a conversation with him about the impact of these items. He dismissed my frustrations, quickly became obstinate, and the conversation was a waste of time. In short, I feel he just didn?t care. During the same conversation I brought up the unprofessionalism of his project manager, and to that concern he flat out called ridiculous. He later tried to use the project manager as a fall guy (who no longer worked for North Creek), however I remember very well what his opinion was just a couple weeks earlier. Final remarks: I don?t understand why David doesn?t at least do the little things, like return an email or keep track of the building plans? I don?t feel his actions are personal offenses, particularly since I have seen the same frustrations with other customers of his. At least on the positive there has been easy availability of people to learn whatever tips and tricks there are to getting stuff done when working with North Creek Construction.