felamy

Thanks a lot! Your posts are always extremely helpful. I have sent you an email through HAIF. Please let me know if it did not go through.

I have an attached four car garage with an angular roof that is flush to the side of the house.

Inside this attic are multiple joists that support the roof.

To access this room, I envision a door to be placed on this wall above the second floor landing with a bridge to connect the two floors.

Here are the framing and rafter plans for what its worth.

Would this be feasible? Thank you!

eurway www.eurway.com westheimer and eldridge

roche bobois 610@san felipe

castle furniture contemporary on fondren and westpark and the new location on 45 and aldine i think

another mark for lighting unlimited. they have a beautiful showroom and the items that i bought were cheaper than other houston retailers but the web has the best prices if you want to go that route.

my family had interviewed wayne bopp of frontier while we were looking for a builder for our custom home. he was very friendly and attentive and gave us a reasonable estimate. we ended up not choosing his company as at the time we wanted to move to northgate forest but the home site realtor there said they would probably not get approved to build there. he didnt tell us why though. i ended up not moving to northgate and chose the worst builder and if i could do it over i would have chosen wayne.

i have all thermador appliances in my kitchen and I only chose the brand for the stove cook top. i wanted everything to match so i chose all thermador but the refridgerator is really a re-badged kitchen aid, the dishwasher a bosch and the microwave is a sharp.

i totally agree. if i had the time I would want the floor board pulled out and fixed but it seems unrealistic at this point.

i am still lingering on the idea of filing the TRCC complaint but there is some progress as he said he will pay for *part* of the repair. how much that *part* is still questionable now. i dont want to file the complaint as of yet and then have him less than willing to comply with anything. thank you for the suggestion I will use it as a worst case scenario before a full blown lawsuit over fraud. well i dont know if it would be called fraud as he changed some numbers on invoices where the numeral 1 turned into a 6, charged for items that the vendor and sub contractor did not charge him, made a fake check and gave it to a subcontractor to show that it was "paid" on the invoice, i could go on for ever.

just an fyi HeightsGuy, the builder is constructing several homes and townhomes in the Heights area also.

thank you for your response. this is one of the reasons why I dont want to bother filing a complaint with the TRCC. I dont think I can do anything now since he had changed his name... or can I? All of his information ; owner name, mailing address, ect. is still the same as listed on the trcc builder registration.

he is very smart he had planned his escape route carefully and now im pretty much left in the dust.

thank you for all of your helpful responses. I will check the john bridge forum out.

the builder operates under several alias. the funny thing is that after I had signed a contract he asked if I could sign an edited version where just the name of his company is different and nothing else would be change (he lied; several things were changed) but I trusted him at the time and believed him. i checked on the trcc website where at the time they listed all the homes built by each company and I was one of only two where as his original name had several homes.

is there a way that I can still see the addresses on trcc? i would like to see if the other listing under the "con" name had the same problems. last time i checked it wouldnt let me see the homes the builder filed anymore.

the suggestion that the builder offered before bankruptcy was to install a floor drain (which i am not a fan of since the floor would still be unleveled) and I never heard from him until I found out he was bankrupt yesterday (about a 5 month period). his lawyer had called and said she was not representing him anymore as he will not pay her legal fees.

That balcony still makes me cringe. I don't even like to leave my shower floor wet

You could set up an informational booth outside their showcase house and see if they get more interested in helping you out.

flipper

i keep a wide broom on the balcony to sweep the water out when it rains. its tiring and I cant put any furniture up there.

sorry to revive this old thread:

i have seen the framing plan and thank god that there is a beam under the wall of windows

the builder says hes bankrupt so what do I do now?

Currently he is building a home for the Bellaire Fall showcase among several others.

I have a free pool when it rains though! maybe it was an incentive that i didnt know about.

Sorry to hear about your nightmare. Your story and that of others is the main reason why I'm a bit hesitant about going the custom route. I just hope you were able to resolve everything to be able to live happily in your dream home. When my co-worker was building her custom home, she drove almost daily after work to inspect it for peace of mind. She said it was a pain and stressful, but would have not done it any other way. In the end, she was very happy.

If you can, can you tell me what kind of questions I need to ask the builders? Any builders you would recommend?

That house by A&M is AMAZING! Love to see more homes like this one.

Thanks

i was completely confident with my builder as he is under a few credible programs but they don't mean anything as my builder was the most dishonest person I have ever met. I could write a book of all the things that went wrong. Lawyers were involved but in the end I am living in my dream home. I would still recommend going the custom route as a home is a big investment and you shouldn't settle for any house other than your dream home (if you have the time). I also visited my home everyday while it was being built then my family became the "builder" as we had to finish the home ourselves. All that was left were all the decorative features such as flooring, painting, installing plumbing and electrical fixtures so it wasn't so bad and we were able to find great contractors for these jobs.

here are more homes on HAR (some have slightly different floor plans but are inspired by the same model nonetheless); some have been lived in but it will give you an idea of how your future home will look lived in with the arrangement of furniture and such:

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y

both of these were built by Westport

Here are the grand dame versions:

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y

these were built by custom builders

let me know if you would like any more information

offering champagne and wine at every showing and open house usually does the trick!

hi,

building my home was a nightmare. the builder who I had put my trust ended up deceiving my family but that is another story ( i would like not to state their name publicly). i had interviewed several builders that I had lost count from frontier custom builders and kickerillo (before I committed to a homesite) to smaller companies such as Stewart custom homes and A&M construction and coincidently most have built this similar floor plan. an advantage of building on your own lot with your choice of builders is the heavy cost savings and the freedom to customize (if you have an honest builder). I also had correspondence with about 40 builders and it was just the luck of the draw that I ended up with a bad builder.

Here is A&M's version currently for sale in Augusta Pines if you would like to view a different style:

My house is set up similar as we dont have the dual garages on both sides of the front of the house but rather all four on one side.

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y

I can pull up several homes if you decide to go the custom route and design your own house around this floor plan.

I think that Westport is not very open to making big changes to their plans as they are a semi-custom builder you can say.

good luck on whichever route you choose. the home you are interested in is beautiful I was in complete awe when I had first stepped into this model in Avalon.

i remember seeing this house listed for about $620,000 but it could be due to pre-construction pricing. this is westport's most popular and versatile plans with the dual staircases. i have seen numerous variations. my house was based on this plan but I had used a custom builder.

the same model with the same features and amentities built by Westport had sold in another master plan community, Avalon at Seven Meadows in Katy and was listed for $799,000.

Also the same model is currently for sale at Lakes of Bella Terra.

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...mp;backButton=Y

This home was listed for $575,000 during pre-contruction pricing. This home and the one you are interested in were listed by Kiran Momin of Avalon Realty initally.

I have a relative who lives in a Westport Home since 2000 and have no major problems to report.

thank you for the information. i am in a very complicated situation with the builder (I could write a book). I am worried because there is no support under the wall of windows over the lanai downstairs. i think the only way to tell is to tear out the ceiling of the lanai and see if everything is holding up in that area.

i saw more upscale stores such as dior, carolina herrera, ferragamo ect on the site plan but not on the HPO listings. i am hopeful more will be added soon.

This is the only question in your post and the answer is definetly "YES".

flipper

thank you! this is what i thought.

I have an exterior balcony that is retaining water and an adjacent interior walkway that has an uneven and sloping floor.(they share a wall of windows)

Please view these photographs of the areas during construction:

"covered deck" balcony:

"loft" interior walkway:

*notice the darker part of the floor board. this is water seeping inside from the balcony after a rainy day

*this is the ceiling of the lanai. the balcony is on top of the lanai. water seeped to the ceiling of the first floor which caused the tape to break and ceiling to mold.

to remedy this problem the builder had changed the molded sheet rock. the builder states that the framing is fine while my independent inspector states that there is a problem with the framing.

should he had fixed the problem so the floor board is leveled rather than having to rely on the flooring contractor to place a large sum of mud to level the floor prior to tile installation? Without the mud there is a 3"+ ceiling height difference so the mud would be very weighty to correct it.

the home is now completed and still has uneven and sloping flooring because of the floor board.

there has been problems and conspiracies with the builder (the builder had completed about 74% of the home and I had to complete)

i had started to notice after moving in about 3 months ago and it is getting worser but my family is adjusting to it. i can see the trains from my bedroom window across the lake through the nature reserve. i never thought about surveying the night time before moving until now. i wish there was such a thing as double paned butted glass!

try Rejuvenate floor restorer and protector for a quick and easy fix. you can a bottle buy it at home depot. you apply it on the surface with a rag or microfiber mitt without overlapping your strokes like youre painting and it makes the surface look cleaner and shinier. i use it for my granite countertops also.

thanks for the list!

here are some people that I had an excellent experience with (honest, great quality work, lowest price *surpisingly this combination does exist!*:

Pavered driveway - Pavers y Mas- Valente Belemudez- Symmetry patterned pavers in a custom color combination installed for about $7.00 installed a sq.ft with drainage... I was getting upwards of $9 to $12 elsewhere. This is a very honest family operated company.

Painting- A&K Painting- Fernando -$9,000 for complete interior painting for a new 5,000+ sq. foot custom home with high ceilings with one color for walls, one for trim, one for ceiling, and 3 to 4 other different choices for different rooms using sherwin williams eggshell paint. this price was only for the paint since the texture was already applied but I had a quote from other companies for $13,000, $16,000 and an unbelievable $30,000 (maybe they were going to use gold)

Wrought iron railings- Juarez Iron Works- Gabriel- $63.00 a linear foot for custom designed and faux finished exterior railing with installation. Usually it is $90 to $112 for a similar design and finish but they are a small company just starting out whom i predict will be very successful with their customer service and

honesty.

Plumbing- Ken Wheat- about $4,000 to install plumbing fixtures throughout and several other plumbing and electrical tasks. He is very trustworthy.

I had used Payless insulation also and my rep was Casey. They did an excellent job three weeks ago and for a great price too! I think it was about 78 cents a lf for r-38 and about 5 cents more for celbar.

I wish I could say the same for the several other companies I used for various tasks.

I am not a builder just an ordindary homeowner who had to finish out my home myself.

If you would like contact information or pictures of the work done in my home PM me.

Now how about a list of who to AVOID...

I live in a gated community but I wish there was a manned guard

an ordinary gate is pointless as you can easily get the code. i even saw a realtor's website where it listed the codes to each home for sale in gated communities.

one of the pros is no annoying salesman and flyers all over my porch.

thanks for all of the suggestions. i am crossing my fingers that fision would be available in my area since it looks like the area where i will live in is highlighted.

how is the reliability with Fision?

I am looking for high speed internet (DSL or cable) for my new home but I heard negative reviews from Comcast subscribers.

Does anyone who live in this area (SH 249 and Spring Cypress) have an alternative?

Thanks!