[Villages Kahuna]

Our house was near perfect. We had only a few warranty claims and we were continually impressed with the speed with which the sub-contractors responded--always within a day or two--and their skill and willingness to fix the problems we had. In a couple of cases, the subs that came noticed other things that needed to be fixed and went ahead and fixed them, even though we had not reported them.

Our "builder" (the superintendent of the construction general contractor who was responsible for building our house) was absolutely terrific. I had four pages of questions regarding the house which he calmly answered during our pre-closing walk-thru inspection.

Having said all this, remember that the building codes in Florida may be different from what you're used to. As an example, in Chicago the electrical wiring is all wire pulled thru metal conduit. That's not the code in Florida (or most other places in the country). Of course, the houses are not built with custom woodwork, fine imported porcelain tile, special order electrical fixtures, imported German plumbing fixtures, etc. But you're not paying for those things either.

All in all, we couldn't be happier with our house in The Villages.

[renielarson]

Personally I prefer black appliances over stainless steel. But, that's here up North.

Down south we have white. It's not my favorite because it shows the dirt quicker but don't think black is fitting for the region. I don't want stainless because having to wipe off fingerprints daily is not my idea of living in Paradise and retirement leisure.

[Mikitv]

Bright I think black appliances would look good depending on your cabinets. I am in the south only ARK but my cabinets are a cherry with black appliances and they look great. If you want black go for it.

[TomW]

I learned that last year some of the contractors let workers go because TV wasn't selling as many new homes as they were during the peak a couple of years ago. Things picked up a little in new home sales and the contractors added new workers to meet the increased work load. The new workers weren't as skilled as the ones that were let go and some construction problems resulted. Beyond the well documented siding problems I don't know specifically what other problems there were. I understand that the builders were quick to make corrections once the problems were pointed out and hopefully, the crews are now back up to par.

[ldj1938]

The one other suggestion I would add is to buy all the laminate flooring and tile you can afford. The carpeting installed, even upgraded versions, doesn't wear well. We've been here eight years and in the process of removing all the carpets. We had them stretched many times and the guys said the problem is in the environmentally friendly sizing and glues they now use. Another thing to look at is the sprinkler head locations. Seems that once you landscape the sprinkler heads are next to the house and need to be moved out from behind the bushes! We designed our own home years ago when it was possible and cheaped out on some things which we are now upgrading. You may also have GE appliances which may not be available much longer. According to the financial news GE is dumping the home appliance business. We just bought some LG appliances and they are first class. All the homes, with the exception of the vinyl siding problems, are great!

[Villages Kahuna]

Sure, like any other new house there may be some missed paint here, a loose faucet there, an electrical wire nut not tightened, etc. But if anyone ever doubted the construction quality of houses in The Villages, the tornado in the spring of 2007 sure answered many of them.

The hurricane-proof garage doors were amazing. If a house wasn't completely destroyed, the garage doors stayed intact. The same with the effectiveness of the tie-downs holding the roof structure to the walls. There were a number of houses "blown down", many with holes in their roofs, but none that I saw where the roof structure came off the underlying house. There's been lot of loud squawking about vinyl siding issues. As best I can determine, they're mostly cosmetic complaints. Sure, there were a few houses close to the track of the tornado that had siding come off and walls blown down. But except for the houses in or near the "line of fire", I didn't see many that had a lot of siding missing. Dented, torn, bent...yes. But attached so poorly that it came off? No way. Same with the roofing. Holes in roofs and lots of shingle damage, but no widespread "stripping away" of asphalt shingles.

Overall, the tornado seemed to validate both the Florida building code as well as the quality of the consruction of Villages houses. Frankly, while our house up north had the oak woodwork, porcelain tile floors, granite counters, etc., I doubt that it would have survived the type of storm that we experienced here last spring.

Even more importantly, if one ever had a doubt about whether they had moved to the right place, the outpouring of help within minutes after the storm by the developer's employees, the contractors who built the houses, the entertainers who create joy for us on the town squares, and the residents of The Villages themselves made it very certain in only a few hours that The Villages is "our" home and we're awfully glad that it is. By the time the first FEMA truck pulled in about 36 hours after the storm passed, there was little for them to do other than write reports and shuffle papers. By then, we had taken care of our own.

"Home" it is and home it will be for us.

[Frangyomory]

Our three year old CYV is very well built. We love it and have not had any problems at all.

[starflyte1]

We have finally spent several nights in our 2000 home in TV and find that it is VERY well built. It has dual pane windows that I think helps a lot and is stucco and block, and at 9 years old, still looks great. We were there for a few afternoon storms, and the house is solid. You don't really know the storm is around. Plenty of outlets, lots of storage. I would give it an A.

[rshoffer]

superbly built

[SteveZ]

Originally Posted by rshoffer

superbly built

Totally agree!

[katezbox]

Originally Posted by SteveZ

Totally agree!

Same here. This is our 3rd new home - there is no comparison to the prior 2.

[Shirleevee]

Building was our business and my husband has not found one problem with our vinyl Juniper. Believe me he looked..........

[SteveFromNY]

We also found the house to be very well built. We have a Gardenia, and I was surprised at some of the finer points in the construction. For instance, all of the mouldings are caulked top and bottom, so there are no spaces between the moulding and the walls or the floor. A small thing maybe, but I was in my brother-in-law's new house and there are spaces between the moulding and the walls, and spaces in the corners where the miter cuts are. Looks shoddy compared to my house.
Also the Kohler fixtures throughout were a surprise.
I was at the house a week or so before closing and there were little red stickers around. There were supposed to be repair points. Some of the "problems" were so minor that I couln't find them. By closing all of the red stickers were gone, and everything was flawless.

I give them a big

[Army Guy]

Agree totally, we think our newly bought CYV is well built. Also had the red stickers!
We think homes at TV are very well priced for the quality.

Army Guy

[rshoffer]

It's a no brainer: First, there are limited models with limited specs--these crews could probably do this in their sleep they have done it so many times (over 40 thousand), second, the builders are likely hand picked by the developer and I suspect they have become quite wealthy as a result. They know they have to repeatedly put out a quality product and what's at risk if they don't. Finally, The end of the first year inspection process can be extremely intense depending on the inspector you chose. The builders would be constantly repairing shoddy work at the end of the year if the product wasn't top quality from the start. I have been very impressed with how incredibly responsive the builders have been to my friends and neighbors (and mine) end of the year punch lists. Two thumbs up on quality.