Don Wiley
 

Don Wiley is great! I already had him video and photograph the construction of my home, including the poorly skilled tile installer. Don pointed out some of the subpar tilework, LVP flooring, stucco, and a crooked wall during construction. The entire LVP floor was replaced before closing. At closing it was found to be badly scratched across all the main walking areas. I have consulted with Don when I had warranty troubles and he agrees that warranty has switched to an "ignore them and they'll go away policy." He said to threaten legal action, but he did not have a lawyer referral for me.

They are large showers, one is 8'4" long by 3'5". The other is L shaped 7'2" by 5'10" and needs new glass panel. I have two similar estimates. It's actually $26K for the two showers and $6K for the tub bath so $32K for all three. The tub bath has been worked on several times after we accepted the sixth replacement tub with a flaw we thought wasn't too bad. The tub bath tile is probably now mostly within tolerance with the exception of the horrible grout job.

Word of advice, check the depth of garden areas for drainage issues so you are aware of issues (not that developer would fix them though). They put many inches of pine needles down so it is easy to overlook how the storm water will run off. Villas in particular can be a problem once all the "dust settles".

The pine needles are good for more than one year if you are not too picky so you may miss issues.

Warrenty only covers your lawn for 30 days. You may want to make sure you check run off (course if there is no rain you are out of luck... do a rain dance). I just had to raise up a garden bed to avoid standing water. 29 bags of top soil in an 8 x 4' area. Issue was covered with pine needles when I first moved in. No gutters on my neighbors house so all run off ends up against my house. No proper contouring to have rain water go equally between the houses. Wish I had known to watch for that within the 30 days. What water I did see stand the TV said they only address standing water lasting 48 hours. Problem is water doesn't "stand" for 48 but soil never fully dries out. Zone 2 sprinklers keep drout out of front yard and at the same time over waters side shaded yard contributing to the constant dampness issues.

In a perfect world the developer should have had full sun on one zone and shade side yard on another. Not sure they would even address a basic sprinkler design issue while under the 30 day yard warranty... very doubtful.

Thanks so much for the lawyer info - I'll check them out.

I also gratefully appreciate the empathy. I don't dare show you all of my photos as I don't think you'd survive that. You should have seen the before photos! We had over 400 cabinet defects. I heard a rumor someone reported 1,000.

Not Very Helpful
 

Frank D"Angelo doesn't regularly do the inspection himself anymore, his two sons do. They will not report cosmetic issues unless you are having the inspection the first seven days. In fact, they will tell you they focus on reporting what they know the villages will fix, it's a builder-grade house, and you're paying for the lifestyle.
Good luck finding a lawyer to take on the villages. I found a great one - let me know if you want to pay his $20,000 retainer and $600/hr fee and I'll give you his name.

Yes
 

Oh yeah maybe take your walk on you street & pick them up. I think I had 4 nails in tires when new housing in our area

Wow always thought they were better than this

Your criticism is duly noted.

What a sad situation to be faced with in your best retirement days. We never had to deal with that quality workmanship north of 466A and I have to admit, we would buy a preowned in this area before we would ever consider the “new” builds. We wish you luck in managing all the issues with your house… it hardly sounds like a home at this point.

When YOU are Paying for an Inspection, You are the Boss
 

It doesn't matter. I got a good second inspection report and the warranty department ignored that as well.

I contacted Morgan & Morgan and they took forever to contact me back and then they put me in the same survey I already filled out. I called them back and the person barely spoke English so I hung up. I was warned against using them.

If you do decide to hire a contractor to redo the tiles, you may want to consider a different type of wall and floor surface, such as solid panels. It may even be possible to install wall panels over the existing tile. Personally, I have never liked ceramic tile in a shower.