New House In The Villages

This website was created to gather and share information regarding my custom-built Designer home by The Villages. Many of these defects in product quality or workmanship were never fixed properly. This website is a work in progress. Check back periodically for updates.

4/11/2024 - Initial release - photos

4/13/2024 - Added construction year-end survey

TBD - documentation and correspondence 

TBD - lessons learned and advice to new home buyers

Here are a small subset of photos taken shortly after closing. The photos represent mostly cosmetic concerns with the house. 

To see more photos, click on the menu at the top of this page (three lines on mobile) or the tabs. Some photos have comments that can be viewed by clicking in the lower right corner of the photo.

Construction Year End Survey Submission

Rate your perception of the construction quality of your home
Quality of Construction: 2/10

Reason for rating:  Subpar products were used in our custom-built designer home and extremely poor workmanship is evident throughout. Both of those issues resulted in our perception of the construction quality of our home being deficient.

Many defects were reported during construction. Fortunately, most of those defects were corrected before closing on the house. However, many more defects were found during and after closing on the house. We have suffered immensely through this process by sacrificing our time, energy, and sanity with the remediation of these defects. What is worse, is a considerable number of these post-settlement defects are still not remediated properly to this day.

The following are just a few examples of things we found before closing: The towel bar in the bathroom was hung at the wrong height, the outdoor garage lights were hung at the incorrect height, there was a defective finish on the LVP flooring, there were many damaged cabinets, and two cabinet pulls were installed in the wrong orientation. Also, during construction, we found the water supply line to the house was covered in concrete. We asked that it be dug out as requested by our filter and softener installer. It was dug out once, but not enough - it had to be done twice. The wrong tub was installed and later replaced during construction. This led to serious issues later. There were at least 33 chips in our new bathtub at closing. We finally settled on a replacement tub (after closing) with a dent in it after examining three others on three separate days.

Our LVP flooring was completely replaced during construction due to a manufacturing defect. At closing, we discovered long scratches on the brand-new replacement flooring along the main walking areas of our house. A contractor, who we thought was going to rework our scratched LVP flooring, said that the flooring could have been laid better as it was not staggered properly. There is also a gap between the flooring and the quarter round.

Our custom build quality was so poor that our homeowner’s insurance inspector thought we had a sinkhole and denied us coverage the night before closing – sod had been thrown on a hole without filling it with enough dirt. We scrambled for alternate insurance, and we had to pay extra coverage so we could close on the house.

We reported 112 defects after closing. D’Angelo inspections reported 62 defects at the 10-month inspection.

The tile installation by Nickel Tile in all three bathrooms is extremely subpar. Most of the tile in our house is defective, of inferior quality, or damaged by installation. The installed tile is misaligned because it was not spaced properly. There is significant lippage on both the floors and the walls. There are jagged cut edges from the tile saw, and there are many chips in the tile. There are crowned (raised) areas and sunken areas. Water puddles in areas – especially the sunken areas and extra wide grout areas near the floor and wall joints. The thresholds are scratched, stained, and loose. The grout lines are of uneven width and irregular depth. The grout is bumpy and poorly patched in areas. There are many pinholes and chunks of debris in or on the grout. There are many differences in the shades of the grout. There are white patches on the grout. There is excess grout in many areas, especially most corners. Most of the grout in the corner joints is cracked.

The Wellborn Cabinets are very subpar. The cabinet installation was also subpar. We found 412 cabinet defects which are a combination of low-quality products and poor installation. At least three knowledgeable independent cabinet contractors said our cabinets were improperly installed and one said they were improperly designed. For example, while walking through, an estimator pointed out the kitchen cabinets that were supposed to be attached but were not. We did not ask him; he just saw the glaring mistake.

The PGT windows are very subpar. Many windows have scratched glass, messy black fixative, manufacturing marks on the glass, collapsed glass, and severely scratched frames. The first set of replacements (five windows and a slider) still had defects. Some of these issues are between the panes of glass. 16 windows and two sliders were scheduled for replacement at 16 months (which came up deficient in the quantity of five) and many of those that were installed are still defective. The window installation was also subpar with messy white caulk, scratches, and gouges in the frames.

The door trim and baseboards are very subpar with numerous nicks and gouges. Orange peel was over-sprayed onto many of the baseboards. We were forced to take the substitute millwork that was available at the time of construction, and it looks shoddy.

The drywall finishing was subpar. The quality of Florida paint is subpar, it chips easily.

Two walls are crooked.

An outside step, which I have fallen off, is too high according to the building code.

Our garage door was not installed properly with a failure at 18 months. This cost us $215 for repair.

Our HVAC was not installed properly. The improperly installed cabinet door caused a switch to corrode which cost us $190 to repair.

The stainless-steel finish on all the bathroom Delta fixtures is below builder grade.

A worker fell through our dining room ceiling during construction.

A fan in our bathroom was rattling because a zip tie was excessively compressing the ductwork, costing us $100 to fix.

The toilet seats are cheap plastic that scratches easily.

Several of our HVAC vent covers are crooked.

Many areas of our house were not caulked properly including most of the plumbing fixtures and all the bathroom sinks along with the kitchen countertops. The reinstallation of the toilet was not caulked well.

The glass in our master bath shower was deemed dangerous by two workers in our house because it is too thin.

We were missing the crown molding on our master bath cabinet for eight months when the wrong one was installed and later finally replaced 14 months after closing.

Rate Your Service Representative/Builder
Construction Knowledge: 2/10
Customer Service: 2/10
Reason for rating:  We thought James S Cichielo was our builder because we were told so when we met with him. It says on the warranty website he was our superintendent, and our builder was James A Cichielo, whom we never met.

James S Cichielo was very receptive to fixing defects until after closing. He installed the wrong tub, as earlier mentioned, but had it replaced before closing without telling us. That created a nightmare for us with related issues. Mr. James S Cichielo shook his head at closing when we confronted him with glaring defects on closing day. He said the defective tile, “came that way.” When asked why it was installed rather than sent back to the manufacturer, he had no answer. He also said that he believes the tile floor was stepped on by people snooping in our house, causing indentations. He did not have a response as to why that was not corrected before closing. He said he did not know why the cabinets were scratched and that the cleaning crew only uses water for cleaning. He offered an unsightly solution to the too-tall step, which was installing a railing that would block the view from the master bedroom windows. Eventually, he asked what we wanted as a solution. When we said to add another step, he looked down and said he would have to move a sprinkler. He never followed through, and the step is still not to code.

An extraordinarily small amount of customer service was provided by Mr. Cichielo after closing. In fact, many of the major defects in our home are still not properly remediated. After closing, Mr. Cichielo came to our house a couple of times to look at the poor tile installation. He would not agree to properly fix the many wall defects. At first, he agreed he would fix some of the wall defects but did not point out which ones specifically. He asked us if we would consider selecting different floor tiles which would be easier to install properly. When we asked about going to pick out a different tile, we were told it was too late and our same tile had been reordered. D’Angelo inspections reported tile defects in their inspection report of our house. No tile defects in two bathrooms have been repaired to this date despite being included in the D’Angelo report and a second report as well. One bathroom’s tile had been partially replaced after Mr. Frank D’Angelo had called Mr. Canterberry of Nickel Tile to encourage him to fix our issues (but the tile had to be ordered first – even though we had been told it was already ordered). We were unable to get Mr. Canterberry to return to finish the other two shower remediations properly. Out of frustration, we even contacted Mr. William Grove, who said he would call and tell Mr. Cichielo to hold his subs accountable. We were threatened to have to agree to have just the flooring all replaced (shower floors and LVP) at the same time despite the inconvenience of everyone living here. We were also told that absolutely none of our shower wall defects would be fixed – even though it was earlier verbally promised by Mr. Cichielo - not even all the defects in the D’Angelo inspection report were corrected. We were shocked! We had multiple tile installers out to our home to inspect our horrible tile installation. All of them said the floor alone could not be replaced as it would destroy the waterproof barrier. Out of frustration, we asked Mr. Cichielo to have another capable sub (The Floor Shoppe) do our tile remediation. He declined our request because he said all the tile contractors work interchangeably for all the tile companies. At our one-year anniversary, we asked for compensation to have the work done ourselves. A very inadequate amount of money was eventually offered 16 months after closing for the unacceptable flooring work only. This amount of money was nowhere near enough for the cost of the extra materials and work that needed to be done. We found it insulting to have an offer well under 10% of our cost to repair and with the added conditions and limitations of the agreement. This left us no choice but to refuse the offer since it did not consider outstanding tile wall defects nor was even sufficient to have the flooring done.

We are not aware of who our service representative is. Is that the title of Ms. Paige Barton? We were never formally introduced to her. It says in e-mails that she is a Warranty Coordinator.

Rate the Home Warranty Staff
Helpfulness: 2/10
Courtesy: 2/10
Reason for rating:  The majority of our communication with Home Warranty Staff was managed through e-mails and only several phone calls.

The Home Warranty Staff operates mostly in a reactive mode. They are not proactive in fixing defects. The onus is upon the homeowner to report defects and schedule remediations. If there are any issues, the responsibility is heavily placed upon the homeowner to work things independently with the subcontractors and manufacturers.

The Home Warranty staff contacted some subcontractors to do the work. In most cases, we were totally handed off to the subcontractor or manufacturer. In most cases, the warranty staff provided no follow-up whatsoever.

When contacted about no response from PGT, the warranty staff was not helpful.

Ms. Paige Barton was apparently our contact person in the warranty department. While she was the first to respond to our early e-mails, we were not made formally aware of her role until after our one year was up and she came to our house with our Mr. James S Cichielo. She exhibited to us a very condescending attitude.

When contacted about no response from Nickel Tile, the warranty department was not helpful. Ms. Barton has turned that around and said we have not called back contractors, which is not true. We have e-mail evidence that we had the opposite experience, mostly with Nickel Tile and PGT. Warranty deals with many customers. We as homeowners have only dealt with one warranty department. The warranty department does not have complete and accurate records of our interactions with them. For us to be accused by them of us being untruthful is beyond belief. We are devastated by the poor materials and workmanship and to be called liars on top of everything we have been through really is beyond the pale.

We received acknowledgment emails in response to our sent emails about warranty issues. These usually came from another person, Ms. Berryman. These were courteous and timely.

We sent a copy of an inspection report from TrueVue Inspection Services and received an acknowledgment from Ms. Berryman. Ms. Paige Barton denied receiving this report and continues to deny receiving it even though she was sent Ms. Berryman’s acknowledgment.

Mr. Dennis Stradinger did not respond to any of our emails until legal contacted him.

Mr. Frank D’Angelo, one of our home inspectors, told me Mr. Stradinger told him to stop reporting cosmetic cabinet defects and that they are just boxes you hang on the wall to put other boxes in. I mentioned this to Ms. Barton and on the one occasion when she came to visit our house after the one-year warranty expired, she vigorously nodded her head in confirmation. As homebuyers, we find this attitude offensive.

Considering many significant defects remain in our home that will cost us well over $50K to have fixed properly, the warranty staff has not been helpful.

We had so much difficulty getting our defects remediated in a timely fashion that we contacted Seniors vs Crimes in the Villages. Mr. Larry Moran was helpful in getting some response from Wellborn and PGT which are manufacturing companies. He was unable to get our tile defects remediated. Mr. Moran said the warranty department told him they had our tile installation professionally inspected. We asked for this inspection report but did not receive it. We provided a statement from our own certified tile installer that the ”install is a complete fail” and that was ignored. Mr. Moran said his warranty contact told him we are very difficult to work with. That was disturbing to hear. We have been very patient and civil in all our warranty-related interactions despite our extreme frustration.

Mr. Cichielo said 99.9% of other homebuyers are happy. This remark makes us feel like we are not justified in trying to get our house defects fixed by warranty. It is not an appropriate comment and should be even more reason to fix our house so he can say 100% are satisfied.

The overall attitude of the warranty department was not pleasant. Never once did we receive any sort of apology for any one of the astronomical quantities of defects in our home. We were made to feel we were asking too much of the warranty department.

Rate your perception of the quality of the work on your home during the warranty year
Quality of Work: 2/10
Reason for rating:  Multiple subcontractors provided adequate quality work on most of the smaller items the first time in remediating a defect.

Exceptional Electric’s work was good.

Sunshine’s work was good.

T&D Concrete’s work was good.

Royal décor’s work was good.

Nickel Tile did not do a particularly decent job on the one bathroom they repaired after closing. Not long after the repair, the corners were cracking again. About four attempts were made to repair the niche in that bathroom and the current appearance is very subpar with bumpy grout, and scratched tile that is flush with the grout.

Timberwood has made a reasonable attempt to correct cabinet installation defects.

Wellborn has been slow to correct manufacturing issues and sent a worker who sprayed our cabinets with a subpar finish. Despite Wellborn representative Mr. Bob Snedeker’s effort to remediate cabinet manufacturing issues, we remain extremely dissatisfied with the Wellborn product.

The drywall repair was not particularly good after multiple attempts.

Precision Trim did not properly sand or repair the defective millwork despite having been in three times.

Romac Windows (T&D Windows) did not properly remediate window installation defects.

Romac garage door repair has been attentive, yet we still do not have a perfectly functioning garage door.

Rate your perception of the quality of the workers in your home during the warranty year
Quality of Workers: 2/10
Reason for rating:  Most of the workers were pleasant and seemed qualified enough. A few said they were limited in the amount of time they were allowed to spend on our home and could not stay long enough to properly remediate defects. Many of the workers stated they were under extreme pressure to perform quickly.

Samantha, Mike, and Art of Precision Trim attempted to fix the baseboard along the crooked wall. A vast improvement was made, but it still looks subpar. The two workers sent by Precision Trim at 14 months sanded the millwork for three hours but did not do an adequate job. There were other inadequate visits by Precision Trim.

Overall, Nickel Tile workers did not do an exceptionally respectable job on some of the tile they repaired. Gary of Nickel Tile did a decent job on some of the large format tiles he was allowed to replace. He seemed very skilled. Mark scratched some tile that he was doing cosmetic work on. The corner grout in the newly repaired shower cracked within a month and Mark redid it with messy overrun.

T&D Windows (Romac) workers did not do incredibly good repair work. Justin and Delaney refused to fix scratches on the window vinyl, and they did not get the concrete off the slider track. Dillon and Demitri were more agreeable, fixed a few things, and tried to repair some of the poor caulking, but it still looks subpar. Jose of PGT Windows has come out several times and done mediocre repair work in a very untimely fashion.

The independent tub repair company called The Tub Guys the warranty department sent to our house twice not only did a poor job on our tub repair, but they also destroyed our LVP flooring in the process.

Ronnie the drywall contractor was sent to our home after a manager came to our home to see what was not redone properly previously. Ronnie was able to fix most issues but not the master bath ceiling.

A few contractors were exceptionally good. The skills of all the painters from Royal Décor were great.

Thank goodness Ms. Gayle Vitto of Timberwood was present for the entire day to oversee the cabinet installation defect remediation. I heard her redirect the workers when they were not doing the work properly. Ms. Gayle Vitto of Timberwood provided excellent customer service, remediated the cabinet installation defects, and supported the Wellborn cabinet representatives in their (unfortunately subpar) remediation. Ms. Vitto was one of the best subcontractors to deal with. We surmise the installation of the very subpar cabinets was difficult due to Wellborn’s lack of quality. Derrek of Timberwood said many of the cabinets are not even square. Derreck seemed very competent. It was frustrating to have workers bring replacement cabinets only to find they were also defective. This was a futile effort to get the cabinet defects resolved.

Mr. Willy Craftsman, the finishing expert from Wellborn Cabinets, was very friendly and seemed competent during the two days he spent in our home. He fixed many cabinet defects such that they look decent from a distance. However, if you examine it closely, the refinishing is very flawed and not what you expect brand-new cabinets to look like. Spraying a finish on cabinets outside in our driveway was not the proper environment. There are a lot of debris particles in the finish now and the cabinets fronts and drawer fronts feel like sandpaper and the debris can be seen up close.

Rate the overall efficiency of warranty requests
Efficiency of Requests: 2/10
Reason for rating:  The overall efficiency of warranty requests was poor. We still have items from our home inspection reports that have not been fixed.

We were told that items reported before our one-year anniversary were considered under warranty, only to be told after our one-year anniversary was up that this is not true. Verbal commitments should be put in writing. We asked for this a few times but were denied.

Disgraceful was Ms. Barton’s subterfuge when she stated we should have mentioned every outstanding defect during her visit to our house and because we did not, she therefore would not honor those reported before our one-year anniversary.

The replacement LVP flooring was delivered to our garage. A friend of Josh Canterberry of Nickel Tile named Terry was supposed to come and install the flooring as a friend to Josh. This seemed strange to us as Nickel Tile was not doing the work. Well, the work was never done, and the flooring has been taking up space in our garage for a year now.

Based on the quality of your home and your experience with the warranty team will you be recommending The Villages to a friend or family member? no

Comments:
Based on only our personal experience of the construction of our home and the warranty team, we would not use The Villages' house quality or warranty experience to recommend buying a house here. We would at least advise prospective buyers of The Villages to not build a custom home. There is no quality control or accountability for the finished result. Our house has extremely poor products and extremely poor workmanship. Many of the defects have not been properly remediated to this day, a year and a half later. I would suggest to a friend or family member that they purchase a completed new construction home or a previously owned home where you can see the quality before closing on the house. Many of our friends had significantly better workmanship on their new construction homes that were not custom. Their homes were built just before two products we had the most trouble with got substituted (Wellborn cabinets and PGT windows). I would recommend getting an inspection before closing on the house. I would also advise to not close on a house if there are too many things wrong. Also, finance an amount of the purchase so money can be held back in a repair escrow agreement until defects are remediated properly. We had faith that all our defects would be remediated but the warranty department let us down.

The introduction of the PGT and Wellborn products was not good in our opinion. These products are of such inferior quality they contribute to making The Villages' construction look extremely poor.

The excruciating agony we have gone through trying to deal with the warranty department and getting the defects remediated in our home has destroyed the expected enjoyment of our new home. Many strangers (workers we had never met) coming into our home caused great discomfort to all of us living here. We expected to move into a nice and complete home. The amount of time and energy to document, report, arrange, prepare for, suffer through remediation, and then clean up afterward has been horrendous. It took seven entire days to redo about half of the tile in one bathroom - ten in the morning to well past six in the evening all those days. Our toilet sat out on our lanai for four days. We have unloaded all our cabinets and drawers at least four times.

After suffering through The Villages Warranty experience, we still have tons of aggravation ahead of us, including a large monetary loss of well over $50,000 to pay for proper remediation of the defects the warranty department is unable or unwilling to complete. We have heard from businesspeople including Mr. Frank D’Angelo and his sons that we bought a lifestyle. It would have been nice to have purchased a home mostly free from defects so that we could have been able to enjoy that lifestyle for the past year and a half. Instead of Living the Dream, we are Suffering a Nightmare.