I'll try to be as brief as possible, but there are so many, many problems I can't guarantee it. My complaint is with Cornerstone Builders of Eagle River. This is Dorothy Foust's, my mom, home, and I am writing this with her consent. I am her son Dan.
In the beginning we had all the normal questions and problems that come up during the process of building a new home. Things seemed to be going smoothly. The trouble started when the completion date kept getting pushed back. They finally gave in and let us move in on Dec. 26th 2007. My mom lives in IL. and had to try to pick out all the cabinets, wood, etc. while trying to picture if it would all go together in her head. When I drove her up after the holidays, I couldn't believe the look on her face when we walked in the door. After a year of worrying, and stress, she was so happy that all of her decisions were good ones. My mom is 75 years old. When she decided to build a new vacation home for her family, she decided not to retire, but to keep working as long as she could so that if something happened to her, my sister and I wouldn't have to worry about how we were going to pay for the house, and so that her kids would have a nice place to bring our families.

The first day we were there, workman showed up to replace our wooden deck because Cornerstone had ordered the wrong type of wood. These workers parked there vehicles right in the middle of the drive even after I asked them not to. We needed to move things from our detached garage into the new house, and we had delivery trucks coming. The next day I had to park my truck at the end of the driveway to keep them from blocking our driveway.
Because it was cold out, they decided to put a plastic tent over the deck and heat it up with two kerosene heaters. Then they left with the heaters running unattended. After awhile the fumes could be smelled inside the home. I called Jenni at Cornerstone and she called them and told them. When they finally got back, I mentioned the fumes in the house and they replied, "why didn't you just open a window?" Well the deck finally got finished three days later. We put up with the foul language, the fumes, noise, the continuous problem of vehicles blocking our driveway, and all the plastic blocking our new view of the lake.

The next problem involved a dumpster and piles of garbage left in the driveway. I called Jenni and asked her to get these things moved so we could get our drive plowed. After several more weeks of calling, she stated, "Dan. all I can do is let them know" In other words, it wasn't her problem and nothing could be done about it. The dumpster finally got picked up, but the other garbage was just shoved up into our trees. There is still a pile of asphalt laying against our trees and scattered around the property, even in the lake.

The next problem involves our in floor heat. Here's a summary of that unpleasant experience. When the outside temperature got down to -20, the in floor heat and forced air unit could not keep up. After having a man come out and adjusting the settings and explaining what I should do, the problem remained. In short, The installer, Megaforce chose to blame it all on me. After a few days the outside temperature warmed up and the heat started working. There is still a question as to whether or not the system was put in right, and if the insulation was done properly.
There was also supposed to have been a humidifier installed with the forced air system. Joel from Megaforce claimed he knew nothing about it. I found some papers left behind by Joel which clearly shows he had gotten bids on the humidifier along with everything else. It took 3 months for him to finally install it. There are a lot more details and events that happened at this time, but it would take me too long to list them all here.

Before we moved in, my mom hired a licensed home inspector to go through the house. He made up a list for us, which we then gave to Darren Rubo at Cornerstone. We used this list, and added other items during our walk through on 1-8-07. This is referred to as a "punch list". Well, some of those minor problems still have not been repaired as of 4-8.

Next, they had to repaint everything, during which furniture, appliances, etc. were not even covered up. Unbelievably, they have got to redo 90 percent of it for the third time.


Some of the major problems which Darren said he will not do anything about include,

Six floor to ceiling windows which are crooked and not inline with the others.

A $2500 glass shower enclosure that leaks.

Ceiling lights that are not centered, or even lined up with the others. The wrong type of lights in the bathrooms which Darren tried to blame on my mom. We looked over her walk through with the electrician and it clearly states that the lights are to be the same as in the model.

A granite countertop that looks as if a child put it in.

A crack in the slab, and inadequate grading to help the water to run away from the house. As a professional explained to me, the way it was left has caused water to wash away the ground next to and underneath the slab.

A screen porch built with a concrete slab with no drainage. (The one in the model is a wood deck)

A fireplace mantel that looks terrible.

Problems with heat from the forced air system causing the temperature of the room above it to rise to 80 degrees.

Many walls and ceilings that are not plum and are crooked.

All indoor doors do not close properly.

Etc.

When we pointed out the above problems Darren had three different response's. "What do you want me to do about it?" "I'm not going to fix that cause that's the way it looks in the model" and just a plain "I'm not going to fix that." More then a few times he just laughed at me. When I asked him to have someone clean up the garbage and tarps blowing around on the property he joked, "let em blow in the water, then it's someone else's problem"

Finally, the way my mom and I have been treated and talked to is appalling. The attitude in the emails they send is very unprofessional. We have put up with lies, deceit, sarcasm, blaming everyone, including me, for the problems, along with insults and an overall attitude of just not caring. My mom paid a lot of money for this house and her payments were always on time. Why can;t she get the same consideration? My mom doesn't even want to come up north to be in her new home. I cannot describe how angry I am and how upset she has been. She is planing to retire, finally, in June. She's been excited and looking forward to relaxing in her new home. Now she's so distraught she doesn't even want to see the place. Please help me remedy this terrible situation for my mom.