| Heartland Homes quote from the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette April 2009. President of Heartland Homes Pittsburgh Marty Gillespie. "Do the research and make sure you know what you're paying for. It's the biggest investment of your life." (click link above to view full article) |
Welcome to our Heartland Homes custom home builder experience. |
our custom home by Heartland Homes Always click on any photo to full a full size image with details.
Welcome to our custom home.
custom home builder blog |
Heartland Homes community, our home 3 months after closing. When we
bought our new home it was a Pittsburgh new home. photo May 2004 |
our Pittsburgh custom Heartland Homes home. photo June 2004 |
|
our Heartland custom home builder notified every time we had water
problems in our home. See Heartland Homes email link above. photo July 2004 |
|
|
closed on our first Heartland Homes home February 2004. Water problems started May 2004. We notified our home builder immediately and every time we had similar water problems in our new home. Photo is our basement wall, newspaper in photo shows June 14, 2005.  newspaper in photo June 14, 2005 |
|
Pittsburgh custom home builder. photo July 2005 |
|
| our Heartland Homes custom dream home |
We've updated some of our Court Trial details below and expenses we've
incurred working to get our water problems resolved. Please keep
in mind and go back to our MAIN page
if needed to see and confirm the following;
Heartland Homes
DID specifically state they were working on our new home issues.
our
water problems started 3 months after closing Pittsburgh custom home
May
2004.
July
22 2004 - Basement remedy to begin in the next few weeks.
September 21 2004 - Castleview is still a work in progress.
January 21 2005 (8 months after our water
problems started) - We will Continue To Work Towards A Solution,
weather is a factor now.
documents in photo dated: July 2004, September
2004, January 2005 and June 2005.
Click image above to read the emails our custom home builder sent regarding
working on our Wet Basement issues, etc.. Also review letter from Heartland
Homes to the Better Business Bureau stating We are currently working with Mr.
Romesburg to remedy these issues.
This page is more geared towards our
Heartland Homes review of our lawsuit and court trial. 95% of the details
involving our Heartland Homes experience is on our front page of our
website. CLICK here to go to our front
page.
Photos below are from 2006 when Heartland Homes performed trenching work on
the front and side of our custom home as part of our Better Business Bureau
complaint before our lawsuit.
Trenching work performed by our
Pittsburgh custom home builder as part of our BBB complaint in 2005,
2006. |
our custom Heartland Homes home photo
#29. photo January 2006 |
Photo of our custom home by
Heartland. |
our custom Heartland Homes home photo
#31. photo January 2006 |
2005 - 2006 Better Business Bureau
2006 - 2007 State Attorney General Office
2007 we hire an attorney for our Heartland Homes lawsuit
2007 - 2009 our home builder lawsuit and court trial
Review our custom home photos along
with Heartland response to the PA State Attorney Generals office. Response to State Attorney General from Heartland Homes |
Dated response November 2006.
Heartland Homes will continue to monitor the situation but believes
that the remedial steps taken have eliminated the water staining
issue. see newspapers in photos dated; December 2006, February 2007, May 2007 and July 2007. |
Garage in our custom townhome. Closed
on our first owner new home February 2004. Photo is our garage in
our Heartland Homes townhome. Click to view photos of our garage
from 2008. photos December 2008 |
Posted a little further below is our court verdict, Heartland Homes appeal and our
discontinuance we filed due to the $26,000+ we have already spent (see
further below) and the repairs we have yet to do and to pay for. Review
photo below of our custom Heartland Homes home, July 8, 2008 newspaper in
photo.
newspaper in photo shows July 8, 2008
In
our opinion; a brand new 1st owner home with water problems, there has to
be a reason for the water problems, right? Our custom home builder Heartland
Homes emailed us directly and told us, "WET BASEMENT remedy will
begin" - email from Heartland Homes in 2004" and "we will Continue
To Work Towards A Solution - email from Heartland Homes in 2005.
Marty Gillespie of Heartland Homes visits our home in June 2005
to see the issues we were having. See the Heartland Homes signed letter from
Rick Murray to the BBB (Better Business Bureau) stating "We met with Mr.
Romesburg and discussed solutions for his door and wet basement problems. We
are currently working with Mr. Romesburg to remedy these issues, signed
letter June 2005", see above.
love Heartland Homes, our home November 2005.
We always want to make sure we provide all of the details we have, so you
have a complete picture of our Heartland Homes review. Since this page
pertains to our Heartland Homes lawsuit and court trial, the information I
have listed above is a slight reminder of what we've experienced. Please
go to our home page for complete details.
After our 1 year warranty
was over and in our opinion our water problems were not resolved. We were
never asked by our home builder if our water problems were resolved.
Additionally I will not post what I
was told on the phone from Michele, Heartland Homes warranty department, because at our trial it was considered
here say. Hopefully our photos will show some of what we experienced and what we
had to go through with the water problems in our custom home.
| our court documents from our Heartland Homes lawsuit | ||
Judge found in our favor
in our Heartland Homes lawsuit.  document in photo dated January 2009 Always click on any photo to full a full size image with details. |
Heartland Homes filed an
appeal for the small monies portion of our verdict. To date at
this time, we had spent over $22,000.00, not including
any repairs. The monies portion of the verdict was only
$11,700 from Heartland Homes. document in photo dated January 2009 Always click on any photo to full a full size image with details. |
Since we had not repaired
our home as of yet, all of our estimates were between $21,000 -
$29,000 (approximately). document in photo dated April 2009 We filed to discontinue our Heartland Homes lawsuit in 2009. Our water problems started May 2004, 3 months after we closed. Between the Better Business Bureau, State Attorney General and Lawsuit, we were already into 2009. Almost 5 years later and no water problems resolved, why bother continuing. We walked away with nothing from Heartland Homes, our custom home builder. |
Actual fees we have paid to date.
None of the monies listed include any hours we've spent on pursing our new
home issues. Our time is simply our time, period. Consider the 1,000+ hours
taking pictures of our custom home, detailed timelines for our Heartland Homes
BBB (Better Business Bureau) review, Heartland Homes lawsuit, etc. Review the
new home costs we have incurred due to the water problems with our new custom
home.
Please keep in mind all of the monies we have spent to date up to early 2010,
was not for repairing the water problems in our custom home.
| 2007 legal expenses = $5,188.25 2008 legal expenses = $10,998.78 2009 legal expenses = $3,229.35 |
BBB (Better Business Bureau) case and arbitration prep = $458.90 |
| Total legal fees we've incurred to date March 2009 = $19,416.38 | Deposition fees = $895.75 |
| Electrical Panel Replacement = $985.00 * due to water infiltration into our electrical panel on multiple occasions. click on link above to view complete photos showing water in our electrical panel. |
Structural Inspection and Expert Witness
testimony fees = $4,270.80 * have not received final bill for the last structural inspection John performed after I chiseled brick from the front of our home and pulled back vinyl siding to see what was installed behind our brick and siding. |
We are not builders or in home construction.
Because we have had water infiltration problems for so long, there has to
be a reason. Brand new Heartland Homes home. Water problems started 3
months after closing and we notified our custom home builder immediately and
every time we had water problems. The current president of Heartland Homes
Marty Gillespie even visited our home in 2005.
No
Structural Engineer has ever been to our home on behalf of or representing
our custom home builder Heartland Homes.
As the homeowners of our Heartland Homes
custom home, we had a certified Structural Engineer come to our home on more
than one occasion. Some of our additional expenses included Structural Engineer fees we paid
for our inspection and to be our expert witness during our Heartland Homes lawsuit and
Heartland Homes trial.
During our 1 year warranty, no one from Heartland
Homes ever asked to come into our home to view our water problems. If they did
we would have known however we were never asked, here is our custom home Pittsburgh PA.
Structural Engineer we paid
Click to review our Structural Engineer detailed inspection report of our
Heartland Homes home dated February 18, 2009. This inspection was not what
we submitted as evidence for our Heartland Homes lawsuit/trial. Since we
have never been to court before, we had no idea what to expect and we were
told what evidence was needed and we provided what we were told. IF we had
any idea how detailed your evidence should really be, we would have chiseled
the brick and pulled back our vinyl siding before and submitted that
information in our court trial. According to our Structural Engineer as you
will see when you review our Heartland Homes inspection report below;
"Pieces of vinyl siding and brick veneer were removed and confirmed that the
windows were not properly flashed per the manufactures recommendations.
| our home inspection from the
certified Structural Engineer we hired. This is page 1 of 2 pages.  |
our home inspection from the
certified Structural Engineer we hired. This is page 2 of 2 pages.
|
Andersen Windows Flashing
insert Andersen Windows flashing documentation and photos
- Andersen Windows
- brick veneer: from of our Heartland Homes custom home.
- We physically chiseled and removed bricks from the brick veneer in
the front of our Heartland Homes townhome.
insert photos showing what is behind our brick veneer
- vinyl siding: side of our custom home by Heartland Homes.
We physically removed and pulled back the front of our Heartland Homes townhome.
insert showing what is behind our vinyl siding
IRC building codes
Excerpts from 2000 building code and 2003 building codes are below. Click to
view larger image below review details regarding window flashing, door flashing
and weep holes in building construction. Please remember we are not in the
construction industry. Based on all of our research and information we've pulled
together over the past few years, here is some of the information we found.
In our opinion; flashing and weep holes are installed in a home for a reason.
Even Andersen Windows, the window manufacturer for the windows Heartland Homes
had installed in our custom home states "UNIT must be properly flashed,
etc.. "
click to review Andersen Window documentation
we received when we closed on our Heartland Homes home.
2009
2010
- Robinson Township
- heartland homes
- custom home builder
our custom home builder website
Love
Heartland Homes
"DREAM IT."
"BUILD IT."
"LOVE IT."
"Pittsburgh's #1 Custom Home
Builder."
"More than 20 years ago, Heartland Homes was created with a desire to be
the very best.
Whether a single-family home or an entire community,
our goal was then - as it is now - TO exceed customer expectations on every
level.
Today, our company remains resolute in our commitment to
excellence.
We take great pleasure in offering exceptional value for
every dollar spent in building your home.
What's more, we treat each and
every customer with Honesty and respect. If it's important to you, it's
important to us.
Quite simply, we are Heartland Homes are passionate
about what we do.
In turn, we hope to share that passion with you
throughout the creation and building of your dream home.
Our
Mission Statement:
To create custom homes of the highest quality at
an affordable price with excellent customer service that exceeds
expectations.
Heartland Homes wins Three Housing Excellence awards - 2008
click on picture below to see their Builders Association of Metropolitan
Pittsburgh awards!
"Heartland Homes has always been known for its attention to detail and
fantastic home designs,
but on Friday December 12 Heartland was awarded
with three concrete examples."
