The good...
Architecturally interesting interiors…read more Interesting designs that Well framed. Windows are outsourced to a high quality group.
The bad...
They call themselves custom builders, but when you request customizations, your first answer is "no." The second answer is: "It's going to cost you." And when they agree to customize something, it's done in poor form. If you ask to bring in your own artisan or skilled labor, they make it incredibly difficult to schedule or create other artificial barriers. Often, he has materials that he already owns that he would like to use in your home. When you don't like it and indicate it differs from what you agreed on, he gets upset and is pretty unprofessional. Is Boyden a local builder? Yes. Is he a custom builder, not anymore so that Horton, Weekly, or any of the other national builders. Compared to my prior experiences with other companies, he offers less opportunities for customization.
Design of the neighborhood is poor. For example, a gate was installed but isn't designed for the volume of traffic expected in our neighborhood. So the gate is broken more often than it works. Also, sidewalks are not present throughout the neighborhood. This was a big oversight.
HVAC and sewage systems are low quality. Especially considering we live in a "premium" home. Essentially, he bulk purchases these items for the whole neighborhood. Our house was built nearly a decade later and so we have dated equipment upon move in. We've had multiple equipment failures and all of the techs who've come out to service have said something similar - how is this in a new house?
When we moved in, we did not have hot water, working heat, and our toilets didn't flush. These are pretty simple things that could have been caught with a bit of a QC/QA check.
There are some design gaps. Lighting, for example. In my (finished) garage there are two overhead LED lights for a 1000 s.f area, they were placed above the overhead doors openers. So most of the light is blocked! Also, there is no ventilation system or even adjustable windows. So essentially it becomes an adobe oven every afternoon.
The website brags about green this and green that, but it appears this is a side benefit of some his building practices (less frequent stud placement, membrane roofs, etc...). He drives a duelly, 1 ton pickup from Tiejeras every day to work on his new homes. This is a bit of evidence that environmental concerns are not really in the bedrock of this company.
The ugly...
fit and finish is very low quality and poor . When you file a grievance with the owner, his reply is: "Well that's how those materials are." See pics below for details. The fit and finish they did address, they send out a handyman to fix; but many of the issues are a result of poor attention to detail by the skilled guys, and require more than a band-aid to fix.
If you want something fixed, it's a minimum one month before they come out. We've had to go as far as notifying the county (like when we didn't have hot water in our brand new house) in order to get them out to address our issue.
We had a water leak in our irrigation from move in day. It's taken over one year and hundreds of extra dollars in water bills before they came and fixed it. Not to mention the moral injury of wasting water in the desert. In a similar vein, we've lost several plants and a tree do the improperly wired/installed irrigation system and they have not replaced them. When I ask about this, his staff says sure. Months go by and nothing happens, and it turns out Joe says no one will call and update us. I think this really reflects his personality.
Several neighbors have had roof leaks. We had an independent roof company come inspect our roof six months after move in. There were areas were it wasn't sealed and the fasteners had come off. This is a big, big miss on Boyden Homes. When notified, they did come out and address it for us. However I feel strongly that is unacceptable.
Lastly, his crews are not very tidy. our entire front yard has been covered in dirt, a result of high winds sweeping over his uncovered dirt piles (placed just prior to dirt work for other new constructions). He has not offered to fix our landscaping and has not returned our calls in regards to this.
To summarize, if you want a local, custom builder, I DO NOT recommend this company. These are biggies. I have many more examples. Please PM me if you would like more information about this experience.