Anyone here have a Drees home?

[TGO David]

So my wife and I are looking to move to a different part of middle TN soon and we've been looking at quite a few pieces of new construction lately.  By that I mean our "hobby" for the past six months seems to have become driving through neighborhoods under construction and walking through the houses as they're being built.  It's given us a lot of insight into the way various builders are putting their houses together as we've watched properties go from foundation to completed houses and have seen firsthand what they've done in framing and finishing.

 

To date I've not seen anything wrong (per se) with the way that the Drees builders are constructing their floor plans and we've liked a few of their neighborhoods.  I'm just curious if anyone here owns a Drees-built home and if you're satisfied with it.  Feel free to shoot me a private message if you'd rather not post it publicly.  I know some folks don't really want the world knowing that much about them, so I'm cool with that.

[mcurrier]

Yo.  We have one and, for the most part, love it.

 

One caveat though...

 

We were the last one built in our neighborhood, so they kind of rushed it on some things as they were building because I think they just wanted to be out of there and on to the next neighborhood.  It's mostly with the yard and landscaping, house is fine for the most part.  They left the yard littered with nails and other metal items and then compacted the yard with a small mini-dozer before laying the sod.  Our yard is rock hard.  I can't even drive a tent stake into it and we've been here almost ten years.

 

I would not hesitate if it's in a new or partially finished neighborhood, but I would do some things differently if it were one of the last houses to be built in a neighborhood.

 

A few cool things about it though, I was over here every day while they were building and have interior photos of every wall and ceiling before drywall went up, so I know where every wire and pipe are.  I was also able to run home theater wiring and network cables before drywall went up.  Very clean looking in the living room with no wires exposed at all.

[mcurrier]

I used to have a website of photos of the construction from clearing the lot, pouring foundation, to building, completion and laying the sod.  The server changed and I haven't gotten around to moving all of my different image galleries yet.

 

We were able to do a LOT of customization on our house.  Some at the formal planning meetings and some while I was at the house each day and would just ask the head contractor, "hey, can you move this here or make this bigger?"  Sometimes a small amount of $ was involved, most of the time what I wanted actually saved them materials.  We did not want the fireplace, it wastes wall space, and always in the most inconvenient spot.

 

Here is our living room soon after moving in.

 

[Guest Torrin]

I have a Drees built home, it was built in 2001 and we have owned it since 2003.  No really issues to report except a bit of settling.  I would buy another Drees built house if I was looking to move.  I know they are building some nice ones out in Nolensville/Triune.

[mcurrier]

Btw, we have the St. Andrews floor plan.  Only 5 in our neighborhood of 120 homes.  Not too thrilled about the HOA $ though.  We have only used the pool two times in 10 years.  Too many kids.  The HOA has a high surplus of cash on hand.  Not much expenditure required around here except for pool.

[Sam1]

Not too thrilled about the HOA $ though. 

 

HOA itself has caused us to avoid some houses we really liked, would rather put that money towards extra acreage than to someone that plants flowers by the road and deal with the politics involved with them.

 

Looks like a couple of us are moving around, spoke with TV last night and he's pulling up roots from Franklin and we're getting out of Brentwood.

[TGO David]

I would welcome the politics of a HOA right now as long as they had the teeth to curb some of the things going on in our current neighborhood that are killing our home value.

[TripleDigitRide]

I've never been a fan of HOAs until I bought my current home. I did a ton of research and driving around here before making an offer on the home. Our dues are only $25 per month, and it appears to be very well spent. The subdivision is only 8-years old, but it's obvious they don't mess around. You'll not see any junk vehicles, unkept yards or dilapidated homes around here. Granted, we've only been here since September, but I haven't heard anyone complain about the HOA so far.

[Sam1]

I would welcome the politics of a HOA right now as long as they had the teeth to curb some of the things going on in our current neighborhood that are killing our home value.

 

Understand this, illegals or rednecks?