A Step-by-Step Guide On (Not) Having Our Home Built by Pinnacle Homes
Guys! We are super excited to reveal the progress on a home we’ve been building in Jacksonville, FL. It’s taken north of 14 months to get where we are. But trust me, when you see it you will be AMAZED.
Ready for the big reveal? Close your eyes. Wait for it…
You’d think Joanna Gaines designed it herself. Nope. This castle is the miracle work of Pinnacle Homes of St. Augustine, FL – our builder. I want to ensure they get *maximum* credit for their work. Pinnacle Homes. Pinnacle Homes. Pinnacle Homes.
Here’s a step-by-step on how we got here:
Step 1: Sign a contract.
This company has a smooth marketing operation. Frankly, their marketing guy should run for Congress (or maybe he should just run the company…). He told us the house would be built in 11 months and I’d be communicating directly with the owner throughout the process. They were gonna charge us more than other builders, but it was a *fixed price* contract. The reviews were good. It all looked legit.
We signed a contract with Pinnacle Homes in April of 2021. Sigh. I miss our courtship days with Pinnacle Homes. We were so special back then.
Step 2: Permits.
The permits were supposed to be finished in August of 2021. But alas, the plans didn’t get to the county until November. That’s not bad tho, right? I mean, it only took half a year for the company to get a pre-designed house plan to the county for permitting.
Unfortunately, Duval County rejected the plans three times. Of course, none of this was Pinnacle Homes’ fault. According to Tim Quinn, the President and Owner of Pinnacle Homes, it was because the county officials were busy sitting at home doing…well…
So to recap: the President of Pinnacle Homes claims there was no progress on our house over the winter because the County architects were busy sitting at home. Masturbating. Every day.
Anyway. Fast forward like four more months. Remember in Rudy when, after all that adversity, he finally gets on the football field? That’s what it felt like when our permits were approved. I was ready to pick the entire Pinnacle Homes team up on my shoulders and carry them to my property. But I didn’t because that would have been weird.
Step 3: Clear the lot.
Fast forward to the spring, when we started cutting things down. But alas, Pinnacle needed an additional $12,500 from us – in cash. Why? Because costs had gone up over the past year (while the county was, you know, sitting at home doing what they do).
It took several months to finally get this lot cleared. What happened to the trees we paid thousands extra to remove? Well, some got pushed into the woods. Too easy.
But did they at least dig up the stumps?
Step 4: pour the foundation.
Now for the exciting part. Workers. Shovels. Wood. Actual building happening.
But on the *very first* day, we ran into an issue. We suddenly need a stem wall. The owner of Pinnacle Homes sent me all the details in a text message screen shot with some guy named “Guilermo”…
So I now owed Pinnacle Homes an additional $32k. Cash. Because “the left side of the house is gonna take more material and labor.”
I had questions. In response, Pinnacle Homes shut me the heck up:
Equipped with this brilliant explanation, I paid the thirty two grand. I’m now out over $44,000 in unanticipated costs.
With the ransom stem wall paid last week, yesterday we were supposed to be back on track. Note: we couldn’t get on track last week because the concrete guy was “out of town.” So why didn’t we get rolling yesterday? Get ready to channel your inner Michael Scott…
To recap:
“I’m sorry.” It’s ok.
“It’s summer.” Yes.
“School is out.” Yes.
“My son is sick.” Ugggh.
So anyway, that explains yesterday.
Today? Nothing. We’re being completely ghosted. I’m sure there’s a reason. Perhaps the owner’s dog ate his phone. Or he tripped on his Roomba on the way out the door and couldn’t work on our house. Who knows!
Here’s some unsolicited marriage advice: if you’re having communication issues with your spouse, find yourself a builder that plays hard to get. Like Pinnacle Homes. That way you both can spend countless hours talking together about what could possibly be holding up the project.
So that’s where we’re at. When will the house be finished? Not sure. Will we have a house next winter? Not sure. Will we be homeless? Not sure! And that, folks, is the exciting part.
Thanks to Pinnacle Homes I have no money, no house, and no regrets.
If you’re interesting in living out a multi-year mental breakdown at all times, I highly recommend going with the best company ever: Pinnacle Homes.
Update: I wrote this three weeks ago. The stem wall? It’s not up. The porta potty is still there tho. The neighbors are loving it.
Hold On Daddy's Coming! 
Any updates…thank you for posting….I no longer will consider PH for my new build.
LikeLike
LikeLike
Recently, we’ve seen progress. They poured the foundation and framed the house out. Still a very long way to go. But some signs of hope.
LikeLike
Just saw your original post about Pinnacle. I have felt your pain with Pinnacle. 18 months for a planned 8 month build. A battle the entire time. And yes, their marketing guy is as slick as they come. Too bad he continues to work for such a company. They are building near me and are going on 2 years now for that one. I went through everything your family is. They obviously didn’t furnish my name to you as a reference. I have story after story about these guys and my build. They even stated they were changing their contract to include that future homeowners were not going to be allowed very much involvement in the actual build. My response to that was a simple statement…..” Last time I checked, you’re working for me aren’t you?” My home did finally get finished and it’s beautiful but not because of Pinnacle Homes. Again, I could go on and on but you get the picture. I wish you the best and remember to stand your ground with these guys. And above all, Thank you for your service to our country!!
LikeLike
LikeLike
@HoldOnDaddysComing, we built with Pinnacle as well. Like literally everyone else who did, our story is virtually identical to yours and Hot Mess Howland’s. I’m jealous that some people in the comments got into their homes in 18 months, ours was 2 years and 2 days from their first draw on the construction loan, and over 2 1/2 years from the contract signing and cash deposit. We are in now, love our new area and are happy to put as much of the build behind us as possible. Like everyone else, no returned phone calls on any of the follow up items, large or small.
LikeLike
Unfortunately one of the reviews you read was a sponsored review from their “marketing operation” my customers also have been dealing with this same thing it’s been a complete nightmare going in three years now. We have since had them remove the review to help prevent anyone else from falling victim. Good luck
LikeLiked by 1 person
misery has company i see. some hope yes but painful. left my email for you would like to connect.
LikeLike
LikeLike
Signed contact March 2021 and was finally in December 2022… I feel for all of you. Please contact me if I can be of help.
LikeLike
Thank you! You are (relatively) lucky. I signed a month after you and I’m nowhere near the finish line.
LikeLike
LikeLike
Looks like Pinnacle Homes site has vanished, are they no longer a company? How is your home build progressing?
LikeLike
Hi – I heard they are finishing up their pinnacle customers and switching to Gold Key Custom Homes. Changing names is never a good thing.
LikeLike
LikeLike
LikeLike
My husband and I are also in Pinnacle Homes purgatory. Our house was supposed to be a 9 month build, we’re not in it yet and we’re on month 17. Learning here that Pinnacle is no longer in business and that the principal leadership has formed a new venture called Gold Key Homes, I have a question.
Have you (or others in our situation) gotten any agreement that Gold Key will honor Pinnacle clients 10 year warranty?
LikeLike
We asked them about Gold Key and they denied that Pinnacle was shut down. I’m sure the warranty situation will be a fight at every step. I’m sorry you’re in the same boat as us. Keep the faith hopefully it gets better.
LikeLike
Is Adele designer homes involved in this at all?
LikeLike
No I only first heard of Adele after I posted this
LikeLike
Steer clear from Adele. It’s is the salesperson who sold Pinnacle.
LikeLike
We’re in our Pinnacle home. House is great. Warranty work has been easy. It was just a bad experience and I hope yours gets behind you.
LikeLike
That’s great to hear. Thank you for the input. Looking forward to putting this past us and moving on
LikeLike
I am also a Pinnacle Homes homeowner! It took us 2.5 yrs to get into our home and if my husband hadn’t been ‘supervising’ the build process and visiting the site daily —- nothing would’ve been completed as quickly as the 2 1/2 years it did take. As with everyone else’s complaints, the whole process was nothing but a dumpster fire.
1. No project manager on site when sub-contractors were (actually) there! 4 days out of 5, they were not!
2. Wrong tile delivered;
3. wrong color paint on the ceiling in several rooms – rain out of paint and replacement didn’t match — blamed it on sherwin Williams (who had the correct paint listed on our account 🤦🏼♀️)
4. wrong front doors;
5. NO garage doors;
6. cabinets all scratched but ‘project manager’ tried to hide the scratches by covering them with a black marker — cabinets ARE NOT black; 12 cabinet fronts, a drawer front, and a piece of trim had to be replaced out of the builder’s pocket!
7. started the project with the wrong set of plans, and actually had to move the framing for the slab back by 85 feet because we have a 100+ year old oak tree that we refused to have removed in order to build the house…. Yet pinnacle placed the framing with the oak tree in front of one of the garage doors; they had to re-so so much because they gave the contractors the wrong set of plans!!!
8. GLASS DOOR from pool into pool bathroom (that is attached to the house) — TIM QUINN said ‘ all high-end houses, have glass doors on the bathroom!’ Do ya’ll have glass in your bathroom where all of your guests can watch you on the throne????
9. electrical conduit IN the shower drain
10. Cemented over electrical outlet in the floor
11. Seal broken in one of the installed windows
12. No screen doors installed on 3 sliding glass doors… TIM QUINN said ‘I don’t know if the come with the door!’ Seriously — you’re a general contractor and you’re gonna tell me a sliding glass door doesn’t come with a screen?? We had to actually call the manufacturer who verified that the screens were part of our cost. Pinnacle tried to lie their way out of EVERYTHING they were questioned about!
13. Marble counter top chipped on install and scratches in several places… project manager also tried to color over those scratches with markers & hide the breakage by covering it with the appliances. They had to pay to replace that piece of marble!
13. I physically handed a $150K check to the project manager and he LOST IT! Actually asked me to write him another one….. absolutely NOT!
14. NEVER CAME BACK for our one year warranty walk-thru…. Didn’t even call or text!
15. I happen to find some random photographer taking pictures both inside AND outside my home. He was hired BY PINNACLE to use OUR home/OUR design for THEIR OWN ADVERTISING purposes. We were NEVER asked, nor was it part of our contract! I had previously told TIM QUINN and the product manager, Tim’s Dad, JOE QUINN, that I had recently put a man in jail for stalking! WTF would I want my new home address, description, and photos plastered all over the internet??? Needless to say… I kicked the photographer off our property and had to aggressively monitor Pinnacle’s website and facebook site to ensure my home was removed from their advertisements/marketing literature. HUGE LACK OF RESPECT FOR MY FAMILY’S SAFETY!
I could go on and on…. But what it comes down to is piss poor management… lack of supervision on site, and a definite lack of respect for those ‘paying their paychecks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
LikeLike