Midwest Design Homes

Poor quality. That sums it all. I've been at the house I bought already built by MDH which mysteriously sat untouched in the market for months. Now I know why. Price and builder. The sump pump died after a few months and the MDH representative blamed it on the "hard water". I had it changed and a back up sump pump installed by a competent plumber. The furnace kept dying evey 4-6 weeks in the winter and everything was done to try to fix the problem by a concerned technician not associated with MDH or the company that installed the system. Ultimately, this technician from a reputable company figured out that the furnace had been installed with the drainage pipes in the wrong angles making the pressure switch trip and shut off the furnace after short cycling for a while. After this fix it's been running beautifully. I was told I would have grading of the yard prior to moving in and they must have brought soil from the worst place they could find. Had to be seeded 3 times and the soil had to be replaced when re-grading 3 months later. Had to do grading again around the house 1 year later after I got condensation in the walls of an area in the basement, this was blamed on me of course. Once I moved in I trusted that they would remove all sorts of construction material and apparently they decided that the window well for the basement was the dump for rubble and garbage, which I spent 2 weekends trying to empty and clean. The last 2 gems are from a few days ago. I am planning on finishing the garage and the basement but the grade (?) of the garage floor is nonexistent or wrong and water runs in the opposite direction from the drain and towards the walls. The opinion of a reliable contractor is that the concrete was poured wrong from the beginning. The basement has air ducts out of the frame (?) and the person in charge of remodeling mentioned it would have taken nothing to put the duct in the right place to allow for adequate ceiling height in the basement. Now moving everything to the right place to be able to finish the basement is going to cost a significant amount of money. All these issues reflect the poor insight and attention to detail. I won't go into details regarding the "slope" in one of the rooms upstairs or the cheap toilet brands that were chosen that break every other month. In general my impression is that they used the cheapest materials and probably rushed through jobs that required a bit more careful planning and execution. I wrote a few times and of course, things were blamed on us, the contractors that work with them, "normal" house settling changes, etc. Last and not least, it was very smart to design a home with the furnace and the water heater under the master bedroom and the AC unit right behind it outside, especially if you want the master bedroom to be the noisiest place in the house. It's just ridiculous. These are things that I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to consider and try before buying the house. Do not hesitate, look for another builder.