TWO PULTE BUILT RANCHES
THE BRAMPTON MODEL
THE TIMBERS AT THE RESERVE, LENEXA, KANSAS

Pictures and written documentation by experts are included on the web sites mentioned above.

I came across the following interview between Kai Ryssdal, Public Radio and Mr. Bill Pulte, the founder of Pulte Homes. The following paragraph made me look and read twice.

source: Interview with Bill Pulte

"RYSSDAL: When you go to somebody's house, whether it's for dinner or for some function or an event, what's a sign to you that it's a well-built house?

PULTE: You really can't tell because all you're seeing is the cosmetic finishes, which doesn't really make a good house. That's where a lot of people go wrong. They think that the cosmetic finishes make a good house or the better house. It starts with understanding what the soil the house is going to go on. You must understand what that soil is and secondly you must build the foundation. Third is the framing structure has to be correctly built. Then the correct mechanical system, meaning plumbing and heating; they got to be in correctly, and the wiring has got to be in correctly. The roof is the next important thing, because if you have a bad roof it's going to leak. And then the least important is the cosmetic finishes that you see but it isn't really the important stuff because I could take a good shell and do a miserable job with the finish -- people won't like it as well, or I can take a lousy shell and do a good job with the finish and people love it except when they've lived in it a few years and all of a sudden you've got a lot of problems."