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OVERVIEW. For 280 photos of building disaster, click on specific pages, above.

  • We wanted this to be a wonderful story in our new Rutherford Custom Home

  • Home was 5 months late, then still being worked on 9 months after move-in

  • We were inundated with water from roof, windows, doors, up through floor

  • Deconstruction, reconstruction — saving our Rutherford Custom Home

  • 3 years after move-in, court inspection still showed builders’ damage

  • Beau Rutherford signed bankruptcy document on our scheduled court date

  • 280 photos offer a glimpse of what we faced in rebuilding our home

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    We wanted this to be a wonderful story in our new Rutherford Custom Home

    This was to be a good story, a very good story.

    In retirement, we were to build our dream home in the Texas Hill Country. We chose Rutherford Custom Homes of Wimberley, TX, to complete our dream. As we lived 200 miles away, we put our trust in Beau and Jim Rutherford and Rutherford Custom Homes to see that our home construction lived up the the plan by our award-winning architect.

    The Rutherfords told us they could build our home in 6 months, then, close to contract signing, they said 8 months. And Jim Rutherford gave us a building schedule for 8 months’ construction. When company president James W. Rutherford, Jr., (Beau), gave us the contract, he had extended the completion date to 270 days, 9 months.

    As construction moved along there were some troubling signs. New to construction, we nevertheless recognized some things that needed to be fixed. As we could see some repairs weren’t getting done, we started a running To Do list, as some people work better with words on paper.

    Home was 5 months late, then still being worked on 9 months after move-in

    After 14 months, in late October, 2008, we finally moved in. There was much to be done, for example, 8  months after move-in we could not use the kitchen or office as all cabinets, drawers, and work areas were cleaned out for painters. They were repainting what two separate paint store managers said was too little paint for the surfaces, and thin, latex paint, the wrong paint for wood work surfaces, which easily scraped off.

    Worse, the then-historic Texas drought broke and our first light rains brought water in from the roof, in from about 15 windows, around and through doors, and moisture also came up from the under-ventilated crawl space to form a moist sponge of blown-in insulation underlying the wood floor.

    We were inundated with water from roof, windows, doors, up through floor

    Rutherford Custom Homes never effectively fixed any of the water leaks. After months of either being unwilling or unable to fix the urgent and mounting problems, we terminated our builder, Rutherford Custom Homes.

    In 35 years of management, I’d never seen a worker who was as ineffective, or who degraded what he touched, as Beau Rutherford. His decision-making was worse. His father, Jim Rutherford, was no better.

    Contractors we called in to help were amazed. Some of the damaging building practices were beyond repair and needed to be replaced. We had to get a new roof, and one roofing company owner said: “Whoever did this roof, did you wrong.”

    Deconstruction, reconstruction — saving our Rutherford Custom Home

    We had to deconstruct our home, then reconstruct it with proper building practices and materials.

    Some of the differences — Rutherford Custom Home during 9 months:

    • roof leaking through walls and ceilings
    • in-ceiling light bulbs — 24 outages in 8 months, some repeatedly
    • 28 windows leaking
    • 5 exterior doors leaking, around and/or through doors
    • balcony directing water into the home, and into the room below
    • wood floor warping and cupping
    • paint problems inside and out

    Rose reconstructed home during 3 1/2 years:

    • new roof — no leaks
    • in-ceiling light bulbs — 2 out in 3 1/3 years
    • windows get peel and stick flashing — no more water leaking to the wood floor
    • doors replaced and properly prepared, primed and painted — no leaks
    • exterior door frames get peel and stick flashing — no leaks
    • balcony reconstructed — no more leaking into the home as water is diverted outside the house
    • crawl space given vents — floors no longer sit atop wet sponge, don’t cup
    • new wood flooring — no warps and cups
    • new paint — proper paint used inside and outside, no chipping, scratching


    As damages were running tens of thousands of dollars, we filed suit in Hays County District Court, 22nd Judicial District, to seek financial help from the Rutherfords and Rutherford Custom Homes.

    The process was dragged out for 2 years, but in October, 2011, the Rutherfords’ attorney and their architect witness inspected our home. During those 2 years, we had done major reconstruction to save the home, but their architect still could see huge holes in the hickory/pecan floor, warped wood cut out to try to save other parts from warping and cupping.

    3 years after move-in, court inspection still showed builders’ damage

    They still could see the master bedroom had 5 windows outside one wall and 4 windows inside that same wall. One window was sealed off behind drywall. Beau Rutherford, in his deposition, testified that he inspected the windows and they met his approval.

    Plus, we had added more than 800 PowerPoint slides of the destructive building practices, photographed during construction and revealed unchanged when the house was deconstructed. This was added to our evidence book with hundreds of photos of the construction process and later widespread water inundation.

    We were eager to depose the builder’s architect. But then we were told the builder’s attorney called and said the Rutherfords and/or Rutherford Custom Homes were going to file for bankruptcy, and not proceed with our deposition of their architect.

    We were scheduled and ready with PowerPoint photos with digital dates, our architect and construction professionals, as well as physical parts of the home, to present our case on May 23, 2012.

    Beau Rutherford signed bankruptcy document on our scheduled court date

    However, on May 23, 2012, James W. Rutherford, Jr., (Beau Rutherford) signed Rutherford Custom Homes bankruptcy protection under Chapter 7 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division. That halted our action to bring the Rutherfords and Rutherford Custom Homes to account for their damaging building practices to our home. We did not recognize the other companies they listed as creditors, but think they were for things other than our home.

    We thought 8 months of home-building in Wimberley, TX, was going to be a wonderful story and the photos we took during our site visits would enhance a magazine article on our experience. Although not taken to show building details, it turned out building details could be found in some photos.

    That and digital cameras’ exif data helped form a timeline and documentation of the destructive building practices. Comparing photos during construction with those during de-construction, showed builders covered up rather than fix what they were asked to fix.

    280 photos offer a glimpse of what we faced in rebuilding our home

    A small sample, 280 photos, is included on the “Content Pages” of this website. They give a sense of our frustration when we discovered the builders covered up rather than fixed what we and our architect pointed out to them. They give a sense of our lives in the home while having to rebuild it, and finding other unseen problems along the way.

    It took us 3 1/2 years to rebuild our new home, and 6 years to deal with Rutherford Custom Homes’ issues. We’re glad we’re finished rebuilding.

    Rather than the original idea of a magazine article, we decided to keep up with the times and learn to build a website. Now we can look back at how far we’ve come from our Rutherford Custom Homes’ nightmare.