Aubuchon Strong

TO: Aubuchon Homes
ATTN: Gary Aubuchon

February 27th, 2008

Our home country Norway is the most wonderful place on earth, but not always that wonderful during wintertime which can be cold, wet, and windy. We have therefore for several years planned to buy a house in a warmer country. We have considered Italy, Spain, and France where Norwegians normally would buy a winter or retirement house, but we found it to be too cold in the periods where we wanted to be there. Also the crime rate is very high and increasing in the areas that are most lucrative.

We have been to US many times, mostly business, but also some for pleasure. We have always liked to be in US, and the type of climate that is Florida was what we were looking for. An advantage for us is also the language; we are much more fluent in English compared to the different southern European languages. The disadvantage is of course the long way for us to go.

Late October 2005, after some business meetings in Minneapolis, we headed south to Tampa. We had been to Florida many times before, and we had decided to start looking for a place south of Tampa on the west coast, which is the part of Florida we like the best. Our only preparation before coming was looking at a few real estate homepages at the internet, and we had contacted two companies for appointments. The selection was only based on the quality of the homepage.

Arriving in Tampa we first run into some problems. There were no rental cars available due to a recent hurricane; a bad start. After some back and forth on the airport we got on a bus to Sarasota, and luckily we got the last available car, a minivan, at the airport in Sarasota. We then stayed at the Keys outside Sarasota for a couple of days looking at houses, and a broker showed us some beautiful houses. After that we headed south to Cape Coral, where we had an agreement with a lady by the name Maria Lewis. She had the nicest homepage at that time, with a lot of houses listed in the area. Our intention was absolutely not to buy anything at this first trip, but just surf the market to see if there was something suitable for us. We did have one special requirement and that was that we needed docking space for a large boat.

Arriving Cape Coral we found Maria waiting for us. She was well prepared and had like 5 to 6 different houses that were for sale, all with good docking space for the boat. All the houses were beautiful houses that we enjoyed very much to see, but none of the houses were like we could not leave without buying. We followed our plan, explored the area and looked at houses both in Fort Myers and Cape Coral. We liked Cape Coral best, there was no doubt; we liked it so much we could buy a house there.

We think we used a couple of days driving around looking at different houses before Maria asked us if we wouldn’t think of building a house; there were several lots for sale. Our answer was no, but Maria showed us a couple of Aubuchon houses, and we immediately fell in love with the Casa Palermo house, the model house at Cape Coral Parkway. Maria introduced us to Peggy Senna, and we started looking at prices for building a house like that. We soon found it was not a bad idea to build a house, we could then more or less get exactly what we wanted for about the same price. Now of course we see that this is not completely true, but we have only ourselves to blame for that.

We sat down in the evening, took a glass of wine or maybe two, and discussed what to do. We agreed it was crazy to start building a house in Florida, thousands of miles from home without knowing anyone, and in a market that not is renowned for its honesty. On the other hand, Maria gave a very good impression, speaking favorably about Aubuchon as a company we could absolutely rely on. Peggy as well gave a very good impression. We all went seeing houses and lots, and we started to feel confident. One evening we were invited by Maria and her husband, Larry, to their yacht club; we had a very nice evening.

LONG STORY SHORT, we decided to buy a lot on Del Prado that we liked, and planned to build a Casa Palermo like house there. We were happy when we went home to Norway but agreed with ourselves that we were a little crazy doing this so fast. We did not consult any lawyer or anyone else for advice, and we have not done that even once through the whole building process in Florida. Telling this to people both in Norway or US, they think we are crazy and lucky we have not been screwed. There are lots of stories of that. We arrived Norway on a Sunday after a week in Florida. Already on Monday, we got an email from Maria telling us we could not use the lot we already had signed for. Maria, Peggy and Peggy’s husband had on a Sunday been out on their boat in the canals logging the depths. They found out that our location had a too shallow entrance of the canal for the boat we planned to have, so Maria told us she had cancelled the contract. We were sorry for that, but appreciated a lot their effort to find this out. We agreed with Maria that she should continue to look for a suitable lot for us; she knew what we liked and our specification. It did not take much time before a new possibility came up. This is the lot where we now have the house. We are very happy for the outcome of this. Right after this we started the planning process of the house building. We visited Cape Coral a couple times through 2006 getting to know more people in the company. Through this period we were very well taken care of by Peggy and we continue to have contact with Maria. We got a lot of good and interesting input that has resulted in a marvelous house; much nicer than we thought it would be when we started. The building of the house started in December 2006. At that time drawings and all approvals were ready. We were very excited. We had our next visit right after, by end of January 2007. And things were absolutely moving on. We now got new people to relate to, Mike and Linda. We had many meetings, hundreds of emails, and a few phone calls. Everything has been done in the most pleasant way, no problems whatsoever. They have always been there to find the best possible solutions for us like they were building their own house. We have not even once been worried about what the outcome would be regarding quality, cost, or anything else. The people in Evalutions have all the way helped us getting the right colors, flooring, furniture, and all those small details right. The building process has just been a lot of fun; it is actually a pity it’s now by the end. Thank you to everybody in Aubuchon and to all the subcontractors that has participated building our marvelous house in such a pleasant way. Special thanks to Mike, Linda, Peggy and Maria. Please feel free to use us a reference for new customers if you find that helpful.

Most Sincerely,

Kari Pah and Arne Grip