Nothing More, Nothing Less

When we first met with our PM at our pre-con meeting, we had a few special requests.  They were all denied.  Our PM told us, "I will build you the house that you contracted.  Nothing more, nothing less." Unfortunately, we received much more than we asked for.  We didn't ask for leaky windows, siding issues, shoddy carpet, crooked walls, crooked trim, doorknobs that fall off, $300+ electric bill because the HVAC installer put the wrong kind of battery in the outside sensor, squeaking and creaking floors, cracks in the drywall, numerous other issues and all the half-hearted repairs that come with them.  The most recent example of their ineptitude occurred a couple of weeks ago.  I am still dealing with the repairs and awaiting the outcome which is why I have hesitated to blog about it.  But, I need an outlet to vent, so here's the scoop:

I was on the first floor when I heard a sound like a firehose hitting the house on the second floor.  First, I ran outside.  Nothing seemed amiss, so I headed for the second floor.  The washing machine was running, so I checked on that first.  The sound wasn't coming from the laundry room, so I followed it to the secondary bath.  The sound was coming from behind the shower enclosure.  I flipped the shower faucet on and there was no water.  At this point, I ran down the steps to find water pouring out of my foyer light.  I headed to the basement and found water running down the pipes and door frame around the storage area.  I turned off the water to the house at the water meter.  About five minutes had elapsed from the time I heard the sound to when I turned off the water.  It was warm water, so I assumed a hot water line had burst.

I called Ryan's emergency line.  I explained the situation to the rep on the phone.  He gave me the plumber's phone number, said he would contact the plumber and the Service Manager and that I would be hearing from them shortly.  When an hour had passed and I didn't hear anything, I called the emergency line again. The rep that I spoke with that time asked me if I had explained that it was an emergency.  Really??? I can't see how anything that I explained did NOT constitute an emergency.  We couldn't use our water.  There was water dripping from several locations.  I could not believe she was implying that it was my fault for not expressly stating it was an emergency.  That's what the emergency line is for!

After she rewrote it as an emergency ticket, I got a call from the service manager.  He came over within 20 minutes to inspect the damage.  As we were walking through the house, the plumber arrived.  (Imagine my panic when I saw it was the same genius who, when reconnecting the master bath faucet during a previous repair, never bothered to turn the water back on and check to see that everything was connected correctly.  This resulted in water dripping through my eyeball lights above my fireplace because he did not re-install the faucet properly).  Anyway, the plumber came in and after telling my story, they tried to determine the location of the leak.  They first thought it might be the hot water connection to the the shower.  They cut a three feet by eight inch hole in my closet only to find that that connection was secure.  They headed to my daughter's bedroom under the assumption that it would be a connection at either the sinks or the toilets.  They ended up cutting five holes in the wall!

The final diagnosis was that the installer didn't cut the lines long enough to wrap around from the shower and pick up the lines from the sinks.  So, he added a coupling.  This would have been sufficient, except that he didn't bother crimping the metal band at the coupling.  There was nothing holding the coupling together.  The plumber was surprised that it didn't come apart the first time the shower was run.  The kids prefer our shower, so that shower does not get a lot of use.

Here are some pictures of the damage. Some pics may need to be clicked on to see the effects of the water.

Water dripping down the siding

Water dripping from light switch
at the bottom of the basement stairs

Bottom of basement stairs

Puddle in basement bath

Water dripping from pipes in basement storage area

Water had slowed by the time I took this picture.
At the time I turned off the water, there was a curtain
of water coming down through this doorway.

Streaks where water ran along the joists
in the family room ceiling

That is not a shadow.  That is wet drywall
near the foyer light at the bottom
of the stairs.

Basement stairwell taping

This is an example of the repair job in the main stairwell.
Needless to say, I'm not impressed.

I have sent an email to the service manager regarding the quality of the repairs.  I am awaiting his reply, but if this is not handled to my satisfaction, I am prepared to go over his head.  I have been nothing but patient with all of this, but I am at my wits end. There is also a flooring issue, but this has been way too long already!

Table for Six, Please :)

We sold our old table, chairs and umbrella before we moved as it was a small table with only four chairs. Being that we are family of five, that was a problem. I've been watching for sales since we decided on a deck, and two weeks ago, Sears had a great sale. We got our set for more than 50% off. It was exactly what we were looking for. It's made by LaZBoy and is very comfortable.

A New Addition!

We spent 8.5 years in our last house debating whether we wanted a deck or a patio.  Needless to say, when we moved out, the construction steps were all that we had! We swore that would not happen in this house.  We were leaning towards a deck all along, but had a few doubts along the way.  We met with around 7 deck builders before making our decision.  This was done back in April.

When we chose our deck builder, he told us that it would probably be mid-June before they would start.  He filed for the permit right away, though, in case he was able to start sooner.  We got a call last Wednesday saying that they would start on Monday.  The weather looked great, so he thought they would be done midday on Thursday.  Well, of course the weather didn't hold, but they have almost finished.  Final cleanup will commence tomorrow.  Without further ado, here is our deck!

Morning of Day 1

Materials being delivered

Day 2

End of Day 2

End of Day 2

End of Day 2

End of Day 3

End of Day 3

End of Day 3

The completed deck!
Notice the stairs come down straight and at an angle.
The deck builder suggested that because we wanted a wider staircase.
I think it looks so much better than just wide steps.

Morning Room...A Work in Progress

We have finally put some paint on the walls!  As previously mentioned, we took advantage of the Sherwin Williams' color consultation and 40% off sale.  I started with the morning room as painting it would not disrupt our life too much (the kids mostly eat at the peninsula anyways), and I wanted to see if I liked the paint.  Would it really be worth the extra cost of the paint versus Valspar, Behr, etc.?

We selected the Duration paint in the Matte finish in Spiced Cider.  It took two coats (as planned) and four days (not planned).  I pretty much just painted one wall at a time.  Between all our activities, that's all I had time to do.

Without further ado, here are some pictures:

Before

After

You'll notice that we didn't paint the window returns.  I liked the contrast of the white paint there.  We plan to add white wood blinds.  I originally didn't plan to do blinds, but with the curtains closed, it seems too dark.  I will get tiebacks for the curtains.  I also have another rod and set of curtains to hang on the wall with the french doors.

Finally, we think we've found our new table.  It's from Ashley Furniture.

It has two leaves to extend up to 100" and will seat 10.

I think I prefer these side chairs.  There are also two servers:

It was definitely the most difficult room to paint.  We only have a 6' stepladder, and given the fact that I'm only 5'4", it was quite a challenge painting the wall adjoining the kitchen that is vaulted to 13'!  But, I am so happy to have some color on the walls.  On to the next room...

Color Consultation

I had a color consultation with a designer from Sherwin Williams yesterday to pick colors for the house. I don't know if they offer this service everywhere, but by buying a $75 gift card, I got to spend an hour and a half with the designer. She started with a walk through of the house while I described how we used each room, what furniture was staying, etc. and then we got to the fun part. We started with the main color that would be used for the foyer and all hallways. Then, we moved to the family room and kitchen. Because they are open to each other and share a wall, we needed a color that would work for both areas. After that, we moved to the morning room. We built on each previous color, ensuring that the rooms would flow well. The dining room, office and powder room were next on the agenda.

From the top clockwise: Accessible Beige for the foyer, hallways and stairwell; Balanced Beige for the family room and kitchen; Spiced Cider for the morning room; Svelte Sage for the dining room; Requisite Gray for the powder room; and Grassland for the study, which is my craft room/office.

For the upstairs, we chose Honeydew and Vivacious Pink for DD's room; Great Green and Stream for YDS's room; Cay for the kids' bath; Jersey Cream for the laundry room; and Poolhouse for ODS's room.  We did not pick a color for the master bed and bath as I am planning to get new bedding and haven't settled on a color scheme as of yet.  

Again, I'm not sure if it's everywhere, but our Sherwin Williams is having a 40% off sale April 19-21.  The color consultant said that that is what her employee discount is and that it doesn't get any better than that. I am really looking forward to getting some color on the walls!

Survey Work

As many have advised, I waited until after the 30 day fixes were complete before sending my survey. I put it off until we had been in the home for a few months because I wanted a chance to experience the home for a bit to be able to accurately assess the home. Unfortunately, there were so many issues that I couldn't give out the coveted 10s on the overall home. There were segments of the home that I rated highly, but others that were just carelessly done that couldn't receive high marks. All of the individuals that we worked with were great, so they all received 10s. I went into great detail on the survey as to likes and dislikes, and I was happy to find that the survey allowed comments on individual areas.

Fast forward a few months, and I got a call from our PM. I gave him high praise on the survey because he was excellent to work with. However, I'm sure it didn't go we'll for him when our survey was received. I felt I needed to be honest in the survey, but I didn't want it to reflect badly on him. His schedule was very busy, so he wasn't able to come out until November. We spent a couple hours going through every room in the house. I was able to point out every issue, and he took detailed notes and pictures. I was given the option of having the work done then, or waiting until after the holidays. We opted for after the holidays since it was going to take a full week. The first full week that our PM could be here was this week.

Here's a rundown of items they are fixing and some pics:
Laminate flooring and transitions cut too short
Laminate transition seams not flush
Laminate floor creaking and crackling due to binding up under trim
Water damage to window seal
Many drywall issues including kitchen counter pulling away from the wall
All small walls not being square (drywall repair and new trim)
Window that has been repaired twice being replaced as it is still leaking
Hump in middle of basement bath floor
The planned joints in the basement concrete floor were never filled, so every crack is felt through the carpet. They are pulling up the carpet one half at a time to fill the cracks.
One of the fireplace stones sticks out at the bottom by about an inch and a half and will be replaced.
New mirror for powder room since ours had a flaw right in the middle

PM has set aside a whole week and is planning to be here most of the time so that he can supervise (and I'm sure he doesn't ever want to have to come back!). I have to say that I could totally understand him having an attitude with me, but he has been nothing but helpful. Also, all of the workers have been very respectful (though they all make me feel old by calling me ma'am!).

What a "Pane!"

i know I haven't blogged in awhile.  Life has been crazy with the two older kids starting school and participating in sports, not to mention the never-ending unpacking and decorating.  

In my 30 inspection post, I mentioned that we had window seals that had failed.  According to Ply-Gem, the window company, there was a small slit in the frame where water was getting in that was causing the window sill to swell.  The Ply-Gem reps said that it could be repaired and the sills replaced without having to replace the windows.  This was on June 29.  That seemed simple enough, so I agreed.  Eleven windows in all were repaired.

Fast forward to September 25.  Ply-Gem was called out again because the windows were leaking again.  The rep that came was with the original group, so he was familiar with our issue.  He said that when the first repair was done, they only fixed the one side and that the other side needed to be done.  The Ryan service rep gave me the option of allowing the repair or pushing for replacement of the windows.  Of course, one of the windows is within the stone, so the stone would have to be removed and then replaced.  I opted to go with the repair as I didn't want the hassle of dealing with replacing the windows.  

The quality of the picture is poor, but if you click on it,
you will notice the bubbling paint.  This was our only indication
that there was a problem.  

Fast forward again to the present.  The amount of rain we received from Sandy showed that the repairs were not sufficient to prevent the windows from leaking.  At this point, we will have to have the windows replaced.  I am waiting to hear back from our service rep.  I know that others have more pressing issues because of the storm, so we'll see how and when this will be handled.

I have many other updates about our other 30 day fixes and decorating, but I wanted to get this out there so that others could check their windows.  So often, blinds and other window treatments go up and these issues may not be discovered until significant damage is done.