Post-Move-in Issues

Good morning blogger friends! I tried so hard to stay up on my blogging after we moved in but that has proved harder than I expected, and sadly it's been quite some time since I've posted. We have made some progress, the most exciting of which is that we started our deck!! I will dedicate my next post to our deck design, permitting process and progress so far, but for now I just wanted to give a little update about some issues that have popped up since our two-week punchlist.

Heater

Our furnace has been leaking onto the basement floor. Luckily our basement is not finished yet so it hasn't caused any damage, but obviously this should not be happening. We submitted a service request and someone came to fix it a few days later. Unfortunately, their fix did not work. It is still leaking AND the vent in the upstairs bathroom is leaking as well. I suspect that it's just condensation, but it should not be happening. The heater guys are coming again tomorrow.

 

Grading around the House

We got some seepage into our basement during Hurricane Sandy. Nothing major, but again... should not happen. From the outside, the problem was clear. The mulch bed at the front of our house was sloping toward the house so we had standing water all along our foundation in the front. There's a crack in the foundation in the area it leaked in. They came and added some fill along the house, but I'm still not sure if it will be enough. I'm hoping we get some heavy rain again soon so we can test it.

 

Shower bench

The tile on our shower bench was one of the items on our two-week punchlist. The tiles on the front of the bench were not properly attached so they were separating from each other. They originally just added more caulk and grout, but two days later it was cracking again. We submitted another service request and they came last week and took down our whole shower and replaced all of the tile on the bench. The bad news is we only have one shower for the next few weeks. The good news is we probably would not have noticed the leaking vent if we weren't forced to use the other shower for a while.

 

Water

The water coming out of our upstairs faucets was smelling like rotten eggs. I don't know how we didn't notice it when we first moved in. Apparently this is a common problem in our community because there is a lot of sulfur in the soil (we have well water). There is a different kind of filtration system which easily addresses this, and RH has had to replace the systems for almost all of the homes in our community. Why, you may ask, do they not just install the correct filtration system to begin with? Good question!  Of course, because it costs more money. I have to imagine though that installing then replacing the systems has to wind up being more expensive in the long run. I guess they are just hoping people won't complain and will just deal with stinky water forever. Anyway, we got our water system replaced and now our water is fine.

 

I hope I can report at our one-year inspection that these were the last of our problems, but have a feeling that will not be the case. I'll keep you updated!