Two Week Punch-list

In our area Ryan Homes comes back after two weeks to take care of any issues that have popped up since settlement.  (They also come back after 10 months).  Luckily we don't have too many issues, but there are a few and one of them is pretty major in my opinion.  Here is our punch-list so far:

1. Cracked grout in master bath shower.  It seems like the tile on the bench in our shower is not securely attached to the framing so the outer corner tiles are pulling apart leaving a space in the grout.  I hope we don't already have mold forming under our bench.

2. Chip in the hall bath tile.  Not sure if they'll be able to fix this.

3. Some nail holes in our hardwood have not been filled in.

4. Carpet not attached to the floor in some corners/edges.

5. Our sink is rusting already.  Again, not sure what they can do about this, but it's worth mentioning.

6. The biggest issue we have is the grading of our lot.  There are two very prominent low spots in which there has been standing water almost constantly since closing.  There are two swales on either side of our property and they were not graded correctly, which has caused ponding, which will eventually cause a mosquito problem, so this needs to be addressed.

The annoying thing is that I brought this to the PM's attention during our walkthrough (it was not wet at the time, but I could tell it was graded wrong... this is what I do for a living), and his response was that it passed the grading inspection so it should be fine.  I'm sure he tried to brush it off because it's kind of a big deal to re-grade about 1/4 of our lot.  But I wish I had pushed the issue because it's a bigger deal now that we have actually started growing grass (our lot was seeded, not sodded).

The grading of the entire front lawn is wrong as well, but I care less about that since it's not causing any real drainage problems (yet).

Ponding in back/side yard

Ponding in front yard

Ponding in front/side yard.

We really should have curbing along all of the property frontages (at least the ones with elevations lower than the street elevations) to divert the water from the road into inlets, but that's definitely not going to happen at this point.  The drainage design of our community in general is not good.  It's poor design to have roadway water running through private property via swales, but that was how the plans were approved (several years ago... I have a feeling this wouldn't have gotten approved today).  I was wary about this when we choose our lot, but it was the best choice for us in many other ways, and overall I'm still glad we chose it.  And if it were graded the way the plan shows, we should not have these problems.

We will see what he says when we give him our two-week list, but I don't plan to back off until it is addressed.

We Have Lumber!

We stopped at our lot on the way home from the shore* on Sunday and saw that our foundation had been backfilled and our lumber has been delivered!  (*1 hour and 5 minutes from our new house to the shore... woohoo!!).  Our basement floor slab is supposed to be poured today so hopefully they will begin framing before the holiday.

Lumber has arrived!

Our lot... if you look really hard you can see the foundation sticking up.

The secret to their speedy framework... the pieces come pre-assembled!

Exterior insulation, I think.

Basement

Garage

Not sure what that black thing or the two pipes are.  I imagine it's something to do with the sump pump?

I'm guessing this is where our septic connection will be.

I am a little concerned about this.  About 10 of our frame pieces were completely destroyed.  I guess it happened during delivery.  I hope they replace those pieces and don't just try to patch them up.

Close-up of some of the broken frames.

More Choices & A Dilemma

Here is a picture of our lot! 

Our cabinet/granite choices are the same as the model, so I will post pictures of that after today.

And here are our flooring choices for the carpet (we had to get the same color in the whole house) and the vinyl for the kitchen, morning room and laundry room.  I originally wanted to install hardwood in the whole downstairs as soon as possible, but I'm kind of digging the vinyl we picked so maybe we'll stick with that until it needs replacing.  I didn't want to spend a ton on flooring and I didn't like any of the level 2 or 3 carpet upgrades any better than the base so we just did the base carpet with upgraded carpet pad in the family room and entire upstairs.  As long as it doesn't fall apart, I don't think you can go wrong with the base color choices they had.  This picture looks a little lighter than the floors actually are.  I like the look of light colors, but I don't like to vacuum so we went a shade or two darker for practical purposes. 

The only thing I'm worried about is where our (indoor) rabbit is going to live!  He's afraid of hardwood, but if the carpet is long enough for him to get a grip on, he will eat it.  I would love to have him in the family room with us, but he would definitely tear up the carpet.  I wonder if we could get a large area rug with very short fibers... would that look weird to have an area rug on top of wall-to-wall carpeting?  Otherwise I guess we'd have to try to train him not to eat the carpet. :)

 

Peter!  (And my lovely husband's feet :))

Pre-construction meeting is today... I think I'm a little too excited about it!