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!

Two Week Punch-List Update

Sorry I have been MIA for a while!  Work has been crazy and unfortunately has prevented me from doing much around the house.  We did have our two week punch-list items addressed.... well, some of them at least.  Here's the original issues and what was done to rectify them:

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.

They applied some caulk/grout combo, which helped somewhat.  But they missed a couple of the areas so this is staying on my list. 

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

Replaced the tile.  Looks great.

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

Fixed.

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

Apparently they nailed some of them down, but our rabbit managed to find one corner that was missed and tear it up :(.

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

The rust marks wiped right off, so I didn't bother mentioning it.

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.

As I expected, the PM gave us a hard time about this.  Of course it hadn't rained in a few days when he came out so there was no standing water and no way for us to prove that it was there previously.  He offered to lay down some sod in the area (not sure how much that would help), but so far we haven't seen anything.

Speaking of our lawn...  I have to give my husband props on his lawn-growing skills.  Our lot was only seeded, so there was literally no grass when we moved in and we already have basically a full grown lawn (in the front at least... that's what he has been focusing on).  You can barely tell the difference between the adjacent sodded areas and our lawn. 

He re-seeded and fertilized the whole front and part of the back lawn (seed is expensive!) right after we moved in in September.  There were still a few areas that weren't growing very well, so he went back and raked, top-soiled and seeded those areas.  He's out there every night moving sprinklers and pulling weeds and it's definitely paying off! 

I will dust off my camera and post some pictures very soon!

Closing Date Set and House is Almost Finished

Our house is basically finished!  Our carpets are now in, our steps are stained and our propane tank was installed out back.  A lot of touchup work and all of the landscaping still needs to be done, but it seems like we are in really good shape for our September 21st closing date (we just got the confirmed date yesterday).  I feel like we could move in next week!

Walkway from driveway to front door.

Another shot of the driveway.  I like the way my car looks in the neighborhood :)

Driveway and garage

Propane tank

This is what it will look like in our yard.  I'm glad it's way off to the side so it shouldn't get in our way.

Our stairs are almost complete...  I love them!

Obviously a lot of cleaning up to do.

Greg checking out the shower (there's a crack in the floor) :(

Thermostats are in.

View from the front door through to the family room/kitchen.  I love the hardwood!

Opposite view (from kitchen through to front door).  That's the powder room door ajar on the right.

Family room on left, morning room on right.  Oven is still just hanging out.

Closeup of the carpet and vinyl.  I picked a bad day to forget my camera.  These phone shots are not very good.

 I wish they had kept the floor protection on until they finish since there's still a good bit of painting and such that needs to be done.  I know it's their responsibility to fix it if they mess something up, but it seems like they could save a lot of time and energy if they did things correctly the first time and/or in the right order.  For instance, the other day when we were there we saw the guys painting all of the trim, including the trim on the steps.  Now all of that trim is covered with stain and will obviously need to be repainted.  Apparently no one stopped and thought, "Hmmm... someone will probably be staining these steps at some point and may spill stain all over the place.  Maybe I should wait to do this final painting until that is finished."  Oh well, I'm sure it will all get fixed!

My punch-list continues to grow.  I hope we can do our pre-settlement demonstration fairly soon so they can fix most of the issues before settlement.  Here's an updated list (so far):

1. Roofing tie-downs sticking out of shingles.
2. Where does gutter at front left of house outlet to?
3. Front door lock is crooked.
4. Powder room door doesn't close all the way.
5. Cracked garage doorstop.
6. Crack in master bath shower floor.
7. Drywall at corner of kitchen (there was a hole that they did a poor job of patching up).
8. Hole in one of the study french doors.
9. Various paint/stain splotches.
10. Two scratches on kitchen cabinets.
11. Crooked corner in powder room.
12. Bad piece of wood in powder room floor.
13. Morning room slider does not lock or closer properly.
14. Nail pop in trim of front door.
15. Back outside light missing.
16. Garage window trim missing.
17. Master bath drawer has a huge knot (not sure if they will fix this, but it's worth a shot).
18. Paint/scratches on windows.
19. Drywall in garage not complete.

Hopefully I will be crossing lots of things off of this list in the near future.  I also hope to get some better "almost complete" pictures of our house soon.