30 day inspection

We had our 30 day this morning!  Hard to believe it's already been almost a month since we closed!  Overall, everything went great, nothing major.  Everything we asked for is getting fixed... including... the banister!!  Our PM already ordered the new railings and suggested we go with black cherry as the stain, he just put it in our neighbor's house and said it came out really nice and would go with our floors well.  He said our stain was pretty ugly and agrees with me that they need to get rid of it, it doesn't take well to the wood and just looks like crap.  It will be a few weeks before the new railings come in but hey, I'm just happy they are getting replaced!  We only have a few minor things that need fixed, most is cosmetic, and I'm really happy with how our PM has handled everything.

I feel like I didn't have enough blue tape or things on my list... but I guess that's a good thing, right?  He also said if we find anything else to give him a call and he will take care of it, so we don't have to call the customer service line.  I was happy to hear that even after the 30 days he is still our main point of contact.  I think it's an advantage of building while there are still so many houses/lots left to build and sell, because he knows that we will see him for the next several years (if he is still PM in our community).

Overall, I am very happy with our experience with Ryan Homes, I know we had some bumps along the way, some bigger than others, but I would do it again for sure.  Of course, I would do things a little differently, but hey, coulda shoulda woulda!  Even if I could do it over again 100 times, I would still find things wrong, or things I wish I would have done.  I think we made a great start for us and our future family here and I'm so happy to call my Venice home!

Home Depot delivery gone wrong.... can't anyone get this right???

Quick post, I totally forgot to let you guys know about our washer/dryer delivery.... I wasn't home, my husband was, and when I got home, I found my dryer to be about 1 ft from the wall and 4ft of dryer venting all coiled up behind the dryer with gaps where the 2 pieces connected.... there is a freaking diagram laying on top of the dryer showing you to NOT install it that way!  OMG SERIOUSLY HOME DEPOT.  I will never purchase another appliance from anywhere that doesn't have their own staff of delivery persons.  I will gladly pay more money and have it INSTALLED....

So, I called Home Depot right after I saw they mess... OH AND THEY DIDN'T WEAR BOOTIES AND WALKED ON MY HARDWOODS AND NEW CARPET IN THEIR WORK BOOTS!!! AHHHHH!!!!

So, now I'm playing phone tag with customer service and I have to call back the store manager... one of them called my husband (he's not sure which) and he said she was extremely rude to him.  Atleast Sears was super nice every step of the way and compensated me.  I hope Home Depot makes good or I will be shopping at Lowes....

Our 30 day list has been sent! I feel like I'm missing so much....

So here is our 30 days list, I still feel like I need more on it... I want to be insanely picky because I know after 30 days, it will be like pulling teeth to get anything fixed.  Any advice or common things that you guys notice that needed fixed with you houses that I'm missing??

Outside

1.       Sticky stuff on dining room windows (from a sticker/label) – needs cleaned off

2.       Middle window above garage is slightly crooked – or the trim is crooked

3.       The piece of wood that separates the shake and the siding isn’t 1 continuous piece, we would request a full whole piece be put in place so it doesn’t separate or accumulate dirt at the joint in the middle in the future.

4.       Front door needs re-painted

5.       One brick near front door has a chip/chunk missing

6.       Cement walkway has a strange vein like appearance in the concrete (not sure if this is normal?)

Entry

1.       The door stop needs moved slightly closer to the door, it doesn’t stop it from hitting the wall

2.       Repair small hole in wall from door knob hitting into wall from misplaced door stop

Powder Room

1.       Door sticks/hard to close all the way

2.       Chips in hardwood floors – repair/replace boards as needed.

Stairs

1.       Banister stain is very uneven and splotchy.  Some of the balusters have cracks/chips – we would request the entire railing be re-stained, if it is an issue with the stain itself causing the un-even look, we want to pick a new stain.  The color is so inconsistent and looks greenish/grey rather than “midnight black”

2.       Carpet is fraying in some places (marked with blue tape)

3.       Tighten up carpet on stairs, some steps are loose, especially the bottom stair, it is easy to pull away from the step

4.       Hole in drywall at the bottom of the stairs (inside the stair way) marked with blue tape

Basement

1.       Nails sticking out through some of the 2x4’s not nailed into anything

2.       Cracks in concrete floor

Family Room

1.       Chips in hardwood floors – repair/replace boards as needed.

Morning Room

1.       Chips in hardwood floors – repair/replace boards as needed.

Kitchen

1.       Scratches on some of the cabinet door fronts (marked with blue tape) – repair/replace

2.       Creaking in floors on the left side of the stove

3.       Minor dry wall repair needed by refrigerator (a few small gauges in the wall)

4.       Caulking between counter and morning room ½ wall needs filled – it has shrank and gaped

Guest Bathroom

1.       Drawers on vanity are crooked, stick out on one side about ½ inch

2.       Small chip in toilet seat cover

3.       Gaps in caulking on sink back splash piece

Bedroom 2

1.       Wall between 2 front windows is bowed

Master Bedroom

1.       Squeaks and creeks in flooring – noted with blue tape “X”

Master Bathroom

1.       Grout that was repaired doesn’t match – it is non-sanded and isn’t the right color

2.       Small area on wall that is not painted

3.       Touch up grout around tub – it is cracking/chipped

4.       Clean up grout around outside of border tile around tub – paint on it, looks messy

5.       Set nails on trim piece on tub front and smooth out, they are sticking out a little and are very noticeable

6.       Mirror has black mark on back side showing through to the front, won’t clean off – mirror needs replaced/repaired

Garage

1.       Garage door going into mudroom is hard to close

2.       Hose bib is loose

Landscaping

1.       1 of the reddish bushes looks like it’s dying/diseased

General Issues all around house

1.      Trim work - Nails need set in and or filled neater/puttied and smoothed out, I can see every nail in the trim – looks messy

2.       Lots of areas on the walls are rough/un-sanded looking – need sanded smooth and repainted

3.       Hardwood floors – many small chips/nicks – replace boards or repair as needed

4.       Squeaks in floors – noted in each spot with a blue tape square

5.       Fraying carpet in spots – may just need tucked under baseboards

6.       Many spots/areas on the drywall that were not sanded before painting

7.       Caulking around all windows – dried/shrank – needs touched up both inside and outside

8.       Interior doors need paint touched up – edges and peeling/paint is chipping off

How would you rate your workmanship... is it a 10??

So, I looked at the "sample" survey they gave us at closing, and one section is for Workmanship... and to be honest, it's not a 10, or a 9... maybe a 7.5 at best..... but some things are just down right sloppy.  I see EVERY nail in my trim work, I have crooked cabinets, sloppy muddling in the corners of the walls and around edges, things not being straight or even... and I know I can get a lot fixed on the 30 day, but some of the things that they "fixed" before we moved in look worse... like the grout the "repaired" well it's the wrong kind of grout and wrong color (it's non-sanded and it's on the floor... you ALWAYS use sanded grout on the floor tiles" and stuff they "touched up" with paint that now has paint on my grout and blobs and gobs of Spackle or paint, so how am I to have faith that these along with all the other things will get fixed at my 30 day??

Any advice from those who have moved in and tackled their 30 day yet??  Am I expecting too much perfection???  The nails in the trim make me CRINGE every time I walk through a door... is this something they fix at the 10 month along with the nail pops??

I'm alive! I swear!

Hey, I swore it wouldn't happen to me... I've tried, but I feel like I've fallen off the face of the blog planet!  I promise to keep everyone updated though as things move along.

We had a HUGE storm last night, it woke us up and was pretty scary, I had a nightmare that our basement flooded and ran downstairs to check but thankfully it was just a dream, we are dry as a bone!  There was a huge tree branch in the back yard though, thank God it missed the house!

On another note, our SR Bev hosted a Pure Romance party last night at the model, one of the women in the neighborhood is a consultant.  It was a lot f fun and I got to meet a lot of the female neighbors and we laughed and joked and I found out just how dirty my neighbors are! LOL jk!

I also have scheduled our 30 day for June 26th, I have a HUGE list... I hope I'm not being too picky... here are a few of the items I have and let me know if you guys think I'm going overboard...

1.  Fix all nail holes on trim and smooth out

2.  Wrong color grout was used to patch up master bathroom floor

3.  All cabinets have small-medium scratched on them, replace or repair

4.  Replace/repair all floor boards with nicks/scratches/chips

5. Wavy wall in 2nd bedroom

6.  Master bathroom mirror has black marks on the back, won't come off with cleaning, they are on the back side - replace mirror

7.  Staining on banister is very un-even and sloppy - replace/re-stain using new color

8.  Fix squeak in HW floors in the kitchen by the stove

9.  Front center window is slightly crooked

10.  Carpet on stairs is frayed in spots and looks messy

11.  Grout around master tub is cracking

12.  Missing area of paint in master bathroom

13.  Caulking around all windows is messy both inside and outside - touch up/re-caulk 

14.  Repaint front door

15.  Hose bib in garage is loose/crooked

So those are just a few examples... I have a list of about 50 things so far... EEEKK!! I'm such a perfectionist though and there is a reason we all built and didn't buy "used".... it's so we don't have to fix shit like this!  Most of it is little and I know our PM will have no problem fixing it but the railing stain is a big one, but seriously, it's soooooooooooooo sloppy looking, like a 5th grader did it, actually I was a better painter in 5th grade... and if it is the stain itself that is the problem and how the wood is accepting it, RH needs to discontinue Midnight Black, or call it Midnight baby shit....

Other than those little thing, I really am happy with our home, I love waking up in it, I love taking baths in my tub, I love cuddling with Mr. Tickles and my husband in the living room, I love eating at the table in the morning room... and I LOVE parking my car in a garage!!!

I promise to upload some pics of the house all furnished too... though we don't have much and most rooms are still empty!  

Here are some pics from the first dinner at the house, my dad fried up some blue gill and it was so yummy!!! 

 me and my mommy!!  She is my rock!

 Mother and daughter again.... oh and we got landscaping in!

 Just hanging out having some good wine!  My dad brought us a wine called "High on the Hog" because that's how we are living now :)

 Snuggle time!!!

Mr. Tickles LOVES the new house... she loves snuggling up on the carpet too!

And this was a rainbow the other day, it was so beautiful in person!

The kichen is unpacked and the great refrigerator debacle

So I have the kitchen all put away... no when i saw put away, I really mean just thrown in cabinets and drawers all willy nilly, because I'm tired, I'm cranky, and I just didn't want to look at the boxes anymore.  99.9% of everything needs to be re-washed because it's been sitting forever (I never would cook in the apartment because I hated my kitchen that much) and I need to get organizers and figure out really where everything is going to go, and figure out which lids go to which pots... which I'm pretty sure the lid to pot ratio 2 to 1... not sure how that happened!

Also, the fridge... omg... what a nightmare... It was on its way to us on Saturday when the driver called to say she was 15 min. away and that there was significant damage to it according to the dock report.  Now, we bought it from the outlet scratch and dent, but with only 1 tiny little dent on the side towards the back, no biggies because you won't see it!  Well, she said it was like world war III happened to it... so I said DON'T BOTHER DELIVERING IT.  So, mean while, I forgot to mention that we reserved the uhual the previous week for 9am, since moving the morning would be cooler and more people could help... so... Uhaul called the night before to confirm out 3PM RESERVATION... WTF... ARE YOU KIDDING ME... Apparently, in ALL of Allgeheny county, not ONE SINGLE MOVING TRUCK was available with ANY TRUCKING COMPANY... holy cow I LOST IT!  I was standing at the top of the stairs in our new house while my husband was on the phone with Uhaul and I sounded like an insane woman... I let the frustration get the best of me!  It all ended up working out OK and we had enough people to move the big stuff... but it was just like murphy's law happening all weekend!

Ok... sorry, I got side tracked, so back to the fridge... I call Bridgeville Sears Outlet FUMING mad and tell them I'm on my way in 15 minutes.  They said "pick out any fridge on the floor and we will replace the damaged one" well, of course they didn't have my Jenn Air... BUT they had a Kitchenaid (who makes Jenn Air) that was EXACTLY the same, right down to where the DING in the side was!  It just said "Kitchenaid" on the front instead.  It was $300 more, but they said, it's close enough... and rang me up.  But, I wouldn't have a fridge until Monday.... and we were out of the apt. Sunday... so I had to throw away a lot of food.  So, finally the delivery guys cam on Monday, late, because the dispatch peple gave them the WRONG ADDRESS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN... omg, I wanted to loose it again, I mean, are you kidding me?  So, they get to the house, they look like meth addicts, and the don't put down ANY floor protectors, not boot covers and the track dirt all over my 9k hardwood floors.... and then they wedge the fridge in, focefully I may add... I had to stop them before the put it down to add my own felt to the bottoms, the wheels would have trashed my floors.  So, then after "installing" it, they didn't even level it, it's leaning forward pretty bad.  AND they left me with the water dispenser not working!  They told me to deal with it and call the repair line... IT'S A NEW FRIDGE!! AHHH!!!!

So, I call the repair line and they can't be there until next Monday, and I said I can't wait that long and I'm NOT taking off work for this.... BS So I call the store and talk to the manager (who is super nice and was aware of my whole situation) he suggested, if I could, to move the fridge back out and check the water line to look for kinks.  He also was going to try and get a local repair man out there ASAP.  Well, being impatient and a total beast, I moved that bad boy out myself and what did I find?  I kinked water line!  I asked the delivery guys to pull it back out to check for the and they REFUSED!  I fixed it myself!  go me!  But I was still flaming mad... The manager refunded my delivery fee, obviously, and I'm going to be sending the lovely email with photos of the damage they caused to my walls and floors and just how unprofessional and dissapointing my service was.

So.... in short... we now have a working fridge, and a clean kitchen, and a semi un-packed house.  Few!  Sorry for the long winded post, you know I just had to get all that out of me and I know my RH blogger friends understand!

Oh, BTW, my hardwoods have scratches and nicks and chucks out of them all over!  Is this NORMAL?  We have protective covers on the floors when moving and EVERYTHING has felt on the bottom!  I have SOOOO many boards that need either replaced or filled in!

OK enough ranting... here are some pics!  I love my kitchen... oh how I love my kitchen... I really wish I had an island though :(

 There is a tiny scratch at the top on the side the water/ice is on... it wasn't there when I bought it, I don't know if it's enough to make me want to return it though but I have 30 days to decide.  Never again will I get a fridge from the outlet, it's not worth the hassle, I would have just bought a cheaper-not-as-fancy one at Home Depot if I could do it all over again....

 Oh my hardwoods... how I love thee... except for your nicks, and pits, and scratches :(  I dropped a fork and it was like an asteroid hit them!

 What a sexy looking kitchen!  I can't wait to have my island and granite someday.... ahh a girl can dream!

Another view of my oh so sexy kitchen.... I'm obsessed with the hardwood/cabinet combo!

Busy weekend! I promise not to disappear!

Ok so long weekend! My body feel like it was bested with 100 baseball bats.... I have so much to blog about and I will post pics of how things are looking here this week, We plan to be slaves to Home Depot for the next few months... Omg so much to do.... But it's so worth it! More updates to come! And our kitty, Mr Tickles is feeling much more acclimated to the new house, I was worried about her transition but so far so good..... Aka no pee on my carpet!