We closed!!!

Quick post... We closed!!!! Here are some pics :)

The show must go on....

Well, we got our situation "resolved" I guess you could say.  Not nearly what we felt was fair, I also was sad that they were attacking us by claiming out old PM (The one that quit midway through) showed us where the new window was going to go... uh, yeah, he did... IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WALL not the END.  But, it became a he said/she said situation and we walked away with some compensation.  I just felt like they were putting the blame on US for not noticing earlier... UH EXCUSE ME!?!?!  I'm not at PROJECT MANAGER.  I'm pretty pissed/sad over it but I'm going to to DW's advice and not let it ruin my experience in our new home. I think our SR may have got some heat and I feel so bad b/c I love her, she is a great person, it is just business.  I was just really disappointing in how we were treated by "the bosses" and how we were painted to be the bad guys for asking for some kind of restitution for a pretty large screw-up.  Overall, my Realtor said our house is beautiful and well made and all of the little things will be fixed and he said we have serious built in equity based on how much we paid for the house, we could sell now and make a handsome profit, even after closing costs.  I hope that we can be happy in our new home... I'm still sick over the "poop" colored railing stain... grrr but I am going to voice my dissatisfaction with that at the walk-through and demand they be fixed at the 30 day.  I'm pretty sure our PM hates us too... which doesn't help my plea for a new stain.  But, all I can say to that is SURVEY SURVEY SURVEY... you better believe I'm going to be honest and I'm holding on the that sucker until everything is fixed.

1 hour of sleep and 2 days until close... the informal walk-through recap

So, last night I didn't sleep, I got maybe an hour, just enough to have nightmares about our house falling apart and my teeth falling out (stress dream, my teeth fall out in my dreams when I'm stressed!) I am running on a triple grande caramel machiatto right now from Starbucks and I'm more nervous than I was the day of my wedding.

Our walk-through went OK, there were the little things, like the trim, crooked cabinets, nicks and chips in paint, etc. and then we headed to the basement... dun dun DUUUNNNN!!!!!

I lost it, I almost started crying, and then our Realtor stepped in and stepped up to the plate and said this was just a gross mistake, and he wanted the estimate cost of moving the window, AGAIN, not that we would, but to see what it is worth to RH and to us, to know what we can negotiate.  I would really like credit at close, and we went through the list of our wants, from top to bottom, and our Realtor is going to email our SR, he said that we will fight this and he said we can refuse to close if they don't budge.  I will keep everyone updated.  I just wish I could get excited about the house, part of me is, but the other part doesn't want to get so excited that it looks like I'm content with how things were handled, our PM had his tail between his legs for the most part, just apologizing.  Also, our railing is SOOOOOOO light!  He promised he would re-do it if we didn't like it, well I HATE it and he said that's just how it is!  Well, down the road, that railing is going to get stained darker, I will do it myself....

Here is a pic of the outside, they were cleaning like crazy on the inside so I didn't take any pics of the interior, I will do a full video walk-through for you guys on Friday though.  Ugh... I really wish I was happy and more excited about our new home...

Informal walk through tomorrow

So, thanks to the great advice from my fellow RH bloggers, I have scheduled an informal walk through tomorrow morning with my PM.  I also requested that my agent be there as well... I just saw on our HUD-1 how much he made off of this deal and OMG that is the easier money anyone could ever make, so I'm going to make him work for it FOR SURE.

I drove by yesterday because I just was curious if they worked over the weekend and there was no progress, the trim on the outside looks like total CRAP there are cracks and chips and it is so peiced together, like they ran out of trim, and because I don't have shutter to hide it, it is SO noticeable.

I am also pushing on the window placement... here is my thought on it all

You go to a restaurant, doesn't even have to be fancy, and your steak is over cooked.  They happily apologize and replace it for you (analogy of my window being replaced) now, if my steak comes back out and it's STILL not cooked right, they will again, they happily apologize and offer me a new steak or menu item, AND free dessert.... well, we have come to the point of free dessert on this window thing... and I want a hot fudge Sunday with ALL the toppings... if you catch my drift.  And we're not talking about some $20 steak here, we are talking about over 1/4 of a MILLION DOLLARS!  Good grief that is a lot of money!  Maybe not to some but to 99.9% of people, that is a big investment!!  And I will TOTALLY through out that analogy as silly as it sounds because maybe it will put things into perspective for them...

I will have my full recap tomorrow after our meeting, wish us luck!

Video of the egress window "repair"

Ok here is a link to my video of me venting about the egress window repair and showing you what exactly they did.... Let me know what you would do if you were in my shoes

7 days out and getting worried...

I stopped by the house last night to check out the progress, I mean, we are 7 days out people!  To my surprise, it still looks like a war zone... they still need to back fill, there is dust and paint everywhere, nothing is cleaned, my counters are covered in muck, I didn't even go all the way through the house because I was just too afraid to look!  I have a crooked window and I can still see the silver stuff they put around the windows on one of them, and the one while trim casing around the outside of the window isn't a full piece, it was 2 pieces and you can totally tell, it looks like garbage, the finish work on the outside is looking rough and I'm NOT happy, I really hope they plan on touching up the outside of the house too....

Please someone tell me this is all typical!  I am just so worried things won't be ready for closing!  We are closing on the same day as our final walk-through, I know it's not typical to do so, but we need the weekend to move in and our loan lock is only good through Wed. June 5th, and I'd rather close at the end of the month to save on the upfront pre-paid interest, taxes, etc.

I'm going to let them work today and stop out tomorrow and PRAY that things are looking better, the weather is crappy today so they probably will just be working inside.  I just don't want to go to the walk through and see a million things wrong and then go to closing, I don't want to accept a house that isn't 100% complete (other than the normal 30 days fixes)

Siding is ALMOST complete!

I finally got to see the exterior elevation selections come together!  It's 99.9% competed, we have a missing light on the garage and a tiny piece of shake missing from the gable, but it was so nice to see it all together instead of tiny swatches!  I really love how it looks and we are the ONLY house in the neighborhood with this elevation and without shutters, so it will be easy to spot our place!  I actually don't mind not having shutters, the look is very clean and modern with that cottage craftsman feel.  I also "broke in" to the house, lol, the garage code was easy to figure out, got it on my first try, lol.  I was walking through the house, not too much has changed since Friday, though i didn't expect it too!  Our PM said the punch-out guy will be there this week and boy, he has his work cut out for him!  There are all kinds of nicks, and holes and we'll say, less than desirable workman ship on the dry wall.  The walls are SOOOO rough and it's making me nervous, just all those little things that make a house lok complete look like a complete mess right now, but I have faith that it will look fantastic by May 31st.  I am almost hoping they "break" my tub so I can get the newer model, I got one of the old styles and it just isn't as big as I would like, they did kind of trash my master bathroom too, chipped a bunch of grout on the tile floors, that will certainly be the first thing I look at on the walk through ... we also still need back filled for the replaced egress window, my husband is pretty upset that we have a section of foundation that is block and not poured, and I totally agree, but every time I bring it up to RH they say it is fine, well, that may be but it looks HIDEOUS and it's not what was promised, which is a 100% poured foundation... am I crazy for thinking I should get what we paid for?  Should I complain and try to get some extras out of this??