Microwave, Flooring, and Drywall Repairs

This could also be entitled "10 Month Review Part III". (See Part 1 and Part 2.)

I've been on spring break from work this week so along with a multitude of other things on my to-do list I also scheduled contractors to come out and complete various repairs that had been noted at the 10 month review.

Microwave
Our microwave had been making an intermittent buzzing for several months. (Didn't happen very often and there didn't seem to be any pattern when it did occur.) After the 10 month review I submitted a repair request through GE's website and then had to follow up with the repair place that it had been submitted to when they never called me to schedule it. (They claimed they never received it.) A few weeks ago a technician came out. The microwave wouldn't make the noise of course but I showed him the video on my phone that I took the last time it happened. According to him GE had a bad batch of parts when our microwave was built and he's replaced a lot of them recently. It was three possible parts that could be the cause so he went ahead and put in to replace all of them. Because the issue is so common the parts were back ordered so it took until this week to get the repair done,

Two other things I'll note on this:
-The tech mentioned to me something Jenny and I didn't realize. On the bottom of the microwave above the stove there are two grease filters that need to be cleaned periodically. Ours were dirty and apparently this can affect the operation of the appliance. He said to just toss them in the dishwasher once a month and that will be enough to keep them clean.

-The warranties on the included appliances (stove, microwave, and dishwasher) are only one year. This seems rather short to me and I feel like Ryan should guarantee them for two years like they do the other major systems on the house. The dryer at our house broke one time and getting it repaired cost almost half as much as replacing it. (Which in retrospect is what we should have done.)


Floor Repair
Last summer the project manager had a crew out to fix a soft spot in the floor in front of Bedroom #3. They filled it with a putty compound to level it out but within a few months it had gotten soft again. (My father-in-law is a flooring contractor by trade and told me at the time that the way they fixed it wouldn't last.) At the ten month review it was determined the floor needed to be cut out and replaced to permanently fix it and that was what was done this week.

Soft spot with putty prior to being cut out.

Section of the subfloor cut out and removed.

This screw gun was so awesome looking I had to get a photo of it. I wonder how I could justify adding one of these to my collection of power tools?

Subfloor replaced.

Drywall Repair

The last item this week was the one year drywall repair. This is a one time fix for any nail pops and cracks that occur during the first year. In the days leading up to this we had to go around the house marking any spots we found with pieces of blue painters tape. They can be difficult to spot and we went through the house multiple times at different times of day trying to spot everything. On the day before the repair appointment I finally started walking around the house with a roll of tape in my pocket so I could mark spots as I found them. Along with the nail pops we had a number of hairline cracks in the corners and where the walls met the ceiling along with cracks coming off the corners of windows and in some of the trim. We also had a few spots in the ceiling where the seam between sections of drywall was visible. All of this was totally expected with a new house and didn't seem to be any more or less than what is normally seen.

How the foyer looked with all the spots marked.

I forgot to get good before shot but this was a settlement crack coming off the corner of the door in the master bedroom closet. We also had small cracks like this in the corners of several of the windows.

Stairway midway through the repair prior to painting.

Seam in the dining room after it had been patched and primed.

The whole process took two days. On the first day the drywall contractors patched and primed all of the spots we had marked. On the second day they came back, sanded everything down, and painted. Overall we were very happy with the work that was done. The repaired areas looked as good as they did when we moved in almost a year ago. The guys doing the work also spotted additional spots we hadn't and on top of that also repaired a few areas where the dopier of our two cats had dug his claws into the walls around the windows. On the downside I've already spotted a few small spots that we missed. I've also been told that we'll continue to see additional spots for another six months to a year but from what I saw they're not very difficult to fix.

What do you do when you have a lazy Pug that refuses to move? Cover him up and keep working. (I eventually moved him upstairs and he responded by pooping on the floor.)