A Few Issues and The Survey

We've now been in our house seven weeks and have started having a few issues that need to be addressed.

Our 30 day post-closing walkthrough occurred about three and a half weeks ago. The only real problem that had come up by that point was a soft spot/dip in the carpet in the doorway of bedroom #3. It almost feels like there is a lack of padding underneath the carpet in that spot. The project manager noted it and assured me I would get a call from the flooring subcontractor to schedule a time to come by and take care of it. A week went by and I heard nothing so I called him back. This was followed by a few more calls over the following week after continuing to hear nothing from the contractor. When I was finally called to schedule the appointment (two weeks after the 30 day meeting) the woman I spoke with said she had just been given the report to call. Because of their booked schedule we weren't able to schedule the service appointment until Wednesday of this week, nearly four weeks after the 30 day meeting. It's a minor problem but Jenny and I are both annoyed that it has taken so long to get addressed.

In just the past several days a few more issues have cropped up. I noticed late last week around our front door that I could see daylight through the spot where the door meets the frame. It appears the weather stripping has gotten deformed and isn't creating a tight seal anymore. More pressing is a crack in the tank of the toilet in the upstairs hall bathroom that Jenny discovered Saturday. It's leaking slightly so we've shut the water off at the wall and flushed the toilet to keep the tank empty until it can be fixed. There's no crack in the toilet lid itself (and we haven't even removed that since we moved in) so we're guessing it must be some sort of manufacturing or installation defect. I called the customer service line this morning to report the issues and within 20 minutes I got a call from our project manager to follow up on it. He's putting in an order for a new toilet tank and is hopeful it will be here by Wednesday so it can be installed at the same time the flooring issue is fixed.

The other thing we did several weeks ago was the 30 day post-closing survey. This (and giving perfect 10's) was harped on constantly every step of the way to the point of being downright annoying. Overall we gave everyone high marks and wouldn't hesitate to recommend any of them or Ryan Homes in general to anyone we know. There were a few issues however I noted with the process:
-Getting information about the Homeowner's Association and how to get approval for a fence, shed, etc required far more time and effort on my part than should have been necessary. What should have been a simple question to the model home staff or sales rep with a simple answer in return instead required several hours worth of phone calls and emails to track down the correct information after being given incorrect information by several folks within NVR.
-Visits to officially (i.e. walkthrough with the project manager) check progress on the home were not convenient for working professionals. The project manager was unable to meet beyond 3pm so Jenny was only able to officially walk through the house twice during construction. Thankfully with working for the school system I'm generally done with work around 2:15 at least a few days a week and was able to meet with him otherwise I would have not been able to take off to do so.
-While the front yard was sodded and nicely done, seed and straw was simply dumped down in the backyard without any prep work . We had high winds and rain not long after it was done and a lot of it blew away leaving bare spots all over the yard that turn to mud when it rains. It was almost a waste to have done it if they weren't going to do at least a simple aeration beforehand.


Lastly, on the topic of grass that leads me to one other annoyance at the moment:

I had to call a few weeks ago and again this past Friday to get the grass mowed at the finished but unoccupied house next to us along with the grass on the empty lots on the other side of us. The project manager called me not long after I spoke with customer service and assured me that they're on a rotation to get mowed. It's high enough to be in violation of the county ordinance and has been for over a week at this point. I would have thought the developer would be more on top of getting this taken care of as it makes the community look bad as a whole. With kids and dogs we're quite concerned about the higher chance of ticks, snakes, and other not-so-fun things coming into our yard.

Inspection, Final Walkthrough, and Closing

Time really go away from me since I last updated this blog. I've been meaning to come back and update it for well over a month now but just couldn't find the time to sit down and do it. So let me try to recap everything that has occurred since my last post on April 10.

The week before closing I was on spring break from work and it was a whirlwind of trying to finish getting everything packed up and ready to move from our old house. We also had a walkthrough with the project manager that week that allowed Jenny to finally see the nearly finished inside. This was followed by a trip to Ikea to get some additional furniture to fill up the larger amount of space we would have with the new house.

On Monday afternoon (April 21st) of the following week I had a home inspection done by an outside company. With all the various inspections done by the county and Ryan Homes I debated about the value of this but I felt like it was worth the peace of mind to have an independent inspection done by someone outside of the process. I used a local company, Burgess Inspections Inc., that was recommended to us by one of Jenny's coworkers and they couldn't have been nicer to work with. The inspector found a couple of very minor issues (small amount of water in the crawlspace apparently from the irrigation system install and a few things on the siding and trim) but otherwise said it was one of the best built new homes he had ever inspected.

Tuesday morning April 22nd Jenny and I met with the project manager to do the final walkthrough and orientation. We'd been through the house so many times at this point that there wasn't much of anything new to see but he went over the various warranties, operation of the irrigation system and other things, etc.

Thursday morning April 24th was the big day. A little after 11am Jenny and I met up with our realtor at the lawyer's office, signed the paperwork, and officially took possession. I'll note here that we used a lawyer of our own choosing for settlement rather than using NVR even though it cost us more in closing costs. We personally felt like using NVR Settlement Services was a conflict of interest and just like with the home inspection we felt better having someone independent and outside the process put their eyes on it. I'll also mention here that our realtor got a rather rude and poorly written email from someone at NVR Settlement not long after we made them aware of our decision to use our own lawyer that wanted to know why she was steering her clients away from them. This type of thing only reinforced our decision. (Although it's worth noting that particular incident was by far the exception rather than the rule. Everybody else we dealt with during this process with Ryan/NVR was incredibly nice and helpful.)

Following the closing (and the following day) we immediately go in and started painting. Jenny opted for accent walls in the living room and morning room along with completely painting every bedroom. Every wall in the house was painted an off white color so while she'd like to eventually go back and do more painting it's not an overly pressing need right now.

Friday and Saturday were spent moving. We had gotten rid of a lot of stuff in the previous months but still moved with way too much. Since moving in we've put together a fairly large donation and sell pile in the garage that I've got to deal with eventually. We also managed to quickly mark up the walls moving furniture in. Having the laundry room upstairs is great but getting the washer and dryer up the stairs not so much. There was a considerable amount of sweating and cursing involved in that. (Along with getting our king sized mattress and some of the other furniture up there too.)

So at this point we've been living in the house just under four weeks and absolutely love it. There's so much extra space compared to our old house and the open floor plan downstairs is great. We're also really glad we got the morning room on the back. It adds so much extra space and between the windows and sliding door is full of natural light all day. We've met some of the neighbors and everyone is very nice. Our lot is at the beginning of a cul-de-sac so our older son has been able to ride his bike out in the street without us worrying about traffic. We're already making plans to further personalize the house so stay tuned.

Almost Finished

We stopped by the house last weekend to discover that exterior lights and front porch railing had been installed along with the yard being graded. The front sidewalk had also been poured for the third time.

And then this afternoon I talked with the project manager on the phone and he mentioned that something big had happened but he would let it be a surprise. So when went by there I discovered landscaping. Sod across the front yard, shrubs, mulch, and a tree. 

The backyard has been seeded with straw overtop. It doesn't look like much though and along with the over seeding I've already been told I will probably need to do I'm probably going to have to get more straw too.

In other news I submitted the request with the Homeowners Association to get approval to put up a fence. I'll save the full story for another post but simply tracking down how to do this was a tremendous ordeal and one of the most irritating parts of this whole process. What I expected would be a simple question with a simple answer (What is the phone number and name of the person I contact for this?) turned into multiple emails, phone calls, misinformation, and whole lot of wasted time. But it's been submitted and the plan is to get it put up as soon as possible after we close on the house and move in.

Drywall and Primer

I've been a little behind on updates on here. The day after my last post on Week 6 progress we had the dreaded stomach virus make it's miserable way through our house starting with our youngest son. It delayed the drywall walkthrough as the day I was originally supposed to meet with the project manager I was feeling half dead and had to postpone it with him a few days.

When I finally met with last week not only was the drywall up but the first coat of primer had been put on the walls as well. He explained to me that painting is a multistep process done over the course of a week or so with primer, patching, paint, more patching, and another layer of paint added before it's finished. The kitchen and bathroom cabinetry had also been added with everything covered in plastic to keep it protected from stray paint.

On the outside the driveway was in the final stages of paving when I arrived for the walkthrough. Gutters had also been installed. With a lack of trees in our yard leaves won't be much of an issue but at some point I plan to get some sort of cover installed on those. Getting up on a ladder to clean the gutters on my existing one story house has been difficult enough and I definitely won't be climbing high enough to reach the second story on this one.

The project manager asked me not to include a picture of it but he was also going to be tearing up the sidewalk and getting it re-poured for the third time. I mention this because I've really appreciated his attention to detail and it seems like everything Jenny and I have noted as potential issues during construction he's already seen and made note of. The previous two pours of the sidewalk looked fine to us and we never would have thought to ask about it. But clearly he saw a problem both times warranting redoing it. I've also really appreciated his constant communication throughout the build. He's called at least once if not twice a week and always been willing to meet me for a walkthrough. As I've noted before Jenny and I have read through numerous other Ryan Homes building blogs and at least some of them have noted a lack of communication from the project manager but this has certainly not been an issue for us. 

On to photos:

Paved driveway.

Rear of house. Note the safety railing covering the sliding door. After we move in my brother-in-law is going to add a simple set of steps for us until we can build a deck. We opted not to one built during initial construction as our sales rep told us that their cost was around twice as much as what we could have it added for later. We're also probably going to add a patio of some sort too.

More photos behind the cut here.