Never Hurts to Ask

I forgot to mention one additional thing in last night's entry about the ten month review. Ryan Homes is pretty adamant throughout the process that the landscaping is one thing that is not covered by any warranty. We however had one bush (or shrub, possibly a tree, not entirely sure what to call it) that despite being right by a sprinkler head and receiving adequate water died with a few months of moving into our house. Normally this wouldn't be much of an issue but when we priced out the replacement cost it was upwards of $60-70, not expensive but not cheap either for something that should have had a longer lifespan. Towards the end of the meeting the topic of the landscaping came up and we happened to mention this to our service manager. He said he'd take care of it for us and sure enough at some point today someone had come by, dug up the dead plant, and replaced it with a new one. Thank you Mike for helping us out with this.

10 Month Review Part II

A few weeks ago I posted about the list of issues we submitted to get addressed during our 10 month review. The day of our appointment ended up being two days after a snow storm and with school being out I didn't need to take off work to be home which worked out well for me. I'm just going to copy and paste the same list I posted before but now with how these things were addressed.

1. Thorough check of the HVAC system - major temperature difference between upstairs and down.
Around the same time as I submitted the list I did what I should have done earlier and went to Lowe's and bought a digital thermometer. This showed that the temperature actually was within a degree of upstairs and down and in different spots on each floor. We've since discovered what we thought was an issue with the HVAC is actually an issue with our windows instead. (See below after the list.)

2. Light above the master bath tub is intermittently working.
This required an electrician's visit a few days later and I'm actually embarrassed to say ended up being a defective light bulb that I hadn't checked.

3. Nail pop (or bulge) in the floor of the kitchen.
Fixed with a mallet tapping down the popped nail under the linoleum.

4. Soft spot in the floor of the doorway of bedroom #3.
This is going to require a carpenter to come out and fix. They'll need to pull up the carpet, cut out the wood subfloor underneath and replace it. (What really should have been done originally.) This is going to take a few hours to complete so it was scheduled for the week I'm on spring break from work.

5. Major popping of the floor in the hallway upstairs in front of bedroom #2.
Just like the kitchen floor issue above this was simple fix with a few nails to secure the floor better. It's still creaking a bit and when they come out to fix #4 above I'll have them look at it again.

6. Re-caulking around the tubs and sinks in both bathrooms.
This is a standard part of the ten month review. One of the guys that was present went around the entire house checking the caulking and resealed anything that had cracked. (He also checked cabinet and room/closet doors for adjustment as well.) This will end up being a periodic routine maintenance issue.

7. Intermittent buzzing from the microwave.
If there's one thing I'm genuinely irritated about it's this one. The person I spoke with at Ryan Homes when setting the appointment specifically asked me to include the model and serial numbers so they could arrange to have a GE repairman out during the review to fix this. Despite that however no one was present and I had to go to GE's website and submit a request to get someone out at a later date. I was also a bit surprised to learn that the warranty on the appliances is only one year and according to the service manager GE is a stickler for that so it was best to get it addressed right away.

8. Re-caulking of the trim on the right side of the stairway.
See #6 above.

9. Readjustment of the seal around the front door.
The door ended up needing another piece of gasket around the top edge to fully seal it.

10. Air register in the ceiling at the top of the stairs does not close all the way.
This was an easy fix.

11. Floor on the right side of the morning room by the dining room has a bad squeak.
Just like with the other floor squeaks this was also an easy fix with a few nails.

12. Creaking noise coming from the area of the wastewater pipe between floors behind the wall periodically when water is used upstairs.
In talking this over with the service manager we figured out this probably had something to do with the temperature change outside. We hadn't noticed it until early November right around the time it got cold. It seems that it's most likely caused by contractions from the change of different temperature water running through the pipes. If we don't hear it again once it warms up outside we should know for certain this was the cause. If it continues we'll just have to keep an eye on it.

A few other things:

-Going back to #1 above about the HVAC. Even after establishing with the thermometer that the temperature was the same upstairs and down we still kept feeling drafts and being cold, especially downstairs but couldn't figure out why. The weekend before the aforementioned snow storm hit a cold front swept through resulting in heavy, house shaking wind. We discovered in the midst of it that we had air leaking in through the sides of the windows where hole for the track is. We then found that this isn't limited to just a few windows but rather nearly all of them in the house.

We brought this up during the review and it turns out they simple need small pieces of felt placed at the top and bottom to completely seal them. In the meantime I've stuffed paper towels in the holes to keep them from leaking. (If it's stupid and it works it's not stupid.) The service manager put in a call to the window company who in turn called me about it. According to the person I spoke with the excuse I received (which sounded more like a cop out) was that the windows are built for all areas of the country, some of which don't need the felt, and passed an inspection in the factory. It just seems dumb to not include these on all the windows and instead spend more on a service call to fix them along with annoying the customer. I'm still waiting to find out when this will be fixed but have been told it may take a while given the number of windows that need to be fixed. (Also stupid to me.) I'm going to be following up soon with the service manager if I don't hear anything about this in the next couple days.

-I'll mention here too that during the same period of crazy wind we also discovered air leaks coming from the electrical outlets and light switches on the exterior walls. This was solved by spending about $10 on gaskets from Lowe's that are made to fix this specific issue.

-Before the review meeting was over we spoke with the service manager about the one-time drywall repair. He gave us the certificate to fill out and send in to the contractor for scheduling. It will be done in two parts spread over two days so it'll be another thing that will have to wait until spring break to get done. We've got numerous nail pops and cracks but none of them are major.

Overall Jenny and I are very satisfied with how the meeting went. We really like our service manager and have found him to be very responsive with issues that have come up in the time we've been in our house. On that note too outside of the nightmare over how the fence issue was handled we're really happy with how things have gone since moving in. We knew there would be some issues but everything that has happened so far (*knock on wood*) has been addressed quickly. Even the furnace problem was no where near as bad as it could have been. (I'll have more on the follow up about this in a few weeks but a fix is in the works to keep it from happening again, thanks again to our service manager.)

Furnace Breakdown and Fix

As I've mentioned in several previous posts including this one from last summer we have dampers in our attic that have to be adjusted in the spring and fall to maintain the temperature upstairs and down. Getting to the levers to do so requires climbing over the furnace condensation and gas lines while ducking underneath the roof truss.

How it looks in the attic where our HVAC system is located.

Every time I've gone up there to adjust them I've mentioned to Jenny how I don't like how this is set up. Getting through there is a bit of balancing act and I've been afraid every time I do it that I'm going to slip and fall into them. Going around the other side of the system isn't any easier and would require wiggling underneath insulated ductwork and I'm not sure I'd actually fit through there. The poor design of this was borne out this week when, on the brink of the coldest night we've had in years, our furnace stopped working.

Along with the snow we had earlier in the week a bitter cold front swept through the region bringing with it record low temperatures. On Thursday evening I had gone to bump the temperature up on the thermostat a bit when I noticed the display was blank. I checked the breaker which was fine and then realized I could stick batteries in it as a back up. Even once it came on the heat didn't so I immediately called the emergency number for the HVAC company to get a tech out here. In the meantime one of my awesome neighbors (who has also had heating issues) lent us a space heater.

Around 9:15pm the tech arrived and after taking a look at our furnace in the attic discovered that the condensation line had broken off from inside the furnace. From there water had dripped into the pan underneath tripping the moisture sensor and shutting the unit down. Earlier in the day we had had our 10 Month Review (more on this in another post) and the service manager and I had gone up in the attic to look at the system. While up there he had climbed over the lines and must have bumped it enough to break it. (I'll emphasize here that I don't in any way blame him for this. It could have just as easily been me that did it any of the other times I'd been up there.) Unfortunately the technician didn't have the parts nor could he obtain them so late at night to fix it. Facing not having heat I asked (pretty much pleaded) if there was any way he could at least patch it for the night. Enter our friend and miracle worker, duct tape. Using a copious amount of it he was able to reattach the drain trap the pipe connects to back to the furnace and get it running but with no guarantee that it would hold. He also installed a less sensitive moisture sensor that should the patch fail would allow more water into the drip pan and buy us additional time before it shut the furnace off again.

It's hard to tell from this photo but this is the duct taped drain trap.

Needless to say I didn't sleep very well Thursday night worrying that the patch would fail and we would lose our heat. I got up multiple times to go in the laundry room and to make sure I could still hear the condensation dripping down the pipe that runs through the wall. Luckily the patch did hold and we made it through to Friday morning with the heat still running. (Good thing because it was 0 degrees with a negative wind chill outside.)

Friday morning I followed up with Superior Plumbing, Heating, and Air of Ashland, Virginia to make sure the parts to fix it would be available. About an hour later I got a call that they were and they'd be out by midday to fix. True to their word they were there a few hours later and within 20 minutes had the unit fixed. The only thing I'll need to do in a few days once it warms up outside is haul my shop vacuum up into the attic to remove the water from the pan once it thaws. 

I also followed up with our service manager in several calls during Friday as well. I feel like this set up is a poor design that is way too easy to break. Given that adjusting the dampers is a routine maintenance item and that I will have to continue climbing over this line to get to them I'm worried that eventually this situation could happen again. He's going to meet with me next week to look at it but I've told him that I would like for them to install an additional access panel at the other end of the attic. In houses without the pull down steps like we opted for the access panel is located in the laundry room and allows for access to the dampers without climbing over the condensation and gas lines. It seems to me that this could be done very easily and even though I'd have to haul a ladder upstairs when I need to get up there to adjust them it'd be worth the extra effort to avoid breaking the line again.

All of that being said we really appreciate Superior's quick response to our problem along with the service manager's efforts at getting it fixed quickly as well. He mentioned to me on the phone that he had called the HVAC folks Friday morning and told them that if the parts were not available they were to go pull them from another house under construction so we could get it fixed by the end of the day and not have to wait any longer than necessary. I wish it hadn't happened on the coldest possible night but it worked out as best as could have been expected.

*Comments with links to HVAC companies will be marked as spam and deleted.*

IKEA Finds

Jenny and I love IKEA. So much so that nearly every room in our house has something from there. A few weekends ago we made one of our semi-annual trips to the closest one in Woodbridge. Originally we had only planned on getting a linen cabinet Jenny has had her eye on for over a year now. But just like every other time we've gone up there we've inevitably left with more than we planned.

This is the linen cabinet Jenny wanted. It fits perfectly in the indentation in the dining room wall and Jenny is using it to hold her cookbooks. The doors lock with an old fashioned key which is a benefit for us because it prevents our toddler from dumping the books in the floor.

This is our master bedroom. A few years back we bought the rest of the Hemnes bedroom collection but had never gotten around to getting the bed frame. (We used a basic metal frame instead.) While we were up there this time around we discovered it was on sale so we went ahead and bought it. It's so long that we had some doubt it would fit in Jenny's RAV4 but we managed to get it home. We also finally bought curtains too. Between those and the bed frame the bedroom has been transformed.

The bed frame box was so long the end of it rested on the console between the front seats. I had to check any time Jenny changed lanes or made a left turn because it blocked her vision on the passenger side.