Well, I guess it has been a LONG while since I've been on here. Boy, life sure is running away with me. Not too much has changed in the last few months, but thought it was time for an update.
We are getting ready for our 10 month follow-up. We were originally scheduled for Thursday, the 8th, but hurricane Sandy pushed them back. We are now scheduled for Monday, the 19th. Not too many major things on our list. A few things are:
- some of the interior doors don't latch - although strange enough, hurricane Sandy must have straightened the house because they latch now
- the front door has trouble locking and it all started after our final driveway coating - guess the machine shook the house a bit too much
- the dishwasher doesn't always dispense the soap so after it is done and you open the door, the little door over the soap pops open the soap falls out
- our fireplace has a blower on it and it rattles something fierce
- the grass never grew around the edges of the house - too much clay and they didn't lay any soil down first
- cracks are showing up in the foundation, but I think they are just cosmetic, but better to have it noted now
- our basement door is hard to lock
- the front steps have a gap between the first step and the porch that water will get into and freeze, which could cause the concrete to heave.
That's about it. Glad we haven't had anything too serious. Drywall on the other hand will be fun. We have huge cracks above a few of the bedroom doors, a couple of big cracks in the morning room, and nail pops galore.
The only major thing we have had to had fixed was the ponding of water in the backyard. The developer (different company than Ryan) did not grade behind our house correctly and we had standing water the entire length of our backyard and about 5 feet out from the property line. We brought it up several times before settlement and were brushed off. After our neighbor put in a sprinkler system it just got worse. Pushed again and finally demanded that the developer meet with us. The county's Land Management office ended up coming out as well. They told the developer that he either had to regrade the entire common area (tree save) behind our home or he could put in the french drain we were demanding. He chose to put in the drain instead of having to yank out 60+ trees to regrade. So then because we didn't just want a french drain in our yard, we paid to add rock for a dry river bed.
Here is the before and mostly after:
You can see there is quite a slope here. Can't believe they didn't expect water to pool.
Just a few of the things they dug up while putting in the french drain - according to Google maps, there was a house here a few years back and I guess they had a junk yard in the back. Lovely.
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| Lawn Mower Motor |
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| Motorcycle Tire |
The developer finished his part - we just wanted to "beautify" it a bit.
Almost there - next will be mulch and plants, but that will have to wait till spring.
WOW! It's so nice to see you guys back! I started blogging when you all started building the workshop. Would love to see pictures of the finished product. We are building a Rome in Maryland. I like the landscaping you did for the area they restored. Very nice idea! Glad they were able to get that done before it caused any further damage.
ReplyDeleteGood solution! When we were looking at existing homes before signing with RH, one of the houses had the french drains without the added rock. The rock makes it SOOOO much prettier.
ReplyDeleteAnd ditto to seeing your workshop finished! I had the crazy thought to turn that study into a mudroom, but we will probably use it as a guest room/downstairs playroom instead. :)
That is quite a list........wow......you are the reason NONE of us should paint for sure, imagine doing all the painting and 10 months them coming back in and patching all those cracks and pops, I think I'm gonna listen to my PM and not paint for awhile...
ReplyDeleteYou sound so calm, I would be sooo mad! But I guess stuff happens and that is why you have the 10 month inspection..
How is the french drain working for you? We've been thinking about trying to do that if our drainage in the back yard doesn't improve.
ReplyDeleteThe french drain has been great. We watched it closely during Hurricane Sandy and we had no standing water and could see water gushing out of the end of the pipe into the woods.
DeleteHi Gina - I wanted to ask you how the mud room without the closet turned out. We are thinking about doing that as well. Do you have a pic you don't mind sharing? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSadly, we still haven't done the mudroom yet. Hopefully we will get to it this summer. Hubby is just about done with the workroom and finally has his work bench done, just need to start putting stuff away.
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