Leaks.

I think there should be a witty title for this post.

But there's not.

We have a leak.  Noticed it yesterday as we were leaving for work.  It's in between the morning room and the kitchen.  It leaked some yucky brown water onto our granite counters which caused it to stain. And- THERES A LEAK.  In a house we have been in for less than two month.

A leak.

So, we unfortunately had to go to work and couldn't stress right then and there about this leak in our house.  Luckily it wasn't leaking heavily.  As soon as I got to work and a computer, I got on the Ryan Homes site and filled out the service request thingy to have it documented and get someone out to look at it.  Also, because it was a leak, I emailed our PMs so they were aware of it.  I want this thing fixed as soon as possible.

Here's the link to the service request in case any of y'all need it: Ryan Homes Service Request

Now, before I get into this whole process, I want to explain a couple of things, and refresh y'all on a couple of things.

First, way back before we had drywall go up, we went to visit the house one day and noticed a pretty big leak from the kitchen to the morning room on the beam that pretty much connects the two rooms together.  We took photos and were going to address it with the PM when we had our pre-drywall meeting.

Here's the post from Week 5 where we were getting HVAC and such put in... we have a photo that I'll post below of the beam between the morning room and kitchen. It was leaking REALLY bad.

You can see the beam where it's broken... The water was dripping heavily right there.

Well, that's exactly where our leak was coming from yesterday.  So at this point I'm thinking it could have been from that area.

The other potential culprit-- something that I brought up at our 30 day follow up.... The grout in our master shower has spots that are way darker than other spots. The handyman just put some grout over the top of the spots that looked darker.  I was concerned that it looked "wet" even after it had dried to begin with.  I noticed it a lot when I was sealing our grout.  I asked our PM at the 30 day if it could be a leak.  He said that if it were a leak we would see it through the walls or elsewhere causing issues.

So, I thought that seemed logical.  Made sense.  Didn't really make sense why our grout would be two different colors.. but hey, I'm not the expert.

Here's my post from our 30 day that talks about all this stuff:  30 Day Post Settlement Follow Up!

Okay, so now back to the service request online.  It was super easy.  I entered our zip code, then our address and BOOM! Filled out the request and hit submit.  A few hours later some guy called me.  He left me a voicemail as I was at work and couldn't get to the phone.  In his voicemail, he wanted clarification as to whether or not it was a "beam" like what I described, or if it was part of the HVAC system.  I clearly knew it was a wooden beam as I had the pre-drywall photos and knew in the back of my head that one day we'd have a leak here.

So, I called back.  It's a general number and I talked to a gal named Morgan.  I explained the situation, and when she pulled up the request, the guy that left the voicemail had switched the ticket from an "other" ticket {I chose "other" because they didn't have anything for leaks inside} to an HVAC issue.  Without me calling or saying anything.

That rubbed me the wrong way.  You know what they say when you assume things, right?!

So,she fixed everything and said that the info would be forwarded to a guy named Jared, who apparently takes over service requests past the 30 day follow ups.  I mentioned that our PMs already knew about it, and she said that they would also be notified of the service request.

Our PM responded to my email pretty quickly, saying he'd try to get the plumber out.  He also asked if we had used the master bath recently.

We mentioned that we both work 8-4:30, so we need some kind of notice if the plumber can come out, so we can get off of work early, if it was even possible.  Also told him we hadn't used the master bath in at least a week (but I promise we use the shower every day).

It took several hours for a response, but he let me know that the plumber could be out the next morning at 7:30, and asked if that would work.  I immediately text hubby and he was able to ask his boss for the morning off so he could be home.

When we got home from work yesterday afternoon, it didn't seem bad.  The leak had dried up and was just a small blotch of yuck on the roof, and the spot on the granite had dried and wasn't visible anymore, and the granite looked good.  I was happy about the granite.  I was so ready to be demanding and require they replace that piece of granite if it was stained.  So they can consider themselves lucky about that one, haha!

So hubby stayed home this morning and waited for the plumbers.  I made my way to work and got text message updates the entire time.  They showed up around 7:45.  It was one of our PMs and 2 plumbers.

The first text I got said that he heard one of them say "ut oh".

Well that's fantastic.

And the verdict?  It's the master shower.

When hubby told me that, he got a string of angry face emojis. I fricken CALLED it.  I asked about it and it was brushed off.  Y'all have NO idea how upset I am over this.

So, now they must cut holes in our drywall to fix the leak.

One giant hole is cut in the drywall.  Guess what?!  NO LEAK.

Seriously.

So a second hole is cut.  Luckily they find the cause of the leak here and get their tools out to solder it back together so it no longer leaks.  And we now have two gaping holes in our drywall in the master bedroom.

And then the downstairs.  They had to cut a hole in the ceiling and then take apart the drywall where the beam is between the kitchen and morning room.  All of that has to "dry out" for a week and then they'll replace the drywall and patch everything up.

Have  I mentioned to you guys how stressful this has all been and how many tears I have shed?

Wanna see photos?  Cuz I have them!

I'll caption each one with what it is.  There's a few tile photos from our master bath showing the different colors of the grout, followed by the photos of the work they did to make holes in our walls.  All of these photos were taken with my phone so they won't be the best quality.. haha!

This is the leak.  the top of this is the ceiling and the other is the "beam" that separates the morning room from the kitchen. The leak is on the kitchen side.

A bit of a better photo of the leak.  When we "found" it, it was actively leaking, although not a waterfall, just a drip.

This is the beam between the kitchen (left side) and morning room (right side).  you can see the damage it's already caused.

Another angle of the beam and the damage.

Another closer angle of the beam and the damage.  You can see water spots and cracked drywall here.

A bit better lighting of the photo above.

This is in the master bath.  This tile is OUTSIDE the shower, but it's a new bit of one of two things... Either bad tile work or it's cracked because of the water leaking from behind this wall.

Another shot of the tile outside the shower that I noticed this morning while snapping photos.

This is inside the shower, right below the shower knob.  Notice the two different colors of grout.  One is lighter while the second is darker.  We haven't used the shower for a full day since this shot, but this is how it has looked since we first moved in and started using the shower.

More dark grout.

A wider angle.  Below the knob you can see how it's a darker color grout than all of the rest of the grout surrounding the shower.

This is the area of granite that was "stained" when we initially noticed the leak.  Thankfully it all looks okay and there's no damage to the granite.  For a funny-- that outlet (and all the morning room outlets) don't work.  Sigh.  I swear home ownership is fun.

The first cut.  I lost it when hubby sent me this photo.  Full on tears.  They're cutting the walls in our brand new house.
Also note the Happy Hooker shirt.  At least that made me laugh for a brief second.

First cut.  After this was cut, they made the revelation that it wasn't leaking from this area and still had to find the source of the leak.

So now we have TWO holes in the drywall.  That second hole did find the leak and at this point they soldered it to fix it.
Hopefully.

And now back down to the kitchen.  Prepping the area to cut out damaged areas.

Hole in the ceiling and pulled off the stuff on the beam so everything can dry out.

And Crosley.  Because he's smiling and looks like a grown adult dog here {He's not even 7 months old yet!!!!}

Sigh.

We have holes in our walls.
And a leak (well, hopefully a fixed leak now).

I haven't been home to survey all of this yet, as I've worked all day.  Luckily it's been a slow day so I have been able to stew over this all day long and look at these photos.  (Sarcasm there if you didn't catch that).

I'm exhausted from this day of stress.  I'm upset that our brand new house has issues like this.  I'm even more upset that I specifically ASKED if the different color grout could mean there was a leak and was told no.
And now I get to worry for the next forever about mold and mildew right there.

I'll update all of you guys once it gets fixed, but this is our current hell.