The Bandaid Method

I can't believe it's been nearly THREE months since I have written anything here! And I want to apologize ahead of time for this post, but it's necessary.  For frustration purposes and hopefully to get some attention to the RIDICULOUS situations that are happening at our house.

So, sorry for this being a negative post. I'll reward you if you read it all though ;-)

So- the bandaid method.  What I have "affectionately" started calling the half-assed work that is being done on issues around our home that is just over a year old.
We have put in service request after service request, and while they are "attending" to the issues from the requests, they're not permanent fixes.  They get fixed for the moment but the issues always come back.
And the most frustrating part is the fact that we have to take time off of work each and every time we have to get something fixed. We BOTH work full time jobs. Jobs that are during the only hours that these service people can come out and fix things.
It's beyond frustrating.  And it "hurts" us to have these people come out over and over again for the same issues.  I work by myself, so getting time off isn't easy.  And when hubby has to take time off, he doesn't get paid for it as he's a contract worker.

I've tried really really hard to get the requests fixed when I have known time off- like when family comes in to town, or when we have other plans that I've asked for a full day off.  But when will these things be fixed, and fixed RIGHT so that we don't have to take the time off anymore?!

What issues are we having? Well, let's see:

1.  The cold water knob on our master tub. This has been an issue pretty much since we moved in.  The cold water knob on the soaking tub pulls right off.  It can be tightened with an Allen wrench, and stays put on for one or two uses, but then it just pulls right back off.  I've been told that they need to order parts- an "extender", if I'm not mistaken- because the screw that is being tightened doesn't line up properly to the part on the inside that it should be attaching to.

We've addressed this issue FOUR times. I've sent in FOUR service requests to get this fixed.  It's still not fixed correctly.

So count that- that's FOUR times someone has come out to my house that either myself or hubby have had to take time off of work... and it's not fixed. Each and every time, they've just tightened the screw and let it be.

• 9/6/16
• 3/6/17
• 7/5/17
• 8/17/17

The time in July- I had family in town.  I had specifically set up time for the plumber to come out and fix the issue.  That man was LITERALLY in my house for 2 minutes.  I brought him upstairs to the master bath, he saw the knob, told me he had order parts and would have to set up a new time to come out.

A month went by, and NOT ONE PERSON contacted me back to come out and fix my tub with the part necessary.  I finally called the plumber (which, btw, has a lackluster system of answering their telephones) and I was told that there was no record of a part being needed, or someone needing to come back out.  In fact- they couldn't even tell me WHO the plumber was that came out that day- they asked me if I knew.

So, another service request was put in.  This time, I had it scheduled for September 26th- as we had time off for other things.  Well, other things happened in the meantime. One of those being a LEAK coming from somewhere in the house into the kitchen. Oh yeah, you SO read that right. Another leak.

I'm a professional at service requests now, by the way. So if any of y'all out there need help- I'm your gal.

Service request entered for the leak.  I put specific instructions on the request to have someone come out while we were already off.  Well- that confused people.  I came home from work a few days after the request was put in, and there was a notice on my door that the plumber had been there but "missed" us.  Now- it's after 6 at this point. I tried calling them and was greeted by ringing and ringing and ringing of their phone- because naturally, their hours are 8-5. Ain't no one got time to take a phone call after hours.

Legit- like five minutes later, I get a phone call FROM THE PLUMBER wanting to set up an appointment with us for the service request they put in for our leak.

Say WHAT?!

I laughed. And I laughed some more.  I explained to this girl that someone from their company was already coming out on the 26th to address a different plumbing issue.  So, can they all just come out the same day?  We were pretty certain we knew WHERE the leak was coming from- but I wasn't saying so because the last time I said something we had to have them come out THREE TIMES to fix the damn leak.  Wanna hear the kicker?  She didn't have us on the schedule for the 26th. She seemed pretty okay that someone would show up with the service manager and his gang though.

And someone did show up.  BEFORE 8am.
Now, if they show up- ring the doorbell.  Or knock harder than a tap.  I have TWO dogs that will bark and bark and bark as soon as a leaf passes across the yard.  So if you knocked substantially, I'd know.

This was a photo I sent to hubby. I was in the driveway and it wasn't even 8 yet.  I had gotten up, made sure I was up, and had taken the dogs outside.

I didn't bother to call them.  I knew the service manager and his crew would be at my house within the hour. And they were.  He "took care" of calling the plumber for me.  And believe me, this really put a dent in the day since the ORIGINAL plumber "missed" us.

Because the plumber "missed" us- the crew that follows the service manager around cut a hole in my ceiling to try and find the leak so that they'd have it "ready" for when the plumber got back.  The plumber is also the person that should be fixing my cold water knob.

Well- that got "fixed" by the service manager- as in it got tightened down with the Allen wrench... and guess what?! It's already popped back off.

So, number 2 is TECHNICALLY the leaks we have dealt with.  Now, these are actually two different leaks- but for serious.... how many damn leaks can a brand new house have?!!

2.  Leaks from inside plumbing

The most recent is the hall (which I've given some details already but need to rant a bit more about that). The other one was also leaking into the kitchen, and it had to do with the master tub.  That master tub leak had me put in THREE service requests.

• 9/14/16
• 9/27/16
• 10/24/16

Now, this does NOT include the extra days that the drywall people had to come back out and repair our drywall.  That also happened each time, and on different days that when the leak was "fixed".... so you're looking at AT LEAST six days of missed work between the two of us.

Back to the new leak in the hall bath:  The service manager and crew found the new leak.  They took photos to send over to the plumber so that he'd know what he was dealing with.

A bit later the plumber shows up.  I asked if he knew what he was fixing.  Showed him the hole in my wall and the leaky spot:

Also asked him about the cold water knob.  He knew NOTHING about the knob.  That's when I took him upstairs and saw that it had been screwed back on. It was wiggly and loose, but on.  I pretty much said fuck it at that point.  I don't know what to do about that knob.  No one wants to fix it the right way.

So, he goes to work on the leak.  Now- he was a nice guy, don't get me wrong.  But all he did the entire time was complain about coming to my house.  He normally doesn't service this part of town.  He wasn't prepared to deal with a leak and having to pull up our toilet and fixing the leak.  Keep in mind they took photos of what they'd done, and supposedly sent it over to the plumber.

He fixed the leak. But not before putting his ladder on our hard wood floors WITHOUT protection.  He also asked for a towel bc the pipe might leak a bit while he was upstairs working.
Well, it was more than a bit.  I had to get several towels and a bowl to collect all the water that was falling.  It only lasted a minute or two. But come on.  On my hardwood floors.

Some of these photos I was trying to capture the dust everywhere bc it was a mess... I volunteered myself to clean it all up when he was done.

So, the leak is fixed.  There is STILL a hole in our ceiling that needs to be patched and painted.  We opted to have that done on the same day that the drywall repair guy is coming for our 1-year nail pops and cracks.  Yep. It's October. This is the earliest our 1-year could be done.

And- it's TWO SEPARATE companies that have to come out for the repairs.  One for the 1-year and another for the ceiling.  My HOPE is that the ceiling one actually shows up.  I told the service manager what date it had to be, and I haven't heard a WORD since then.  NOT. ONE. WORD.

And one more thing about our plumbing..... the day that everyone was out here for all this hooplah... our master toilet had stopped working.  We'd flush it and the bowl would fill up with water, and then slowly drain.  It would drain SUPER low and the normal water level hasn't been there.

I mentioned this to our service manager and he came and looked at it while checking everything else out.  We have a clog he said.  Very matter-of-factly and with confidence.  He grabbed our plunger, plunged a few times, flushed and it worked.  Imagine how much of an idiot I felt like.
He also changed the flapper inside the tank.

Well, two flushes later, and it's back to acting up.

I put a new service request in for this issue.  I got a call back saying that clogs aren't covered under the warranty.  I asked if he was DOUBLY sure that it was a clog (it was the SM that called) and he said yes.  He was willing to come and look at it again, but wouldn't you know it... only during the hours that we are at work.  So, we have to get our own plumber to come out and fix it.

I'm most frustrated about this because he messed with the toilet and did more than PLUNGE it the first time.  And now you're not going to fix it?  We have yet to get the plumber to come out because we are researching for someone BESIDES who RH uses- as they're just ridiculous and as I said- I don't want them in our house.  So we haven't been able to use that toilet.  But why attempt to fix something if you normally don't do clogs anyways?! 

3.  Our Garage Door Opener

In May, our garage door opener stopped working.  And, only the one on the wall inside the garage.  We can open the garage from our clickers in the cars, the key pad outside the garage, and the app on our phones.  However, the button INSIDE the garage doesn't work.

This one has been frustrating.  We've "made do" with what we have and get it open... but it shouldn't be this way. 

I originally put in a service request on 7/5 for someone to come out.  I took a call and scheduled an appointment for them to come out the same day that a lot of our other issues were being fixed.  I already had the time off of work for other commitments so it worked well schedule-wise.

Well, the day they were SUPPOSED to come out... no one showed up.  The window was from 8-12.  By 11, I hadn't heard anything so I called, and the gal I talked to told me that we weren't even on the schedule.  And she also didn't understand WHY we would have been on the schedule as they don't service Ryan Homes anymore.

Yep.  You read that right.

We did some troubleshooting over the phone, and were trying to figure out if it truly was something with the garage aspect of everything, or something electrical.  That troubleshooting never got resolved.  She had taken information, was giving it to one of the service techs, and no one ever got back to me.

Another service request was put in on 8/17 to try and get someone out to fix the issue. 

Then, when the SM came out with the gang to fix the other issues in the house that I had said weren't addressed. they also worked on the garage.  That guy went out, found an issue with the wiring and it being loose, and fixed everything.  He opened and closed the garage like, 6 times and it was working each time.

The next day.... it stopped working.  Went right back to how it had been.

So, another service request was entered on 9/27 and I haven't heard from any kind of company or anything to come out and fix it. The SM said he had forwarded the information on, but I have heard nothing.  I'll say the button is BETTER and works more than it had been... but it's still very intermittent and doesn't work every time you click it open.

Guys, we've been in our home for 450 days.  That's not a long time.  And all of these issues have been around for months, if not since the beginning of our occupying the house.

And bandaids are being put on issues and they just keep on breaking or not working, and we keep on having to put in requests and get things fixed.  Which means taking time off, not getting paid, and then just getting frustrated once something DOESN'T work that should be fixed.

One more rant while I'm at it, and that's just communication from all these "vendors" in general.... You've read about the plumber and how great they are.  Well, the 1-year drywall stuff has been "swell" too.

First, I couldn't get the fax to go through for our certificate that requested the repairs.  It kept coming back busy.  The SM took it from me on one of his visits to fix stuff and got it over where it needed to go.  So, this drywall guy calls me to set up an appointment, and it's legit like 2 months away.  I told him I'd have to look at a schedule and get back to him once I knew of a few days I could potentially take off of work.
Well, when I call back, it just rings.  Goes to a voicemail. The mailbox is FULL and I can't leave a message.  Which means that we missed the August dates that we thought we'd get.  And I had to go through this whole process again.  I told the SM that I couldn't get in touch with the drywall guy, and they eventually contacted me again.  When he told me a date towards the end of October, I took it. It was super hard for us to get that time off, but we've managed it and our drywall repairs will be done soon.

Whew.

Did you make it all the way through all of that?? I really do apologize to all of you that have stuck with us on this journey. I hate to moan and complain, but when is enough really enough? 

We do love our home and have enjoyed these first 450 days making it our own.

And, if you've made it this far, let me tell you guys about our exciting news!
We have two new babies!!!

So, top photos are our two boys that we've had.  Crosley is on the left, Cody on the right.
And on the bottom are our two newest additions! Chance (left) and Cooper.

We are SO in love with them! They're great little dudes!

Thanks for sticking around and reading our mess.  LOL!!

Leaks Resolved...... JUST KIDDING!

I literally was writing a post last Monday to tell y'all that our leaks have been resolved!  That they finally patched up the tiny hole in our ceiling and it looked like new.

And then I got home from work on Monday night, and we had this:

Yep.  That would be wet ceiling.  Again.  Same general area, but a little farther over than the last two times.
I'm upset.  So very upset.
So, I fill out the service request.  Wait nearly a full day to hear from the service manager, Jared.  I send him a couple of text photos of the leak.

I hear from him the next day (Wednesday) and he has pulled our plans and has an idea of where it is potentially coming from.   I have MORE news for him, as we have another wet spot that has shown up.  This spot is VERY close in proximity to where to hole was just patched up from the first/second leak....  See:

He tells me that he's escalating the issue to critical (or whatever the proper word is here. I don't really remember), and the plumbing company should DIRECTLY contact me to set up a time to come out.  That was Wednesday around 330pm.

By Thursday around 1, I hadn't heard from the plumber.  So, I called Jared (service manager) and left a voicemail.  I need to know WHEN we need to take time off so that they can resolve this.  This is the so-very-frustrating part.  We have to take time off.  We both work 9-5 jobs.  Circumstances at MY job right now don't allow me to take immediate time off with something like this.  It must be planned.  Hubby works as a contractor.  That means that he DOESN'T get paid if he doesn't work.  Anyone that needs to come out to our home for repairs and such (with this leak and other service requests) works the same fricken hours that we do.  So one of us must take off to be home with people coming for repairs.  It sucks.

So yeah, not long after my voicemail, I get a phone call from the plumber wanting to set up a time to be out to the house.  He can be out as early as 730 in the morning.  So, hubby gets things situated with his work so that he can have the morning off.

Friday morning.  It takes nearly FIVE hours for the plumber to finish and fix the leak. So that's FIVE hours that he hasn't gotten paid because he's at home dealing with this.

Check out the text message photos I get along the way:

Go ahead.  You can laugh at the ridiculousness of this whole thing.  It's okay.  I did.

This plumber was pretty thorough in his work.  He was measuring before he cut... he found a leak.  A small one.  He had to cut into our subfloor to get to the cause of the problem to fix it.  It was a very slow drip, which is why we aren't getting a waterfall of water every time we use the tub in the master bath.  And that's also why we keep on getting wet spots on the ceiling.  Slow drip means it can travel up and down the pipe and start dripping at different places.  That's why it's showing up on different places in the ceiling.
And that's why it hasn't been caught until now.

Leak #1 was "caught" at the shower.  Fixed after 3 holes were cut into our drywall in the bedroom, leak soldered and everything was fixed.

Leak #2 was "caught" at the cold water knob on the master tub.  Fixed and now we just have to wait for us to have time off to repair the drywall with the drywall guy.

Leak #3 is this one.  I am HOPING it's the culprit and has been the entire time.  It's fixed.  We now just have to deal with a nearly 2 foot square of ceiling missing in the kitchen.

Wanna guess for how long?!?!  OVER TWO WEEKS! The service manager wants to use a particular company that he knows does great work on textured ceilings.  Their EARLIEST appointment is Nov. 15 and Nov 16.  I was told it's going to take two days to do the repairs.

Cute, right?

So now for my irritation:  Why listen to me when I originally say it's the shower that's leaking.  Just to appease me?  I had a hunch that it might have been the shower because of the changing colors of grout we had right behind the shower.  Weird part is, they DID find a leak (I was told) and they even soldered something together so it wouldn't leak.
And then the day before they're supposed to fix the drywall in our kitchen, it starts leaking again.  It took a small amount of investigating, but they determined it was the cold water knob on the bath tub.  Now, that thing was broken, was replaced, and now it's leaking.  So yet another resolution.  A couple days AFTER we get the drywall in the kitchen F-I-N-A-L-L-Y replaced and patched up, and we have ANOTHER leak.
Like I said, this plumber sounded like he was pretty thorough.  He found a couple of spots that we should have checked out.  One of them is the grout at the bath tub.  It's on the outside of the bathtub, and logistically, I am not quite sure how it would leak from there, but we are going to have it taken care of.  I think.

You can see how it's cracked and pretty much looks like it's not attached to the tile at all.
It looks like shit.
I really hate how half-assed half of our bathroom looks.  We paid a ton of money to have it look like it does, and it's just not good.

The second thing that the plumber found concerning... The grout in the master shower.  This one bothers me and not long ago I noticed it.  I'm worried water could be seeping through this as we use this shower EVERY day.

At this point, I really just want them to pull it all up and re-do it.  There are so many shoddy pieces of tile, wavy parts of tile and terrible grout application.

It's so frustrating.

And I have so many questions still.  Are they replacing the ceiling where the drywall-strip is wet?  It's also cracked about 6 feet along that strip (assuming it's where that piece of drywall ends).  Or are they just going to patch up that hole?

The grout debacle:  that was originally on our 30 day.  So our service manager has given that back to the PM to handle.  I haven't heard anything yet.  I don't even know where to start and what to do about that.  Communication is such a big deal to me.

And then, I feel like this whole thing needs to be escalated and talked about with Ryan Homes.  I want them to know my frustrations and what we are dealing with.  The money we are losing out on because we have to be home because their sub-contracted companies don't do the hours we are home.  And the frustrations we have dealt with.  And the amount of water we have used just to ensure we don't have leaks anymore.

So I'm working on figuring out how to go "higher up" with all of this.

I don't want y'all to think we hate this whole thing.  The leak.  Yes.  Hate that part.  But our home?  We love it.  It's our space, we adore the house and all the memories we are making. It just stinks that those memories include all of this headache with the leak.

Keep your fingers crossed that this doesn't become "leak- apart 4".  That's not going to bode well for anyone.

We DO have lots of projects in process!  Door painting, deck staining... and we are hopefully gonna start painting the inside of the house soon too!!