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.

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.

Week 8 Progress- Siding and Priming

Another week has come and gone in this home building process! And this was an exciting week!

Our siding was finished on Thursday! I'll tell y'all what... I have had some bad dreams about our siding on the days leading up to it getting started.  We chose Irish Thistle as our main siding color, with Sandy Tan for the shake and then our shutters are Dark Berry.

You can see our selections here:  Click Me! if you haven't seen them yet.  They're also on one of the pages at the top of the blog ;-)

But yeah. Bad dreams. I don't know if I have said it on here before, but my house building dreams have been just like having wedding dreams! This week, with siding going up, I've had some pretty vivid dreams of some horribly green siding that looks awful on the house.

Luckily, visiting the house this week, that was not the case!  I am in LOVE with our siding, I love it paired up with the shake and the tan color garage door and trim, and I love it with the dark berry shutters.  It really really looks like a house now!

They also finished up the drywall this week, and got the first coat of paint on the walls {aka: it's been primed}.  Even inside is starting to "feel" like a real house!

Other news on the house front:  we got a date nailed down for our Pre-Settlement walk through.  We ended up having to schedule it the day before we close.  I'm not a fan of that at all, but unfortunately, our PM wouldn't budge from this particular date.  If we moved it farther into July, then it's cutting it too close to the end of the month, and we really really really don't want to have to worry about signing an even longer lease with the town home we are in now.  So, our Pre-Settlement date is set for July 25th, and then we close the next day.  Fingers crossed we don't have TOO many issues during pre-settlement that need to be addressed before we close.

Up next for house progress, per our PM:  They'll start installing hard surface flooring on Monday and then the trim carpenter is set to come in on Friday.

We did go out to the house today {Saturday} hoping to see some deliveries or something in the garage.  No surprises though.  Just an empty garage.

Well, actually.  I take that back-- we did have ONE surprise!  We were locked out of the house!  The door in the garage was locked, as well as the basement door and the front door!!! We had to go back up to the model home to get keys from the SR!
I am secretly hoping that they were just locked because it was the weekend.  I don't know if I am ready to be locked out already.  I enjoy going out twice a week to check on the progress of the house!

So- here are this week's photos! Time seems to be moving pretty quickly and before we know it, we will be closing on our new home!! We are also looking into several moving companies and comparing pricing to try and figure out which direction to go with movers!  Things are getting real, y'all!!

Our stone was delivered!

The view from our front porch of the rest of the neighborhood! That side of the street is all taken up in this cul-de-sac

View from our front porch

One more front porch view.  I had been waiting out front while hubby went to get the keys so we could get into the house.

Siding view

Siding view near the back of the house, looking at what will one day be a deck.

Side view of the house with our siding

Back view of the house with siding.  It weirds me out a little bit the way the walk out basement door is done with the siding.

Front view of our siding. Irish Thistle, Sandy Tan for the shake, and Dark Berry shutters

Irish Thistle, Sandy Tan and Dark Berry Shutters.  I love it!

Another view of the walk out with the siding.  Just weird it's not the whole wall.  I kinda feel it should be all or nothing.  Hopefully it doesn't bother me as much once the deck goes in.

Siding view of the morning room

Close up siding view at the walk out

Drywall up, primed and looking great! Master Bath

Master Bedroom

another view of the Master Bedroom

Loft view standing in the doorway of the master bedroom

Looking into bedroom #2

Upstairs view standing in the doorway of bedroom #2

Bedroom #3

Laundry Room <3

Looking down the stairs.  

Standing in the foyer looking into the kitchen.  I can't wait for the cabinets to be here!

Looking into the morning room, standing in the family room/foyer area

Looking into the foyer

Front room (living room)

Standing in the foyer, near the stairs

Foyer view, looking into the dining room and living room 

Standing near the morning room looking into the kitchen.  Left doorway is the small damn pantry, right doorway is the mudroom/garage entry

Basement.  Walk out doors <3

Basement. Standing near the walk out doors looking into the basement

Another basement view.  The drywall is pretty banged up near the bottom here.  Gonna bring this up to make sure it's taken care of

New hiding spot for our floor plans.  In the unfinished "media room" in the basement.. Along with our balusters and railings, which have been here for a while.

Can't wait to see what the next week brings!!  I hope everyone has a great weekend, and a great Father's Day!!