209 Days In.....

Is that even right?!!? Time is flying and I can't believe we are 209 days (about 7 months) in!!!

And on top of that-- HELLO everyone! I know, like others, I promised to keep the blog up- but let's face it:  Life happens.  I have a huge list of house projects and this is how it goes: start a project, love it and get it like, half way done, and then move on to something else.
Yep, the projects are those kind of projects.

Things like painting the interior doors black-- there are like, 18 doors in the house. That is taking quite a while.

Painting.  That most definitely hasn't started yet but we are trying to pick out colors.

Furniture.  It's a heck of a task to go from a 1300 square foot apartment to a 2600+ square foot home, and trying to fill it with furniture.

We need more furniture. Lots more furniture. Lots of empty space right now, but we are getting there.

And then just having the time to do these projects.  We do lots. We love to stay busy, and a lot of the time our house projects kinda get put on the back burner to go have fun.

But-- I thought I'd update a bit of what we DO have done..... The majority of the interior doors have been painted black. What a huge difference it makes! Such a nice pop of color from the boring ole white and off white walls.

We switched out our shower head in the master bathroom for a fancy-schmancy one that does all sorts of fun stuff (it was on my Christmas list and we got it for Christmas!).

We have our awesome entertainment set up put up from IKEA that we bought before we even finished building the house.  It needs some slight adjustments and I don't wanna do those adjustments til we paint. But, it's massive, and amazing and looks great against the wall between the 2 windows!

Furniture stuff: Another Christmas gift we received was an awesome entryway bench and hutch from Home Depot. It was a bit of a headache dealing with it, but it's AMAZING and fits in the space perfectly.  Loooooong story short: I loved the bench, showed it to the in-laws and they got it for us or Christmas.  My Father-In-Law noticed on some of the reviews that the hutch didn't fit the bench perfectly.  Shame on me for not paying closer attention to that.  And sure enough- when we got the hutch in and assembled it, it didn't fit perfectly on the bench.  I did some research and actually got in touch with the manufacturer and they shipped us an updated hutch that is perfect for the bench!!!! YAY!

Front room (on the floor plans it's technically designated the "living room"):  We got some Billy Bookcases from IKEA and filled up the entire wall with book cases.  I'll eventually try my hand at adding some molding to them to make them look "built in".. but I love all the space for all of our media goodies!

And naturally, we are having our "new home" woes-- specifically a couple of cracks in our foundation :-(
Yeah. You read that right. Cracks.  In our foundation.  We first noticed a leak in one of the unfinished parts of our basement. It dried quickly, but we had some pretty wet weather there for a while and the leak came back. We surveyed the outside of our house and found 2 cracks in the foundation (we have a pretty high elevation and have a good part of our basement exposed to the elements still-- which includes our amazing walk out basement).
So here we go with something I've become a pro at:  filling out the online service request.  The first one I filled out got NO response, so I filled a second one out about a week later.  A foundation company called me the next day.  I gave them an earful as they wanted to schedule a time during the WEEK to come out and take a look at the crack.  Luckily this worked, as well as the fact that they also have weekend hours (woohoo!). So we had someone come out on a Saturday.

The guy (well, more like a kid) that came out told us that the crack was from the pressure of the support beam running across the top of the basement, as was fairly common.  He did some nifty filler thing to help stop the leak.  We asked about the SECOND crack on the foundation. It is smaller in size than the crack that caused the leak, but he walked it to "measure" the distance and believes that crack is the same type of thing as the one he repaired.  This one is a bit more tricky as it's in a finished part of our basement.  He checked the support beam area and said that he didn't see any signs of leaks or anything, and even mentioned that Ryan Homes puts in baseboards that turn a yellow color if there's water behind them.  So, he did nothing with the crack.  I think when it gets closer to our 1 year, or when we have a few days off, I am going to get them to come out and assess that one again. I don't want to be dealing with it when it's our problem and not something that they should have fixed anyways!

So how about some photos! I have tons and will do my best to put descriptions on them, haha!!

This about the extent of the snow we got this year so far.  Just a little dusting to freak out the puppy, haha!

Fancy new shower head <3

Before painting the doors upstairs (this would be the master bedroom, hall closet and guest room)

After painting!  (this would be the master bedroom, hall closet and guest room)

More before shots 

After shots

Before  (this would be the master bedroom, hall closet and guest room)

After (this would be the master bedroom, hall closet and guest room)

Our new hutch and bench in the entryway off of the garage (mudroom)

Our new hutch and bench in the entryway off of the garage (mudroom)

This is in the front room of the house (family room)... Billy Bookcases from IKEA

Another view of our bookcases in the front room of the house

random photos:  Sitting on the couch looking towards the kitchen

random photos:  Standing in the entryway (mudroom) door looking towards the family room

random photos: Standing in the kitchen looking into the morning room

random photos: Standing in the morning room looking towards the front of the house 

random photos: another view from the couch into the kitchen/morning room {we will one day have a dining room table in there}

random photos:  Crosley <3

random photos: our IKEA entertainment stand-- we still need to put the middle piece on its legs and then adjust the height on the cabinets to the right. But this won't be done til we paint. I'm not taking these things up and down a bajillion times.

random photos: Standing in the hallway by the stairs looking towards the family room.

random photos: The "dining room" according to the floor plan. For us, it's the bunny room {yes. you read that right. We have 2 bunnies}, and random boxes yet to be put somewhere/unpacked

random photos:  Front entryway

random photos:  Messy floors and Crosley doing the dishes.

And, the foundation crack:

Wet basement floor.

Worse wet basement floor.

This is the *second* crack. This one isn't fixed. It coincides with a finished part of the basement and the foundation kid didn't do anything to this one-- just checked to make sure it wasn't leaking.

THIS one is the culprit of our leaks.

The other side of the crack. Awesome, huh?

All filled and fixed and no longer leaking.

But it's kinda hideous.

So I most definitely plan on having someone come out and address the second crack before its all said and done. It's just finding time with the great time slots that Ryan Homes and their contractors offer.

We have TONS of other projects going on/waiting to work on. We stained our deck before it got cold, but it really needs one more coat.

We have lots of stuff built in the basement for our "man cave/Reds room" but don't have it all organized yet.

The loft:  We are going to make this a "travel themed" area.  We LOVE LOVE LOVE to travel and have so many awesome trinkets and memorabilia and things from our travels to display.  Well, another Christmas gift that was on our {my} list... A giant wall mural that is a map of the world.  It will nearly cover the entire wall in the loft on one side.  We haven't put it up yet because we need to paint {since it won't cover the ENTIRE wall}.  I found it on Wayfair:  Check It Out Here.

We love our home and have so many great memories already that have been made and can't wait for more.

And, to end the post: a super adorable photo of our sweet boys from yesterday, in our 65 degree weather in February.

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!!

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.