I can't tell you how many tears have been shed and how much frustration has started over the damn vinyl in our laundry room and hall bathroom.
Wanna know the full details? Check out this blog post: The Great Flooring Debacle of 2016.
I am sure you can catch up with what's going on with this post here.
First off, I don't think our PM gets it. It's a lighting issue he says. He doesn't realize that I feel the COLORS of the two vinyls are way different and what was installed is more BROWN when I feel like the sample from our selections meeting was more GREY. He swears up and down that the flooring that has been installed is most definitely the correct flooring. He had the 2 flooring samples in question at the model for us to look at. He said that it even looks like the vinyl sample matches our photo we took back in December as it has the same pattern.
On paper, he's right. We signed off that the sample of vinyl, "Station Square 2080" is the vinyl we wanted. And yes, it does have the same pattern. BUT! I am not convinced or confident that we chose this vinyl. And who is to say that the vinyl sample hasn't been changed because Rite Rug realized there was an issue with it? It has been six months since our Rite Rug appointment. And, unfortunately, according to our PM, the sales rep we had at Rite Rug is not longer there and so he can't confirm if samples were changed. That part makes not sense to me. Any sales rep should be able to tell you that.
Our PM left the 2 samples in question at the model home, and we were able to go up and take a look at them over the last weekend.
I had a FIT. A damn FIT. As soon as I saw the two samples next to each other, I knew that I would have never in my dreams picked the 2080 vinyl that is in our house. It's so brown and drab and just NOT what I wanted. I definitely would have picked that 2082 that I THOUGHT should have been put in. It's more grey and has a lighter tone to it.
That fit made our SR tell me I need to calm down {in a joking way that she knew wouldn't offend me, btw... and it didn't offend me}. She told me she'd have a talk with our PM and see what we could do about it. She tried talking me into the brown vinyl that's already installed, as she likes it better. But, this isn't her home. This is OUR home. She even mentioned that the grey one that I think we should have in our home has more green tones in it along with the grey. Once she pointed that out, I also noted that in our original selection photo, that's what it looks like to me too. Grey with some green tones.
Here are a series of pictures, the captions will explain each one.
Let's just say, before you look at the photos of both vinyl, that THIS is what I feel like:
Do y'all remember this darn dress?
Is it blue or is it gold? I seriously feel like after I look at these photos of these two vinyls so much, that I can hardly tell the difference in the two. You would THINK that would be a good thing, right? But no. I am so frustrated over the fact that I feel like what we picked isn't what's in the house.
So photo time.
To start off, here is OUR photo from our selections meeting. According to our documents from Rite Rug, the vinyl we chose is "Station Square 2080". I do agree that it's definitely what we signed off on getting.
But to me, Station Square 2080 is brown. I feel like the vinyl in this photo is more GREY. It even has undertones of green in it like our SR mentioned of the samples that were brought to the model home for us to look at.
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| The photo is a bit washed out looking from the lighting, but this to me isn't brown, and it's NOT what we would have picked for our home. |
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| Sorry this photo is a bit blurry, it must have been from my frustrations. But, this is the 2 samples (the brown on the left, the grey on the right) in natural light at the model home. |
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| This is the Station Square 2080 (brown) up against the cabinets that we installed in the hall bath. The lighting is natural light from outside. This photo drives me bonkers because it DOES look grey here. Blue Dress/Gold Dress feelings are happening for me with this photo. |
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| The Station Square 2082 sample (grey) up against our cabinets. Our SR pointed out the more green undertones. Here's the thing... I plan on staining our cabinets to be the darker maple espresso color eventually. To me, this vinyl would look WAY better than the brown one. And not only that, as SOON as I saw this vinyl in the model, I KNEW this is what I would have chosen for our home. |
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| This is a photo of the grey (Station Square 2082) up against maple espresso cabinets in the kitchen. So here you have INSIDE lighting, along with my thoughts on cabinetry {eventually}. This is what I envisioned. HANDS DOWN, no question in my mind, this is what we picked for our home. |
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| This is a screen shot of the photo our PM sent to us when he got both samples in. He says that the pattern in this one matches the pattern in our sample photo from our selections meeting. He didn't bother to send over a photo of the other sample, as he's certain this is what we chose. |
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| And this is our vinyl installed IN our home. We got electricity this week, so this is what the vinyl is going to look like in our home if it stays there. |
Okay. All caught up? Here's the thing... I don't HATE the vinyl that is currently in there as much as I thought I did. I have a huge issue because it doesn't photograph well at all. While at the house, I have a feeling of relief come over me because it isn't that bad. Do I like it? No. Do I think it is what we chose for our house? No. Do I feel like it should be replaced? Yes. But, I have to deal with it. That's been made pretty stinkin clear.
I have an issue too that we tried telling our PM that it appears like the neighbors across the street from us have the incorrect vinyl installed as well. His answer to that was "I don't care if they have an issue". {modified to not say neighbor's names, but the words I don't care were used}
And then, the final verdict came on Monday. I had to text our SR, as I hadn't heard from her or our PM, and she told me that she'd talk to him...
Her answer to me asking if she had talked to our PM:
"...he did call the office to check if there were any options...but unfortunately since everything was signed off on, we cannot make any changes at this stage of construction. So sorry, Russ & I really tried"
Here are my issues with this:
- They can't make any changes at this stage of construction?!?! It's VINYL. Our PM was very willing to change it if it was incorrect when this issue was first brought up. So what's the issue now if we want it changed? They all of the sudden can't rip it out? We are more than willing to pay for a different vinyl if we have to. But the fact that we as the customer think it's a mistake, I feel something should be done.
- Y'all wanna know how much the upgraded vinyl cost for us as the homebuyers??? $125. Yes, a whole whopping $125. And that is in BOTH the hall bath AND the laundry room. To me and you, that's a decent bit of money to not be getting what we want. But, how much is that really to Ryan Homes? Or even to Rite Rug? How much does that vinyl actually cost THEM?!? My guess is not that much. So why is this so difficult to just have changed so you make us happy, even if what was on paper APPEARS to be the right thing?
- Our PM called hubby on Thursday and made a comment that he wants us to be happy with what's been installed. Ummmm.... but you can't fricken change it, so why does it matter if we are happy with it or not?!?!!? Hubby told him that he felt we were stuck with it, and if we have to change it ourselves, that's just what we will have to do {and then be pissed that we have paid for an upgrade that we feel isn't correct, and now have to pay to have something we LIKE put in}.
At the end of all this, it's just vinyl. I do hope that six months from now it doesn't even matter to me. I've completely dropped the subject at this point and have just conceded that we are stuck with the vinyl that's been installed and will deal with it when we have the means to deal with it ourselves.
And then there was the "issue" with our rail stain. We felt that even the stain on the rails isn't correct (which would be a Rite Rug issue again). I let our PM know, and he offered to have the rail sample brought out. We have since nixed this because of two things. One, we like the rail stain the way it looks, and two, after being out to the house yesterday and seeing it under lighting, it looks like it may in fact be the right thing.
But I have an issue with that. Let me show you pictures first and then tell you why.
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| Selections meeting photo of our rail stain. We chose something that closely matched our hard wood flooring. |
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| Here's our installed hardwood flooring. |
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| Here's our upstairs rails stained {no polyurethane though}. Natural light is coming in through the loft windows. |
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| And here is our railing in the basement. Photo taken Thursday. This is under DIRECT light in the basement. |
So looking at this, it definitely looks like the rail stain is correct. For some reason, when it's not under DIRECT light (not natural light, but actual lighting from inside the house), it looks differently. And I kind of feel like the flooring issue is the SAME way.
So, the rails stay this color. And we are okay with that.
And, why do I say "bad on you" for this post title? Because I am upset. I'm paying a LOT of money for this dream home of ours. And I have one simple request. Something that probably costs these companies PENNIES and would make me happy if they'd fix it. All I want is for the vinyl to be fixed to what we THOUGHT we chose in our selections meeting. And "bad on you" because I feel like these samples from our selections meeting are not accurate representations of what everything is going to look like once it's in. Let's just hope when they install the carpet in the rest of the house that it looks right.......
But, I have moved on from the vinyl issue. I know it doesn't seem that way reading this post, but I had to write this post as a follow-up to the original post.
It's just flooring. It can be changed later down the road. I want to focus on what's amazing about our home, including the fact that WE CLOSE THIS MONTH!!!!!!!!!
Weekly update coming later this week. We have had some fun additions to the house this week!
