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!!

30 Day Post Settlement Follow Up!

So I just checked the countdown on our blog, and we've been in our home for 42 days now!! 42!!!!!

It seems like it's been a week.  Seriously.  Time is flying.

We've been able to get a couple of fun projects done around the house and I'll be posting those another day.  Today I wanted to update y'all on our 30 day post settlement follow up.

Basically, when we closed we were given a carbon-copy form to fill out with anything that we wanted to be looked at for our 30 day inspection.  I left this paper sitting on our cluttered kitchen island so that any time we had something to bring up, we could write it down.

I filled it up pretty quickly, but it was really nothing major.  Around 2 weeks in, our PM stopped by and asked for the paper so he could start scheduling guys to come out to work on whatever we need fixed or looked at.  From the time he scheduled them until they actually came out, I just emailed the PM with other issues that we had so that they could be addressed.

On Friday, August 26th our PM was scheduled to come out for our 30 day stuff.  He came with a plumber and a handy-man kind of guy to knock out the stuff on our list.

What exactly was on our list?? Let me tell you:

1. Water Pressure-- the water pressure in our master shower isn't all that great.  I think hubby noticed it more than I did at first. PM said he'd have this looked at.  He mentioned that a lot of the times it could be something as small as a grain of sand, as the hole the water comes through is super small. So he'd have the plumber check it out and clean it out if needed.
2. Door sticking in the laundry room.  It's the only door in the house that does it... but it sticks upon opening and closing and we really have to force it opened.
3. Deck post-- our deck is SUPER high.  There's already some settling, especially around one post in particular.  PM assured me that the posts are cemented in, but he'd check it out.  He also mentioned that settling issues in the yard are better dealt with closer to the year-mark, as they only fix settlement issues once... So I pretty much didn't expect anything to be done with this.
4. Metal Stakes at the Walk-out.  The metal stakes and wooden framing weren't removed when they poured the 3x3 concrete slab.  Hubby actually scraped his foot on one of them while doing yard work.  They definitely need to be removed.
5. Grout in Master Bath.  There's a couple spots in the master bath where the grout wasn't applied properly.  Little air holes, or even a spot or two where the grout looked like it was separating.  We also have several spots where the grout always looks wet.  Even when drying it for 4 days to seal it, it appeared darker than the majority of the grout.
6. Hot water in Hall Bath.  The hall bath has nothing but scalding HOT water.  Kind of funny if you remember that we had issues when we first moved in with NO hot water.  But, we are trying to use the hall bath as well as the master bath just to make sure everything is working properly.  Well, it's unbearable to even shower in the hall bath because it's so stinkin hot.
7. Cold Water Knob on Master Tub.  It pulls right off.  Like, doesn't stay on.  PM said it should be a simple fix with an Allen wrench to tighten it up.
8. Garage Outlet.  When we painted the garage, we had to move the deep freezer and such.  This meant unplugging it.  Well, after we unplugged the freezer and then went to plug it back in, the plug wouldn't fit.  
9. Loft window.  We had an issue with this window when we first moved in.  It's the round window in the loft.  The first time, it was cracked and needed replaced.  Well, the replacement happened.  The seal or something is bad on this new window though.  You can see condensation between the two panes after it rains, and it's also leaking.
10. Master Shower Door Sticking.  It is super hard to open and close the shower door.  I know the magnet is super strong, but it doesn't seem like it should be this hard to open and close that door.
11. Delay on Switched Outlets and Fan Rough-Ins.  When we use the switched outlets as well as the ceiling fans, there's always a delay between the turning on of the light and the light actually turning on.
12. Morning Room Outlets Not Working-- The switched light works, but none of the outlets do.  This also extends into the kitchen and the outlets that run alongside the morning room, which is basically all of the kitchen outlets that we regularly use.  They WERE working when we first moved in but aren't working now.
13. Window latches are a PAIN to latch and un-latch.  When we had our pre-settlement walk through, our PM made it look SUPER easy to un-latch the windows to open them inward to clean them.  Well, I must be incredibly weak because I can't get half of them to work.
14. Locks on small window in bedroom #2 don't work.  We can't get this window to latch closed.  I noticed it one night when I saw a gigantic spider outside the window.  I had to triple check to make sure the spider couldn't get in the house.  Well, if she wanted to she could because that window didn't latch.
15. Electrical Outlet on Guardian Box isn't connected.  This is creating problems for us as Guardian had to connect their power supply on one of our regular basement outlets.  Their power supply is huge and ugly and is taking up valuable outlet space.

Whew!  So that's it.  It's nothing MAJOR but it all needs addressed.  On August 26th, they all came out to work on getting things fixed for us.  And here's how that went:

1. Water Pressure-- the water pressure in our master shower isn't all that great. The plumber fixed this.  Not sure what he found, but the water pressure is uh-may-zing now.  So, y'all all read this:  hubby was right.
2. Door sticking in the laundry room.  Easy fix.  The handyman adjusted the hinges on the door and it opens and closes with ease now.
3. Deck post-- The handyman filled the settling post hole with more dirt!  I was surprised they did it for us after the schpeal about settlement issues only being resolved once.
4. Metal Stakes at the Walk-out.  Handyman took the stakes and the wooden frames off of the slab.  Now no one can get hurt. Yay!
5. Grout in Master Bath.  Handyman filled the holes that I had seen.  He also tried out a section of the grout that looked "wet" by putting some new grout on top of it.  It held the color of the rest of the grout, so he needs to come back to fill in the rest of the grout that is off-colored.
6. Hot water in Hall Bath.  This was an "easy" fix too.  If you're a plumber.  Apparently there's something that be adjusted behind the shower knob.  So he just had to adjust that and, voila!  We now have hot and cold water!!!
7. Cold Water Knob on Master Tub.  This one was fun.  Plumber guy is working on it and I'm walking the house with our PM going over other things on the list.  All of the sudden we hear a "TURN OFF THE MAIN WATER!! TURN OFF THE MAIN WATER!!"  I run into the master bath and there is a swimming pool in my bathroom! Water shooting everywhere and water all over the floor, all over the plumber and just ugh!  Main water was shut off and he worked on the knob.  I guess when it was installed it was installed either too long or too short, I'm not sure which.  So, the plumber has to order a kit to make the necessary adjustments to get that knob back on.  
8. Garage Outlet.  This one is user error.  The outlet in question is our GFI outlet in the garage.  Apparently when you put the plug into the outlet you have to go STRAIGHT in.  Not at an angle.  
9. Loft window.  We had a guy come out to assess the window and he said it needed to be replaced again {um, duh}. So as of now, they've supposedly ordered the window and talked with the window company and they should be in touch with me to replace the window. Again.
10. Master Shower Door Sticking.  When doing the walk through to go through stuff, they looked at the door and made the assessment that the shower door company needed to come out and adjust the door.  It definitely shouldn't be sticking like it is.
11. Delay on Switched Outlets and Fan Rough-Ins. Because the delay seems to be more so in JUST the fans and not the outlet switches, it's probably something with the way the fans were installed, or the brand of fans, yada yada yada.  This isn't a HUGE issue, just a slight annoyance as they don't automatically switch on when you flip the switch.
12. Morning Room Outlets Not Working-- Still not answer to this.  PM tried getting an electrician out on the day everyone else was out, but no one was available.  He then called the Ryan line to make an appointment and put a service ticket in for someone to come out.  Well.  No one has contacted me yet about this.  So we sit with no working outlets in the morning room, but more annoyingly, no working outlets on the kitchen outlets that run alongside the morning room.  And those are the outlets we use the most.
13. Window latches are a PAIN to latch and un-latch.  This could be because little pieces of dirt and such get into the latches and cause them to be harder to open.  The handyman went around and checked all of them, replaced one, and then worked on all the others and we can now get them all open a heck of a lot easier than we could before he worked on them.  I think he "shaved" them down some so they'd latch and unlatch a bit easier.
14. Locks on small window in bedroom #2 don't work.  User error again.  There's a small lip on each window that should attach easily to the window.  This particular window just wasn't aligned properly.  So it was just a little big of fenagle-ing and it's better now.  And even better news?  The spider never had a chance to get inside, haha!  It was seriously a gigantic spider!
15. Electrical Outlet on Guardian Box isn't connected.  Not fixed yet.  This is part of the service ticket put in for the morning room outlets, since it's all electrician related.

So lots of our stuff was fixed, but we still need to have some things fixed.  I'm a little irritated that service tickets have been put in, but I still haven't been contacted about anything.  Not. One. Thing.  Our second PM contacted me last week about getting the paperwork filled out and back to him so it could be filed.  I talked to him again today about things that weren't done yet.  He wasn't aware of the emailed stuff, as I hadn't included him on it {and to be fair, he hasn't really had a ton to do with our house or building, so I didn't include him on my emails}.  So I emailed him a list of what still wasn't fixed.  He was going to make sure service tickets were put in for each of them and then get back to me.  So still needing to be fixed:

1. Grout fill in:  The parts that are darker than the main grout color... we need someone to come back out and fill that in for us.
2. Cold water knob on master tub:  The plumber took my number and said he was ordering a kit. I haven't heard back for this at all. 
3. Loft Window:  replacement window apparently ordered.  Once window comes in, installation company will be in touch with me to schedule installation.
4. Master Shower Door sticking:  PM said that he would need to contact shower door people to come out.  Not sure this was ever done, so second PM was notified of this one today.
5. Morning Room Outlets not working.  STILL haven't heard anything on this.  I am a little irritated at this one as our PM called this one in while standing IN MY KITCHEN.  So nearly 2 weeks later and they haven't reached out to me yet.

Nothing major, like I said.  Just little things.  Big thing is is that it's all documented so if we have issues later, it's all on paper.  

One surprise that we DID have was that they installed a little 3x3 concrete slab at the end of the deck stairs, along with some solar LED lights.  We noticed that 2 new builds around us had these neat little slabs, and were kind of upset that we didn't have them.  I wasn't going to make a huge deal out of it, because it's just a little slab.  Well, the handyman put on in while he did all of our other fixes outside. I was super excited to get one, haha!

That's the only picture y'all get for now! I have lots more from all of our projects around the house... but I'm saving those photos for those posts, haha!!

I'm gonna try to get some more posts in soon with all of our projects!! We are LOVING this house and love being in it!  The dogs love all the space they have to run, their yard, and all their new friends.  Our neighborhood is awesome and we have met so many awesome people already!