Saturday, March 31, 2012

A Not So Funny Story

     About a week before we were supposed to close on our house we decided to take a Saturday drive over to the house. Our daughter had not been to see it in a while and it was very different, so we decided to go, even though we had decided to wait until our walk through in a few days. We walked into our beautiful house, looked around, gasped in amazement, and sighed with contentedness, etc. Then, while we were in the kitchen my daughter noticed wet spots on the floor. Then we noticed them dripping down from the outlet by the door. Running the whole way across the kitchen to the pantry. Our hardwoods were sitting with little puddles on them. Not good.  Wait! It's still kind of drippy. (we shall deem this the mini flood) I don't know about everyone, but our PM is out of reach on weekends. He doesn't check voice mail, email, etc. I applaud that, because if he did his family would suffer for it.

     I called the model home and talked to the sales rep, called the girl with the mortgage company to tell her we may need to change our closing,  and we waited for our PM to arrive. He looked at it, found a leak in the plumbing where they had moved our bathtub fixtures, and assured us everything would be okay. We had a very frank discussion with him. We were confident, but I was also feeling kind of annoyed at something he said.

     Back story: Our tub had been installed so that when we were sitting it in with the drain at our feet and the jet behind us the faucet would be right in our face. I brought this to his attention and was frankly surprised that he didn't seem to know what I was talking about right away. Then it took several days, and lots of anxiety on my part, to get the kind of response I was expecting right away. "We'll take care of it" was what I was expecting to hear. We also allowed for the tub to have holes patched where the faucet and handles had been rather than demanding a new tub. I know we could have, but to us it felt unnecessary. *I did feel, however, that we were really nice about it.  

     Fast forward again, to the day of the mini-flood. We were standing up in our master bath talking about what happened and how it would be taken care of and be a-okay. The PM explained that earlier in the process they had thought the water lines for the bathtub were missing, so they opened the drywall (which we had noticed and wondered about) and ran lines from where the sinks were to supply water to the tub. So the faucet had to be at the end because of jets and where everything else was situated. (After reading about how other people with Ravennas have had PMs put all the control access in the bathroom so they could have a full tile front to the tub I have to admit I felt more than a little cheated with my "Oops" tub situation.) When they went to change the faucet & handles they found that the lines which they originally thought were missing were indeed right where they were supposed to be.

     At some point in the conversation he said that this is where "No good deed goes unpunished" comes in. And he was talking about his good deed of moving the faucet and handles! I can only imagine the look on my face when that happened. I thought we were the ones who did a good deed and took less than the brand new in perfect condition bathtub we paid for, but he saw it as a favor to us to move the stuff. Definitely different perceptions of the same thing.

     The following Monday my cousin let me know there were a  bunch of trucks at our house doing lots of work. We signed our papers with the mortgage people and moved into the house. Within a few days all the little loose ends were tied up and you would never know there had been any water problems. Thankfully, it was during construction, so it isn't considered something we had fixed. We are all living happily ever after.

    If you are building and going through hairy situations in the process, I would say it is to be expected. I would also say you should expect to see things resolved to your satisfaction, however that is defined.

     Totally unrelated item:

     There are a couple other things which I specifically asked to be done a certain way during the sales process and were changed without prior notice. I'm trying to decide how to handle stuff like that now. For example: I asked to have an outlet put in the garage on the left side front. I planned to park on the right side  with the big van. I also plan to park a small car on the left. So whatever I want to plug in would fit easily in front of the car. The van - not so. Guess where the two garage outlets are? One on the right front  and right side towards the front. Am I too big of a pain if I ask to have it put where I originally contracted it? I really want it there, paid for it assuming it was going there, and now feel like I can't use my garage the way I planned. Parking the van on the right is far and away the most convenient option for us. We added extra parking pad on the left for the kids to park, and getting in & out is most definitely easiest on the right side. The sidewalk to the front door is also on the right side, so If we let people out of the van, again, it's the easiest.

     Am I being way too "First world problem" or is it a totally reasonable request?

    

    

4 comments:

  1. I believe that we have to be vigilant in getting our money's worth. Its not like they messed up your order at Mc'donalds. You have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, to have everything done right.

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  2. I say - its your house and its your money that is paying them to be employed - make them work for what you want and what you're paying for

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  3. Hi Tammy,

    I'm interested in your thoughts on finishing details with your house. You commented on my blog a while back and I was hoping you would take a look again. ryanhomessorrento.blogspot.com


    I really like my house, but I have a lot of subfloor lifting up so it moves as you walk on it. I'm also shocked that most of the trim work, and all the doors, were painted without being dusted off firts so there is permanent dust bubbles throughout the house. Do you have these issues? Curious in Buffalo. Please drop a line and let me know. Thanks.

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  4. I think that if you paid for those outlets to be on the left side, then you should get them on the left side. Here's my whole attitude about this home building process...I am the one spending hundreds of thousands of dollars with their company. THEY work for ME. Therefore if I am paying them to do things a certain way, then that's what I would expect and want.

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