But I'm not going to get my hopes up. Yet.
It looks like a strongly worded email worked? I sent the email (see the post below) to the District Manager of Ryan Homes on Monday at 11am. I still have not heard 1 single word from him. I did, however, finally get phone calls from another guy from Ryan Homes who will be overseeing the rest of the work on our house and make sure things get finished up and FINALLY got a phone call from the person from the selection center. It just took over a week AND this new guy telling her to call us to get that to happen. For reals????
I'm not gonna lie, I'm NOT happy that I still haven't heard from the District Manager. What kind of customer service is that? At the very least reply to my email to let me know you got it, return my phone calls, ACKNOWLEDGE that I'm contacting you! I totally get that he's a busy guy - wouldn't want his job! However, that's his job. And my husband and I are paying a lot of money for a house that isn't the way its supposed to be. I'm curious what got the ball rolling...my email or the fact that I posted it on this blog.
We'll be going to pick out the tile on Saturday, I hope. That was basically the only option we were given so we're trying to squeeze it in among the million and ten other things we have going on that day. It's going to take 6ish weeks for the tile to come in and once that happens they have to take out the old tub, put the new one in, redo the plumbing, then tile, then hook up shower head, etc. It won't be a quick process. Which is part of why I'm so irritated about everything up until this point taking so long. I knew it wouldn't be a quick fix.
I'm very appreciative and thankful for the new person, Steve, who will be working on things with us. He assured me that he's going to try to get all of our outside issues taken care of as quickly as possible. We did get our walkway repaired yesterday. Of course it was right in the middle of our landscaping being installed. It was fine, both the concrete guys and landscapers were easy going and willing to work around each other. It just stinks because our landscapers have to come back today to finish the job because they couldn't finish the areas around where the sidewalk was repaired. Which was exactly what I was trying to avoid from the very beginning when I told people MONTHS ago that we had landscaping scheduled. Oh well, like I said, our landscapers are very flexible and easy to work with and willing to come back today. For those in the Western NY area, we used Groundbreakers Landscaping. They've been fantastic and VERY resonably priced. I hope to take after pictures tonight and will post them soon. They did a beautiful job and really worked with me to give me exactly what I wanted. They have a website http://www.gbwny.com/ if you want to check them out.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Apparently patience, being respectful, and kindness get you NOWHERE.
No wonder people so often resort to acting like a-holes.
Let me tell you...the last 6-8 weeks have been such a nightmare! I am out of patience and I'm unleashing the floodgates. Bear with me. Where shall I start?
I think I'll start with saying that anyone who is currently building their house or has just moved in - do NOT fill out your customer satisfaction survey until every single thing in your home is done and it is done to your satisfaction. I'm at the point where I feel like once they got their coveted 10's from us, they stopped trying to make sure we were happy. (Did that happen to anyone else? All we heard from our Sales rep and PM when we would thank them for something was to make sure we gave them all 10's on the survey.)
Next...the tub in the master bath. Well, we've finally come to the agreement that Ryan Homes will replace it. But not until we were told by the Service Manager that no, they'd just repair them. Excuse me, but we UPGRADED that tub and in being in the house for less than 8 months we've had no less than 8 cracks appear in that tub. Repair 1 or 2? Ok. Repair 8???? I don't think so. There is a freaking problem with the tub, why on earth do I have to go above this guys head to the Division Manager in Buffalo? And even then, when I spoke with the Division Manager, he tells me that the tub can be fixed, but if we want them to, they'll replace the tub and install a tile surround (because the 1 piece unit cannot fit into the bathroom) and to let them know what they want us to do. Um, seriously?! I've escalated this issue to YOU because we want the tub replaced. Then, the tub he sends me to review as a replacement is not the right kind of tub for our bathroom - I email him to let him know this and I also asked him about the possibility of upgrading the tub to a whirlpool tub because when we were originally told the tub should be replaced (by a Ryan Home Employee who shall remain nameless...) we were told that it should be replaced by a whirlpool tub with a tile surround. To get the the whirlpool tub, we have to pay for it. And it took over 2 weeks for me to get that information, several unreturned phone calls, and a conversation with my PM!! We passed on paying extra for the whirlpool tub (we have too many other projects going on right now) and I let the district manager know immediately. He told me that the woman from the Selection Center would be in touch to pick out the tile - and guess who I STILL haven't heard from? It has been a week! I even emailed him on Thursday to let him know I hadn't heard from the woman and maybe I should contact her myself, he said no and copied her on the email...still NOTHING. Are you freaking kidding? How hard is this? And it's supposed to take 6 weeks for the tile to come in once we pick it, so I'd like to get it picked ASAP.
Here's the email I sent to him yesterday - I was so ticked off when I wrote this! I emailed him over 24 hours ago and haven't even gotten a response.
Hi XXXX,
Just wanted to let you know that we still haven’t heard from XXXX in regards to coming in and picking out the tile selections. My husband will be out of the country next week so we will be unable to do any tile selections Sunday 6/19-Sunday 6/26 and I don’t want to push this out any further than we have to.
My husband and I are getting to the point where we’re frustrated and losing patience. We are still waiting on our 30 day inspection issues to be fixed such as pillars being painted, our front door being painted, the decorative piece over the garage actually being secured and properly fit (it looks horrible). Our front walkway and sidewalk also need to be replaced and that hasn’t happened either. I completely understand that some things have been backlogged due to the weather issues, but I have also made it known that we had landscaping scheduled for June – and I already pushed it back because the sidewalk wasn’t done. You can imagine my frustration when the house across the street from me had their sidewalk and driveway fixed on Thursday, when their house was built after ours! And when we went to ask XXXXX if we were next, they said we were not on their schedule. I don’t want to go forward with my landscaping to have it messed up when the sidewalk is installed.
I’m also getting to the point where I’m feeling disappointment in some things. We paid $250,000+ for an “estate” home and currently I don’t feel like I live in an estate home. Maybe I’ll feel better once all of the necessary fixes and repairs are made. We have to call the service center because the bases of our front porch pillars are falling apart. Our front porch was an expensive upgrade and for a $250,000 house, those pillar bases shouldn’t be falling apart after 8 months. I see houses built after ours getting their 30 day inspection fixes taken care of while we are still waiting on ours (and our 10 month is due in August!). I’ve found out from new Ryan home builders (ones who have XXXX as their sales rep – he told them) that apparently there are only in-ground pools allowed in XXXXX Estates. My husband and I were never informed of that by our sales rep, XXXXX. I think that’s an important piece of information! Also, I see houses going up now that have garage doors with windows. I had no idea that you could upgrade the garage door because we were never told we could upgrade the garage door.
I apologize for this long email, but like I said, my husband and I are both getting to the point where we are getting fed up. We are beginning to feel like being flexible, nice, and patient is getting us nothing but a waiting game. We just want our house to be finished so it can really start feeling like a home to us.
So, crazy right?? We have been in our house since the middle of October and we're still waiting for our 30 day inspection items to be finished! How freaking ridiculous, insane, and UNACCEPTABLE is that??? Like I've read on other blogs, our grass is coming in like crap. We're absolutely going to have to reseed ourselves. You're supposed to hydroseed within 24 hours after grading the lawn - it was DAYS. Our PM told us he would seal our concrete driveway for us - that never happened. We've been BEGGING for the ceiling paint and accent paint so we can do touch ups for months. Nothing.
I can't even begin to tell you how furious I am over our sidewalk situation. The sidewalk and our walkway sank over the winter and needs to be replaced. I understand, no problem. I was told at the end of April - APRIL that it would be in a few weeks. It is now JUNE 14th and I have nothing. And I'm having my landscaping installed tomorrow - and I've already pushed it back a week and a half for the sidewalk. This is NOT right. I've told our PM a million and ten times that we wanted this done before our landscaping and he assured me that it would be. Imagine my shock when last Thursday the concrete people were at the house across the street from me tearing out their walkway and part of their driveway and then they got their repairs done (and upgraded to the wider sidewalk!!) on Friday!! They moved into their house a MONTH after ours - their house started almost a month after ours. What the heck??? We asked the concrete people if we were next and nope. Not even on the schedule. I look out the window this morning...and guess who is getting landscaping?! I.am.furious. Spitting.NAILS.furious.
And that's all just the icing on the cake people! I was lucky enough to find out the last week in April that one of the people doing the work in our home - AFTER WE WERE LIVING THERE is a Level 3, violent, SEX OFFENDER!! Ryan Homes and NVR is not screening these people before they come into our home. I understand if they build the house before we live there, but AFTER? This man was in our house when myself and my 2 young children were home. He has been in my neighbors homes when they've been alone with their young children. How did I find this out, you ask? Well, my husband and I wanted to put up a wall and french doors in our formal living room to turn it into another office. This man had been at our house doing things, we liked him, he was friendly and did good work and gave us a good price, so we hired him. Clearly that was the biggest mistake of our lives! The day arrived for him to show up and nothing. Couldn't get ahold of him, didn't show up, nothing. Finally got ahold of him - AFTER I did a Google search where he promptly came up on the NY Sex Offender Registry. FABULOUS. Not only had he already been in our house - but we'd given him $800 to order the door for the project. (Note: LESSON LEARNED!!!!) So we were stuck. We've spent the last 6 weeks with one excuse after another after another - horrible communiation and mostly through text messages if we were lucky. We couldn't just fire him or else we were out $800. Long story short, we finally got the door last week. He was supposed to show Monday and didn't, had another excuse and we fired him. YAY! I feel like a weight has been lifted. He still has $200 of materials and he "said" he'd drop them off. Doubtful. If he doesn't get them to us by next week, we'll call the police and take him to small claims. I'm not worried and we're currently searching for a new contractor.
My main issue though - yes, I need to do due dilligence any time I hire a contractor for my home. However, so does Ryan and NVR if they're sending people into my home after I already live there!!! I should get a say whether or not a LEVEL 3 (meaning high risk of repeat offense), violent, sex offender comes into my home! And I'm willing to bet a lot of other homeowners - especially women with young children would feel the same way!
Overall, do I still love my house and where we live? Yes, I do. And I do feel like the structure of my house is good. But I feel like the ball is being dropped and we're being ignored left and right. I'm DONE! I'm sick of it! Apparently the polite and patient squeaky wheel gets NOTHING.
Stay tuned...I have a very interesting story about some of my poor neighbors and the issues they are dealing with in their home!
Let me tell you...the last 6-8 weeks have been such a nightmare! I am out of patience and I'm unleashing the floodgates. Bear with me. Where shall I start?
I think I'll start with saying that anyone who is currently building their house or has just moved in - do NOT fill out your customer satisfaction survey until every single thing in your home is done and it is done to your satisfaction. I'm at the point where I feel like once they got their coveted 10's from us, they stopped trying to make sure we were happy. (Did that happen to anyone else? All we heard from our Sales rep and PM when we would thank them for something was to make sure we gave them all 10's on the survey.)
Next...the tub in the master bath. Well, we've finally come to the agreement that Ryan Homes will replace it. But not until we were told by the Service Manager that no, they'd just repair them. Excuse me, but we UPGRADED that tub and in being in the house for less than 8 months we've had no less than 8 cracks appear in that tub. Repair 1 or 2? Ok. Repair 8???? I don't think so. There is a freaking problem with the tub, why on earth do I have to go above this guys head to the Division Manager in Buffalo? And even then, when I spoke with the Division Manager, he tells me that the tub can be fixed, but if we want them to, they'll replace the tub and install a tile surround (because the 1 piece unit cannot fit into the bathroom) and to let them know what they want us to do. Um, seriously?! I've escalated this issue to YOU because we want the tub replaced. Then, the tub he sends me to review as a replacement is not the right kind of tub for our bathroom - I email him to let him know this and I also asked him about the possibility of upgrading the tub to a whirlpool tub because when we were originally told the tub should be replaced (by a Ryan Home Employee who shall remain nameless...) we were told that it should be replaced by a whirlpool tub with a tile surround. To get the the whirlpool tub, we have to pay for it. And it took over 2 weeks for me to get that information, several unreturned phone calls, and a conversation with my PM!! We passed on paying extra for the whirlpool tub (we have too many other projects going on right now) and I let the district manager know immediately. He told me that the woman from the Selection Center would be in touch to pick out the tile - and guess who I STILL haven't heard from? It has been a week! I even emailed him on Thursday to let him know I hadn't heard from the woman and maybe I should contact her myself, he said no and copied her on the email...still NOTHING. Are you freaking kidding? How hard is this? And it's supposed to take 6 weeks for the tile to come in once we pick it, so I'd like to get it picked ASAP.
Here's the email I sent to him yesterday - I was so ticked off when I wrote this! I emailed him over 24 hours ago and haven't even gotten a response.
Hi XXXX,
Just wanted to let you know that we still haven’t heard from XXXX in regards to coming in and picking out the tile selections. My husband will be out of the country next week so we will be unable to do any tile selections Sunday 6/19-Sunday 6/26 and I don’t want to push this out any further than we have to.
My husband and I are getting to the point where we’re frustrated and losing patience. We are still waiting on our 30 day inspection issues to be fixed such as pillars being painted, our front door being painted, the decorative piece over the garage actually being secured and properly fit (it looks horrible). Our front walkway and sidewalk also need to be replaced and that hasn’t happened either. I completely understand that some things have been backlogged due to the weather issues, but I have also made it known that we had landscaping scheduled for June – and I already pushed it back because the sidewalk wasn’t done. You can imagine my frustration when the house across the street from me had their sidewalk and driveway fixed on Thursday, when their house was built after ours! And when we went to ask XXXXX if we were next, they said we were not on their schedule. I don’t want to go forward with my landscaping to have it messed up when the sidewalk is installed.
I’m also getting to the point where I’m feeling disappointment in some things. We paid $250,000+ for an “estate” home and currently I don’t feel like I live in an estate home. Maybe I’ll feel better once all of the necessary fixes and repairs are made. We have to call the service center because the bases of our front porch pillars are falling apart. Our front porch was an expensive upgrade and for a $250,000 house, those pillar bases shouldn’t be falling apart after 8 months. I see houses built after ours getting their 30 day inspection fixes taken care of while we are still waiting on ours (and our 10 month is due in August!). I’ve found out from new Ryan home builders (ones who have XXXX as their sales rep – he told them) that apparently there are only in-ground pools allowed in XXXXX Estates. My husband and I were never informed of that by our sales rep, XXXXX. I think that’s an important piece of information! Also, I see houses going up now that have garage doors with windows. I had no idea that you could upgrade the garage door because we were never told we could upgrade the garage door.
I apologize for this long email, but like I said, my husband and I are both getting to the point where we are getting fed up. We are beginning to feel like being flexible, nice, and patient is getting us nothing but a waiting game. We just want our house to be finished so it can really start feeling like a home to us.
So, crazy right?? We have been in our house since the middle of October and we're still waiting for our 30 day inspection items to be finished! How freaking ridiculous, insane, and UNACCEPTABLE is that??? Like I've read on other blogs, our grass is coming in like crap. We're absolutely going to have to reseed ourselves. You're supposed to hydroseed within 24 hours after grading the lawn - it was DAYS. Our PM told us he would seal our concrete driveway for us - that never happened. We've been BEGGING for the ceiling paint and accent paint so we can do touch ups for months. Nothing.
I can't even begin to tell you how furious I am over our sidewalk situation. The sidewalk and our walkway sank over the winter and needs to be replaced. I understand, no problem. I was told at the end of April - APRIL that it would be in a few weeks. It is now JUNE 14th and I have nothing. And I'm having my landscaping installed tomorrow - and I've already pushed it back a week and a half for the sidewalk. This is NOT right. I've told our PM a million and ten times that we wanted this done before our landscaping and he assured me that it would be. Imagine my shock when last Thursday the concrete people were at the house across the street from me tearing out their walkway and part of their driveway and then they got their repairs done (and upgraded to the wider sidewalk!!) on Friday!! They moved into their house a MONTH after ours - their house started almost a month after ours. What the heck??? We asked the concrete people if we were next and nope. Not even on the schedule. I look out the window this morning...and guess who is getting landscaping?! I.am.furious. Spitting.NAILS.furious.
And that's all just the icing on the cake people! I was lucky enough to find out the last week in April that one of the people doing the work in our home - AFTER WE WERE LIVING THERE is a Level 3, violent, SEX OFFENDER!! Ryan Homes and NVR is not screening these people before they come into our home. I understand if they build the house before we live there, but AFTER? This man was in our house when myself and my 2 young children were home. He has been in my neighbors homes when they've been alone with their young children. How did I find this out, you ask? Well, my husband and I wanted to put up a wall and french doors in our formal living room to turn it into another office. This man had been at our house doing things, we liked him, he was friendly and did good work and gave us a good price, so we hired him. Clearly that was the biggest mistake of our lives! The day arrived for him to show up and nothing. Couldn't get ahold of him, didn't show up, nothing. Finally got ahold of him - AFTER I did a Google search where he promptly came up on the NY Sex Offender Registry. FABULOUS. Not only had he already been in our house - but we'd given him $800 to order the door for the project. (Note: LESSON LEARNED!!!!) So we were stuck. We've spent the last 6 weeks with one excuse after another after another - horrible communiation and mostly through text messages if we were lucky. We couldn't just fire him or else we were out $800. Long story short, we finally got the door last week. He was supposed to show Monday and didn't, had another excuse and we fired him. YAY! I feel like a weight has been lifted. He still has $200 of materials and he "said" he'd drop them off. Doubtful. If he doesn't get them to us by next week, we'll call the police and take him to small claims. I'm not worried and we're currently searching for a new contractor.
My main issue though - yes, I need to do due dilligence any time I hire a contractor for my home. However, so does Ryan and NVR if they're sending people into my home after I already live there!!! I should get a say whether or not a LEVEL 3 (meaning high risk of repeat offense), violent, sex offender comes into my home! And I'm willing to bet a lot of other homeowners - especially women with young children would feel the same way!
Overall, do I still love my house and where we live? Yes, I do. And I do feel like the structure of my house is good. But I feel like the ball is being dropped and we're being ignored left and right. I'm DONE! I'm sick of it! Apparently the polite and patient squeaky wheel gets NOTHING.
Stay tuned...I have a very interesting story about some of my poor neighbors and the issues they are dealing with in their home!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
No tub news.
I was hoping that I would have gotten a call back from the head of Ryan Homes yesterday, but no luck. Seeing how it is pretty much end of day today, I'm not expecting to hear from him today either. A little frustrating only because he said he was going to talk to my project manager yesterday morning and then call me yesterday.
On the bright side, they are regrading our lawn today. We had major amounts of settling in our yard and it kind of looked awful, so I'm really happy to hear that they regraded the whole thing. YAY! I'm a little sad to hear that we lost the pond in our front yard though....LOL (kidding!)
On the bright side, they are regrading our lawn today. We had major amounts of settling in our yard and it kind of looked awful, so I'm really happy to hear that they regraded the whole thing. YAY! I'm a little sad to hear that we lost the pond in our front yard though....LOL (kidding!)
Monday, May 9, 2011
So much for the tub being fixed.
Shortly after my last post, we discovered not one, not two, but THREE more cracks in our master bath shower/tub. We called the Customer Service line and they said that the call needed to be escalated to the Service Manager and he'd have to come and take a look at it. First of all, it took him almost 2 weeks to get in touch with us. I ended up calling our Project Manager to ask if he had heard anything and he emailed the Service Manager and we were called the next day, so perhaps that had something to do with us finally getting a call back.
The Service Manager came to our house this morning. I am very disappointed, to say the least. He is telling my husband that the cracks have most likely been there since the tub was installed, we just didn't notice them. Um, that's complete crap. There is no freaking way. What, is this guy some sort of fiberglass tub expert? I doubt it. My husband and I both throuroughly inspected that shower/tub for additional cracks after the first FIVE (yes, FIVE!!!) were discovered. And due to contract issues (or something) it took MONTHS to get someone to come in and fix those cracks properly. All of the cracks were finally fixed just before Easter. The 3 new ones were definitely NOT there before.
So, the Service Manager is telling us that he's going to have the Tub guy come back and fix the cracks. Um, no. Unacceptable. This is ridiculous! If you went and bought a bathtub at the Home Depot and it had 8 cracks in it, would you install it? NO! You'd take it back and get a new one. So, I don't care if these cracks have been there since installation or they appeared since the house settled - my bathtub in my brand new house that I paid a LOT of money for has had 8 freaking cracks in it! I want a NEW TUB! And, this particular tub was an upgrade for us - so we paid additional money for this too!!
I guess after typing all of this out, disappointed doesn't quite acurately describe how I'm feeling at the moment. I'm pretty ticked off. Especially since we've been dealing with this for MONTHS. Since Christmas! And we still have other things that need to get finished...final coat of paint on our front door, on our pillars, replace sidewalk and walkways, fill in sink holes in our yard, hydroseed. Ugh, I just want it to be finished.
I put a call in to the head of Ryan Homes in our area and hopefully he'll be in touch with us soon so we can get this sorted out. At this point, the tub HAS to be replaced. I will not settle for anything less. There is clearly something wrong with our tub. (And have you ever seen how they drop off the building materials?? They just slide it off a flatbed and it all slams into the ground. If those cracks have been there since installation, I have a pretty good idea how they got there!!) It is so huge that they'll have to cut it up to get it out of the house. And they won't be able to replace it with what we had (because it is so big - soaking tub) they're going to have to replace it with something better. I'll take either a soaking tub with tile surround or a jacuzzi tub with fiberglass surround - either is fine. But they are replacing this tub.
The Service Manager came to our house this morning. I am very disappointed, to say the least. He is telling my husband that the cracks have most likely been there since the tub was installed, we just didn't notice them. Um, that's complete crap. There is no freaking way. What, is this guy some sort of fiberglass tub expert? I doubt it. My husband and I both throuroughly inspected that shower/tub for additional cracks after the first FIVE (yes, FIVE!!!) were discovered. And due to contract issues (or something) it took MONTHS to get someone to come in and fix those cracks properly. All of the cracks were finally fixed just before Easter. The 3 new ones were definitely NOT there before.
So, the Service Manager is telling us that he's going to have the Tub guy come back and fix the cracks. Um, no. Unacceptable. This is ridiculous! If you went and bought a bathtub at the Home Depot and it had 8 cracks in it, would you install it? NO! You'd take it back and get a new one. So, I don't care if these cracks have been there since installation or they appeared since the house settled - my bathtub in my brand new house that I paid a LOT of money for has had 8 freaking cracks in it! I want a NEW TUB! And, this particular tub was an upgrade for us - so we paid additional money for this too!!
I guess after typing all of this out, disappointed doesn't quite acurately describe how I'm feeling at the moment. I'm pretty ticked off. Especially since we've been dealing with this for MONTHS. Since Christmas! And we still have other things that need to get finished...final coat of paint on our front door, on our pillars, replace sidewalk and walkways, fill in sink holes in our yard, hydroseed. Ugh, I just want it to be finished.
I put a call in to the head of Ryan Homes in our area and hopefully he'll be in touch with us soon so we can get this sorted out. At this point, the tub HAS to be replaced. I will not settle for anything less. There is clearly something wrong with our tub. (And have you ever seen how they drop off the building materials?? They just slide it off a flatbed and it all slams into the ground. If those cracks have been there since installation, I have a pretty good idea how they got there!!) It is so huge that they'll have to cut it up to get it out of the house. And they won't be able to replace it with what we had (because it is so big - soaking tub) they're going to have to replace it with something better. I'll take either a soaking tub with tile surround or a jacuzzi tub with fiberglass surround - either is fine. But they are replacing this tub.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Some updates and Building Advice
I haven't updated in awhile. Sorry!
The tub is fixed. I'm pretty happy with it. You really can't even tell where the cracks were. There were some contracting issues with the original person who they had coming to fix the tub so that's why it was taking so long. They had another company come in - Tubmasters of Rochester and they did a fantastic job. He said he couldn't fix it perfectly (it looks pretty darn good to me though) but that was because 2 people did a crappy job before him.
With all of the settling from the winter, there will have to be some fixes outside the house. Hopefully it will happen within the next couple weeks. We are on the list of repairs. We need our front walkway replaced as well as our sidewalk. They both sank and cracked. They are being replaced NO problem. In addition to that, we're getting re-graded and re-seeded. I can't wait for that - I'm getting tired of mud!! I long for grass! Soon they will also be repainting our pillars and front door (they both needed another coat of paint, but it was too cold).
On Wednesday we'll be having a wall and french doors added to our formal living room. I'm very excited about this. It was something I meant to do during the process of building but in all the chaos and excitement, completely forgot. Which may not have been a terrible thing because we're adding this wall, doors, and getting it all painted for about $1400. It isn't part of our mortgage, and I'm pretty sure it is FAR cheaper than the upgrade with Ryan would have been.
Later in May (basically as soon as the walkway is finished and yard graded) we will be getting the front of the house landscaped. We are also excited about that. It will just be nice to finally have some COLOR and plants in front of the house!! We are pretty sure we've finally decided on a company to go with (I'm really thankful to my neighbors who have made recommendations to us) and just need to nail down a date.
They are starting the 2nd phase of our neighborhood!! Holy Moly, did we buy at the right time!! The base prices of the houses have shot up at least $40,000 and most of the lots carry a price tag of an additional $7-$10,000. When we bought our house, we got a great deal because they were just introducing the Ravenna - if someone was buying our house TODAY the base price plus the lot is more than we paid for our ENTIRE house!!!!! That's not including elevation or any upgrades!! We really lucked out. And boy, our property value is going to go up, up, up! Not looking forward to the tax assessment though. It's a little sad to see all of the trees go and have new people move in, but also exciting at the same time.
HOME BUILDING TIPS:
Any questions about your home building process? Please feel free to ask! khuber@buffalo.edu
My biggest piece of advice for anyone building - especially if you want to stick to a budget - is to watch your upgrades. Upgrade STRUCTURAL things - things that would be very difficult, costly (or impossible) to change later. Don't worry about the cosmetic stuff as much. Those things can always be changed for a FRACTION of the cost.
Some examples:
Central Air:
Central Air was not included with our house. I've heard it is included in some areas, so this may change from place to place. I can't remember specifically what the cost was for us to upgrade to Central Air was, but I've heard people report it being in the ball part of anywhere between $4,000-$5,000. That is RIDICULOUS. Do you know why? Because all you are really paying for us the condenser unit. When they put in your furnace - they are putting in all the duct work they need for central air as well. So everything is all set and ready to go. The day you close on your house you can turn around and sign a contract with the company that installed your heating system and have Central Air installed for $2500 (that was the price we were given the day we closed). That is a HUGE difference!! But wait! If you wait until January (we closed in October) you'll get a letter from the heating company advertising a special on Central Air. We ended up having our Central Air installed in March for $2100 - TOTAL. Big difference from the original upgrade price, wouldn't you say? And now we're not paying interest on it on a 15/30 year mortgage either!
Morning Room:
Get the morning room. Just do it. To add our morning room was approximately $12-$13,000. I can't remember exactly. It was worth every penny. It is a 200 square foot room, so do the math. Approximately $65 per sq ft to put that on. We asked some contractors what it would cost to put that size morning room on the house later and they said to expect to pay $100 per sq ft - so $20,000. Big difference! And I have yet to hear anyone complain that they should not have gotten the morning room. What I have heard from at least 2 people in my neighborhood that didn't get the morning room is that they desperately wish they had! Also, get the island. Just get the island.
Kitchen Cabinets:
If you have a house with 9 ft ceilings, upgrade the side of your cabinets - they'll look silly otherwise. Also, get the crown molding on the cabinets. It isn't very expensive, you have a professional install it and it looks SO nice!
Lighting:
Don't waste your money upgrading lighting (unless you have a house that has a really nice chandelier you can see from the street - in that case - get something nice! Those things are a PAIN to install later!). Lighting upgrades are expensive and the lighting they provide is fine. You can upgrade yourself for much, much less after you move in. If you want ceiling lights/fans in bedrooms I would have them cut the hole in the ceiling but that's it.
Fixtures:
I forget what the exact cost was to upgrade the fixtures in the house from chrome to brushed nickel or to oil rubbed bronze. Again, the fixtures are pretty decent. If you can live with chrome for a bit, save yourself the money and get new faucets later - for FAR less!
Cabinet Hardware:
This is one of the most ridiculous upgrades! I can't remember the price but it was INSANE. You had 1 choice of knobs and that was it. For about $150 we got some really nice handles and had them put on our cabinets. A fraction of what it would have cost if we had upgrades and they look much nicer.
Bathrooms:
If you have any doubt, upgrade your bathrooms. Those are difficult to remodel later! That's one thing I regret. I really wish we had gotten double sinks in both bathrooms and wish we had upgraded our master bath. Our master bath is nice - I love it. But I do regret not upgrading it!!
The tub is fixed. I'm pretty happy with it. You really can't even tell where the cracks were. There were some contracting issues with the original person who they had coming to fix the tub so that's why it was taking so long. They had another company come in - Tubmasters of Rochester and they did a fantastic job. He said he couldn't fix it perfectly (it looks pretty darn good to me though) but that was because 2 people did a crappy job before him.
With all of the settling from the winter, there will have to be some fixes outside the house. Hopefully it will happen within the next couple weeks. We are on the list of repairs. We need our front walkway replaced as well as our sidewalk. They both sank and cracked. They are being replaced NO problem. In addition to that, we're getting re-graded and re-seeded. I can't wait for that - I'm getting tired of mud!! I long for grass! Soon they will also be repainting our pillars and front door (they both needed another coat of paint, but it was too cold).
On Wednesday we'll be having a wall and french doors added to our formal living room. I'm very excited about this. It was something I meant to do during the process of building but in all the chaos and excitement, completely forgot. Which may not have been a terrible thing because we're adding this wall, doors, and getting it all painted for about $1400. It isn't part of our mortgage, and I'm pretty sure it is FAR cheaper than the upgrade with Ryan would have been.
Later in May (basically as soon as the walkway is finished and yard graded) we will be getting the front of the house landscaped. We are also excited about that. It will just be nice to finally have some COLOR and plants in front of the house!! We are pretty sure we've finally decided on a company to go with (I'm really thankful to my neighbors who have made recommendations to us) and just need to nail down a date.
They are starting the 2nd phase of our neighborhood!! Holy Moly, did we buy at the right time!! The base prices of the houses have shot up at least $40,000 and most of the lots carry a price tag of an additional $7-$10,000. When we bought our house, we got a great deal because they were just introducing the Ravenna - if someone was buying our house TODAY the base price plus the lot is more than we paid for our ENTIRE house!!!!! That's not including elevation or any upgrades!! We really lucked out. And boy, our property value is going to go up, up, up! Not looking forward to the tax assessment though. It's a little sad to see all of the trees go and have new people move in, but also exciting at the same time.
HOME BUILDING TIPS:
Any questions about your home building process? Please feel free to ask! khuber@buffalo.edu
My biggest piece of advice for anyone building - especially if you want to stick to a budget - is to watch your upgrades. Upgrade STRUCTURAL things - things that would be very difficult, costly (or impossible) to change later. Don't worry about the cosmetic stuff as much. Those things can always be changed for a FRACTION of the cost.
Some examples:
Central Air:
Central Air was not included with our house. I've heard it is included in some areas, so this may change from place to place. I can't remember specifically what the cost was for us to upgrade to Central Air was, but I've heard people report it being in the ball part of anywhere between $4,000-$5,000. That is RIDICULOUS. Do you know why? Because all you are really paying for us the condenser unit. When they put in your furnace - they are putting in all the duct work they need for central air as well. So everything is all set and ready to go. The day you close on your house you can turn around and sign a contract with the company that installed your heating system and have Central Air installed for $2500 (that was the price we were given the day we closed). That is a HUGE difference!! But wait! If you wait until January (we closed in October) you'll get a letter from the heating company advertising a special on Central Air. We ended up having our Central Air installed in March for $2100 - TOTAL. Big difference from the original upgrade price, wouldn't you say? And now we're not paying interest on it on a 15/30 year mortgage either!
Morning Room:
Get the morning room. Just do it. To add our morning room was approximately $12-$13,000. I can't remember exactly. It was worth every penny. It is a 200 square foot room, so do the math. Approximately $65 per sq ft to put that on. We asked some contractors what it would cost to put that size morning room on the house later and they said to expect to pay $100 per sq ft - so $20,000. Big difference! And I have yet to hear anyone complain that they should not have gotten the morning room. What I have heard from at least 2 people in my neighborhood that didn't get the morning room is that they desperately wish they had! Also, get the island. Just get the island.
Kitchen Cabinets:
If you have a house with 9 ft ceilings, upgrade the side of your cabinets - they'll look silly otherwise. Also, get the crown molding on the cabinets. It isn't very expensive, you have a professional install it and it looks SO nice!
Lighting:
Don't waste your money upgrading lighting (unless you have a house that has a really nice chandelier you can see from the street - in that case - get something nice! Those things are a PAIN to install later!). Lighting upgrades are expensive and the lighting they provide is fine. You can upgrade yourself for much, much less after you move in. If you want ceiling lights/fans in bedrooms I would have them cut the hole in the ceiling but that's it.
Fixtures:
I forget what the exact cost was to upgrade the fixtures in the house from chrome to brushed nickel or to oil rubbed bronze. Again, the fixtures are pretty decent. If you can live with chrome for a bit, save yourself the money and get new faucets later - for FAR less!
Cabinet Hardware:
This is one of the most ridiculous upgrades! I can't remember the price but it was INSANE. You had 1 choice of knobs and that was it. For about $150 we got some really nice handles and had them put on our cabinets. A fraction of what it would have cost if we had upgrades and they look much nicer.
Bathrooms:
If you have any doubt, upgrade your bathrooms. Those are difficult to remodel later! That's one thing I regret. I really wish we had gotten double sinks in both bathrooms and wish we had upgraded our master bath. Our master bath is nice - I love it. But I do regret not upgrading it!!
Monday, March 7, 2011
The tub is STILL not fixed.
I first reported the tub situation just before Christmas. It was fixed, but not fixed correctly. Someone from the tub manufacturer came the 2nd week in January for the 1st step of the fix. And we haven't seen or heard from her since. She was supposed to come back the week of Martin Luther King day. Today is March 7th. What the heck?!
Needless to say...my patience is wearing thin. We want to be flexible about it because there are 2 houses being finished right now and another one about to break ground. I know things are busy. And so far things have typically been taken care of quickly up until this point. It just concerns me that my bathtub won't be fixed.
It also concerns me because we still have a list of things that were outside things that need to be fixed in the spring (it was too cold before) and I don't want those things to fall on the back burner as well.
Needless to say...my patience is wearing thin. We want to be flexible about it because there are 2 houses being finished right now and another one about to break ground. I know things are busy. And so far things have typically been taken care of quickly up until this point. It just concerns me that my bathtub won't be fixed.
It also concerns me because we still have a list of things that were outside things that need to be fixed in the spring (it was too cold before) and I don't want those things to fall on the back burner as well.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Still waiting on the tub.
Our PM sent a woman from the tub manufacturer to come and fix our tub. She said it was going to take 2 steps - she had to remove the original fix and then start over. So, she removed the first fix and said she'd come back the following week. That was over a month ago. She got confused with the MLK holiday and mis-scheduled things, I guess. Kind of annoying because she never called us or anything. We had to call our PM who had to call HER who then had to call us. We haven't heard yet when she will be back to fix our tub.
I'm not sure if I had mentioned it before, but one of our bannisters on our stairs had an imperfection in the wood. It was bothering me, but I could live with it if I had to. Our PM said no problem and replaced it. They ordered us a new one and replaced it last week and it looks great.
I'm really excited because one of the guys who has been doing some of the work on our house is going to come and do some painting and he gave us a great price on adding french doors to our formal living room. We plan to do that in the next couple of months. Our Central Air will be added in March.
As we begin to decorate I hope to add more pictures to show you what things are beginning to look like. We often get compliments on how open our great room/kitchen/morning room are from people who visit.
I'm not sure if I had mentioned it before, but one of our bannisters on our stairs had an imperfection in the wood. It was bothering me, but I could live with it if I had to. Our PM said no problem and replaced it. They ordered us a new one and replaced it last week and it looks great.
I'm really excited because one of the guys who has been doing some of the work on our house is going to come and do some painting and he gave us a great price on adding french doors to our formal living room. We plan to do that in the next couple of months. Our Central Air will be added in March.
As we begin to decorate I hope to add more pictures to show you what things are beginning to look like. We often get compliments on how open our great room/kitchen/morning room are from people who visit.
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