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.

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 love our house.

Like...I LOVE our house.  I'm really, really happy that we built with Ryan.  And I'm so happy that it worked out for us to move into the neighborhood that we did.  It is so beautiful and full of some really wonderful families!

So far the house has been chilly...but that's because my crazy husband keeps the heat at 63 freaking degrees in the dead of winter.  No lie.  We fight daily about it.  A constant war of him turning it to 63 and me turning it to 68.  Either way, heat bills have been good.  So have the electric bills.  And water. 

I love my master bathroom with the closet in it.  LOVE.  Some people think its weird...I don't.  I enjoy not leaving my bathroom until I am fully dressed and ready for the day!

I love my big a$$ kitchen.  Is it the biggest kitchen in the world?  Probably not?  But its one of the biggest and most spacious kitchens I've ever known!  I only wish I'd though to have gotten double ovens or something.  I didn't realize I'd have the space for something that cool.  But let's be honest.  I'll probably  never cook THAT much where it would be handy to have double ovens.

We are still waiting on our tub to be fixed.  The person from the tub manufacturer is working on this in 2 steps.  She's fairly certain that she'll be able to fix it completely.  We'll see once step 2 in complete! 

Our baby in the body cast is doing pretty well considering she's 16 months old and in a body cast.  Her leg is healing very well and we're anxious to get that darn thing off!  15 more days.  Not that I have a countdown or anything like that.  If you'd like to follow her story and recovery (and just our family craziness in general!) click here. 

There are only 2 lots left in the first phase of our street and WOW did Ryan slash the prices!!  Holy cow.  I'll be honest that for about 3 minutes I seriously considered putting my house up for sale (you know...the one we just built and moved into in October???) and building 4 lots down and upgrading the crap out of the new house.  We'd end up paying the same amount!  But that's just me being nutty.  Don't worry Project Manager Mike and Sales Agent Mike!!!  I won't do that to you guys :)  Remember...I love my house! 

In case anyone is curious...a few projects we have on our To-Do list for the house...some we'll get to this year.  Some next year.  Some a long time from now :)  Some are things I wish we had done when we were building!!

- PAINT!  I wish this had been an option when we were building.  I hate painting!  And I stink at picking out paint colors.  I am so hiring someone.
- landscaping - this will be challenging.  My hubby thinks we can do it ourselves.  I'm a perfectionist and want it done right so I say no.  I'll let you know who wins (and when!)
- deck or patio in the back - as much as I'd like one this summer, I think it might be next summer.
- fence (we're waiting to see what our new neighbors do first!  they have a dog!  maybe they'll put a fence up first!)
- finish the basement
- put some sort of stone or brick on the front of the house - I really wish we had done this during the building process just to jazz it up a little. 
-distressed hardwood floors in the entryway
-tile floors in the upstairs bathrooms
- put in a storm door
- add AC (we are in the process of this right now.  KILLER deal! $2000!!!)
- close off our formal living room and put in french doors (hoping to get this done soon within the year - this is something I really wish I had remembered to do when we were building!)
-change out the basic light fixtures that came with the house
-add ceiling fans in the bedrooms
- pool - eventually I'd like our backyard to look like some sort of oasis :)

We have a lot on our plates, huh?  It never ends I guess - even when it is a brand new house!  I'm willing to bet we'll have our hands full this summer getting our lawn in good shape as well!!

Tub Update

Tub Update: Our PM has a person who works for the tub manufacturer to come take a look at our tub and fix it.  We'll see how that works and go from there.


This blog might be a quieter than usual for the next few weeks.  Our 16 month old baby fell and broke her femur and is in a body cast for 4-5 weeks.  You can read the story HERE

Merry Christmas!

Family picture taken with Santa at a neighborhood party last night! Merry Christmas everyone!

Tub Update

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the actual cracks (why on earth I didn't take any with my regular camera is beyond me! I took a few with my camera phone). But here are pictures of our garden tub and the fixes. I need to talk to my PM because I'm just not feeling comfortable with the way it turned out. You can see where the cracks were. When it was fixed, the person who fixed it wasn't able to use the power buffer for some reason and it just doesn't look right. I'm bummed because this tub was one of our upgrades.

They think what happened was that the tub was a tight fit in the spot it was put in and with the house settling, it caused the cracks. IF the tub is replaced, I have no idea how they'll do it. There is no way to get the same tub we have now. With the house finished, it is way to big to get upstairs in the bathroom. It would have to be a 2-piece tub.


You can see the spots, right at the top of the picture in the middle and then in the lower left corner.

This one is at the back of the tub.

There were 2 more cracks, but you can't really see those spots. One was benind the shampoo and the other was right on the corner of the shelf.

Cracked Tub

A bunch of stuff was fixed on Wednesday. 

Imagine my surprise when on Thursday, my cleaning person came downstairs to ask me if I knew about the cracks in our shower/tub.  WHAT?!  No, I definitely didn't.

So, I went up there to check it out and sure enough, there were 5 cracks in our tub!  And they were decent sized cracks.  They had to have happened sometime between Wednesday and Thursday - I definitely would've notice them.

We called our project manager and he was really surprised - and was confused about how something like that could happen.  He has never experienced that before!  We're thinking that maybe the tub was a really tight fit and with the house settling, the pressure caused the cracks.  Someone came out right away on Friday to fix it and luckily the cracks didn't go all the way through to the red fiberglass (or whatever it is).  So I guess that is a good thing? 

Our PM stopped by to check on how the fixes were going (sidenote: all the people who have come to fix our house so far have been SUPER nice!) and I did talk to him about my concerns.  I am worried - what if our tub keeps cracking like this?  That SUCKS!!  And I don't want to have to replace our tub in a few years, you know?  Our PM assured me that they will take care of things - IF we get anymore they will have the manufacturer come take a look at it and we'll go from there.

Oh and something interesting I was told - apparently our tub is so big, we couldn't get a new one!  They can't get it in the house because it is so big!  That worries me a little bit too...what do we do if we need to get a new one?  I guess it comes in pieces or something.  I'll keep you updated..