T-minus 3 Days: Final Inspection

Hello, hello.

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted something new, but we've been busy. The house is basically done, so now we are on the worst kind of countdown: we know the house is ready, we could be living in it, but we still have to wait for the closing date. It's painful.

We ended up hiring an independent inspector to come to the house and provide us with an experienced pair of eyes before our walkthrough. He was recommended by a family member who works with him and he did my mother-in-law inspection a month or so back. We met him on Friday 5/26.

We are very happy we hired someone to complete this step with us. Andrew was very knowledgeable and thorough on his inspection, pointing out not only concerns, but also things Ryan Homes has done right. Chad and I took over the blue tape and marked every little mark on the walls and floors we could find. Most of what we noticed was cosmetic: some marks on the wall, a little paint on the carpet, a few dented hardwood boards, scratched door knobs... that kind of stuff. I suggest you guys look at every single inch of your home and don't be afraid to run out of tape. As Andrew said, ask for anything you're not happy with and go from there. RH won't fix anything you don't point out, so might as well ask for it.

He did find a couple of major things:
- Our dishwasher is not functioning properly. Water is pooling at the bottom and not draining properly during the cycle.
- Our furnace is not working. Gas is not being fed to it, so we have no heater in the house.
- There are a few shingles that were cut and glued instead of replaced. He said that's not as big as a deal, but it won't last as longer and there's no reason why they couldn't have replaced it.
- Where our dormers meet the roof, there is a gap that will allow critters to enter. He wants RH to board it.
- In that same spot, the siding should go under the board to allow for water flow. The siding is over that, so water may get behind the siding.
- The exterior trim paint is very sloppy. There are brush marks, missing spots, and even a hand print. He wants RH to redo it.

We looked at all cabinets, outlets, faucets, appliances, baseboard, trims, etc.
We have our official walk through in a couple of hours, so I'll make sure to add anything that has been missed in this post.

See you all later :)

D.O.R.M.E.R.S.

Would you look at that.

Week 12 - Closing Date!

We're in the home stretch now! We received our settlement date: final walk through 5/30 and settlement on 6/2! We are thankful to Ryan Homes for accommodating our dates--they actually had us settling that last week of May, but we wanted a June date so we could pay our first mortgage in August and have one month of "free" rent.

This process went by so quickly. I can't believe we are less than a month away from owning our first home. No more throwing money away in rent!

We stopped by today and took some pictures. We were also told we should have our dormers installed next week. I'll throw a freaking party when I see those dormers up :P

Carpet in the basement

First floor - faucet was installed and we have water

Little peak on our hardwood floor

Plumbing fixtures were also installed. No peed in there, we checked

Driveway, sidewalk, apron... just missing landscaping

Back of the house was filled, too. We are making peace with the idea of a sloped backyard

Week 11 Updates

Here's our updates for this week. We are so ready to enjoy this awesome deck! We also met the neighbors who live right behind us (our decks face each other). I believe they rent, though, so I guess they won't be around for too long? They seemed nice, nonetheless.

Back of the house. Wish the backyard was flat :|

Can't wait to grill!

Granite and sink were installed 

Garage door and concrete pathway

Trim Carpentry and Other Things :)

We made an appointment with our PM to check on the house since we couldn't walk the home on Saturday. Our PM said he doesn't have to be around for us to walk the house, just give him a heads up and check with the SRs first. We're cool with that.

The walls have been sanded and primed, we have cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms, interior doors, and trim base. Looking good! We're so happy we got to see the house today. They should be tiling this week and granite will be coming soon, too :)

Hall bath and the infamous bath tub!

Master bathroom ans our double sinks

Railing is in

Kitchen and sunroom

With an empty house, that island looks huge!

Front entrance

And this is what's going to be our dormers! :D

More Drywall and Some Siding!

Quick stop today. They are finishing up taping and muddying the drywall and I was pleasantly surprised to see we have some siding on the back of the house. We love the gray color! We couldn't choose, but we were happy not to get stuck with a tan house.

Kitchen and sunroom

Living room

Hallway seen from master bedroom

Basement

Garage

Siding on the back of the house

Another Drywall on the Wall

Our drywall is up. It still needs tapping and muddying, but it feel great to finally see the rooms taking shape. If it wasn't for a bathtub full of pee (this is subject for another post), my visit would have been perfect. They were also installing the support for the deck and the partial brick on the front of the house. Here are some pictures:

Basement

Utilities closet

Pantry

Morning room

Kitchen

Bay window

Master bedroom

Front door

Brick

Our home

Pre-Drywall Meeting

Hello!

We had our pre-drywall meeting today. Our PM tried to reschedule it to this Thursday since they haven't started insulation on our house yet, but our inspector said he actually would prefer to see the house without it and make sure nothing major would be behind any insulation. So that's what we did.

Frank was very nice to us, as usual. We walked the house and he explained to us what we were seeing. We had a few questions about the house, but we didn't know exactly what to look for. Having the inspector with us was very important as he did catch a couple of things we would have never thought of (a crack on the window frame, a disconnected HVAC duct, a couple of cables not nailed to the walls). Nothing too major, according to him, but glad he caught it. He will be sending us a report by tomorrow.

Now, the most important thing: the closing date.
According to Frank, they are having some issues with the electric company coming over, installing the meter, and starting service in the homes. Apparently, demand is way too high and they are having issues keeping up with it all. Frank hopes and is somewhat confident that they will have it all taken care of by first week of May. If that's the case, we should have our walk on 5/27 and close 5/31. We had talked to RH about closing in June, so I'll remind our SR of it and maybe we can schedule it for a couple of days later-- 6/2. That would work perfectly for us :)

We asked Frank for a few favors, but unfortunately he couldn't help us. They were:
- leave the granite lip out for backsplash
- install our fans
- install our cabinet knobs (we bought oil bronze ones). This he may be able to help after the house passes the QA inspection.

This is it! We are so excited and can't wait to move! :D

Issue Resolution

This afternoon Chad and I received a call from Sam with a resolution on our dormers issue. Ryan Homes will honor what they represented to us and we will be getting our cute dormers. Woohoo!

I must say that we are very satisfied with how they handled the issue. Yes, it was stressful and yes, we were upset, but RH, well-represented by Sam, took ownership of the mistake and gave us a resolution on our issue in one business day. We weren't looking for anything more than what was promised to us and we got it. So leaving this one behind and moving on with enjoying the exciting process that is building a new home. Oh, and Frank stated that the shingles will be removed so the dormers are installed properly and that we shouldn't see a delay because of this.

We will, of course, be there later his week to see any progress in person :)

Construction Update - Roof / Plumbing and a Bump in the Road

Hi ya'll,

We received an email from our PM this Friday letting us know that framing was complete, shingles were installed, and plumbing rough-ins were done. As soon as we saw the picture, we raised the concern that our dormers had not been installed and asked if they come after shingles. And that's when shit hit the fan.

Frank said that no, dormers are installed before shingles, but that double checking our selections he could see that dormers were not an option in our home. Say what?! That is not what the SR sold us and definitely not what was on the contract we signed.

He said it was possible that the dormers are not offered in the community. Say what (2)?! If dormers are not available, then why would it be in the picture above? I do understand that he only follows the selections sheet given to him, so I thanked him for his insight and turned my attention to the Sales team.

Immediately I sent Sam and Shannon an email asking for clarification on the issue and received a response back a few minutes later stating that they were "just realizing that the home does not have the dormers on certain elevations" and that they "have passed this on to management." 

Since we stop by the house every weekend to see progress, we decide to wait for Sam to discuss this on person. She did say that she was not aware that the community wouldn't have dormers and did admit that she represented this information to us. She also said she will fight to get us what we want, but that there is a possibility that the developers will not allow the dormers and if so, there would be nothing they can do about it. And that's the second time shit hit the fan. 

We responded that we did not agree with this "solution." We said we would rather have the dormers, but if that was not possible, then Ryan Homes better think of ways to make it up to us. I might have used the word bullshit, but hey, who wouldn't? Not sure if she was a little surprised by this, but despite of what she says, we are the ones who need to watch for our best interests.

I even told her we didn't want to point fingers or be dicks to her, but now it is a big disappointment. We've been proudly showing the house around to family, friends, and even strangers, and we will end up not getting what we were promised. Every time we look at our home, we will be upset we are not seeing what we really liked. And some may think it's stupid, but when you were spending this kind of money and signing your life away, you do NOT want to have this type of stress.

The quick meeting ended with her saying she would get back to us once she heard from management. She mentioned something about extra closing help to make it up to it, but nothing was promised yet. We look forward to see how attentive Ryan Homes' customer service is after they made a sale. I will update with a resolution once we have one.

On a side note, we grabbed a couple of hard hats and walked in the house. Here are some pics:

Loving the bay window

Can't wait to see the deck

HVAC and hot water systems

HVAC again

Main floor, measurements for our island and kitchen cabinets / appliances

Master bathroom tub :)

A Roof Over Our Heads

Chad and I were a little concerned about the snow storm that is coming our way. We are expected to get about one-foot of snow on Tuesday here in MD. I know we are not first people to ever build a house in bad weather, but it makes us nervous. First-time buyers, ok? Give us a break :P 

We sent a note to our SR this afternoon to ask if they guys had been working this weekend. Last time we stopped by was on Friday evening, and we saw they had added trusses to the house. She responded saying they were working really hard through some nasty wind to get the roof in place in anticipation for the snow. Woohoo. It makes us feel a liiiiittle better, even though we know there are cracks and holes all over the house still. 

Can't wait until the house is all wrapped so they can start working inside :)

Got Wood?

Hubby and I stopped by the house this afternoon to get some idea on how our backyard grading is going to look (more on this on a different post) and we were pleasantly surprised. A lot of progress done in 2 days :D

It's been raining in MD so it makes me a little nervous that the lumber is getting wet. But I guess it's pretty normal--just first time home buyer anxiety.

Here are the pictures!

Front of the house

Front closet seen from the front door

Powder room by front door seen from front door

Future driveway seen from garage

Back of the house seen from back of property line

Garage

Hallway from front door to basement (stairs will be on the right) seen from basement walkout

Exterior Colors

We met Chad's mom at the community this weekend so she could visit the model. While there, Sam told us she had finally learned what our exterior colors are going to be. Unfortunately, we weren't able to choose the house exterior color or elevation. The houses need to follow a certain pattern and we bought the last house in our block. Chad and I are definitely not fond of beige tones, so any other color would be a victory. A beige exterior wouldn't be a deal breaker, but a little of a disappointment.

What we were hoping for was gray siding and voila--that's exactly what we got! Chad liked the darker gray (almost charcoal) shade better, but I'm very satisfied with what we have. However, I don't love the maroon shades in the front door and shutters; I don't think they go well together. I'm hoping HOA will let us paint them after a while. Maybe a black front door and dark blue shutters? We'll see :)

These are our colors now:

Siding: Flint
Front door: Winestone
Shutters: Marooned

Oh, and our elevation is the second from right to left, with bay and attic windows: