As the work continues to move forward at the house we are getting ready for the temporary move from our leased apartment to my wife's mother's house. We're hoping that our move will only be for a few weeks until we can close on our new house but the amount of remaining work is astronomical.
First, our weekly PM update - we don't know what the hell is going on. Our original PM is back on the job and we haven't heard from our second PM. Too bad as we really liked the second PM and I honestly don't trust our original PM. He's a nice enough guy but he's supposed to be the expert in this job and he can't answer simple questions or he just pulls stuff out of his butt. Case in point, my wife saw a black pipe about 12" in diameter coming out of the ground. He told her it was a sewer pipe when it's actually a water meter pit. This isn't the first time something like that happened and I have no faith in his answers or ability to get stuff done. We trusted the second PM the most but we haven't been able to see him in a week.
I've said this before and it bears saying again - the only people on your side in building a new house (Ryan or other builder) is you and anyone you hire to do inspections. You need to take on the responsibility of constant inspections and identifying errors. If the PMs were on the job more often and didn't let the subs get away with substandard construction practices then the final product would be of much greater quality. The subs will get away with whatever they can to be able to move on to their next project. This is not to say that you won't get a quality house but your input can only make it better.
Rant Over! Now on to the house update.
Drywall finishers are about 99% complete but still need to finish a few areas in the bonus room. Honestly don't know why this is taking so long. The drywall hangars finished their work in the garage and the finishers will be in next to add the one-coat of mud that comes standard. Debating the idea of having another finisher come in and finish the job correctly or if I should just paint over what is there when we move in.
Trim guys came in and installed most of the trim and doors. They are short a few pieces of trim and will likely finish in the coming week. In our dining room we had paid for the crown molding and boxes below the chair rail. Ryan's electrical contractor had to come in and move the outlets a little bit so they didn't interfere with the boxes. This is something that could have been avoided had the outlets been placed correctly at the rough-in but it was easily fixed and should still look good.
Kitchen cabinets were all installed and trimmed out. There are still some adjustments to make which will likely be done just before closing. One thing to really look for is the use of soft close drawer glides. We paid for the upgrade to our kitchen cabinets but they didn't extend those to the adjacent planning desk. I'm sure it is just an oversight but one that we're going to make sure is corrected.
Flooring guys finished their work - replaced a few bad areas and finished one area under the planning desk. Same guys also did the bathroom tile which looks great. My wife is very concerned with the engineered laminate as the workers are constantly walking on the unprotected sections which will likely lead to scratches.
Electricians came in and were filling the electric panel and installing lights, plugs, switches, etc. Work here is going quickly and for the most part everything looks great. Ryan uses CFL light bulbs everywhere. We HATE CFL light bulbs and will quickly replace them with LED when we move in. I don't find any fault with Ryan for this as it's our personal preference.
HVAC guys have the AC working so the house is cool as the temperatures climb. We have a dual zone (damper controlled) HVAC system and found no difference in temperature between the upstairs and downstairs. Looking forward to those low heating/cooling bills!
For the coming week we're expecting plumbers to begin their work on faucets and other fixtures. Stone guys (who we were told were going to begin about 10 days ago) will hopefully be in to work on the fireplace. Painters will be in to fill holes in the trim and begin painting. Deck builders should be in to begin building the deck.
New Rant! Our front porch has about a 60 inch fall from the porch to the grade. Per code a rail is required for anything over 30 inches so we brought that to the attention of our PM. His answer is that he is going to bring in fill to reduce the drop. OK but that means that the waterproofing will be way below the top of grade contrary to the manufacturer installation instructions. Now the PM's delimna is does he pay to raise the grade and the waterproofing or does he pay for a handrail?
Overall we're still very happy with the home and the building process. The house is beautiful and it's everything we want and need. We've met a few of our neighbors already and look forward to many years with them. This weekend they even had a regatta on one of the retention ponds. One person had their kayak in the lake and other neighbors had an RC boat race! This seems like it's going to be a fun community.
I'll update the post with some pictures when I get them off the camera but that's all for now. Hope to have more for you soon.
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