Cleaning the Abyss that is our basement

We've been in our house going on 3 months and we continue to get closer to the feeling like it's ours.  It takes time but we're still opening boxes and getting things how and where we want them.

I might have mentioned it before but our basement is a bit of a disaster.  During the build stormwater came into the basement through the walkout and carried in a bunch of dirt.  While Ryan did try to sweep the dirt out there was a tremendous amount that remained.  And it made a mess.  Kids playing in the basement had to throw away their socks because they wouldn't come close to clean.  Dust was continually dragged upstairs and around the house.

We should have asked to have it cleaned correctly before we closed.  Anyway, we've spent the past two weekends pressure washing the basement floor.  Why pressure wash?  Well, this dirt from hell is ground into the concrete so much so that spraying, mopping and scrubbing with a brush didn't touch it.  Pressure washing got rid of most of it but there is still some spots that we missed.

The funniest part of the whole thing is the number and location of low spots in the basement.  At least five low spots and the floor drain located near none of them.  We used a shop vac to pick up most of the water and then let the rest evaporate.

With that done we were also able to build and load up our basement shelves.  These are 11' wide and 4' deep - we have a ton of stuff!  Easy to build and solid enough to hold a bunch of bins.  Using the Menards 11% rebate helps.

Our New Concrete Patio

Finally, we're getting finished with the problem areas and moving forward to projects that we want to get done.  One of those is to get our patio installed under our deck.

The fine folks at RE Middleton Construction in Mason, Ohio were a great fit for us.  While not the cheapest they have a great reputation so I trusted them to do this easy job.  In the course of one day they hand dug the soil, placed the concrete, and backfilled with topsoil.  All this with very minimal tracking across my lawn.  Great job guys!

Finishing the Garage

Working on a better update for the interior but thought I'd share the job that we had done over the July 4th weekend.  As part of our build Ryan homes hangs drywall in the garage but only finishes the first mud coat.  This is supposed to be the coat that sets the tape in the drywall joints.  It's not pretty.  This weekend we hired a guy to come and finish the garage the rest of the way and to paint.  It wasn't cheap but he was there for at least 40 hours.  The final product is amazing and we can now start loading our garage with all of the stuff from storage.

Before

After

Ryan Homes Making a Comeback

It seems that our emails hit a nerve at Ryan Homes.  Our SR forwarded our email of displeasure to her bosses and within a few hours we have a meeting setup with the Production Manager and the head Project Manager.  Today we had that meeting - and our original PM was not invited.

The two managers had our list of items and we went through every one noting what would be done to make us happy.  We're VERY impressed with the effort that Ryan is putting into making us happy with our home.  We all decided on a plan of action and agreed on all the fixes.

On the exterior we had a ton of issues.  They agreed to plumb the column correctly and determined that the entire side of the porch would need to be reframed and straightened.  That was easier than trying to fix several column related issues.  We honestly didn't expect them to go that far but happy they're going to make it right.

Outside trim was a bit of a disaster.  Several areas of uneven trim and scuffs and scratches in the rest.  We all decided that filler would be used in some locations and boards entirely replaced in others.  Again, thank you guys.

Other outside issues were grading and cosmetic and Ryan is going to see what they can do to get everything fixed.

Inside they looked over our trim work extensively.  I just wanted a few places sanded smooth and repainted but they insisted that the entire board needed to be replaced.  Over and above guys; we like that.

The flooring we chose was another issue all together.  We chose the engineered hardwood and have been dealing with chips and splinters on a daily basis.  We find a few areas one day and then more pop up the next.  Ryan's guys had not seen this before and are now working with Rite Rug to see what the problem is and how it can be fixed.  Again, they set deadlines for answers from Rite Rug and we fully expect some resolution to the issues.

With all this we had people running in and out of the house all day.  Flooring guys to install hardwood transition strips.  Other flooring guys to work on glue spots in the carpet.  HVAC guys to replace a dented piece of the compressor unit.  Window guys to replace some scratched windows.  Flooring inspector as described above.  Foundation specialist to fill a crack in the basment wall.  LOTS of work and fixes done today.

We're getting back to our happy place today.  We're FINALLY seeing a plan to get these things fixed and we're thankful to Ryan for their effort.  Most of this was setup by the previous PM although we happen to think it was under the instruction of upper management.  Most of these issues were brought up nearly a month ago and could have been resolved then.  If you get a good PM you'll know it and make sure to thank them every step of the way.

On another note, we finally have our master closet up and running.  We painted and installed some closet organizers from Home Depot.  My wife spent almost all night putting clothes in the correct place although we don't know what happened to half of our hangars.

More updates soon!

Long Time Between Updates

So sorry for the long time between updates.  Life has been busy between moving, our kid's sports tournaments, and a vacation to Vegas!  So for most of the past two weeks we've actually been out of the house and living in hotels.  Now we're finally getting back to the daily grind and trying to finish moving in.

So, what has happened since our last post...

The water leak in our basement was due to a shrinkage crack and the sprinkler spraying directly on it.  The outside was sealed with epoxy and the inside will get a polyurethane injection to entirely seal the crack.

We had a front column that was not plumb and we were told it was fixed.  Ummmm, no.  The column is now plumb but now about a quarter of the column is hanging over the edge of our concrete porch.  Completely unacceptable.

We had our backyard surveyed and staked.  As we suspected Ryan didn't grade or seed to the back line - only about half-way there.  There is also a small stream that runs right through the middle of our property.  The stream eroded away our straw and low and behold - large rocks that we were assured were removed prior to seeding.  Firstly, I'm sick of the lies from our PM about what will be done versus what is actually done.  Secondly, why did I have to pay for a survey to show our PM that he didn't seed to the back line?  Thirdly, there is no reason to have a stream running through the middle of our back yard where we hope to someday build a pool.

Our list of fixes continues to grow by the day.  Nail holes in trim not filled or repainted.  Exterior trim that is scratched and pitted, unpainted, and overall poorly installed.  Flooring continues to chip and splinter even under normal use.  Downspouts are dented and vibrate in the wind.  Back yard is graded such that there is ponding water - a mosquito breeding ground.

Right now we're living in a house that was rushed to closing.  That's as simple as we can put it.  They put a big effort in to finish the job in the last week but the quality is lacking.  There was no coordination between subs to make sure fixes were done correctly and completely.  I'm certain that we'll be finding even more mistakes as the weeks go by.  For the most part we'll fix it ourselves if it's not large or costly.

To top it all off our SR wrote us an email explaining the customer survey and implying that we should give all 10's for our results.  Again, no.  We had a pretty good experience with the initial sale and NVR was the best experience we've had with Ryan.  Construction - completely opposite.  We'd really have a difficult time giving our PM a 3 even if all of our issues are addressed.  He is completely incompetent and hasn't spent any time reviewing the subcontractor's work.  No, Ryan, you will not be getting 10's and instead will be getting an earful from us in the coming weeks.

We're not at the point where we regret building with Ryan.  We love the house and it's location but we are fed-up with our PM.  We should have been more forceful at the beginning of construction and asked for a new PM when we started really seeing the lack of effort.  At this point we will not recommend to any of our friends to build with Ryan - and if they do we'll make sure they understand what they need to do to make sure it's done correctly and that they're happy when they finally move in.

No Movers!

So at 9:30am we get a call from the moving company "We're sorry, one of your movers called in sick and we had to reassign the other movers to other jobs.  We have to cancel for today.  Can we come tomorrow?"   Ummmmm, no.  PODS is picking up their stuff tomorrow.

Honestly, the close and move could not have been much worse.  The ease of using NVR is the only positive from this past week.

PM still sucks.

We're in - Day 3 update

Day 3 and the frustration with Ryan Homes continues.  At closing we had a list of about 60 things that needed fixed - some big, some small.  About 4 of the small things have been taken care of.  As we live in the house we continue to find things that need to be fixed so the list grows larger by the day.

Recently we added:

   - more squeaky steps

   - squeaks in the master bedroom closet

   - glue in the master bedroom carpet

   - leaking basement (unfinished)

   - unfinished nail holes in the kitchen island

Now we have the problem of not having a working refrigerator water line.  The PM told us at predrywall that the water line would be in a box in the wall.  That didn't happen.  The excuse given was that we couldn't have it because it was an exterior wall.  So, instead they install the line through the floor about 4 inches away from the back wall.  We warned the PM that the refrigerator would hit it but he said that the refrigerator should not sit back that far and it would be fine.  The refrigerator of course hit the water line and bent it so that we can't use it.

Our PM sucks - plain and simply.  He constantly reminds us that he's built over 500 homes and he knows what he's doing.  Maybe that's right and he knows how to schedule but he procrastinated horribly on this house.  Again, had he set the tone with subcontractors to do a good job or at the very least inspected what they were doing we wouldn't be in this spot.

I may have said this in the last post but we're tired of dealing with our PM on this stuff.  It's honestly easier to do it ourselves.  Our refrigerator delivery guy asked why the builder didn't move the water line as it's an easy fix?  And our HVAC guy who came to move a register location was dumbfounded that Ryan wouldn't just move it before carpet was installed.  In 100% honesty they both used the word "Morons." 

OK, onto some good updates.  Movers come today to unload our PODS at which point we can finally start living.  Painting is going well and we've finished the powder room, laundry room and the boy's bedrooms.  Next up is closet organizers and installing a new powder room sink and mirror.  

It's rained here the past couple of days so we shut off the sprinkler system.  Sod looks like it's taking and even getting some grass in the back where the seeded.  

Hoping to get some more pictures soon!