Service call for the listello

So I let my PM know about the listello but he is just so darn busy with like 10 houses under construction, and while I'm sure he'd like to know I decided it's time for me to "grow up" and go to the My Ryan number :)  I'm just going to miss him cause he's so awesome, and accommodating.

So I tell the lady on the phone that my listello is two different colors and she acts like "how have you lived there 2 months and not noticed?"

Um, probably in the same way that the people INSTALLING it didn't notice.  Or my PM.  Or me.  For 2 months.

The thing is, our tile, which is this (Flint):

Has some brown tones in it.  The only difference is the GLASS tiles.  

I think this is what they mixed it with (Saddle):

You can see the stones are the same, its just the glass that is different.  

Add in funky bathroom lighting throughout the day and the fact that the listello is only about 4 tiles tall and it would be easy to miss this.  I had noticed it in the shower a few times but it was like they did 1 section this, one section the darker so it wasn't completely obvious.  But over the tub, they did like 5 sections in a row of the Saddle which made me think "why isn't there any black or gray in that entire section?"

Since they have to come fix this, I want them to also fix our creaking stairs (about 6 of them), and the morning room bubble on the drywall which is still a mystery.

But, I have to say I absolutely LOOOOOVE my house and none of these small things have made me second guess anything in this process.  Super duper happy.  Just want these things fixed!

Listello

So I'm hanging in my bathroom and I look at the listello for a minute and it looks like they have mixed two kinds.  Mine is supposed to be gray, black and clear and there is about a 3 ft section where there is not one of those colors and all I see is tan.
First pic is how is supposed to look.   Second pic is the section where there is only tan.   Third and fourth are zoomed out to see better.
Am I going crazy here?  Sent the pics to PM to verify.

squeaky stairs and leak again

So, the morning room leak has been a nightmare, as I previously posted...simply because they have come to repair it or look at it 4-5 times now and it's just starting to really interrupt my life in a way that I don't enjoy.  After the last fix, it was done.  But it also hadn't rained.

It rained pretty hard yesterday and this morning we saw a bubble.  We poked it and it wasn't wet or filled with water but where the heck did it come from?  We pulled down the piece of drywall bubble and it wasn't moist...but I took a picture and off to the PM it went.  He's going to be super bummed I'm sure because after the last fix, it was supposedly done.  Not sure if it was a water leak but none the less...I get to deal with yet another drywall repair.

On top of that, we have about 6 stairs that creak, squeak or crack.  They fixed one that was worse than the others during the last drywall repair, but there are more.  When coming down the stairs, the last 6 stairs make sounds.  I emailed him about it and also made mention that I'm tired of scheduling workers to come here so I was happy to wait until the 10 month inspection.  But now, if they have to come fix my drywall AGAIN, they will be fixing ALL of the stairs that make noise.  As well as one spot near our bed that creaks.

I know this is all normal with a new home that is settling but I really didn't expect so many different repairs.

Oh yeah and last week they were here fixing my garbage disposal because I found a screw in it and it sounded loose or something.  Turns out it was just a screw from construction that somehow got lodged in one side of the disposal and it was seized up, until one day when it came loose and I found it.  It works fine now but it was just another day where I had to be here to meet someone to deal with something.

I will say they always come on time, they are here fast, they are professional, clean up after themselves, and stay out of my way.  I have no complaints with RH's customer service or anything.  I'm just tired of them being here so much, particularly for the SAME problem of our morning room leak.

I really hope this was just a fluke but I am not sure why there would be no bubble for a week or more, then it rains, and then there is a bubble (even if it's not wet at the time we found it).

The handy husband

We had some scrap MDF and so I had my hubs put a shelf on top of what he already built to create a place to display some pics of our extended family.   I love it!

And I just picked up this candle from bath and body works called "sweater weather" and it is heavenly!!  But I'm not allowing myself to burn it until I actually have a sweater on lol.  Still in the 70's-80's here in S. Carolina!

Bathroom solutions

After many different tries, we finally found a solution to our shower caddy debacle.   We picked up a pack of these drywall hooks which hold 35 lbs each.   We inserted it through the grout and sealed it.   It is solid!  And super simple and would be easy to remove and re-grout should we ever need or want to.   I finally love my shower again!

The other issue in our bathroom was the Window.   It was just a regular Window so anyone could see right in!  I looked for curtains that length and was unsuccessful.   I don't have a sewing machine so I didn't want to do anything complicated.  We had a blackout curtain pinned up but I missed the bright morning light.   Even if I did do a curtain, I would have to get in the tub to open/close the curtains.

So we went to lowes and found a film that adheres to the Window but it was like $40 and we only had this one small Window to do.   We asked around and it led us to a bottle of frosted spray.   It was just what we were looking for and unbeatable for $5!  Now I get my light without showing everyone my business.   Win-win!

What little projects have you done to make your home fit your needs?

here comes reality

Got our first mortgage bill.  Oh how fun it was not having any mortgage/rent for 2 months but it's all coming to a screeching halt and this bill is ours for THIRTY YEARS.  woah!

So, I dropped the ball on some paperwork I was given at closing.  Our taxes were assessed VERY high, I think like $2300 for what should be $1000.  This is why our closing costs went up, our payment went up, and why I got so mad at the end...and then I completely forgot to fill out this form I was given which is for a "special tax assessment" where they come and re-do the amount.  A few days ago I called my county to see how to get this sorted out and a lightbulb went off about the form so I grabbed it and had it out in the mail the same day.  I am hoping this can all get processed by the end of the year and we can get that money back.  We really need it to get our fence finished up and a few other things.  Right now we aren't doing anything else on the house until things chill out a little bit.  I ordered my last 4 curtain rods so the loft, one window in our bedroom, and our son's room can have normal curtains instead of curtains held up with push pins.  See, I don't really have it all together over here :)

This is why they say not to paint

 Before I get to that part, let me show you some other areas of the house we have completed.

The guest room.  We originally had nothing but the dresser for this room.  My hubs happened to talk to someone at work who had a free queen bed they wanted out of their house and it was clean and looked like it was never used.  We snatched it up and completed this room (for now).  I'd really like to paint in here but more on that later.

View from other side of the room

The "man loft" sure is looking manly (and messy!).  The sheepskin rug I picked up from Costco had him pretty excited!  I like that he has his own space in the house to make his own, so the rest I can make my own haha

And this...is why you don't paint.  As you know we had a leak.  It started the week we were closing and they supposedly "fixed it".  The fixed the drywall and paint too and we closed, and all was well.

Until it wasn't and it started leaking again.  So we called the PM,  he came over with his crew, I told him it seemed to happen when we had this crazy sideways rain so they inspected that area, said it was the flashing, fixed it up, repaired the drywall.  Dusty dirty mess and over 3 hours of noise and people in my house.  They were CONFIDENT they got it when they saw a part of one window kinda folded down.

Until it started leaking again.  I wasn't sure if I was supposed to call the RYAN number so I did, as well as send my PM an email.  He was so frustrated, not at me, but because he swore up and down that they caught it.  I was frustrated because yet another day I had to deal with the mess, the noise...

So they came back to investigate what it was.  And this is where I get frustrated on two accounts.  First, they took MY hose to the roof and doused the whole morning room area with water until they saw it start leaking in (why didn't they do this the first time??).  Doing this immediately showed that it was the OTHER side of the morning room, and there was a huge gap in the flashing.  I wish they would have just done this before we moved in...I mean it took them like 10 minutes to find it once they started looking at this side of the morning room, and the morning room isn't that big!

So this time, they knew exactly where the leak was coming from, they fixed it and then double fixed it, and then set up a time to come back and re-do the drywall.  After they were gone, I noticed my hose sprayer was all messed up and leaking, and I realized the contractor must have dropped it onto the concrete slab.  We had just bought it the day before and it wasn't a lot of money but it was a nice one and that annoyed me a lot that I would now have to go get a new one.  After sitting on it for a day or two, I decided to send an email to my PM about how frustrating that was for us to be put out time and time again over this leak and then our stuff gets messed up...and the next morning he was on my doorstep with a new sprayer that was metal and way nicer than the one we had before.  BRAVO PM!

So they schedule us another day to come do the drywall.  I don't have to be here, but I have a small child so it's not like I have a million other places to be and this is why it's been frustrating.  Yet another day where I can't get a whole lot done because my whole kitchen/morning room is covered in plastic and they are sanding, blowdrying and spreading drywall stuff everywhere.  They finished up after 3 hours and hallelujah they were done.  

Until my husband came home and saw this:

It might be hard to see but it got thicker in the middle.  See the next picture.

On top of our beam becoming thicker, they missed an area here where the water had seeped through.

Well once we took a good look at it, we knew we couldn't be satisfied so I sent these pics to my PM and he came over the next day, spent 3 more hours with his crew and then it finally, FINALLY was done.

So, after 3 drywall repairs and 3 different times trying to find "the leak" we can finally put this behind us.  But now I can see why they tell you not to paint.  Not to mention I am seeing nail pops and such in other parts of the house and it would be really annoying to have to literally repaint every area they touch up.  So there's a tip for you newbies who can't wait to paint!  Just make sure you have enough paint left over to paint big areas!!

One other area I have noticed.  We have these "nice" elongated toilets.  I remember at the pre-settlement demonstration he told me I need to hold it down the whole flush or else it wouldn't flush everything.  Yeah ok whatever.  But no really, he was being serious.  My son will use the bathroom and just push and release the flusher and it will not flush it all down.  It will get like 3/4 of a flush but the water will remain "unclean" looking.  Anyone else notice this?  I find it somewhat irritating that I have to hold the flusher and wait for it to complete the whole flush which feels like a long time.  Many times I have to flush twice since I forget the first time.  Just a minor annoyance!

And back to our master shower-shower caddy issue.  We bought one of those floor to ceiling spring bar things that has like 4 baskets on it.  It seemed to do ok until we woke up one morning and it had fallen forward.  Not to mention we couldn't get it all the way in the corner due to the shower pan.  Back to the drawing board.  My husband wants to drill through the grout and put a huge hook in it and seal it up.  That way we never have to worry about it falling, and we could patch the grout if we ever wanted to remove it.  Why couldn't they just put a dang shelf in our shower??  It's literally a box with nothing but the floor to rest things on.

Hope you all are doing well!  I wish I had more to post about but any further projects are put off until next year!

Leak fixed

They definitely got the leak this time.   Now I get to have drywall repair done again, oh joy.   A fun dusty mess on everything in a 10 ft radius.

In other news I have practically been blocked in several days now due to this fun mess.   It's hard to enjoy my house with loud noise and people coming in to fix things but thankfully these houses go up super fast and it won't be long.

Survey

Just did my 30 day survey.   My PM got all 10's.

My SR and LO, not so much.   I knew my SR left the company a few months ago but it seems it was not by choice.  And my loan officer is also gone... not by choice.

The leak is back.   So now I called the my Ryan number to expedite that.  My PM will be bummed because he swore he got it after the last fix and they even fixed all the drywall because he was so sure.  But no, it's back.  I really wanted it to be fixed too and honestly I'm tired of people coming in to fix things.  The 30 day thing was huge and they fixed everything but it was chaos for me. They are coming back in tomorrow to plumb my dishwasher because I noticed the racks were sliding out automatically and it wasn't level.   So yet another day I have to sit here and wait for someone to come.

So we have the upgraded matter shower with listello but no shelf or seat.   This has been really difficult!   Our shower head is almost at the ceiling so is too high for a regular shower caddy.   We used a 5lb sticky hook and all 3 times it has fallen.  I even got the ones meant for a shower.   I can buy something that hangs over the glass but that makes it annoying to clean the glass after a shower plus it takes away the little bit of space behind you while showering.   The only next step is to drill a hook in through the time and seal it.  Anyone find a solution to this?  Or shower is too small to be messing with leaning over to grab a shampoo bottle or a bar of soap.