Everything was going pretty good until we got to the discussion of a few parts he promised he would make changes on during a our pre construction meeting. All that talk we got about wiggle room with outlets was basically bull. He will not raise one outlet in the exercise room to eye level, he will not pull the outlet from the bedroom into the walk in closet and I didn't even bother to ask about the outlet on the tray ceiling. In addition our plans to build a wet bar on our own, may be a little tougher than when we were originally told. We asked repeatedly- how easy will it be to get a water source from the 3 piece plumbing to the space under the morning room? Oh- real easy. So Easy, Very Easy. Today we got "That may not be so easy." WTF? Well why didn't you say that in the beginning? He did offer a suggestion: we could take the plumbing through the ceiling over to the 3 piece rough in plumbing and have a separate unit installed in the sink. Keeping that in mind I did take a pic of where that plumbing would have to run.
The other issue I am having is the amount of land taking up by the barrier needed for the trail. The trees are suppose to take up 25 feet of the property and its starts approximately 20 feet away from the home. The very back of the home is 13 feet away from part of the trail. When we decided on the lot- it was with the understanding that we would get a lot of side yard vs backyard. Now it seems like it will be a small patch of grass. Great if you don't like mowing the lawn. When I appeared irritated with the size he said he will double check to make sure he was right. Le sigh. I guess my kids will have to play mostly in the park and on the community space. Lastly- the framers will have to come back to re frame the door way to the bathroom. Apparently they placed it exactly where the 5 foot vanity is suppose to be.
While there a few contractors wandered in to measure for a couple of things- apparently as soon as my inspector is done they plan on putting in the insulation. I am guessing dry wall will be up pretty soon after that.
Our meeting with Guardian was pretty uneventful. Our rep did suggest we move our hard wire cable jack to the family room for the possibility of a smart TV. You know what that means? SHOPPING TRIP!
Question: is it customary for RH to have the plumber do a double sink plumbing job even though you pay for a single bowl sink in the hall bath? The plumber did exactly that but we are not quite sure why.
Though we are not pleased with the failure of "true communication" and promises not kept, the house seems to be coming along quite nicely. Hopefully I can use these discrepancies as a way to lower some of the closing costs by having RH foot some of the bill. I know some of you guys got them to help with closing costs and I am hoping this will work in our favor.
Now for community gossip. There are 3 homes scheduled to close in March: our Courtland Gate, a Savoy and a Ravenna. The Courtland Gate across the street from us is scheduled to break ground the 2nd week in February and there is a Bainbridge that will break ground in the next 2 weeks! In fact our PM said that starting the end of January he should be starting one new home a week until mid March. I also noticed a couple more lots sold since driving thru a little over a week ago.
PS- our PM asked if this was the first time we had been in the house. We sheepishly admitted we had been in it before and he just laughed at us. Sounds like a green light to me!
I'm sorry to here about the troubles. Even going in prepared with all the questions, it still doesn't prepare you for what they won't tell you. Were you there with the electrician to get your outlets put in? Or was it just with the PM? We were told that we had to work directly with the electrician to get things moved and anything we wanted we could pay the electrician out of pocket to get added (floodlights outside). We want to have outlets up on the walls as well, though we were told due to code we had to have one low as well. So we will have to pay for the taller outlet, and that's good with us. As long as they were telling the truth and we can actually do that. I guess we will have to wait and find out.
ReplyDeleteWe were told it would be easy to hire an electrician and have them add a higher outlet. No the electrician wasn't there- apparently "he got started when the plumber was working- Monday. Since it was strongly suggested we don't paint until after the 1 year (10 month) review, I guess its not a big issue. I JUST WISH I HAD GOTTEN A STRAIGHT ANSWER FROM THE BEGINNING. I really despise double talk. I can take a lot of things better if given the truth from the start. They will know about all this on their ever so coveted survey. Now THAT they drilled home- "Anything less than 5 stars is failing"
DeleteOutlets typically have to be every 12' along the walls (with some exceptions) by code. Ryan's electrical specs basically are code minimum so the possibility of taking an outlet out of a room and placing it in another room would cause create a situation that does not meet minimum code. With that said, you have attic space over the entire second floor so it's not impossible to drop lines down into your closet walls down the road.
ReplyDeleteGetting your plumbing SUPPLY lines from your bath area to the wet bar shouldn't be too difficult. It's the DRAIN that will be a problem. Definitely won't be able to go up and over unless you have some sort of pump system. In my basement I installed a laundry sink on the back side of my bathroom rough-in but that's where my utility room is, not exactly where you'd want a wet bar. Not sure what they did in your home, but Ryan's plumbing plans actually call for 2 main drainage stacks in the basement. One in the middle of the basement and one close to the back wall. If they put this in your house that might be a potential place to tie-in for a sink drain. Also when they do rough-in's here, it's drains only. You have to add your own supply lines. I've seen other blogs where they run supplies to where they need to go and even rough-in fans and electrical but I'm assuming those were extras paid for by the homeowner.
I always find the whole survey issue amusing. They gave us one to fill out at closing, which we refused to do, and never said another word about one. It's kind of like the carrot you dangle in front of them to make sure all issues are taken care of to your satisfaction. I suggest holding off on them until at least your 30 day follow-up.
Oh LC here is where I said you HAVE to pull the bitch out! WTH cant they add a high outlet for you??????? So...lets wait until the house is done and lets dig up the drywall and tap into the lower one and high a electrician. ITS ALL EXPOSED NOW, wny not just do it for you and add it into the price of the house??? Thats what are PM did for us, put outlets where ever we wanted in addition to what needed to be there for code!!! All our TV ones are up high!
ReplyDeleteMakes me so made when these PM's can do so small things for the customers. And the side stepping!!!
Funny, this is why I keep telling you to go inside.............ALOT :), they MISS so much.
We tapped into our 3 pieces from the "side" not up and over for our BAR in the basement. I dont get what they are suggesting?
This can be a battle if there are things you REALLY want done. You have to be creative and sneaky and persistent.
And moving the outlets or addding another while its all open, and not letting you ADD is insane and lazy on their part.
I agree- figuring out my next course of action. A new outlet magically appeared today. Still haven't figured out where it came from but its going in our closet, so we both can benefit from it.
DeleteI picked up my nieces today to watch our twins so we could run over to the model. She said she saw a woman at the "big" house on the corner and she looked so nice and seemed so excited. Just wanted to let you know. I figured she was talking about you. ;-)
ReplyDeleteShe said it was on Thursday. She wanted to show my 3 nieces the model house. ;)
ReplyDeleteTo be fair she probably caught me dancing to stay warm, lol. And I wave to everybody when I am in the neighborhood- if we are all going to be part of an HOA might as well be friendly.
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ReplyDeleteI'm glad I read this post. My husband and I are also building a Ryan home and decided to not get the wet bar rough in because we were told by a friend that we could run or tap a line from the bathroom rough ends to bring plumbing to the wet bar area. Could anyone tell us if this is accurate? Or does it depend on where the bathroom rough ends compared to where we want to put the wet bar?
ReplyDeleteI still plan on having a contractor walk the space with me to how doable it will be. When are you breaking ground?
DeleteThe very end of this month. Our pre-construction meeting should be in the next couple weeks.
ReplyDeleteThey are letting us make a few changes now so if we can't do this I would like to know ASAP so I can add the wet bar rough ins while we make the changes but at the same time I don't want to spend the $ and pay 30 years worth of interest on it if it is something we can do for less after the fact.
ReplyDeleteI will say this: Our PM did say it would have been easier for US to have the rough in right there at the wet bar. We will now have to run the pipes through our ceiling to get to our rough in by the future bathroom. Mind you our community didn't offer a rough in just for the wet bar, but we were told that the rough in that they did offer would work for a future basement bathroom AND wet bar. Now if your wet bar area is located closer to the bathroom rough in- you can probably manage it with just that. Our area for the wet bar is located at the opposite end of the room from the rough in. In the end the rough in was a better choice for us vs getting a wet bar we didn't absolutely love. It was also cheaper (and less to finance) getting the rough in vs the entire wet bar. Now we can get a wet bar for the amount they were charging but with higher end materials.
DeleteSo you are get the basement finished? We are not which is another reason we thought we would be able to tap into the rough in lines later when we hire a contractor.
ReplyDeleteHiring a contractor would be the best, but ask them first if its doable.
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