Feb 06
Trouble-a-brewing
Still moving along on the house…they did the first coat of paint on all the interior walls today. The interior doors and interior door moldings are painted white. The baseboards aren’t painted yet. I assume they still have to fill the nail holes, then paint them (hopefully white). They also took the cardboard covering off of our front door. It’s very nice, we love it! We’ve been waiting a long time for the big reveal 🙂
(Click here for pictures from today)
Now for the frustrating part of building a home (yes, yes, I know, I told you so, I told you so…). Paul, my mom and I did a very thorough walk-through on Saturday and noticed quite a large list of things that need to be fixed on the house already. Everything from warped baseboards, to deep scuffs in the walls, to nicks in the ceilings, and even walls that are extremely bowed that need replacing or major work. *sighs*
I left the building supervisor a message today trying to set up a meeting with him to go over my list, but I haven’t heard back…wonder if I ever will. They obviously didn’t plan on fixing any of the drywall problems since they went ahead and started painting. grrr.
We figure, hey…they can either stop and fix it now, or wait until the house is finished, shiny and clean and have to rip out and redo stuff then. Up to them. We don’t care, we’re in no big rush.
So there’s my spillage for today. Any suggestions on how to approach the building inspector/company about the list? Kurt/Greg?
Our expected finish date is late March. We’ll know a specific date by the end of February. Or…could be longer if they drag their feet on fixing things.
February 6th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
After talking to Jodie she says our baseboards were in before they painted and they are in fact white…So you should still get white baseboards.
About your new punch list. We had periodic walkthroughs at milestones such as framing, pre-sheetrock, etc… You have the right attitude though, I would call and leave a message, I would write down the issues so I wouldn’t forget them, take pictures when possible (to document and remind myself). From there all you can do is wait, as long as you had brought it to their attention as soon as you noticed an issue you have done your part. It is on them to address them in a timely manner or go though the extra expense of fixing it after additional progress has been made. Most people are in a hurry to get into a new house and will accept some issues that will either take to much work or to much time to complete, this is not the case with you guys so stick to your guns and keep on keeping on. There will be issues with any house its part of the process as long as you don’t let that get you down you will be fine.
One more thing, you can hope for perfection but it is hard to demand perfection in everything. If you want everything to be absolutely perfect you have to go with a custom builder and we all know the price difference there. I have minor issues in my house that we notice but no one else will ever notice unless we point them out. If you want any more tips give me a call this is getting pretty long….Kurt
February 6th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
Thanks. yeah, we took pictures like crazy of everything. I typed up everything and then actually labeled each item and circled where the area was on a copy of the floorplan from their website. That way, they can read each item, and see where it is. Yeah, we know that it can’t be perfect, but when you can tell that the baseboards are warped/bowed when you are 10 feet away looking straight at them (you don’t even have to look down the wall – they are that bad that you can see them straight on) then you know it’s bad. 🙂
February 7th, 2006 at 8:34 am
Ok i dont know if what i said came out exactly right. You should be accept anything you can not live with. Before we moved in we had everything and i mean everything we wanted repaired fixed before we signed off and closed. Then after we moved in and lived in the house for a little while we noticed some other things and we had those fixed as well. For the first year they should take care of anything that is within reason. So i didnt mean that you should take something that is not right, just let them know when there is something you dont like or needs to be fixed and they should act on it…kurt
February 7th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
I understood what you meant…
We have a walk-thru before we move in, then a 6 month and a 1 year. They fix things at all intervals 🙂
February 7th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
You should have a walkthrough before you close to pinpoint any and all issues. Take your time with this…we took well over an hour on ours. Walk slowly, turn all lights on and off and examine the walls in both lights, check how all doors open and close (locks strikeplates, weather-strip seating, etc…), check all of the windows. The most common thing in our house was paint overspray, we would find little specs of paint on the walls that were not the wall color. Little knicks in the sheetrock, crooked corners in the moldings, etc.. You may feel like you are being a hassle or nit picking but they don’t have to live in the house, you do, and you are paying good money for it. After this walkthrough we had a list of the major items that we signed and there were small pieces of painters tape indicating all of the minor issues. After two days (or when all work is complete) you will go back and check the house to verify all work has been completed, then we signed off on the punch list and set our closing time. After closing we had a 1 week, 1 month, 3 month, and 6 month checkup. We will have one more at 1 year. This is just how things went for us and I am sure your situation will be very similar.
February 10th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
Yes, sounds very similar. I spent about an hour in the house this past weekend doing a very close inspection of walls, molding, etc.
Since I go every day to the house, I’m seeing a lot too. I’m definitly VERY nitpicky so I’ll catch a lot.
I also have a friend at work who built about a year ago and she’s given me a list of “make sure to checks” like marks in tubs & sinks, hot/cold water being right, locks, lights, outlets, etc.
All this help from everyone is great 🙂