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Saturday, January 17, 2015

Updates!

Hi all!

Update on the upstairs bathroom....the plumbers have been out at least 10 times. After cutting a hole in the master closet, the problem remained. So they cut more holes in the garage and vented this toilet for the third time and it's better. The smell is gone and the bowl doesn't completely drain when you use the shower/tub. It goes down about an inch now and the sucking sound is barely there. They are at a loss of anything else to do, so we told the project supervisor that we are happy wih the fix as long as if the issue comes back we are covered, and he said we will be. The plumber was concerned other Florence's in our development could have the same issue and just went undetected- it was clearly the plumbing layout with a lack of venting. I guess I'm glad I'm a tad neurotic and pushed the issue! This toilet now has 4 sources of venting!

We will be calling to schedule our 10 month inspection and drywall fix soon, it's all due in Feb. I can hardly believe we have been here for 8 months, it actually feels longer and shorter all at the same time. Our PS for issues since we have been moved in recommended the drywall guys first, so if we aren't heppy with fixes he will do another touch up at the 10 month.

We have nail pops, seam splits, baseboards seperating at the seams and a few other settlement issues. Overall, not terrible. No cracks or anything like that. Our biggest issue with the drywall is just bad workmanship from the get go. Tape showing, really bad corners, I mean awful! Our other biggest complaint is the workmanship on the baseboards, it just sucks! Get on your hands and knees and check it all! They just made places fit and it is completely uneven!

Another complaint, which may not be a RH issue, is the base flooring. We picked out an almost white carpet (not so smart on my end) and the base linoleum flooring. The carpet sucks, and not just because of the color. Yes, dirty spots due to the color but it has worn down to a nub in a lot of places. 90% of the time it is just my husband, the dog and I, so it's not like we have "high traffic". The linoleum has seams showing and we were told there is just not much they can do about that. I took the base flooring for a reason, I had a 5 year plan to hardwood the whole house. The up charge from RH was insane for hardwood. So I am thinking my 5 year plan is now a 3 year plan! And because of this new 3 year plan, if the baseboards don't get fixed to my liking at the 10 month, I won't loose sleep, they will all be coming up and getting replaced when we do hardwood. We are on our second steam cleaner because we have to use it so much just so the carpet doesn't look completely matted and dirt brown. Not sure if I would have done flooring differently, I refused to pay for hardwood at RH prices, and why pay to upgrade when it's all going to come out, but just a warning if anyone else has a plan in mind like mine.

The lack of closets on my model is baffling. But this is my own dumb fault for not realizing this. It is still annoying!

I have two major regrets. First is not getting the 4 foot extension on the family room. The extra space would have been perfect, the family room is just not all that big in the Florence model. The other is a different elevation. We have B elevation, it was either that or K due to houses around us. So we went cheap and did B. There are two Florence's with K elevation and it makes such an impression to the front of the house, I really wish I would have chosen it! Those are the two major things I wish I would have done differently, the semi regret is not getting a fire place, but we would have needed the extension to accommodate it, so not a HUGE regret. There are cosmetic things like French doors and granite that would have been nice out of convenience but I stick to my guns on the ridiculous up charge and happy I saved that stuff to do over the years.

With the drywall repair and 10 month coming up, means I can paint soon! So as we update rooms with color I will post pics up! We have some DIY projects coming up and as spring rolls in, some big plans for our front and back yard, will post all! 

Most blogs I follow, everyone is settled in, so hope everyone is enjoying their house as much as we are!

4 comments:

  1. We don't have nail pops yet but we have splits in the baseboards. Our dishwasher broke already and that really irked me! Hope the venting helped!

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  2. I totally agree about the carpet... we have only been in our house two years and it's so matted down in the high traffic areas it looks like it's like 10 years old. But same as you, we are installing hardwood little by little... and doing it ourselves is about 1/2 the price of what Ryan was charging. Good luck with your 10 month inspection!!

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  3. We did upgrade the carpet by 3 levels and got some hardwood, but in 2 1/2 years our "upgraded" carpet was so awful we had to have it torn out. Ended up tearing out everything, even the hardwood, and having the whole first floor done in 5-inch handscraped hardwood. In retrospect, I wish we had done the same thing you did and just gone with the base stuff instead of paying upcharges for the next 30 years on something that lasted 2 1/2 years. Hindsight. We have the same issue with closets you mentioned. The master closet in our model, the Esquire, is smaller than the guest closets upstairs. Like you, we didn't pay attention when we were falling in love with the two-story kitchen and great room and the catwalk that makes up our upstairs hallway. Never noticed how small the master closet and bathroom were. We did get the 4-foot extension to make up for our smallish first-floor master, so that helped somewhat with this tiny house. We just ordered a closet system from Closets To Go; hopefully we can make up for what this closet lacks in size by making it beautiful. I'm already thinking resale value!

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  4. Thanks for confirming I am not crazy about the carpet! We definitely had on "we are so lucky to build a new house" goggles on to forget to think of a few things, I was salivating over the kitchen, and at least I still am on that front! But hindsight is 20/20. It's funny you mention resale value, I feel like I would do this SO much better a second time around, and want to focus on upgrades for that resale value. My husband is hoping this is just a phase :)

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