Saturday, July 26, 2008

You're Invited To My Pity Party...

Sorry I haven't been around in a while. No, I haven't been so busy moving I haven't had time to blog. The truth be known, I am just plain depressed about our whole house situation. So, can I complain a little?

The house is SO close to being done. But, it is NOT. We're SO ready to get out of this apartment. The walls move in a little more each day. And the first day of school for Rachel is looming close. My main goal this whole time was to get in and settled before school starts. As it looks right now, I will have right at two weeks. And that is if everything goes as planned for RIGHT NOW.

I'm depressed because I want everything done and perfect. I know, people have said that building a house is stressful. Check. I've been stressed. And like I have said in a previous post, this whole process has been smooth sailing. That was correct until about the middle of July. Then it seemed everything came to a complete halt. No one was showing up for work. Almost a week went by without anything getting done. Then, this past week, everyone has been working frantic. Working so fast and rushing, that mistakes are being made.

I don't want to be nit picky, but no one would buy a dress with buttons missing or a zipper broken. No one would pay top dollar for a car with parts missing or a shabby paint job. Why should we expect less than perfect on our house? Sometimes it seems like people think we expect too much and should be able to look over imperfections or little mess ups. What do you think? And I do know everything won't be perfect, but are we wrong to expect things to be NEAR perfect when we are spending this much money?

So, where are we know? Well, we extended our lease at our apartment for one more week. So instead of closing this coming Tuesday (7/29), we're hoping to close on Friday (8/1). I've rescheduled the movers for Monday (8/4). Let's pray I don't have to reschedule them AGAIN. We still have two typed pages of things that need to be done. Most are small things, but some are large...like lay sod and finish the landscaping. Grrrrrrrrrr....

Today we participated in Cabot's annual Avenue of Dreams. This is our third year to be a part of the tour of homes. We have enjoyed doing this every year. This year we had hoped to enjoy it just as much. It was fun, but seeing all these nice, new, FINISHED homes just made me want to be in mine all the more. It also showed me that some of the "imperfections" our house has...can be corrected and/or done better than they were.

Oh yeah...and to add to it, the weather man just said that these next two weeks will be our hottest weeks of the year!! Yeah...just the right time to be moving. As I told Jon Paul a few days ago, I think I just need to crawl in a corner, curl up into a ball and cry for two days. So, there you have it. Thanks for letting me throw myself a little pity party. I feel a little better. I will feel much better once I am in our NEW HOME!! I'll try to post some photos and give a more positive update soon.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

These imperfections... are they things that if found in a brand new house you were looking at, considering buying from the builder, that you would have no problem asking them to fix? If they are, then you should ask for the same in your new house. Sometimes I think contractors are less careful when they know the house is sold than they are when it is their job to sell it.
Honestly, I wasn't nit picky enough. If I had to do it again, I'd be much pickier.
For example... there was a crack in one of the tubs. The builder said "oh that happens all the time, we can fix it like new." So I said ok... fine, as long as it is like new. So they came out and fixed it. now I wish I would have demanded a new tub. The crack has reappeared. My kitchen cabinets also are not what they were supposed to be.
There are other little things that I just didn't notice and weren't a big deal, or stuff I didn't want to fuss about b/c we were in such a rush to move in (we were in an apartment for a year and a half... all three kids in one room).
I don't know that I have it in me to be nit picky. I tend to say "oh it's fine" more than I probably should.
But if you have it in you to stand up and say "this should be fixed" I don't think you should feel bad for it.
Of course, I don't know exactly what you are talking about either :)

Jennifer said...

An example of something that is "not perfect": our EIFS. This is the stucco stuff around the front windows. We noticed immediately after they were "finished" that it wasn't done well. The lines where the EIFS meets the brick should be perfectly straight, with no holes. Ours has gaps all over the place and the line looks like a second grader drew it. There are also pieces of the mesh material sticking out...this is all supposed to be hidden. All of this is especially noticeable around our archway...where everyone will see it up close! We told our builder within days of it being done...only to find out he had already paid them. Now? Well, he can't get a hold of them, their phone is disconnected. And yesterday, about half of the houses we toured had EIFS on them. And every one of them looked perfect. This confirmed in us that we should expect none the less on ours.

Anonymous said...

I don't think you are being unreasonable at all. The things we overlooked were little... like a blob of paint on the wall that had hardened (same color), or a small amount of paint that dripped on the door... really, nothing major. tiny little things we could fix ourselves.
Crooked, unlevel tile, mesh showing... etc... I'd definitely complain and if they don't want to fix it, I'd take money off the purchase price. It sounds like you are doing what we did... basically, the builder is building it and you buy it from the builder? I'm sure he does NOT want the house to go on the market. If the house isn't up to par with other new houses, then you don't have to buy it. I'd definitely complain. Make em fix it and if not... take money off the price or tell him you aren't buying it!

Karen said...

Ooooh, I love parties! Thanks for the invite!

I think you have EVERY RIGHT to be nit-picky. You should expect the absolute best!! Especially since it's NEW. Sure, if you were buying a used house, you'd overlook a few non-perfect things, but not in your case.

Ask them this, "If I owed you $8,000, but my hand slipped and I made an 8 that looked like a 2, would you accept my mistake??"

The Brewers said...

I don't know if you've ever seen anyone lay sod and do landscaping...but just to give a little encouragement...the house across the street from me had sod and plants delivered one evening, the next morning, a crew of about 4 men showed up and were finished that afternoon...hopefully that helps!

shep. const. said...

Jennifer just to let you know I have not been sleeping this week... worried about your imperfect house! There is no such thing as a perfect or flawless home. Hmmm..seems as if you've never built as house before! As for your friends comment....we put as much TLC in every home weather it be presold or spec....I challenge you to go find a better builder! Your home is BEAUTIFUL and will sell in a heart beat! The Avenue of Dreams Homes.....those houses are still FOR SALE! Thanks for the comment....

Jennifer said...

To Mr. and Mrs. Shep. Const.,

As I said before, I know things will not be perfect. I know there is no such thing as a perfect or flawless house. But, you cannot honestly tell us or look us in the eyes and say you did NOT expect NEAR perfection in your personal house that you built. Why should we expect any less?

I know you guys are worried, almost as much as we are. But just because this is our first house to build, it does not mean we should overlook/accept mistakes. It does not mean we are unintelligent about how things are to be done. We have done our research. And like the Avenue of Dreams tour, we look at things and see how others do them. In the years before, we looked to get ideas for our house. This year, we were able to compare our house to others. Please do not belittle us since we aren't experienced or have never built a house before. You knew that from the very beginning and I think we have learned A LOT from this entire experience.

We know you put a lot of TLC into your homes. We know you care. But do not make us feel bad for asking that things be corrected or done properly. We know you personally did not make the mistakes or did the work poorly. But as a contractor, it does reflect back on you since the workers were hired by you.

We have thoroughly enjoyed this whole process, even through this rough patch at the end. We enjoy working with you and we hate things have turned out this way. And as we said before, all of this has not been a personal attack. We are just protecting our investment...the most money we will probably ever spend on one item in our lifetime.

Our home is beautiful and I don't doubt it would sell. And yes, the Avenue of Dreams homes are still for sale. But that doesn't change the fact that some of their craftsmanship was done better and these are spec homes. On a pre-sale or custom home, I would only expect the same or better. This is our dream home. We absolutely love it. We cannot wait to start making memories in it. And, we are very appreciative for all you have done to help make this dream come true for us.

Anonymous said...

wow, so "shep const." is your builder? Sorry, but I find it REALLY unprofessional to comment like that on YOUR blog.