An Overdue Update on Our New Home

Posted by Eric Troff 6/30/2023 06:03:00 AM

An Overdue Update on Our New Home

6/29/2023

It is time for a long overdue update on the progress of our new home. When last we checked in, 5 months ago, on January 29, 2023 framing, electrical, and rough plumbing were mainly wrapped. The house was ready for the 4-way inspection process. At the time of that last update, the progress at our home was moving at a good clip. We felt optimistic about the way construction was progressing.

Our builder communicated that it could take weeks to get through the 4-way inspection process. As a result, we weren't overly concerned when progress was minimal over the next couple of months. We also weren't thrilled with the lack of progress, but we thought it was part of the homebuilding process.

In March we traveled to Europe for a couple of weeks. We were expecting our house would make it through the 4-way inspection process anytime. So we reached out to our builder to let them know when we would be out of town. We didn't want them to have to hold up the process because they needed us for a pre-drywall walk. The day before we left on our trip our builder reached out to see if we could come right then to do our pre-drywall walk. We cleared our schedules for the meeting. We flagged a few things during our walkthrough, but nothing too significant. Our construction manager told us that by the time we returned from Europe, we might have insulation or even drywall. We were skeptical.

We were right to be skeptical. We came home from Europe and there was no change in the interior of the home, not even the items we had flagged during our pre-drywall walk. That was frustrating. They were starting to put up scaffolding on the outside of the home. So at least there was some progress. They would wrap our house about a week after we got home.

4/8/2023

Then there was surprisingly little progress and our frustration was mounting. Every week we would request an update and the update would say some version of: finish correcting 4-way inspection items and schedule a new 4-way inspection; begin insulation. We started getting really fed up with the less-than-accurate updates. It was also frustrating that the items flagged during the pre-drywall walk were still not addressed.

When we were in New York in mid-April it had been a couple of weeks since the most recent update. We reached out for an update and found out there was a fairly major issue - the water main was plumbed into the house behind a fireplace, which was preventing the house from passing 4-way. The update we received told us that the water main would be fixed that week along with our outstanding pre-drywall walk items. We were not happy that this is the first we were hearing of this issue, but we were at least glad it was scheduled to be addressed that week. It felt pointless to be mad about what had already happened, we just wanted it to be fixed so we could move forward.

Things really came to a boiling point when we visited our house that Friday and it looked like nothing had been done. We were angry and we had words with our builder. We began following up daily with our builder to try to get the issues resolved and get our house moving again. This was a very dark moment in the build process. We were frustrated, discouraged, and upset. It felt like maybe our home would never be finished. Our frustration compounded as we watched other homes catch up and then pass our home.

On May 1 they moved the water main. A week later they let go of our construction manager, he wasn't the only problem, but he was definitely a problem. On May 10 our home passed the 4-way inspection process. That felt good. It should never have taken that long, but we were just happy that eventually, it passed. We did have a meeting with our builder where we expressed our frustration and let them know that our expectations were not being met. We also met our new construction manager. He seemed great, but we were skeptical after all of the issues we have had. He has worked hard over the past couple of months to rebuild our trust in our builder and has kept the progress on our home moving. More importantly, when he gives us updates they are accurate.

We kind of stopped taking pictures of the progress of our home along the way. It was too frustrating for a long time. For much of April and into May we didn't even visit our house very often and when we did we didn't often go inside because it was just disappointing.

Then mid-May the progress on our home took a turn for the better. The week of May 15 they insulated our home. The week of May 22 they began painting the exterior of our home and they started hanging drywall. This was exciting because then our house looked like a real house. We love the color we chose. They finished hanging the drywall the week of 6/5 and began mudding and taping.

6/29/2023

We did run into another significant issue related to the mirrors we are going to have installed in the gym. There was some miscommunication and a sewer cleanout was placed in the middle of that wall. Our initial conversations with the builder about this issue resulted in them suggesting options that were non-starters for us. It tipped me over the edge. I am not usually one to raise my voice, but I was on the phone forcefully elucidating my displeasure. Fortunately, our construction manager worked with the plumbers to come up with an excellent solution that we all felt good about.

Once the drywall was in we could finally get quotes for shades. We decided we want to have smart shades in this house. We worked with a couple of different vendors to get bids and we decided to go with a local vendor. She really hustled and worked hard to show us why these shades checked all of our boxes. We are so excited about our shades.

They started the tile work on the week of 6/19 and have almost finished the tile. They will wrap that up next week and then the week of 7/10 they are planning to install cabinets. This is the fun part of the build again. We visit our house just about every day and every day something is different. We love to see the progress. We are a little behind where we hoped to be at this point. We are likely looking at a move-in date around the end of September or possibly early October. Hopefully, it is September, but either way, it doesn't feel so far away and all of the progress helps time feel like it is passing more quickly. We can't wait.