Stop and Smell the Flowers.

When I'm feelin' blue (as in my current loan situation) I take and look at pictures.  I didn't make it to the house tonight so I downloaded some pictures from two weekends ago.  I found a few gems that I think I might hang in the new house.  The Venice has a really nice area in the stairwell that needs large pictures to hang and admire.   I've been struggling with choosing a color scheme anywhere in the house BUT...I got inspired tonight.  It's only a start in the hallway but I'm relieved to have found a start.
Here is what inspired me:

I'm just not sure which ones to use.  I can't use all of them....or can I.  Ugh!  I can't decide.  And then I have to decide what color the walls are....there are so many colors to choose from.

Feeling Good about Buying in 2012.

Check this out:   Top 8 'best bargain' markets to be in 2012    

Click on the link to read the article.  I live in the Pittsburgh market so I'm thrilled to see us listed as #3.  It confirms that I made a super decision to purchase this year.  I'm sure the rest of you will feel great too after reading this! 

The article makes me rethink about what we are going to do with our current home.  Maybe we should try to sell it instead of renting.   But...I feel like if I wait another 10 years it will be worth even more.  Decisions. Decisions.

Thank you RickNadase!

I called my credit cards today and all of the major ones (Chase, Citi and my Credit Union) said they could add him as a "liability" no problem.  This would then add him to the account without changing my credit and help him build good credit. It should be effective the next billing cycle...which is the end of this month. It's a little longer than I want to wait but it's still before my closing so I guess it's AWESOME!   Thanks to RickNadase !   
FYI:  The credit bureaus were NOT as helpful in giving me information on how to help my situation.  The customer service rep from Chase was exceptionally informative. 

Something That's Never Happened Before

Just when you think one problem is solved (window)...another one comes up.  I thought I'd be locking in my interest rate today but got a very surprising bit of information from my loan officer.  He said it "was something I've never seen happen before."   Great.  Just Great.
Ok..so here's a bit of history:  My husband had a fraudulent account on his credit report when we applied for the mortgage and were still approved with a higher interest rate.  We were told that if we got the negative fraud removed that our score would go up (this came from the three credit bureaus and NVR) and our mortgage rate would go down.  Ok.  So I spent a month getting that stupid annoying stuff removed (it was a nightmare) from his report and according to the credit monitoring from Score Sense, his score shot up over 20points.  Good....so we thought.
Today when the loan officer pulled the credit guess what he saw?  Nothing.  Literally Nothing.  My husband doesn't even have a score now!  Uhm...say what?  He has past credit history but it is over five years old so he just doesn't have a score.
Because we have to use both of our incomes for the house, we need his score.  NVR uses the LOWEST credit score which I think sucks because my credit is immaculate....seriously it's often over 780 and that's usually a bad couple of months.  They pull my credit but they don't even use my score at all to take into account for the loan....and I make the most money.  Darn it.
So anyways,  we have to go out and get a card in his name, buy something, pay it off to show he can handle a revolving account (even though a mortgage is not that) to get him a score of some sort.  What kind of double edge sword is that?  First, we couldn't get him a card because of the fraud and now we need a card because of the fraud. And we were approved for the mortgage with a fraudulent account but now we are technically not approved because there is no fraudulent account!  It's nuts!  I want to kill my husband....and the credit score people.  The fraud happened the year that I met him but we didn't find out about it until I started nosing around in his credit to make sure we'd be ok to buy the house.  He said he just didn't know what to do.  Oh my.  The irony of being approve with the fraud just kills me.  Should I find the guy and ask him to do it again?

So here I am wondering if we will even get our house tonight. I'm so sick to my stomach that I can't even bare to think about even looking at the house now. I love that house already and she might leave me?  Ahh!  My best case scenario is that the rates will continue to drop and his score will go up higher than I could possibly dream of because of the new credit card and we win all around.   If you pray, meditate or something along that lines......please do so for me.  I need all the positive energy I can get on this one.

So there you go. To be continued.......

ps- The brick is almost done and our pre-drywall meeting is Friday!

Window Update and a Metal Strip.

Look at all those outlets!  :)  Happy.  The highest outlet is for the Range or Microwave depending on what you get.  We have a gas stove so for right now it's just a range hood.

More outlets and the fireplace.  I should have asked for the electric box to be moved up above the fireplace.  I didn't notice it until I looked at this photo.  It's kind of low for a Television.  What do you think?

My ulcer.

Close up.  Yup....it's messy but at least it's there.  I'm so glad they are going to redo it.  It's what I would do if I could repair it myself so I'm so happy that they are willing to redo it for me. I look forward to a smooth piece of tape on the inside and an overlap on the outside that makes sense to me....and the installation instructions that I found.

Interesting little tidbit.  That metal strip is required code in the Carolina's for hurricane's and high winds.  They do it here in PA too....even though we don't need it.  Good to know. :)

I just thought this was cool looking.  Cold, Hot and Electric!

The furnace and hot water heater.  I love all the natural light!

They are starting the brick on the face of the house!  Oh Boy!

I've had a really busy day. First I called the codes enforcement to ask about window flashing and what was acceptable.  Then I sent an email with pictures to the Ryan Homes customer service provided in the home owner's handbook.  I found out the that the building inspector for the township we're building in was going to the house and that he was going to check out the window.  Once I knew that  I hopped in the car in hopes that I'd run into him to have him explain the situation to me.  He wasn't there but I did meet him (I'll get to that).  When I got to the house I met the Project Manager's second hand man.  A super nice guy and I really enjoyed and appreciate all the information he gave me.  He said that the flashing was redone and that it looks kind of bad because the tape is really sticky so it stuck to itself.  He said he guaranteed that it won't leak.  I still questioned the overlap on the outside which is not following the installation instructions.  He said it's just cosmetic. I really appreciate the time he took to talk to me about almost everything in the house and I got to meet the guy who's putting the brick on.  I let him know that I love him and dropped off some Gatorade's and donuts.  :)  Anyways....then the Project Manager called me and told me that the window thing was getting out of hand because he was getting calls from the District Manager about it.  He said I just didn't understand what was done.  He finally took the time to call me and answer all my questions and explain his reasoning as to why it was all ok.  If he would have just done this in the beginning I'm sure things would not have gotten this frustrating.  To make a really long story short, I feel much better about the Project Manager again because he took the time to talk with me.  I still wasn't feeling confident about the window but I was willing to accept it for the most part.
 A little while after I talked to the the Project Manager I got a call from his boss.  He apologized to me that I had to take all the pictures and go the extent of emailing them and then he said this: "The pictures are very telling."   He agreed that the window was not the same as the others and that although he does not think it will leak, Ryan Homes is going to completely take the window out, flash it like all the others so that I can have peace of mind.   Now that's what I'm talkin' about!  It's exactly what I wanted and exactly what I needed to make me feel like Ryan Homes IS the company I thought it was.  Now...I just need to see it done.  When I dropped off the Gatorade I got lucky and saw the codes enforcement guy at the house.  He said it looked like the flashing was ok but that he was going to request to see the installation instructions so that he could double check.  I feel so much better about this now.  I KNOW that an inspector looked at it and I know that I'm no longer being brushed aside about this window.  Thank goodness.  By the way, the codes officer told me that most times they do not check these sorts of things because they normally trust that the contractors are following the building codes.  He told me that it was incorrect in the beginning if the flashing was not under the sill. He also said the Ryan Homes is VERY good at doing what they do and this would be a very very odd sort of thing.  The framer, who is an independent contractor, is the person who installed the window and fixed it and fixed it and will be fixing it again.  This time, someone in upper management is asking for a picture to be taken of the repair for me and so that he can see that it matches all the other windows.  SO after all this work...I finally feel rewarded.  I feel like I'm getting the house I want and I can love every last little tiny bit of it...window included. :) 

Oh yeah...and I got the get go to lock in my interest rate so you better believe that I'm on the phone with my loan officer tomorrow.  They said the house will be ready mid July now instead of the beginning of August.  I can close early if I want but I don't have to because my contract says August.  I love the option. :)  I need to see what the advantages of either option is first before I decide what I want to do.

I called the Building Inspector.

This morning I contacted the company that hires the local building inspectors (Thank you Thomas for the idea).  I talked to an assistant manager and they said the Ryan Homes is usually pretty good at fixing things and following code but that they would take a look at my home.  He said that it does sound like it was done incorrectly.  For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, I've re-posted some photos below.  As of last night it still was incorrect.  I received this statement from my PM this morning: "The flashing on the windows is correct. They loosened the window again and installed the sill flashing under the window. When the windows are set they put the sill flash on first then caulk the window flang and nail the window to the house then put the remaining flashing on window. Then they put the foil wrap on and tape it to the window. What you are seeing now is the tape outside. Everything is done correctly to flash the window"

Now....this sounds exactly like what should have been done before and follows every procedure about installing windows that I've read about so far, however, unless they magically fixed it before he came, it is still wrong and you can clearly see that with my photos. :(   I'm going inside today to take some photos of what it looks like.

So here is the photo history of the problem:

See the window missing something on the far right?  Not hard to miss.

This is that same window after I questioned it.  Looks ok....but if you look closely you can see that the bottom tape overlaps the side tapes.  Very wrong and defies all physics to shed water out correctly.

This is what the inside bottom sill should look like.  All my windows except this one in question look like this.  Good thing!

This is what the window in question looked like after they "fixed" it.  So they obviously just tried to cover up the mistake from the outside.  BAD.  BAD. BAD.  I don't like sneaky.  If they cover it with siding and drywall, the building inspector would never catch this.  They rely on the contractors to follow code most of the time. 

This is what the window looked like last night....after the second fix.  Hmmm.  As you can clearly see....the water still will not shed water properly.  The top arrows show how the sides can let in water that run down the sides of the window.  The bottom arrows show where water can enter and still get under the window.   I will update this post tonight with the inside photos of this sill.  I do not have high hopes as to it being done correctly because it is still obvious that they are trying to take the easy way out by not removing the window.   Now....if they did what the PM said as quoted above....it should look much different than this.  So...I'm hoping they came in early this morning and fixed it before he saw it.  We shall see.

 

 

 So...Is this all something what would make me stop and not purchase the home?  Short answer YES.  If I lose my deposit...that's better than being pissed off the rest of my time in this home about a rotting wall because of something they refused to do correctly and paying for it to be done correctly.  I'd rather save my money again and hire someone who would be willing to do things right and have a home that I have confidence in.  Maybe they will knock off some of the purchase price for me to fix this right after we close.  I might consider that...but otherwise.....I'm not gonna take this house like this.  No way.  

Here are the instructions to do it right.  Straight from Protecto Wraps website....the product being used.

Ryan Home's document that they are "high-quality".    Please show me this RH.   This window mistake takes all my confidence in all the good stuff we've done together and flushes it down the drain.  We are talking potential damage to an entire wall of my new home.  High Quality my butt. (I'm swearing in my head).

PLEASE fix this right.   And you know what....take pictures of it being done so you can stop lying to me about how you did it right.  If you do it right....it will look right.  Plain and simple.

Is this fixed? I'm sad. I need your input. Oh yeah..and my door is in.

All I have to say about this is.....Uhmmmm....Really? 

See the arrows?  This is where the tape overlaps wrong.  Now imagine water or house sweat dripping down....where will it go?  You're right....right into the window sill to rot the wood.  :(  Trust me....I consulted a roofing/window installer guy who actually repairs these mistakes after the fact.  He said to halt the contract until it's fixed.  I still have some bit of hope.

A close up of how water can have a fun time with my new house. :(  I'm so sad right now.  I really wanted to enjoy the whole building process and this stupid window, that just needs to be taken out and put in correctly, like all the rest in the neighborhood and on this house, is making me insane.  I'm so disappointed.  I really want to give a good review on the survey but what can I do?  I'm not dishonest so the only thing I can hope is that they really fix this right.  Why do I have to keep asking them to do it right?  I don't understand why they don't just do it right the first time, then the first fix, then the second fix.  What is it going to take?

Here is what our storm did this past weekend.  Not a big deal.  It will dry out and they can shingle it later.  It's not over the interior of the house.

Something that DOES make me happy.  I love it. The darker ones are the ones that they just put on today.

Another thing that makes me smile.  It will be black when this is all done. ...but I can't help but wonder if they put flashing around this.  Not too big of a deal if they didn't because it's under a roof.....unlike my poor window. :(

I'm not trying to make the framer mad...or the project manager....OR the other workers.  I respect what they do BUT I also would like a home that they would accept for themselves.  I haven't seen the inside yet to see what it looks like, but I can only imagine.  It is obvious that they did not take the window out and that they are completely resisting the fact that this is totally incorrect and should be done right.  DEEP BREATHE.  Ok...I'm gonna keep smiling and give the project manager another chance.  What if that doesn't work?  Fortunately, I just found out that a family friend actually works for the larger corporation that owns most of Ryan Homes (or something like that..my husband knows more) and she told us that the SR and PMs do read the blogs and to contact her if there were any problems.  I'm hoping they read the blog and fix it without anymore issues. I really didn't want to call her and ask her to talk to "her people"...I'd like people to do what is right on their own......oh me oh my.  What would you all do?  Please help me do the right thing.  I don't want to do anything but that.