The Lights are on, but nobody's home

 It was really exciting to pull up to the house and see that the electricity had been turned on! For some odd reason I am obsessed with my down lights so seeing them illuminated, despite the fact that it was sunny, was awesome.

This midweek visit was important because there was an 'issue' that I really wanted to make sure was handled properly. I have mentioned the master bath and a possible water/fungus issue and my concerns were legitimate.  When I went into the master bath, this is what I saw...

Just as I thought. They had to remove the drywall.

Close up from below

Obviously water was leaking from somewhere above the master bedroom which is surprising because the 'growth' was there before the plumber came. 

Meanwhile I found this in the Jack & Jill bathroom upstairs...

Area above vanity with the insulation removed presumably to find the leak

This situation is a mess and I will be in contact with the construction manager and making daily visits, if necessary, so that I know exactly what the issue is and what is being done to fix it. I am glad it happened when it did so they can make repairs before I move in but it makes me worry a bit. And, they better put the insulation back in its proper place. I do not want any hot spots as a result of insulation not being replaced properly.

On a happier note, here are pictures of the house with lights on!

Front lights and down lights on

Foyer lights

Back stair case chandelier

Weekly Construction Update

This update is going to be terrible. lol My husband did not take good notes during the telephone call and instead focused on addressing some issues I wanted him to inquire about.

Here it is...the HVAC installation will be this week...that's all. I have no clue what will be going on next week.

Issues addressed during phone call

• My husband asked about the fungus growing in the master shower and he was told this...
• It is not mold or fungus. The tile guys made a mess when they were putting in the tile and it just needs to be cleaned up. Ummmm....no. I beg to differ and sent a text message with pictures to the sales manager stating that there was clearly something growing and that they drywall needed to be cut out.
• Missing pendant light connection over the island
• The construction manager believes they forgot to cut the hole in the drywall. It will be fixed.
• Discoloration in corner of plant ledge (difficult to photograph)
• He had noticed it and will have the guys take a look at it

Believe me, I will be looking at everything very closely tommorow.

Weekly Weekend Visit

Not much change was expected to be noticed during our visit today, but there was plenty to notice once we walked around! The main difference was that the plumber had been there so now all of our toilets, faucets and sinks are in!!  And the water is on.

We chose to upgrade the standard powder room pedestal sink to a different one and we upgraded the toilet in there as well so the bottom of the toilet matches the pedestal sink. We also upgraded the toilet to the higher height - for comfort ;-).  We did the same upgrade for the bathroom in the master water closet as well. Water closet = room with just the toilet. The rest of the toilets are standard.

We chose a standard kitchen faucet - which is ugly. I plan on changing it out in the near future. The faucet I really wanted was a $600 upgrade and we were not doing that!

I told you it was ugly

Since the sinks in the master bath are under mount sinks (an upgrade that cost us $367 per sink), they have been in, but the bathtub, shower head, and all faucets are now in. With the tub being in place the tile looks better! The sales manager told us that the tub would not be jetted, but at the design center there were not any other tub options so we figured we would be left with whatever they put in. It just so happens that it is a jetted tub so we'll take it!

There was water in the tub. I think someone took a bath.

On the electrical topic, our down lights (lights under the soffit on the exterior) were in place. I cannot wait until I see the house at night with the down lights on.

Here are some other pictures we snapped today.

Leveled front yard

Fixed address block so light is now flush with the house

Laundry room sink

Jack & Jill bath cabinet, sink and light fixture

Uh-oh

For some odd reason I just noticed today that there were only two places for prewired for pendants over the island. There are supposed to be there. I was quite sure that I would have noticed during the pre-drywall walk through so I'm pretty sure that drywall is covering the third prewire location. I reviewed by video from before drywall was placed and shonuf, there were three boxes. And then there were two...

Bathroom tile second look & driveway

The family and I went past the house to take a second look at the tile in the master before starting a big problem with the design center. My husband said that he liked the tile and it felt that is was not so atrocious looking at at today. Am I in love with the bathroom tile? Not really. Can I live with it? Yes. I always thought that if you choose everything that goes into your home, then you should REALLY like everything that ends up in it. But the truth is that it is difficult to choose items from a sample in the design center and get a good picture of how it will look after it's in place. I still do not recall choosing a marble mosaic square tile for the skirt, a marble tile for the deck, a marble accent tile and a tumbled travertine backsplash. If it sounds busy, it should because it certainly looks busy. I guess it is one more thing that will make my house different from the rest.

With that being said, we decided to leave the tile as is. Especially since those crazy looking little tiles on the tub skirt cost us $700+ and I seriously doubt that the builder will refund a portion if we changed it to a cheaper tile.

On a different note, the driveway has been poured!!! No more trudging through the mud to get to the door.

Now you can really see the split garages

My foyer light fixtures are up!

Mid-week Lot Visit

Now that selections from the design center will be installed, I feel it is necessary to visit the lot at least twice per week to make sure that things are done properly. Today I visited the house and discovered that there has been some confusion...of course.

Electrical

What a difference a few days make at this stage. Today I was surprised to see that the light fixtures, including ceiling fans, were almost done being installed. We even have a ceiling fan in the game room upstairs - which we were told would not be included.  Shhhh, I won't tell them it wasn't supposed to be there if you won't. The whole thought of it not being included is ridiculous anyway.

Majority of the recessed lights, or can lights,  had been placed too. The chandeliers were being assembled for the foyer, while the dining room, breakfast room and secondary stair chandeliers were already up.

The fixtures had also been installed in all bathrooms and we now have most of the electrical outlets and light switches in.

Tile

When I saw the tile for the master bathroom I was kind of shocked. Honestly, I do not remember choosing such busy tile work for the shower and tub. For background info, there are three parts surrounding the tub. There is the tub skirt, the tub deck and the tub back splash. The tub skirt is the side of the tub. The tub deck is the flat portion, similar to a countertop, and the backsplash is the wall on the sides of the tub. So apparently, there are 4 different types of tile on these three sides!!!  I freaked out and hated it and have to clear up some things with the design center ASAP.

Now, in the kitchen, they were installing the glass subway tiles correctly, but the accent tile was all wrong. I had chosen a granite and glass stone mosaic (bottom tile pictured below) with elongated pieces, however they were installing an accent tile with square pieces (tile on top below). Yeah, they'll have to take that out and redo it.

Tile in the other bathrooms seemed to have be done properly, aside from the shoddy work done for the corner shelves. Apparently I was the first person the designer had encountered to ask for soap dishes. She had to go and ask her manager about them. Maybe I'm weird...I don't know. If I would not have had soap dishes installed, the only place to place items would be on the corner shelves which are simply   cut pieces of tile 'glued' in the corner of the shower. Well I have a child who still takes baths and I don't like putting soap on the side of the tub. Yes, I'll take several soap dishes please.

When good work goes bad

As the person buying this house, it is my right, and job, to find things that need to be corrected and believe me, I will be doing this part very well.  Here are a few things I discovered during this visit.

Let's point things out shall we?

Fungus

Yes, there is something growing in the master bathroom above the shower where the wall meets the ceiling. I have pointed this out to the construction manager and we need to figure out why water is penetrating that area. NOT COOL!!

It appears to have a stalk - yes, it's gross

Address frame

The address frame was placed too high on the front of the house so it keeps the light fixture from sitting flush against the house.

Resolution

By the grace of God I was able to actually sit down with the sales manager without a meeting. Now that NEVER happens. Time with her is by appointment only and she is always busy and had been out of town for over 1 week. We discussed the tile issues and she asked that I send her an email and she will forward it to the construction manager.

Weekly Construction Update & Communication Issues

My husband did a fantastic job of taking notes during today's construction update, but outside of the telephone call there was some confusion. Here is the content of the update:

This week:

• The driveway will be poured this week
• The tile work should be completed by Wednesday
• Electrician should begin to start plugs and light fixtures
• If all goes well, plumber should be in by the end of the week

Next week:

• Multimedia guys should begin installing surround sound speakers and wiring in the media room
• Pest company should be out to complete installation of the Taexx system
• We have this system in our current home and I love it. During the building process tubes and placed on the exterior walls which can have pesticide pumped into them, dispensing the pesticide between the walls. Hopefully the insects are killed before they make it into your house!
• Clean outside windows
• Smooth out the sand in the front and backyards to even out surface

_______________________________________

Now for the confusion...

I have mentioned before that this particular Toll Brothers office relies too heavily upon the sales manager to serve as a liaison of sorts between the construction manager and the buyers. Therefore, when the sales manager is out of town, all Hell breaks loose (for a lack of better terms).  It just so happens that since she has been out of town, we have had issues with the following: 

• foyer tile being laid in the wrong direction
• questions about what we paid for when we chose the media room wet bar option
• getting an answer regarding estimated finish date
• front door stain color

It is such a pain trying to get issues resolved when she is not at work. Even when she is at work it is hard to get a hold of her.

There was a question about what was included  when we paid for the wet bar in the media room. First mistake on our part was that we chose the option but absolutely no details were given about the dimensions of the cabinets. We knew it included a sink and cabinets and that was all.  After we had already signed the contract and paid the deposit for options, the multimedia guy asked about the size of the wet bar area and THAT is when we started asking questions. To answer our question we were shown a picture and told there would be an upper and lower cabinet - which makes sense if it is a bar since you need somewhere to store glasses.

Well...when the cabinets for the house were delivered there was not a top cabinet for the wet bar. Initially it was thought that they had forgotten to deliver it. Later, the construction manager said that according to the sales manager an upper cabinet was not included. YEAH RIGHT! Since the sales manager has been out of the office for over a week and a half, this has gone unresolved. She was supposed to return today but didn't.

All I know is that there better be an upper cabinet delivered for our media room. It is already pitiful enough that the lower cabinet is only 4' wide and none of it is really countertop because the sink takes up majority of the room. So on top of the measly lower cabinet they want there to be NO upper cabinet.  When she returns I expect for her to produce the same photo she showed us prior to signing the contract. If they do not get us an upper cabinet, believe me, there will be some issues.

Weekly Lot Visit

It was a beautiful day today when I visited the lot. It hadn't rained recently so I didn't have to mess up my shoes walking through mud to get to the house. Wow! Toll Brothers is NOT playing around.

Flooring

• Foyer and powder room - The marble tile with granite inserts was done in the foyer. In case you were wondering - YES, they took up the tile in the foyer and reinstalled it in the diagonal pattern. 
• Master bath - marble tile was in the process of being installed
• Laundry room - tile is down, just needs grout
• Downstairs guest bath - tile is down, just needs grout as well
• Upstairs bathrooms (single bath and jack & jill bath) - tile is down, just needs grout

Counters!!!! - Now this was a surprise. I thought they would be going in next week. All the counters are granite but we chose upgraded granite for the kitchen and the master bath.

• Kitchen counters are in - though with protective plastic covering them!!!! 
• Master bathroom counters are in
• Other bathrooms - counters in as well

Exterior

• The plaster work for the columns has been completed
• The trim has been painted so if you look at the house from the street you will now notice brown trim
• They have put the framing down for the driveway
• Garage doors have been painted the same color as the trim

View from street

Closer view of house - trim painted

Foyer from front door - paper placed over majority of the marble tile

Powder bath with tile installed

Cabinets, granite counters and flooring in master bath - they better fix that door

Another view of master bath cabinets, counters and flooring

Kitchen!!! Countertops are in :-) Corbels under counter overhang was an upgrade

Cast stone fireplace - yes another upgrade

Part of the kitchen. Open space on left is for double ovens. Smaller space is for microwave.

Laundry room - still don't think front loading machines can fit in that space but left my tape measure home

Downstairs guest suite bath - cabinets, counters and flooring in

My oldest son's bathroom with cabinet, counters and flooring

Jack & Jill bath cabinet and counters

View of foyer from upstairs

My unnecessarily expensive kitchen sink

 Different discoveries

• Shoddy trim work in one area near the second staircase. They tried to join two pieces of trim together and then there was some damage to the drywall. I sure hope they do not think they fooled anyone with their 'patch' work. It looks worse in person.

• Horrible paint job. This area is directly above the area pictured above. The painted area is between trim and the window sill. I sure hope they plan on fixing it.

Not so professional looking paint job

At this price point I expect perfection when I move in. The construction manager seems like a good guy  and I have heard good things about him so I believe he will address everything.