Special Thanks and Pics

My Ryan Homes experience has been full of ups and downs, but now that we’ve been in our house for over a year, I want to thank some of the people who really did an amazing job!  I’ve also added a few updated pics of what we’ve done in the house.  Enjoy!

First, our sales rep.  Chad was awesome!  He made the beginning of our RH experience very enjoyable and exciting.  He was patient and willing to work with us as first time builders.  He always answered emails, phone calls, texts, whatever.  He never tried to pressure us into anything.  He was always honest and up front with everything.  I can say without a doubt that if I were to call Chad today with a question, he would do anything he could to help us out.   If I could give Chad more than 10s on his survey, he 100% earned them.    If you are in the Richmond, VA area…..find Chad….he is the BEST!

Next up.  MIKE P!  I cannot say enough good things about my service manager and his assistant John.  I know they are so glad that we are out of our 1-year warranty, lol.   Mike is seriously one of the kindest and patient people I have ever met.  When we would be extremely upset, he would make sure he could do everything to ease our frustration.  I don’t know other SM’s, but I can say that Mike is one of the best Ryan Homes has to offer.   He is the #1 example of what a service manager should be.  He seriously goes above and beyond and we are truly thankful that he was who we worked with in our community.  John is one of the hardest working men!  I know that’s his job, but he did great work in our home.  I greatly appreciate being able to work with both of them. 

 

Here are some pictures….I feel like I haven’t posted any in a while.  I'm so excited we will be painting soon!  I can't wait to get rid of these flat paint walls.

Living room

 

 

Dining room

 

Family room

 

Loft/play room

 

 

My little DIY chalk board project!

 

FED UP!

I haven't  blogged in a while and unfortunately, this isn't a loving review of my current situation.....

It’s actually sad to feel this way but after trying time after time to overlook and hope things get better…but NO!  Things have not gotten better and the more time goes on, the more those “Ryan Home Myths” seem to be our reality.

We have been in our home for a little over 1 year. We closed on February 20, 2015 and today is May 9, 2016…

From our poor project manager who came off as a cheap used car salesman only trying to hit a quota to our sad excuse of a NEW HOUSE…I would say NEW HOME, but it doesn’t feel like a home.  It feels like that house on Money Pit...

From day one we have had issues.  Our banisters on our stairs were the wrong color.  He pulls another set from the storage container that are supposed to be close to our stain…better yet he claims they are new.  I mentioned how bad the banisters felt and was told that’s just a product of the material. The finishing’s are not done right they have cracks and chips, but yet again we are just supposed to accept it because that’s how it is.  You know what I think- he had an extra banister laying around from another mix-up so let’s try to pull one over on the new homeowners. As long as he gets his 10’s on his survey everything will get fixed…yeah right…

Next issue…flooring…we have the carpet in the entire upstairs minus the bathrooms and laundry area. Downstairs we have vinyl and carpet.  We have questioned the flooring since the framing stage.  When we noticed nails in the subfloor were not actually in the studs we were told “Oh that’s normal.  That’s why we screw and glue the floors as well”.  From week 1 we have had issues with the floor.  At the top of the stairs we had a crown in the hall between bedroom 2 &3.  Workers came and pulled the carpet up brought in a new piece of plywood and sander to try and fix the area.  The crown is gone but now it’s like a depression…I know it may seem like I’m complaining but as a public school teacher I took a huge risk to go with Ryan Homes and trusted them with my savings and my families future with this investment. 

Our floors to this day are not right…we have pops and creaking in almost every room.  The kitchen, and upstairs bathrooms are the worse.  You can almost bounce on the floors and hear them pop and squeak.  My house sounds like a 100 year old home, yet it’s not even two years old.  The service manager and his team have tried and tried to fix our floors.  They have been in the crawl space trying to shim the joist, they have cut holes in my ceilings trying to fix squeaks upstairs. These guys have put in countless hours trying to get it right…but you know what even they are puzzled as to why our floors are so bad.  I can tell you why…poor project managing…they sub contract out to the cheapest bidder in certain areas and they are trying to meet deadlines as opposed to building quality homes.   

We are so fed up we wish we could just give the home back and move.  I really wish the CEO or COO would come walk my home and tell me that this is an acceptable Ryan Home finished product.  We’ve even been told “we don’t promise you a squeak free home”.  Well you know what a few squeaks might have been ok.  However, it’s quite embarrassing to have people over and when they walk around your NEW HOUSE they stop and ask is everything ok?  Is it ok to walk over here?  It’s just sad and extremely frustrating to put your trust in people and they constantly fail you. We are past our one year walk-thru and our floors are still horrible.   Seams from previous repairs are undone.  Floors still popping, squeaking, cracking…..it’s bad.

What’s next?

Drywall.  So after your first year you get a courtesy drywall repair for nail pops, cracks, bulges etc.  Well let’s just say ours didn’t go well.  Our Naples is 3011sqft…we asked on the day of our walk through would they be sending a crew or just one person.  We were told they would send a crew.  Well they sent one guy and his female assistant.  Neither spoke fluent English, so trying to explain or address our issues wasn’t easy because of the language barrier.  To speed this up…they did NOTHING to repair nail pops.  They scrapped over it and then added putty.  After the putty dried they sanded certain areas and then attempted to paint.  Needless to say after arriving at 8 it was approaching 6:30 and they weren’t close to being done.  But here is the main problem…they used the wrong paint on our home and so therefore it looks like someone played Tetris on our walls and ceiling.  They also left a HUGE mess and missed several spots.   There’s more but honestly I’m just tired of it…Thankfully, the service manager came two days later and was appalled.  He had our house cleaned (which was amazing) and is sending a new TEAM to come work on our drywall.  Hopefully this TEAM doesn’t leave their trash behind for me to clean, they actually REPAIR the nail pops, and they use the correct paint. 

 

Here is the ceiling in my daughters room....See all the paint squares?

 

Some of the spots they missed the first time around.

 

Lastly because honestly I’m just sad and frustrated…yesterday I noticed a stream of water running between my house and the neighbors.  So after looking into I find that a pipe is leaking under my home in the crawl space.  Leaking is an understatement…..Of course I’m worried it’s not covered but plumbing is covered for two years.  I read the manual over and over before calling.  I even had my husband read it when he came home.  All of this to be told oh no it’s not covered by the plumber and Ryan Homes.  The plumber says you must pay $95/hr to get the work done.  I was furious so I called back to Ryan Homes customer service and the gentleman proceeds to try and find any and every way to not cover the repair.  I point out the pages in the homeowner manual where it says it covered.  He puts me on hold to try and find the exclusions.  Then he says he has to call me back so he can go and check somewhere else to prove me wrong.  Thanks again Ryan Homes. Way to make me feel appreciated. NOPE you’re still up to the same tricks…get your money, get through your first year and then kick us to the curb.  The customer service guy calls back 10 minutes later….yeah I can’t find anything to dispute your argument…Really, so I would lie or make this all up?

Dear RYAN HOMES…I really hope you fix your practices and I really hope you fix your customers service. Most of all I really hope you fix our issues!  I really hope you start making your customers feel appreciated and thankful they chose you. Because right now I DON’T.  SAD, MAD, AND FED UP!

10 month review

 

Well it’s been several months since I’ve blogged.  Today was our 10 month review and it went really well.  First, I seriously have the best service manager RH has to offer.  He has gone above and beyond and is always truly genuine.  He will get all 10’s on his survey and guess what!??!  He NEVER mentioned the survey during our time working with him.  I really wish that he was the person we dealt with during our building experience.   He has made us feel a lot better about things that have been done that we knew were not correct.  He is prompt with service calls and answers any questions we have.  Mike, you are AWESOME!

The floors were the biggest item.  There were several spots throughout our home that needed attention.  The issue that I have with the flooring is that a lot of these issues were pointed out during framing.  When we pointed out the nails that didn’t make it into the studs we were told that it was fine because they used glue and screws in addition to the nails.  WRONG!  So note to those in the framing process….if you see nails that were properly placed, say something and have them fix it then.  It’s a lot easier to repair when you aren’t dealing with carpet, vinyl, or whatever flooring you choose.

The yard.  OH the yard.  I’m so tired of this yard.  I put this on my 10 month review and got a phone call about it.  I said there were holes in the front and that the grade in the back STILL is not right.   The holes were supposed to be taken care of and they would take a look at the grade.  The landscapers came out and said they were here to fix holes and the back yard.  I was excited!  Finally, some acknowledgement about the crappy job in the back yard.  As they worked we were told how the grade was incorrect and they were going to fix it.  Then about 15 minutes later we were told they had the wrong house and the back yard wasn’t getting anything.   It would have been nice to know that the landscapers were coming in the first place, but hey they came.   I would love to see some documentation on what the grade is supposed to be between the houses and in the back yard.  I know without a doubt that it is not correct, but it was made “crystal clear” to me that RH would not do anything else to the yard.  As stated in a previous blog post, if the president of RH came to my house there is no way that he would agree that the yard is what it is supposed to be.  NO WAY!

Here are some pictures of our beautiful back yard….or rock garden.  

 

 

 

Other than the yard and floors, we didn’t have anything else really major.  Just some caulking and discussion about drywall.   Now the drywall repair will be a beast.  We have several nail pops and cracks.  Hope they drywall people are prepared for some serious work.   I will blog about that when that time comes.

30 days in.....

We had our 30 day inspection and overall I'm very pleased.  We had a very long list of things that needed to be addressed....some of which were on our list of things before closing. 

The carpet in our bedroom needed some work.  We could see the carpet pad at the edge of the carpet.  This was fixed today and looks much better.

The rails to our steps were replaced today.  We had a mini walk-thru before our official new home orientation.  During this time we noticed our rails were not the correct color.  They attempted to re-stain them and they just did not look good.  I'm very happy that our PM suggested that they be replaced.  They look wonderful now!

There was a hump in the landing at the top of the stairs.  They had the framers come back to repair this.  This was a very loud repair, lol. 

Our microwave has been a collector of drywall dust.  I'm positive that I've cleaned the microwave more than any other item in this house.  Every time we open it, there is dust.  I clean it and more dust.  So today they took out the microwave and found dust on top of it.  They cleaned it off and vacuumed behind the microwave and hopefully we won't have any more dust.

We had the crown moulding on one of our cabinets repaired.  During this, we discovered a hole.  Not too happy about that, but it was covered with the moulding.  I just think that some sort of patching should have happened before the moulding was put on, but that's just my opinion.   It was patched today so we are happy.

There were some other minor things like trim and paint and a tiny piece of tile, but nothing else major. 

In a couple of weeks there will be some more repairs.....

We have a crack in one of our cabinets.  Nothing huge, but its a crack.  Our PM has to order the cabinet and it will be installed along with the other repairs.

Our back yard looks pretty bad.  I know that Ryan isn't going to seed our entire lot, but we currently have nothing but mud and rocks.  Our PM is going to have the landscaper come back and rake the lot and put down new seed.  Hopefully we will have some grass in the upcoming weeks.

The exterior will be taken care of....it definitely needs some TLC.   There will be some painting and caulking and power washing.  It will definitely look nice when they are done.  The winter weather is to blame for this!

Overall our 30 day went well.  Our PM addressed every.single.item we pointed out.  He answered every question and we are very pleased with all the repairs.  I love our house!

Now for the fun stuff.  I'm definitely happy with the progress of our house.  We are down to very few boxes and are getting settled in quite nicely.   Hopefully we will get some curtains up soon!  We are trying to use a lot of the things we already had.  Of course I've purchased some new items and will purchase more at some point, but I'm trying to be thrifty.  We have a lot more space to decorate and we are on a budget.  I'm trying really hard to do one room at a time, but it's not working out so well for me, lol.  Here are some progress pictures....from my cell phone.

Dining room

 

Living room

Daughters room

 

Master Bedroom

 

Son's Bedroom

 

Kids bathroom

 

 

 

My picture wall....I'm very proud of this!

 

 

 

One week!

We have sod!  It is like the icing on the cake to our beautiful home.  I absolutely LOVE how everything has come together.  While I was worried about the colors and trim, it really has come together nicely.   I didn’t get to go in today, but there were a lot of people doing work.  From what it looked like, there was a man power washing the exterior, someone painting, and someone cleaning.  They are really trying to get our house ready!  I can’t wait to see everything on Monday!

 

I figured that since we were in the end of the process that I would look to see if we passed our final county inspection and we didn’t.  Not sure why it was submitted knowing that the house was not 100% complete.  When we walked through for our security meeting, there were some things that we noticed…..for example, the back door still didn’t have a deadbolt, which was one of the reasons for the failed inspection.   I know the house will be 100% before we move in, but it’s still disappointing to see that it failed due to little details that haven’t been taken care of.  

Speaking of inspections, we have our personal inspection scheduled for Tuesday and should have his findings that evening.   I know that he will do a thorough job and I hope that all of the contractors have done the same.  He told us from the beginning that this is where he finds issues….with the finishes and workmanship of the various contractors that put together the finished product.  

Speaking of finishes, I hope that the painters have fixed some of the sloppy work I’ve seen (hopefully that’s what they were doing today).   I have learned a lot from reading from others experiences, and I know to go over our house in great detail and to always speak up if we feel something isn’t right.  We will point out any and everything we see that we feel is not done correctly.  While this might not be a big investment to some, it is to us and we expect it to be done right.  It’s not personal, it’s business.

9 more days!

We stopped by the house today to meet with a representative for our security system.  I'm pretty excited about that, but even more excited about what's in the house.....APPLIANCES and CARPET!  The next time we are in the house it should be almost complete.  

I'm guessing we will be waiting for warmer weather before we can get our sod, tree, and other plants....

It also looks like three other houses on our street will begin soon!  It's nice to see our community filling up.

Here are a few pictures from today....

 

 

 

Week 11

13 days to go!  This time in two weeks, we should be moving in to our new home!  I’m so excited!

 

A lot has been going on this week.   Our granite counter tops were put in the kitchen this week and they look great.  I love the way the kitchen is coming together!  We should be getting appliances this week.   Here are some pictures of the kitchen.

 

 

 

 

Our vinyl flooring also was put down this week.  I absolutely love the way it looks.  While most of it is covered, I did pull the covering back to get a few pictures.  It looks very nice and I feel is a nice alternative to hardwoods if they are outside of your budget.  One day we will get hardwoods, but this is great for now.

 

The master bathroom now has tile.  The ceramic tile came with our package and we just stuck with the standard.  I really like how it came out.   I’m also really excited about our shower with the seat.  Even though I'm not excited about keeping that glass clean!

 

 

Here are some more pictures of the inside.

Master Closet

Loft

Bedroom

Laundry

Living room

Dining room

Family room

Powder room

 

 

Here are some exterior pictures.   I’m so excited about the porch and I really love the recessed lights.  Oh, our irrigation system was also put in this week!  While we were visiting the house, they were working on grading the yard.

We have a driveway!

Exterior lights

 

Porch with recessed lights

 

We walked through the house with our PM’s assistant and we did notice that our extra dedicated outlet in the garage is in the wrong location.  It should be beside our steps, but instead it’s behind the water heater.  He said it will be fixed, so that makes us happy.  Not sure why it was put there when it’s clearly marked on our paperwork to be beside the steps.   There are also a couple of spots in the subfloor that we are concerned about….the best way to describe it is that they give when you step on them.   Our PM’s assistant said that when carpet goes in the flooring people will make sure it’s nailed down correctly. 

There are a lot of little details that we are watching closely and a lot of work that still has to be done.  More drywall, more paint, more trim……I'm sure they will do everything to make sure we love the final product.  This is a huge investment and we want it to be as close to perfect as possible.  We ask a lot of questions and I will say that our PM’s and SR do an awesome job of answering everything and trying to put our minds at ease.   

So what’s next?  Appliances, carpet, sod, and detail work.   I can't believe it's almost finished!