No hot water for you!

Our microwave stopped making things hot today. It makes all the running noises (with the addition of a springey sounding "boing" every once in a while); but no hotness inside. It's only two months old. I've never heard of such a thing.

Anyway, it's supposed to be covered by our Whirlpool warranty, but their office was closed when I called (they knock off at 6:00 p.m. eastern time).

Sigh. I didn't realize how dependent I was on the microwave until it went out. I needed to reheat some leftovers in the oven and I didn't really know how. In what kind of container? For how long? And when I boil water for tea, I keep forgetting to go get it since there is no "ding" when it is ready.

Freedom!

Yesterday afternoon was the first time all week that we weren't stuck at home waiting for some worker to come over the "fix" something. (I use the word fix loosely, since that is only what they are attempting to do, and often is not what they actually accomplish.)

So we suddenly realized our state of freedom and ran to our car for a short outing. Joy! Freedom! It's so sad how low the bar has fallen for happiness these days.

Trapazoid is the new square

Side note: While the windows guys were here, we had them look at our upstairs window that is nearly impossible to open. They said it is because the window framing isn't square. Of course! This all makes sense! We've already noticed that the walls aren't square in lots of the rooms, and the glass block window frames are really off-square too (so much that you can see the screws).

Fulton must have decided that trapezoid is the new square, and they just forgot to tell us!

Anyway, apparently the only way to fix the window is to rip the whole thing out and reframe it. That should be fun.

I've had workers in my house for at least half the day all week long. We've been in the house now for five or six weeks, and it seems never ending.

I don't mean this personally against any of the individual guys; but I hate them. I hate that my house is not my own. I hate that they come by whenever works for them. I hate that they make dust and fumes. I hate that whole rooms are not useable. I hate the inherent waste of the entire process. And I especially, especially hate it when they aren't friendly.

And I can get high for free!

They came to replace our scratched windows today, so I had to vacate my office for a while. But now the whole room smells like some kind of sealant or glue. I opened the window and tried to work for a while, but ended up feeling pretty loopy and decided the laptop on the couch would be better for my remaining neurons.

Then a really grumpy guy from Adams Brothers came by to investigate the lumps under our carpet. (He was supposed to come yesterday, but well, I guess that just didn't work out for them.) So, because some idiot left two scraps of carpet padding under our carpet when they installed it (and Fulton couldn't possibly fix it before we moved in), we had to move all of our furniture out of the living room (and back in) so that grumpy guy could pull up the carpet and get the scraps out.

Tip to grumpy guy: I don't know if you were pissed at the people who screwed up our carpet, or pissed at us for being so darn pickey as to want a living room without topography, but either way drop the attitude. We were nice and personable to you, and I expect at least the same in return.

I'm so tired....

Sleeping on an air mattress in my "new" home=tired and grumpy.

Laminate guy came today with the correct size flooring. Yay, we have flooring. Boo, he can't install a toilet and the room still isn't functional (plus the toilet continues to reside in the middle of the room, making the sinks, etc. nearly unuseable). (He was a nice guy though, nothing bad about him personally.)

Tom came to do painting, filling of dings, etc. So we spent a lot of time this morning going through the house and pointing out the many, many things that the painters missed or did wrong yesterday. What a complete, irritating waste of time. I'm so glad the painter left us his number in case we need more painting work later. I'll definitely call him....when hell freezes over!

Piecing it Together

The mold inspection finally came in, and we are in the clear. So a few days ago the laminante flooring guy (from Adams Brothers) came in to finally put some flooring back in our master bathroom. (How long has it been now that we haven't been able to use our master bathroom? Weeks, I think.)

Unfortunately, they gave him a piece of laminate that was too small, so he couldn't finished the job. But after he got done with the prep work, our bedroom smelled so much like glue that we had to sleep in the living room on an air mattress. Ah, the comforts of home.

The painters were here all day touching up all the stuff they did wrong before (and covering up all the new drywall). I'm never lonely with all my new "friends" from Fulton dropping by whenever it works for them.

Mold, part II

The mold inspector who actually does tests came this morning and sampled air in our bathroom, and in the smelly closet. (He even showed up pretty much when he was supposed to!)

It's fine, just fine

The subcontractors who laid the concrete say a crack in our new garage slab is not a problem; just an eyesore. And if it is a problem, it's the inspector's fault because they should have caught it. And if it's a big problem then we are covered by the Fulton warranty. They said these houses are so over-engineered that even if we lost a cable it wouldn't be a problem and the engineers would sign off on it.

Then after we went into the house, they huddled in our driveway and talked amongst themselves. That always makes us nervous because every time we've actually overheard them it wasn't good. But we guess we believe them.

(We're not really angry about this; we're just documenting it here in case there is a problem in the future.)

Ode to blue tape

Blue tape, we put such faith in you; but it was not to be.

Another thing that is so frustrating is that we did two walkthroughs before we took ownership of this house. We marked all the areas needing repair with blue tape, thinking (as they told us) that these things would be repaired before we moved in.

Instead, they just took off the tape. No repairs, just missing tape. Why did we bother (coming in from out of town twice) walking through, and carefully placing the tape?

Speaking of unreasonable...

We have been complaining about this since the day we moved in: Our closet under the stairs REEKS. I have no idea what it is; but my new house should not smell. Anyone who opens that door comments on it. And even though we have mentioned it from DAY ONE, someone from Fulton said, "Oh, we figured that smell was from your stuff."

This is another thing I get the impression they think they aren't going to fix. And again, we're wondering who we turn to when we don't agree. Since they're still doing construction here, I can see that they often leave all the doors open on nearly finished homes (open; not just unlocked). For all I know some homeless guy was sleeping in my closet before we took possession of the house; or some animal crawled in there and died.

No really, it's supposed to look like that

The screws are sticking out of the frame around our glass block windows because the drywallers didn't put the wall far enough out to cover them up, and Ron's solution is to paint them to match the frame! I can't believe he can say that with a straight face!!

I'm sorry if this is a hard thing to fix, but they should have done it right the first time. You are not supposed to see the screws, and painting them to match is not going to cover them up. I really get the impression they think the case is closed on this repair. We're starting to wonder who you turn to when you feel like the builder is being unreasonable.

It's a tough job...

OK, I sympathize with Tom. I really do. He has to deal with all the subcontractors, and bothersome homeowners like me.

I asked him today who is even coordinating all these things going on at our house (since the new flooring people want to come out, but the mold inspection isn't done yet; and various other scheduling difficulties). He said he is, and it's actually better this way. If we end up with Customer Care (so many companies use that name, and it is almost always painfully ironic), he said we can get firm dates when people will come out, but it will be at least three weeks out. And we don't want our bathroom torn up for three weeks or more. But he can get people to come out on much shorter notice...they just absolutely won't tell us when they are coming, or if they do tell us a time we can be pretty much certain it is meaningless.

That's the deal. If you're a new homeowner who needs repairs in AZ (and you will, since they are throwing the houses together faster than a dog chasing a rabbit), you're at the mercy of the contractors and subcontractors. The area is so booming they don't need to care.

In a strange way, I do feel better now. At least I know where I stand, and that I haven't just missed finding the person who is actually in charge.

Time? What is time, really?

Are all the contractors in AZ existentialists? The drywallers who were supposed to come yesterday, instead showed up unannounced at 7:20 a.m. this morning, wanting to come in and do some drywalling. I wasn't even out of bed yet!

Agua, no?

Yesterday, we were pretty excited to be finally getting our front yard put in. (It's a townhouse, so the association does it.) And then the gardeners turned off our water without telling us. Thank God I wasn't in the shower!!! They didn't speak english, so we couldn't really tell them not to do it again. I didn't even know who to complain to! That's the really frustrating thing; it isn't even clear who is in charge.

I mentioned it to Tom today and he said it wasn't Fulton. Must be Poco Verde, the landscapers they (or the association??) hired to do the front yards.

This is a mold expert?

Fulton Homes mold expert was some guy who came out and looked at it and said, "Yup, it's mold; but it will be fine since it is all in the glue." Then two guys who didn't speak english tore out the floor (and then left without speaking to us or telling us they were done, leaving us to wonder if they were coming back or were done or what).

(I used to work in a fungus lab. I know that mold can spit out spores whether it is sitting on glue or not! I used to watch them do it under a microscope. Sure it's better than if it is a dry environment and they are floating around the room; but glue is not a magic mold catching salve.)

Tom (who is the only guy at Fulton who seems to care), had said that a mold specialist would be out to take a look at it and cover everyone's liability. I swear it never even occurred to me that this guy they sent out could have been the mold specialist. So when I asked Tom today when the mold guy was coming and found out he already had, I asked for a better analysis. I got the impression that Tom thought I was asking for too much, but to his credit he did set up an appointment for us with someone. I just want to make sure there is no mold in my bathroom (because it is a humid enviroment where it will definitely grow if it is there), my bathroom that is right next to my bedroom, where I sleep. And if I sell my house in the future, I want to be able to assure any buyer that this mold thing (which I'm sure I would have to disclose) was fixed right the first time.

Delay=mold

A few weeks ago I looked up and found water dripping through the roof of my kitchen (from the bathroom upstairs). I have to give Fulton Homes credit here; they responded really quickly. Three guys were here within an hour looking at it, ripping up the walls to find the leak, etc.

As an interesting side note, one of the guys said, "Oh, it's that valve leaking again." My husband and I exchanged a meaningful look...AGAIN?!?!?! So they *know* they are using faucets prone to leaking, or is is just our valve and it was leaking before we moved in?

Anyway, the vinyl flooring in that bathroom had been pulling away from the floor, and was also scheduled to be fixed. But nobody thought it was related to the leak.

Well a few days ago someone finally came out to deal with the flooring and when they pulled it up the floor was saturated with water and mold was starting to grow. Great! Just what I wanted in my new house...mold! Maybe if they had fixed it SOONER THAN 10+ DAYS, mold wouldn't have had a chance to grow. Now our bathroom is all torn up and unuseable (and smelly like bleach).