Guardian Woes

We are back!   It's been a crazy fall, but I'm hoping to catch up on some key things.  I hope everyone who reads this is doing well!

So most of our experience has been wonderful with this build, and I couldn't be happier with Ryan.   I will say the only part of our experience that could be better were our interactions with Guardian.  I will say the people we have encountered have been very nice, and no one has been mean to us.  In the end I question using them as the sole means to wire homes.   I understand the alarm aspect of it, but I really believe that these should be two different functions.

While my husband and I are not IT professionals, we are pretty savvy for laymen.  I do take a little issue with the idea of setting up the house with the idea one would put a receiver in every room.  Also, with Smart TVs being everywhere, it really doesn't make sense to me to have one data connection to the main switch in the house, and then a separate connection behind the wall to a mounted TV.   Someone else may have another thought to that, and I welcome comments on this, but as of now it seems silly.

The worst is this: we did opt for the stone fireplace, and set it up to have a TV mounted above it.   I could write a separate blog post on finding someone to mount a TV above the fireplace.  All I will say on that process is that it was sad that we had to leave the room as they drilled into it, we were so afraid of the stone cracking!   That portion, other than being stressful was fine.  The sad part was when the company we used found that the HDMI cable that guardian put in the fireplace did not work.  

So, once we were done cursing, we told Guardian the situation and they said they would send a tech to look at it.   When he arrived, he said all that was needed was to drill through the floor and it they could rewire.  YAY!   So we scheduled an appointment with them and then scheduled our 30 day appointment for the same day so they could repair the drywall where Guardian had to go through.

The day we had the Ryan crew came in, Guardian showed up took one (more) look around and said they wouldn't do it.  All of the sudden it was a bigger job than they thought, and so they would convert an extra data line they put in the wall to an HDMI connection with a device.  We immediately called Ryan and they did the work themselves, saying what happened was unacceptable.  AMAZING customer service.

My big issue with Guardian, other than straight incompetence, is that they told us they put an extra data line in the wall because the cable is cheap so in case something went wrong, they had an insurance policy.  (I would like to note here that we ended up checking, and that second data line didn't work!) First, how do you not check the wires before the fireplace is closed and/or the house is delivered?  Second, since the job if not correct required going through the siding, which is expensive, why not put an extra cable in stone fireplaces so that you have insurance in that case?

In the end, thank goodness for Ryan for coming in and saved the day.  But I will leave this experience less than impressed with Guardian.  They are the worst contractor we have dealt with so far.

We're back!

Now that we are through the semi-hectic phase of moving (though I feel like we will never unpack everything) I have returned to blogging.  The closing was pretty uneventful, and a relatively pleasant experience.  This was our first home, so I was not sure what to expect.  We had to re-sign some documents that we signed in one of our previous marathon signing sessions.  They also warned at some point we may get a tax assessment on the property to account for the fact there is a house on it, and that they would reimburse for the bill.  We also received a refund on our down payment, as the amount we owed at closing went down slightly, which was nice.  They issued that immediately and overnighted the check to us.

We had previously arranged for our trash service to start at our closing through the HOA, however there were no instructions on what days we were to put the bins outside.  We missed the first two pickups, which really hurt while we were generating so much stuff from moving!  Potomac Shores Living was really helpful in answering some easy questions as we got started before the HOA processed us.

I will say, that I am honestly impressed with how friendly everyone is!  It is clear that everyone who is moving here is excited about this community, and they made our first few nights here really feel like home!

Pre-Settlement Walkthrough

FINALLY!   I have been excited for this day though I will say it is a bit anti-climatic since we visit the house weekly now.   We took family members through the house on Saturday so the only real difference was that it had been cleaned again.  Our PM did say we get at least one last cleaning that will be what he calls the "white glove" cleaning prior to settlement which is only 5 days away.

As I was not able to make the pre-drywall meeting, this was the first time I have talked to the PM in person since the pre-construction meeting.  I have watched a lot of HGTV since then.  A lot.  I have an addiction, a serious one.  So, I told the PM about my problem and he walked through the house knowing I've seen too many episodes of Property Brothers.  He pointed out areas and explained why it happened on Flip or Flop, but it wouldn't happen in this house.   Fantastic customer service, really.

Instead of the cabinets I feared, we have the standard rack above the washer and dryer.  We decided to ask if the height was ok given the pedestals we bought, and the PM agreed we should raise the rack.   I'm not convinced that we will need that space, but I would rather have the rack there than not, we could always remove it.

Also, our sales rep told us to add a ceiling fan rough-in for our covered patio in the back.  We noticed it wasn't added so we brought that to our PM's attention.  He took us out there and asked the most important question...exactly how big of a fan did we intend to put there?  There may be room for a beanie hat there, but nothing more!   So we moved that rough-in inside to the living room.  We may never use it, but at least there is a possibility to use it there!

So while I don't love to repeat things that happened on other blogs, I also recognize that when multiple sources say the same things it reinforces it to others too.   The experience we have had with Ryan Homes is nothing like I read on other blogs during my research.  Before we signed, I was a little hesitant given what I read but I noticed what Potomac Shores Living noticed;  all of the blogs that had the most negative reviews came from another region of the country.   That sold me.  I do have a friend who did decide against Ryan Homes because of the reviews that are out there, and I told her to go back and see the locations and realize that not all regions were created equal.  I'm going to refer anyone who wants a more in-depth discussion to Potomac Shores Living, but I have been very impressed so far with working with them.

Following on that, I will say we came prepared with a lot of items we wanted fixed, and they got them prior to our meeting.  So many I was shocked, and impressed with how detail oriented they are. They clearly have a lot of pride this community!

Ok, now it's time for pictures!

Our Kitchen! We are very pleased with how this came out.

This is an older picture of our fireplace...in the excitement I forgot to take one today!

The wet bar!   We cannot wait to customize this!

The Future

When I began this blog, I was inspired by the countless number of Ryan Home blogs, and specifically by Potomac Shores Living.  Potomac Shores Living was the first blog I could find about building in Potomac Shores specifically, and was immensely helpful as we embarked on this endeavor.

That said, I am hoping to continue blogging in the future, with my inspiration being a blog about my current neighborhood, JDLand.   We currently live by the Washington Nationals Stadium, and when I first moved here, there were many promises of development that disappeared with the housing crash. My friends and eventual neighbors (they were building an EYA townhouse in the neighborhood when I moved) recommended I check out JDLand.   I loved her photojournalism aspect that she had been working on for years, as well as the updates on development.  The blog had great neighborhood conversations in the comments, which tended to be a little more development focused as opposed to the google group (I hope PS has something similar) we had which functioned more like a massive HOA meeting.  

Now JDLand is amazing and takes a ton of time to keep up so whatever I do in this space will have to be on a smaller scale.  I'm also a horrible photographer, but maybe I'll get better as I practice!  I do hope to post about life in PS after move in and as the development progresses.  If any of my new neighbors are lurking here will go on some walks with me to scope things out!

On your mark...get ready....

So we are pretty busy people and coming off a year where we took a lot of vacation days to celebrate our marriage we kind of needed to limit the amount of time we took off to move into our first home.  We figured the most efficient way to do this was to get a few appointments/deliveries done with vendors prior to our closing date, so that we could have a lot of installation done during the time off we decided to take.  In hindsight we realize this means that our home may feel like a zoo at first with people coming in and out of the house, but we hope it will be worth it!

So far, we have been very pleased working with Belfort furniture to come up with a plan to furnish the home.  They have a great deal where for a small fee they will give you a workup of your home and the furniture you can buy, and if you spend over a certain amount, your fee is refunded.  We get our presentation a few days before closing so I will update this post with our review of that!

We also decided to splurge on blinds early, and we chose Next Day Blinds for the idea that they have a lifetime guarantee that we have heard great things about the quality!

I may be wrong, but I grout it!

In one of our periodic visits to the house, we noticed that the listello (I had no idea what that was before we started building a house by the way!) in one bathroom was not what we picked.  For me it was a very obvious thing, knowing my style and taste, there was no way that this is something we included.

Going back to our tile selection, we definitely put more effort into the master bath than any other bathroom.  We upgraded the tile on the floors in the other bathrooms, but went with pretty standard choices as we were kind of tired of paying for upgrades!   On one visit we saw they had installed almost all of our tile since our last visit, and I immediately questioned what I saw here:

Uh....no.

No offense to anyone who has used this listello, but anyone who knows me I like symmetrical things, and this isn't really my style.  We informed our PM of the situation, after contacting T.A.C., he reported they claimed everything was correct, but they were sending out a field crew to take a look.  Now, I kind of thought that was silly at the time, wouldn't you confirm it was correct after the crew inspected the situation?

I of course had *no* photos of our bathroom choices in anything but the master.  I thought I took pictures of everything, but I apparently missed this one.  For awhile, I was convinced that maybe our choice was written down incorrectly, and there would be no way to fix it.  My wise husband advised me to just google what was on our selection sheet from T.A.C.....and well, sometimes it's frustrating how right he can be!

Well, that looks familiar!!

Once I saw this, I knew that everything would be resolved.  It turned out that the listello that they installed has a very similar code to the one above, so I could see how the mistake could have been made.  

A little over 24 hours later, we get the email from our PM that not only did T.A.C acknowledge that there was a mistake, but it has been corrected!

Photo Credit: Our PM!

So in the end, it worked out and was fixed in record time!  Our advice to anyone is to make sure you have pictures of everything!  We thought we did, and we have hundreds of photos, but surprisingly, we have zero record of what we picked out at T.A.C. when it came to the other bathrooms. While in the end it wasn't necessary, I would have felt better knowing early that it absolutely was not a mistake that was made by us.  Also, it would have protected us in the case that our T.A.C. rep accidentally listed the wrong information.

The other thing we wish we had known/asked was to have recesses in the shower instead of the soap dishes.  The soap dish looks a little dated in the bathrooms, it would have been nice to have something more modern.  It never even occurred to us to ask!  Too many decisions over a short period of time!

Pre-Drywall walkthrough

The same day we finished our walkthrough with Guardian, our PM called to schedule our pre-drywall inspection.   I had to leave town the next day, so my very capable spouse did all of the heavy lifting (again).  I was several time zones away anxiously checking my phone for updates, I really wanted to be there!

My main thing was that I had asked for extra studding in a few places so that we can customize the storage space.   They add this in our master closet, but it wasn't necessary in the pantry.  I also asked if the pantry door can open out instead of into the pantry, and they said they would accommodate this, but we will check later to see how that turns out.

We had purchased our washer and dryer for a later delivery, but I was a little concerned about the cabinet layout because we had gotten pedestals for ours.  We were happy to find out that the floorplan is a little deceiving, and there are no cabinets above the washer and dryer.

The outdoor gas line was put in the wrong place, so they are adding another one in the right location! Yay!

As soon as I landed, we drove out so I could go through the house, and the insulation was already up!  I'm always amazed at how fast things move.  We did find the first thing about the house that we wish was a bit different.  We realized that the fuse box is along the wall in the media room that will have to have a row of couches in front of it.   Without the media room option that area is storage space, but we aren't sure why the plans place it in the media room option. It makes more sense to me to place it in area of the storage that could never be finished.   Nothing we can do in this stage, and I'm not sure it would have changed whether we finished the media room or not, but I wonder if that is the case for everyone.

Why? 

We should be getting our settlement date soon, but they did indicate that the house should be done in early August which is exciting!