Kitchen, SPACE, Home Inspection, Major Frustration

#2 - Our new Kitchen is awesome.  I had hoped to have pictures to include, but it just isn't ready to reveal(more on that later).  Between the awesome appliances, huge pantry, fabulous island and tons of cabinet space...well lets just say it is beyond words.

#1 - SPACE - we feel very blessed to have been able to build this lovely home...it was not without pain and there are some loved ones who will not be able to share this with us, but we know they are smiling and have been right there with  us during the process.  We are so excited to have so much space to have our friends and family share with us.  We are looking forward to the holidays and having our family over.  It will be so nice to have everyone gathered around without being on top of each other or having to constantly dodge around everyone in the kitchen since no matter what the kitchen always draws a crowd.

Home Inspection - Our personal inspector went thru the entire house today and was very complimentary about the entire house.  There is a list of about 30 items all of which are cosmetic in nature...couple roofing shingles sticking up and a couple of siding issues, but the rest is things like caulking missing.  Overall he was very pleased.

Major Frustration - Our PM is about ready to pull his hair out...good thing he doesn't have any.  We had heard from day one that the township inspectors were tough and from our standpoint we figured that was a good thing.  So for two weeks now our PM has been working on knocking out the last items to be complete and he is now trying to get through the final inspection...the inspector comes out...gives him a list of things he "doesn't like" and goes away....PM fixes...inspector returns...fixes look good...here's another list of things...PM fixes...inspector returns....fixes look good...today he did the same thing again...here's another list of things....PM is pissed and I agree...the inspector should come, do a complete inspection, provide a COMPLETE list of items, go away, PM fix, come back and inspect the fixes and be done...this is ridiculous...some of the things he is asking to be fixed or changed are in my opinion totally unnecessary and are NOT code requirements but a loose interpretation of the code twisted to his viewpoint...just my opinion though....once we get thru this I will tell you about one particular item that to me is just not right and probably against code.  Anyway, we left today with our PM hard at work on the items on the list.  As of right now RH does not have the Certificate of Occupancy and we can't settle till they do...walk thru scheduled for 9am tomorrow with settlement scheduled for 2pm...prayers and finger's crossed are needed.

Major Frustration #2 - The house is still not totally cleaned and we left on Monday night at 9pm after doing a very complete inspection for painting touchup needs....we left blue tape all over the place...painters were coming Tuesday to do the touchup work and cleaners were supposed to come late Tuesday and work into the evening to clean the whole house top to bottom.  We walked in this morning at 9am and our hearts stopped...the floors were still a mess and there was still dirt and grim all over everything...I thought my wife was going to cry.  Our PM walked in right after us and explained that he just fired the cleaning crew for the horrible job they did on our house and the neighbor's house...on top of that when the refrigerator was slid back into place after installing the cabinet trim above it they scratched the heck out of the hardwood floor(that happened yesterday late afternoon)...as we walked out today they were in the process of tearing out the flooring there to replace it and they had to also do the flooring in the morning room that was damaged by the falling granite...the new cleaning crew was on the way and the work on the inspectors punch list was being worked on...deep sigh....not sure we are going to sleep very well tonight...the shame of it all is that the house looks truly amazing...we are thrilled.  I wish I could share pictures of the kitchen but it has never looked nice enough to share.

Major Frustration #3 - VERIZON!!!  1 month ago we called to arrange installation of phone, FIOS Internet and TV...still can't get the TV portion resolved, so we said to just install the phone and internet for now...guess what...install date of October 20th...they never scheduled it when we originally called and of course no one ever calls you back so you deal with a different person each time and they tell you don't worry, we will get it taken care of..will call you back later today....we are now on our 4th person in the last 7 days and again they did not call back before the end of the day.

Minor Frustration - We are trying to have a sprinkler system and fence installed.  The HOA is managed by a company until such time as it is turned over to the community.  We submitted the plan for the fence last week and should hear before the week is out.  We are not concerned since there are other fences like what we are planning to install already in the community.  Our neighbor is also having a sprinkler system installed and they were out there today getting ready to do the installation for them....the installer went to get the permit from the township and they wouldn't give him one unless it was approved by the HOA....the HOA doesn't want anything to do with sprinkler systems...that's just crazy...the HOA should just rubber stamp the sprinkler request then...anyway, we will find out tomorrow what our neighbor had to do and then just do the same...heck, the model homes have sprinkler systems....

So since we signed the contract back in December things have gone pretty smooth and uneventful....in the last week it has been total craziness.  Here's hoping that the next post is done with keys in hand.