The House

Let me tell you a little story about the house.  Not a lot has happened considering the weather and the holiday season so after having been out of town for several days we were anxious to drive-by the new place and see what had happened, if anything, since Christmas day.  As of Christmas day, we had the first floor, most of the second floor, and part of the roof.  We were hopeful that it would look like a house when we went by on Sunday.

Ohhhh emm gee!  What a nice surprise indeed.  We drove up to what looked like a real house.  Framing was complete and we had the roof, sans shingles.  It was thrilling.  We could not wait to take a walk around.  There were rooms and you could tell each room from the next.   It was very exciting.  We walked through each room to ohhh and ahhh, to take pictures, to document.  It was greatness.  

This visit, there was a railing going up to the second story so we were thrilled to be able to walk around up there and see what it looked like.  It was so exciting to walk up those stairs.  I wanted to show the kids their rooms.  Although, Jack refused to get out so he was still in the car, but I figured he would come around eventually.  My goodness it was wonderful to walk up those stairs and stand in what would eventually be the game room or play area for the kids.  The feeling, faded within about 10 seconds.  10 seconds!  Mark commented on the stairs.  He looked left, then right and there were stairs where there weren't to be stairs.  You see, we quickly realized that they hadn't built our house correctly.  Actually, they built our house the exact way that we DIDN'T want it built.  See, the original plans called for the game room to be raised and you had a step down into the retreat area, one into the guest room and one into the kids rooms.  I did not like this.  I disliked it so much that I did not want to buy the house unless they agreed to change it.  When we asked initially we figured that they would tell us no, but they didn't.  Although, they did act as if they had done us a HUGE favor by changing the plans.  In the end everyone agreed that the plans would be changed.  I was happy, Mark was happy and the sales lady was happy because we had signed the contract (after a lot of back and forth).

As the excitement was sucked from the room, picture taking stopped and I headed back downstairs.  I was headed straight for my phone.  I had calls to make and I had to make them instantly.  Mark was desperately trying to get the kids in the car, but the little lady wasn't cooperating so I left my family standing on the street eating my dust as I headed back to the sales office.  It wasn't quite that dramatic, but I did leave them.  I was about to lose it.  This was the ONE thing I had asked for them to do, only one.  Not 10 things, one thing and I expected it to be done correctly.

By the time I make it to the sales office the project lead, foreman, whatever he is called, was already calling me to tell me it was OK and it could be corrected.  It could be corrected?  Seriously, they were going to have to lower the entire middle section of my home and it already had a roof on it and it would just be corrected?  I don't know anything about building a house, but that didn't seem like an easy fix to me and I didn't want a brand new home that was pieced together.

We left and the drive home was mostly silent.  Neither of us wanted to say much.  We felt deflated and I believe that we were both trying to think of what to do next.  Do we get our money back?  Do we start over (terrible idea)?  Do we call our realtor and resume our search?  In about 15 minutes we felt terrible.  When we finally started talking about our disappointment, Jack says, "why are you two whining about the house?"  Sheeez kid, this is called disappointment, not whining.  I guess he can hear me after all.....interesting.

Now I'm sure to most of you these silly steps seem like such a small thing and why are we (me) making such an issue out of them.  Well, it is simple.  Honestly, if they didn't change that part of the floor plan, I didn't want that house.  Have you ever fixated on something that might initially seemed trivial, but the more you think about it, the more you dislike it?  That is how I felt about these steps.  I went to the model several times, trying to like those steps, but I didn't.  Mark knew that if they didn't change it we would have to keep searching.

After some quiet thinking (you know sometimes you think out loud) we started talking about what our next steps should be.  I had mentioned calling Jason and talking to my dad to get advise on what to do.  What is funny is that I am fairly certain that I offended my husband.  As I am mentioning seeking outside counsel (see yesterdays post), he says this, "you know, I know things too!"  Ha, ha, ha.  That is funny.  It is funny because he is by far one of the most intelligent people on know, but I guess because I wanted to ask others his ego was bruised.  Men are funny.   I figured it would be best to consult people who know things about building houses, buildings, construction, etc.  How silly of me :)

Anyway, the general consensus was that this stuff happens all the time and that it can be corrected as long as they use new materials and don't try to piece it back together.

So today, we are on day two of unbuilding our house.  Hopefully, tomorrow they will begin to rebuild.  This does put us behind four days, but we have been assured that they can make it up.  I understand why people say that homebuilding is a very stressful event.  I'm sure in the end, this will all be funny and it will all be worth.

Let's just hope you aren't all at my house on Christmas and the second floor comes crashing down around us.

Here are some pictures of where we were as of Sunday.

Love ya -

Amy

this is the front (obviously)

this is the extended patio.  they call this extended?  seriously, had we not done that there would have been enough room for one person to stand out there.

This is the moment that the excitement left the building.  This is the view at the top of the stairs, into the game room.  You look right and there is a step down into the retreat area.  You look left and there are two steps down into the guest room and kids rooms.  yes, I know this sounds so silly, but I seriously did not like these steps.  This was mayjah!