List making; and having to deal with building trades

List making
and having to deal with building trades...

Nightly notes must be penciled in my
daytimer before retiring and falling into dreamland...

Living in a new home this time around has proved to be interesting in many ways.

The entire time we lived in our former home, it was still known by the family before us when anyone in our rural country asked which home was ours. No one identified the home as our surname's, only theirs. It was one strange thing to us, something that never disappeared. There came a time however when I began to correct anyone referencing it as "The ___'s Home", when I would simply say, "No, it's our home with a big wide grin on my face".

This new home of ours was never previously lived in by anyone. The builder hadn't had the opportunity to sell it with the sudden change of real estate in the current recession, so instead he opted to turn it into a model home to gain exposure to other possible home sales.I thought for sure we'd grown beyond our home being known for another family, something I was more than happy to shake off when moving here, but now I find the "locals" call it by our Builder's name instead. Crazy how I am always correcting people....still to date. It must be something people living in eastern regions do to recall folks living in the area or something, kind of nutty.

Our first few months in our former home were filled with daily visits from multiple trades as we completed interior and exterior renovations. Many months we awoke to someone at the door, and often before 8am. It become greatly tiresome to either remain alert to strangers inside, or wait on them to arrive the day they announce they will be coming, and then don't.

Thoughts of living in a new home filled my mind with contentment, especially the part about not having any too many trades on the property basically until the spring when we tend to the outdoor issues still remaining on the list. I was wrong. I was so wrong.

We opted to have the basement finished before moving in. It was. With the deadline so near to our moving dates, we knew the whitewashed walls were all that was possible beforehand. In other words, we knew we would have to paint them all in time, and pushed the whole idea away until such a time as we would be ready to tackle this mammoth job one room at a time. My craft room/office was one of those rooms remaining at a standstill with almost everything piled high in the center of the room. The plans for this room's paint details accelerated greatly when we realized moving the book shelving would be too difficult later on, so the room is already painted and I can continue to settle one more room.

I can handle one room at a time. Very good. In the past few weeks however, I didn't expect;

• The heating pump to blow on our radiant basement floor heating, causing us to be without hot water for a weekend and a call made for an emergency visit from the heating company.

• The deluxe home stereo tuner device included in the home and used as the main flooring music system had an issue with its internal computer. Two visits later, the problem was discovered after we couldn't turn it off. Wow, do I ever miss the music flowing in all the speakers around the entire main floor, our bedroom included.

• A huge ice built up in two areas of the roof, growing and culminating at the eavestroughs. One section gathered so much ice it heaved the roof shingles and when the weather warmed up, we had water pouring down the garage wall. The roofing company visited twice, clearing the ice and caulking everything down again. Meanwhile one whole section of the garage the pets live in require the wall torn off, insulation pulled to dry out and everything replaced to avoid mold from growing in there.

• After two visits again from the heating technician, the beeping sound we've endured for the past two weeks ended up being a faulty pressure release valve on the gas meter. I am awaiting the gas technician to correct the issue so the beeping noise halts.

• We had a gas leak in our gas dryer in the laundry room. All valves were replaced.

• We had mice in our kitchen under the sink, only three to date, and found out (through repetitive calls made to expedite the issue) the sump pump pipe area into the home never had any caulking around it and a large gap is now filled and secured to keep out pesky rodents.

• Instead of purchasing a wine fridge to enclose an allotted hole in the center of the kitchen bar area, instead we opted to purchase a kitchen cupboard with drawers. After two months it arrived and it was then the installer discovered it was too big. He carved it down and was particularly determined to make it fit; being that another cupboard for our basement bathroom was the wrong size before we moved in and was delivered this day too. With great surprise and much shaving and cutting, he slid it into place, only to discover the wooden facings were stained the wrong color!

• Two huge rounded window transoms have their seals broken and are in need of being replaced.

• the glass shower doors have never showed up. A shower curtain suffices and the order with the company has been canceled.

• A few faulty plumbing leaky fixtures were in need of replacing. The basement bathroom temporary sink had to be installed due to the improper sized cabinet delivered initially. We had company coming and needed that room ready. There are still remaining issues for this room to be completed.
  

• Many light bulbs were burnt out in the house and around the exterior of the house; flood lights way up high in the soffits were too high for my hubby to get up there. The electricians came to repair a few areas in the house, along with cabling issues from missing cables in walls.

• The alarm system company had to come over twice to settle an issue with the wrong doors monitored where the alarm would set itself off every time and ruffle our feathers when the telephone rang for security purposes and identification was required. Funny to find the monitoring station still had the builder's information so HE was getting the calls at first. Oops...but not our fault.

• We were just notified our builder only obtained an "occupancy" permit and never a "final", though he is contesting it and asked to have a copy of the letter sent to us, the home owners. Sheesh...to be continued I suppose.

If it sounds like I'm belly aching, maybe I am. Things seem to become complicated for us when other more pressing issues are requiring utmost priority and attention. I don't like waiting around for people who don't show up, or can't commit to a time of morning or afternoon on any given day. I have much on my plate and loathe "time wasters" I have no control over. It seems such a time waster to anticipate their arrival, thus offering some unavoidable frustration to me in the end. ugh!

Good news though.....

A "before" photo

Our carpeting issue was resolved for our exercise room after pricing out a rubber flooring and almost having heart failure over the price quote (cough, choke, laugh). Yesterday the carpet layers arrived amidst the furnace technician's timing of several hours, and another trade's presence, to install the final product.

An "after" photo of the same area last night

All set up and ready to sweat!

Last night all hands were on deck (after the night before when all were on deck to remove everything from that room) to replace items in the room, hoisting them up rather than pulling or pushing on the wheels provided for on each item.

Today, the room is complete, save for the painting of the walls and the certainty of where the items should go for a great functioning workout area. Everyone can now get back into shape again after being snowed in for the bulk of our time here thus far.

I assure you this list is ongoing and much I haven't even mentioned the details of. I'm hoping and praying everything settles down a bit so I can concentrate on more important things in our lives. At least, I can hope can't I? :-).