house of cards

when we moved ten miles south of common sense we decided to treat ourselves to new construction. we got a treat alright. i should have gone with my gut. after settling on a price we find out the builder insists that we can't move in until the 72 hours right of refusal is over. the way he acted was like he built the perfect house and it was our privilege to own it. we should have just forfeited our earnest money right then and there at the closing and ran. but we didn't. before we even signed papers i had an issue with our address. no one could find it in their system. because the listing agent put the wrong freaking address in his listing. i must have spent over a week arguing with utility companies trying to figure out why no one could find our address. so, after signing papers instead of spending the first night in our new home that we just gave him a check for we stayed in a hotel. after the 72 hours was up my husband stayed in the home until we moved our belongings two weeks later. with no hot water. in either shower. i can't remember why the plumber took so long for the repair but the cartridges in the shower handles were in backward. in both showers. apparently, he never ran the water after he installed them. genius. onto the appliances. now we scheduled the move two weeks after the papers were signed so we could get the water softener in place, utilities and appliances hooked up. so all we had to do was unpack. when the appliances arrived the dishwasher didn't fit. there was an outlet on the side of the cabinet that did not allow for the dishwasher to slide back far enough into the cabinet. it finally got fixed. well after thanksgiving. after four tries. four. plus, when they originally ran the water line it wasn't tight. so, water had been dripping from a pipe for months before we even moved in causing the floor of the cabinet to become bubbled from sitting water. the stove. i hope it never breaks. they literally had to squeeze the sides to get it to fit in it's space. and when they got it back as far as they could they couldn't push it back to the wall because the outlet was above the cord recess in the back of the stove. so, out it came. they flipped the outlet but it still sticks out from the wall. microwave. oh, the cabinets above didn't allow enough space. they forgot to put spacers on either side of the upper cabinet. so on the floor it sat. the refrigerator fit. barely. it squeaks when you pull it in and out of it's space. the trim around it varies from no space to a quarter of an inch depending on where you look. so, two weeks later when the movers came we had a dishwasher in the middle of the kitchen, a microwave on the floor and a refrigerator that couldn't dispense water. yeah. i went to get a glass of water the morning of the move and all i got was a horrific sound. and no water. i called the appliance store and they said to unplug it. they could get to us in the next day. uh, we have a freezer full of meat. okay, guy will be out that afternoon. in the meantime, cabinet guy is here to fix the microwave opening. just then, the movers get here. so now i have cabinet guy, refrigerator guy, dishwasher in the middle of the kitchen, microwave on the floor, movers putting things wherever it is convenient for them and now the stove needs to be pulled out for cabinet guy. good luck. all while i was home alone and my husband at work. just in case you were wondering we ordered standard sized appliances. and when the microwave was finally able to be placed it had a dent in the bottom from sitting on the floor. they were able to get most of it out. and i let it slide because you can't see it. and they were nice enough to come out at no charge. twice. next was the tape the movers used to protect the floor. they taped down flat cardboard boxes to protect the floors. it left strips of adhesive in more than a dozen places on the kitchen floor. the doorknobs on three doors did not latch properly and could be opened by pushing on them even though they were locked. including the service door to the garage which opened with each strong gust of wind. this was a nice feature especially in our bathroom. now with backyard neighbors, a bathroom door that faces the backyard and a two year old that has to turn on every light in the house. when you're on the can. the vinyl floor in both bathrooms is now coming up. the third stall garage was to be started the week after we signed the papers. it was to take four weeks. it is now march and it is now just getting finished. oh, but not without issue. of course. when they framed it it was raining. they quit that day at 3 pm. when i went out the next morning there was a flood in our garage. i am not sure why they left so early when they could have put the paper up on the roof. and prevented the flood. i don't think they actually started the garage until december. we signed the papers in october. after months of being incomplete earlier this week the cement got poured for the third stall driveway. they came and leveled the dirt and put the pad of cement in front of the service door. while doing that i was standing in our bathroom. i heard and felt a large thud. and then heard the words damn it. sure enough. went outside and they ran into the side of the house and now there is a huge hole in the siding. the service light is still not hooked up and now our cement is chipping in our driveway. the builder is telling us it is from road salt from off of our cars and parking on the driveway during the winter. well, i have a news flash. several of them actually. we don't normally park in our driveway in the winter. because it snows. but since it took them 4 months instead of 4 weeks to complete our garage we couldn't move our belongings in the third stall. they were in our two stall. not allowing us to put our cars in the garage. plus it made it real convenient with small children. because it started snowing about two weeks after we moved in and just stopped about a week ago. and if it was road salt everyone would have chipping in their driveway. but the funny thing is we never put any additional salt on our driveway. because i kept forgetting to pick some up at the store. so what little that would have come off of our cars could not have done that much damage. if any. he said we could seal the new third stall driveway so it wouldn't chip. okay. well, if he knew that salt chipped the cement why didn't he seal it when he built the house to prevent it in the first place. and if he didn't why didn't he mention it to us before the snow fell so we could have sealed it. oh, and another thing. my brother-in-law is a chemical engineer. for pgi. and they make cement fiber. and road salt has absolutely nothing to do with chipping cement. this is the longest hand of cards i have ever played. and i have a feeling it's far from over.