Energy Efficient = Rebates!! Or not...

We were looking forward to getting back come ca$h in rebates for our energy efficient products (central air conditioner, water heater & furnace) and we were sure we'd be eligible.  After all Wayne Homes does boast their energy smart guarantee.  Wellllllll, let's hope that the materials they used to build our home are more efficient than the products they installed in our home, because as it turns out we weren't eligible for any rebates.  I'll post a breakdown of our utility bills once we see how much of a hit we take for running our "not efficient enough to be eligible for an energy efficient rebate" air conditioner...




On a brighter note, the clothes washer and refrigerator we purchased ourselves WERE eligible!

2 Year Post Build Update: Our 2 year energy efficient guarantee earned us almost $600 back in a rebate!!  Glad we saved our statements for gas and electric.  To be honest, we didn't even think our bills are that high. 

Wayne Homes Warranty Work So Far...

Updates:

1. Our field manager no longer is working with Wayne Homes.  We give him a lot of credit juggling as many jobs as he did during our build.  At one time he was working 8 or 9 simultaneously! 

2. We have been using our warranty, and the warranty department at Wayne Homes has shown us excellent customer service so far.

Warranty Work That Has Been/Is Being Addressed:  Our warranty guy, Scott, is new, and he seems to be doing a nice job of jumping right in and getting the job done.  He even offered to come out to the house. 

* The painters came back and touched up all the things we noticed after we moved in (not the nail pops) just the things that were there when we did our walk through but we missed them.

* The painters painted the front door, fixed the dings (that were there before we moved plus one that was our fault.  Sweet!

* The leak in the pipe where the condensation from the furnace exits the house has been fixed by HVAC guy.

* The window company came and replaced a lever that stops the window from opening too far.  Nice safety feature!  It was broken when they installed the windows, and now it's good as new! 


* Mismatched Windows- We JUST noticed this!  It's like Where's Waldo.  Can you find the one that doesn't belong?

If you noticed the top half of the left window has six grids, whereas the others have nine, then you found it!  We noticed this on two different windows in our sun room.  The good news is that as soon as we told the warranty department and sent them a picture, they ordered us new replacements.  They should be replaced soon...  Update: They were!

That's it for warranty work so far.  We'll post next time with pictures of the exterior and all that we need to have done there!  Wowza!!! We have a lot of work ahead of us with the exterior.  It actually worked out, though.  We got the inside all nice, and now we can shift our focus to the yard.  To be continued...

Exterior Quotes/To Do List

Spring has arrived, and with that, a shift in focus from the interior of our new Wayne Home to the exterior.  Although, I guess that's only partially true since as I write this our painters (Galaxy Painting) are at the house painting the exterior front door and trim, as well as some of the things we noticed after we moved in.  Really, the interior touch ups are minor.

TIP: Ask your painter what brand/specific paint color/finish they used for the trim, walls (if you don’t already know,) and front door/trim so that if you ever need to touch it up down the road, you can get an exact match.  We only have a little extra white trim paint and house wall paint left over, so down the road it’ll be good to know what colors were used.  

TO DO LIST / QUOTES:  I'm including prices purely for those out there who are considering building.  There are a lot more costs that come up in addition to just building the house.  For anyone who is a numbers person like I am, it definitely helps to know what you're getting yourself into before you sign the papers to build.   

• GRASS: after getting a quote, we decided to buy a rototiller and do this ourselves.  Not sure what this'll cost us but it has to be significantly less than what we would have been charged to have someone else do it.  We got an estimate for sod, too.  Who affords that stuff?!!???  Surely not the route we're going to take to cover an acre of land! 

          UPDATE: We fought the yard, and the yard won.  It is IMPOSSIBLE to prep an entire acre and spread seed, not to mention watering it.  What were we thinking??!!  And we have a well- how would we ever water all this land???  Sooooo, we are looking at spending around $4,000 to have our lot hydro seeded, no watering necessary.  This is our cheapest quote so far- and you get what you pay for, so not sure what we're going to do.  We're waiting until the fall to make a decision.  Apparently, fall is the best time of year to put in a lawn, that is, if you don't mind spending the entire summer constantly cleaning the dirt tracks off of your floors. Update- we bought a cub cadet and did the work ourselves in the fall.  We still have about 1/2 acre left to do, but grass grew with little effort.  Lots of effort prepping it though.     

• LANDSCAPING: $22,000 (Our landscaper has some amazing ideas and multiple beds, but we'll probably do most of this ourselves a little at a time over the years)  We found a really amazing landscaper, though, who for $300 sat down with us and asked us a bunch of questions (about 30 or so) and from that developed a blueprint of the landscaping he suggests we go with.  The blueprint is the size of our dining room table, and is very detailed.  Everything is labeled, and we can plant things as we can afford them.  Eventually, we will  have things that will be blooming throughout the entire spring/summer/fall all at different times, like a fireworks show.  And it's all low maintenance which was a major priority.  It was worth it to have the ideas, but we probably won't be paying him to do the whole thing.  Unless we win the lottery. 

• ASPHALT DRIVEWAY: $8,500 (this is with a turn-around) Z's Driveway Maintenance out of New Castle

Update: They put in our driveway and left footprints on our newly poured concrete walkway.  They put two dents in our garage trim with their roller, and they chipped the concrete edge going into our garage the ENTIRE way across, AND they shorted us five feet for the area where we were planning to park our jet ski-as of now the jet ski won't fit.  They acknowledged their mistakes and will come back to give us the 5 feet they shorted us, but we're not sure what they plan to do about the rest.  We had to stop payment on their check until they came out and added the extra they shorted us, plus gave us $500 for the damage, which is fair.   Lesson Learned- You get what you pay for.  They were the cheapest.

• CONCRETE WALKWAY/STEPS TO FRONT DOOR: $2,000 and they're doing a patio, too, for that price!  Melnick is doing it.  He's local and has great reviews on HomeAdvisor.  We had to go with a concrete patio in our backyard because no one would bring a concrete mixer to our house for a tiny little walkway/two steps for less than $1200 so we figured at that point, hey, let's put the patio in for the little bit extra it'll cost us! 

Update: He did a beautiful job on our walkway to our front door.  The patio shape turned out amazing, however, the score lines he had his friend put in left chips going the whole way across in both directions.  He's offered to seal the score lines.  He did, and it looks much better.  The finish on the patio isn't amazing but they were so reasonably priced, we can't complain. 

• FENCE: $12,000- for 54'' tall aluminum fencing that covers our entire backyard (we have over an acre of land) and has three gates.  We're getting a great deal, but we figure this is still more than most people spend on fencing, due to the fact that we're needing over 600 feet of it. (Countryside Fence)   

• DECK: Andor, the family, and some friends will be doing this spring 2016.  $17,000 for Trex.  Huge deck wraps around the sunroom.  Wood deck would have been less than 1/3 that cost but would require a ton more upkeep down the road.   

• SHED: $1,500 Andor built it himself.

• SITTING WALL: $2,000 Stone from Nesbits's on Route 8.  Andor built it and even istalled lighting.  It is beautiful!!!

We're realizing it's all going to cost a lot of money.  We knew it would be a lot, but I mean A LOT!  Who knows how to estimate these things if you have no prior experience shopping for them?  Just some things to think about when examining your finances and deciding if you want to build a home where so much is left up to you after the home is built.  



TIP: If you want to have any of the above items paid for with your loan, you have to allow for it in your PPIs when you secure your loan.  We thought we'd have about $10,000 extra to put toward some of this stuff, but it turns out we ran out of money and have to finish paying our excavator out of our own pocket for a large portion of the final grading, French drain where the Wayne Homes drain comes out above ground and creates a swampy mess, rain drains that go underground to back of property, and spreading topsoil from our mountain in the backyard.  That being said, all of the items we're getting quotes for will be coming out of our savings...     

This is our topsoil.  It's a muddy mess right now.  I can't wait to have grass back there again!  

 That stream in the middle of the picture is where we need a French drain.  Wayne Homes went about 50 feet out from the back of our house, but it'll be up to us to do the rest. 

I'll post again later on in the spring/early summer, once we've made some progress on the exterior.  I'll include costs, as well as utility bill averages, and any warranty work, if it comes up. 

2 Months After Moving In/Warranty Work/Interior Updates

We had some warranty work done already.

Wayne Homes sent out someone to fix a leak we had in a pipe that condensation from the furnace exits.  It was in the basement, so the wet spot on the floor is what led us to notice it in the first place.  It was minor and easily fixed.

 Someone will be coming out soon (hopefully) to fix a dent that was put in our downspout.  We told our field manager about it.  We assume this was done by the same guy who came out to paint our exposed block and never reattached our plastic pipes that run the water from our gutters away from the house.   Update: Fixed! 

We had someone come out and fix our siding.  It was bowing underneath where the ledger board is (for our future deck).

Now we're having an issue with birds in our vents that exit both the master bathroom and main bathroom.  Remember, in a previous post how I mentioned that the flapper flaps every time the wind blows and it was keeping me up at night?  Well, now birds are waking us up in the mornings as they try to build a nest in our vents.  When I turned on the exhaust this morning in the bathroom, I saw bird nest material blowing out of the vent!  I took this video, and you can hear the LOUD chirping and scraping, and you can see the birds flying out of the vent (2 of them!!)  Our field manager forwarded this on and the office should be contacting us soon about it.  I wish I could get the sound to play on this video because it almost sounds like a bird got stuck in there!  And what stinks is that this is happening in BOTH of our upstairs bathrooms.  Update: it was an installation mistake and was fixed.

We've got about 20 or so nail pops.  Some are more noticeable than others.  Some are rusty, some just look like a bump in the wall.  We're still planning on waiting until the two year window is up since Wayne Homes only will send someone out ONCE to fix them.

Other than that, we've really not had too many issues.  We've been spending most of our time decorating and making the house ours.  Here are some pictures. 

We LOVE vinyl lettering on the walls!  We used it here in our master bedroom.  It is a verse from our wedding scripture.

And here in the spare bedroom/computer room.

And here in the laundry room.

And here in the entryway.

We hung curtains.  These are the ones in our spare bedroom/computer room.

Here are the ones in our bedroom.  The one one the right isn't finished.  We have a valance on back order.

And the dining room.

We changed up some light fixtures like this one in the foyer.

And this one in the dining room.

All of the Tuscan lighting in the kitchen and sun room we installed/replaced, too.  

Andor installed under-cabinet lighting that operates off of the switch by our sink.  We're so glad we added an outlet above our cabinets.  We just wish we had done it on the left side, too. Update: We had lighting run across and now both sides of our cabinets have lighting.   

We swapped out a mirror in our powder room.

Andor built a bench/shelving in the garage to be used as a mudroom.

He also put up shelving and a laundry tub in the laundry room.

And hardware on all the bathroom/kitchen cabinets.

And he's currently working on his workshop in the garage.  He's building it himself, and he'll be making the doors for the shelves next.

He also built the front steps to our house.  They are temporary, until we can get our concrete walkway put in.

We put up a backs splash in the kitchen and we LOVE it!  It cost us less than $150!

BEFORE

 DURING

AFTER

We're really happy we picked the garbage disposal we did.  It's super quiet and works really well!  We had our electrician wire the switch for it under the cabinets.

We want to use this back-splash to cover an entire wall in our powder room.  We think it would make for a beautiful accent wall!

We swapped the basic shower head for this one- much better!  We put one in both bathrooms.

And we installed a much nicer faucet in our kitchen.

We had our garage door opener installed.

Blinds have been hung on all the windows.

We swapped out all the energy sucking bulbs in the ENTIRE HOUSE with energy efficient ones.  That reminds me, we'll give an update soon with all of our monthly utility bills.

We even hung our hammock in the basement. (It might be a while before the yard is in any shape to enjoy swinging in a hammock outside.)  

In my next post, I'll give an update on everything that needs to be done on the exterior.  We're in the process right now of getting estimates for everything.  (rain drains, french drain, grass, fence, driveway, shed, deck, landscaping, concrete walkway/steps to front door...) 

One Month After Move-In

We've been slowly making progress with the finishing touches inside the house.  Here is a picture of our dining room.  One thing we really liked about Wayne Homes is that they allowed us to change the layout of the house.  Our model, the Jamestown, didn't originally come with a dining room.  It had a family room with a formal living room off of it.  We wanted a space directly off of the kitchen where we can have large family meals for birthdays and holidays, so we essentially swapped the layout of our garage and formal living room, turning the formal living room into a dining room instead.  We're really happy with the results.  We now have ample room to have space for people to gather and eat for parties and celebrations.

 

3 Weeks After Move-In

I wanted to post some pictures since we've moved in.  I followed a lot of blogs while I was building, and it always drove me crazy that once the people moved in, that would be the end of the blog.  What's up with that??!!!  I want to see some pictures!!

So I'm going to post some pictures, give some updates, and heads up- I plan to continue to post about our experiences with Wayne Homes.  I figure our experience with Wayne Homes isn't over once we get our keys-in fact, far from it!  We have quite a bit of "stuff" that has to be taken care of in the spring since our build finished in the winter, when it was too cold to do some stuff, and then there's the warranty, which we may or may not have to use...

I'm sure there'll be a lot more to post about, and I plan to keep you posted!

But first, here are some pictures...

Living Room

 Sun room- We LOVE this room, best money we spent!  I eat breakfast every morning in here, while my puppy sits on my lap and I look out across the yard.  It's so relaxing!

This is also where Andor and I eat dinner most nights.  The other night we saw five deer looking for fallen apples under our apple tree.  We bought a block of food for them today at Tractor Supply.  Hope to see them more often!

 

Our bedroom is HUGE!  Look at all this space!! Bella LOVES the floor space!

f

Still wish we had noticed that there weren't doors on our walk-in closets.  Andor tried to add them during the build, but it did not work out.

On a brighter note, we have a TON of space in our closets!  I love that we each have our own.  We designed that ourselves, and it  didn't cost us a penny, but we lost the closet doors.  That's one lesson we learned.  It's best to stick with the original plan Wayne Homes gives unless you're really confident that you'll be happy with your changes and not leave anything out.  Remember the problem we had with the loft window being too close to the book shelf for there to be books on it?  That cost us money in the end.  Also, we changed up the location of the washer/dryer in the laundry.  We found out the washer/dryer we ordered would not fit the way we now have it and had to order smaller ones.  We love our laundry room, but had we kept it the way it was in Wayne's prints, the larger ones would have fit.  Wish when we were planning these things out, someone from Wayne could have led us in the right direction or even explained why things were where they were/notice potential issues.  It happens though.  At least we had complete say in where everything went, not every builder does that.  Now just trying to figure out how to finish the basement.  We had NO IDEA what we were doing when deciding where water treatment goes, future shower/bathroom goes, and living space goes.  Now that we're in, we realize it could have been better arranged.  We should have brought someone who knows about this stuff with us when we planned it all out!

Our master bathroom feels like we're on a fancy vacation.  It reminds me of the spa at our honeymoon.  I've taken more candlelit bubble baths in the past three weeks than in my entire life before this house.  I have to pinch myself that it's actually MY bathroom!  Ahhhhhhh!!!!

Notice the Pinterest wine rack towel holder??  I love Pinterest!!!

And everyone told us that we should get two sinks, for resale value, if for nothing else.  We are so happy we didn't!  We never brush our teeth at the same time, so really there's no need for two sinks, and look at all the counter space I have now!  Also, the one sink gives us the perfect spot for our hamper under the spot where the second sink would have gone!

We wondered what the shelving in our closets would look like, but Wayne Homes didn't have anything that allowed us to really "see" what it would look like.  Here's ours... 

And here's the upstairs hallway linen closet.  It's just outside of the main bathroom.

And this is our pantry in the laundry room. 

ADVICE:  Buy the faux wood blinds from Home Depot.  We shopped around extensively, even online, and theirs are the cheapest.  We had Home Depot measure all of our windows and install them.  It was so affordable, it's unreal!  We had blinds professionally installed on every single window, even the six in the sun room, for close to $1,000.  We had it done the day we moved in (windows were measured by Home Depot prior to), and that was one of the smartest things we did!!!  We've not had a chance to shop for window treatments yet.  Andor was in Canada for a week and New York another week, there's been NO time to shop for and hang curtains.  The great thing is we don't have to because we have blinds!  Now we can take our time and pick exactly what we want or even wait for sales and not have to worry that people can see in our house.  I did make the box valance to match our shower curtain.  They make these kits that are so simple!  I made this out of a shower curtain!   

ANOTHER TIP: Resist the urge to turn that loft into a fourth bedroom (Jamestown Model) unless you NEED the bedroom.  We didn't need it and we're SO HAPPY we kept it a loft.  Look at this amazing space we have right outside our bedroom!  This is another space we spend a lot of time in.  The picture looks really scrunched, but this space actually is perfect for watching tv and hanging out.  I can see Andor watching tv with the dogs here while he waits for me to get ready for dinner.  (He actually did this the other day, and he didn't mind the wait one bit!)

I still can't get over how much space we have in our bedroom!!!  This was one of the reasons we chose the Jamestown Plan.  It's like our own private retreat!!!

I love how the landing at the top of the steps has a place for our table/mirror.  It's so open upstairs!!! 

This is our second bedroom/computer room.  All the bedrooms are HUGE!  We still have to bring in the chest-of-drawers, but we love the versatility of the space.  So does our dog, Katie!  Did we mention another thing we loved about the Jamestown plan is that each bedroom has a walk-in closet?!!

The colors in our house really came together.  We are happy we stuck with neutrals for everything, it allows us to bring in any color/pattern, and it'll work with what we have.  Here is our main bathroom. 

 

We love the fireplace!  Just wish it didn't fog up every time we turn it on.  Our field manager told us that's the cleaning solution they used to wipe it down when they installed it and that it'll have to burn off, but we've already used it for several hours, one night it was on for three hours straight, and it STILL FOGS UP every single time we turn it on.  Every. Single. Time.  It only takes about a minute or two to go back to normal, but I've never seen a fireplace do this before.  Hope the cleaning solution wears off soon... Update: It still does that, but we don't mind.

 TIP: If you add a sunroom, it's worth the money to open up the space below it in your basement.  We're using that space for all of our holiday decorations.  Can you tell how much I love to decorate???

Welcome to our chemical treatment plant!

This was another $$$ concern.  Because we were responsible for getting quotes for well/treatment prior to securing our loan, it was hard to estimate the well because you're not sure how deep you'll have to go and once you get water, how you'll have to treat it.  We thought we had plenty of cushion, but we still went over.  Bad news: The well was 180 feet deep and had to be treated extensively.  Good news: We have AWESOME water now!!!  Honestly, I was worried about switching from public to well, but now that we have it, it's unreal how tasteless our water is!  And I was worried about it changing the texture of my hair or drying my skin out, but no problems whatsoever!!!  Just wish it hadn't cost so much.  We originally thought we had about a $10,000 cushion that could be used for installing a driveway, fence, deck, or landscaping in the spring (all things we'll be paying for ourselves,) but with the excavating and well, we're not going to have any leftover for those things.  It's smart to have a comfortable cushion for extras and overages when building, otherwise you might end up having to go without a few things.  Landscaping, grass, driveway, deck (our first floor is about ten feet above the ground in the back of the house so we can't walk out our sliding glass door in the sunroom until we have a deck) those are all musts, but Andor might be waiting on a shed, and the dogs might not be getting the huge fenced in yard we promised for a little while longer...
Update: We put in the fence $12,000 and Andor built his shed $1,500, and we even put in a poured concrete patio with sitting wall/lighting (Andor did the sitting wall), but we had to wait one year to put on our deck- $17,000.  Andor is building it himself (with the help of family and friends.)



Yesterday was our first Valentine's Day in our new home!  It's so amazing that we're in it after the long journey of deciding to buy vs. build, shopping for a builder, picking a floor plan, finding land, selling our townhouse, picking out every detail for our new home, living with family while our house was being built, the roller coaster of building (I believe this happens no matter who you build with), and FINALLY moving it- it's just so amazing that we're starting to make memories in OUR HOME that we helped design and plan every single little detail.  Someone asked me if we had the chance to do it all over again would we still build and choose Wayne as our builder, and I said, "yes."  It was a roller coaster, not for the faint of heart, and there was WAY more work involved than I ever expected, and we're not entirely done yet, and finances were a little scary at times, but in the end we're happy with the product we got, and we're happy with Wayne's customer service.  They truly have worked with us through all the bumps in the road.  When building, you can't anticipate all the bumps in the road ahead, but Wayne Homes has made good on their promises and the journey has brought us to a place better than we dreamed.  We LOVE our house!

Tomorrow our field manager, Brant, is coming out to follow-up with some things that we noticed after we moved in.  It was reassuring to know that after we got our keys, Wayne Homes would take care of anything we missed prior to moving in.  Here's the list of things we want to go over with him.


* Our master bathroom and main bathroom showers aren't working like they should.  When taking a shower water still pours out of the lower bath spout.  We spoke with our plumber about this and he said it's because they are the cheapest ones you can buy.  We talked to our field manager and he said this is a common problem with them that they all do.  I never had this problem in my other homes, though, so I'm hoping it can be fixed.  I want ALL of the water coming out of my shower head when showering, not SOME of it.  Update: No longer an issue.  Fixed.



* Lots of nail pops.  They already came out to fix several before we closed on the house.  Now, Wayne Homes will come out once more, only once, within the next two years to fix any more that pop up.  We figure we'd better wait until the end of the two years.  Andor and I hope that our walls don't look like they have chicken pox by then, but if Wayne will only come out once, we'd hate to have them come out this spring or summer and then have more nail pops.  Andor can't figure out why they nailed the drywall instead of screwing it in with screws.  Time saver to nail versus screw maybe???  Update: Waiting for our two years to be up so they can come to address this.



* Window Screens- We didn't realize all of our windows would be full screens.  That means that you can't open your screen to throw a bug out the window, it doesn't slide up.  We definitely don't like this and he's supposed to give us the number for the window company for us to call and see about ordering the kind that slide up and down.  Hope that's not too much $$$... Update: 84 Lumbar is the only place around that can provide screens.  Looks like about $300 for the whole house. 

* One of the window stoppers in our sunroom is broken.  That'll need to be fixed. Update: Fixed. 



* We need a set of keys for the sliding glass door in our basement and the sliding glass door in our sunroom.  The last time we saw them was before the drywall went up.  They were hanging on a nail on the framing.  We haven't seen them since the drywall went up, though.  Guessing that was another "Oopsy" the drywallers messed up.  Hoping the keys are behind the drywall and not that someone took them cause that'll leave us wide open if someone took them with bad intentions.  With all the sub contractors coming in and out, it's a little unnerving that someone may have the keys to get in to our home!  My husband thinks I overreact, but you can't be too safe.  We're going to need that lock changed on both doors.  Update: Replaced keys, not locks.



*  Our powder room sink has a scratch going across the front.  It'll have to be fixed or replaced.  We tried to clean it, but it's not coming off.  Update: Magic Eraser is a miracle worker!!!

* There are several drywall issues that we didn't notice until now, and one was marked before we moved in, but the painters (and we) missed it.  The blue tape is still there, but this and a few others will have to be fixed. Update: Painters addressed issues.

  * There is a crack in the wall (to the left of the light switch) and some parts where the fireplace stone was removed (to fix the mantle issue) that now left a soft spot in our wall there, including some parts where there is open space.  The mason came to repair this after we moved in, and it looks much, much better, but it still has some issues that have to be taken care of. Update: Addressed.

* Our exposed block was supposed to be painted to match our siding, but they painted it (in the freezing cold hope that's not a problem) and it's cream, not at all close to our Tuscan Clay siding.  We're hoping that's just a sealer and that they're coming back in the spring (like we were told) to paint it to match our siding.  No picture right now, sorry!  It was 3 below today, too cold to venture outside for pictures!  Also, we're thinking they're not done, because whoever did it detached our corrugated pipes that Andor attached to the downspouts and never reattached them. Update: Addressed.



* The flapper that goes out of our master bathroom vent to the outside CONSTANTLY flaps!  It makes a ping pong tapping sound that is so loud it wakes me up most nights.  The other night Andor found me standing on the toilet with the vent cover removed trying to find a way to make it stop.  It is SO LOUD!!!  I'm hoping something can be done.  Even with the bathroom door shut, I can still hear it! Update: It was an installation mistake and has been fixed.  Thank goodness!



* The main hallway bathroom has a fan that is always on.  Always. On.  It has to be as per Wayne Homes and the warranty.  It's noisy.  Not as noisy as the flapper in the master bathroom, but why does this fan have to be on 24-7?  Our electrician said it can be turned off, but we don't want to void the warranty.  Maybe our electrician is wrong?  He said our fans couldn't be wired to run off of two switches because they came with remotes.  Remember, our fans accidentally weren't ordered, so we chose to pick some up at Lowe's and take the $84 credit per fan for them?  Well, the ones we bought have remotes and our electrician wired all the fans to run off of two switches- one for the light, the other for the fan.  Well, he ended up wiring both the light and the fan to the same switch, leaving one switch useless.  Andor, fortunately, is very handy.  He fixed every fan to run the right way.  Wish the electrician had done this though, after all, we did pay him to do it.  He also left off a dimmer switch, but Andor bought one and installed it himself.  We figured it's not a big deal since he didn't charge us to swap out the foyer light that we decided to replace (after seeing the original one that came with our package- okay in the picture we saw but UGLY in person.)  He had to bring in a huge ladder to swap the fixture out, just wish he hadn't cracked the original when he put it back in the box.  Not that we could have gotten much money for it- it was pretty unattractive!    



* Wayne Homes sent us a $500 check for going past our guaranteed completion date.  What an unexpected, happy surprise!!!  We were never told our guaranteed completion date, but we must have gone over it, or Wayne Homes was being very generous to us!  That was a big bonus!  We're putting it toward the laundry tub and cabinets Andor installed in our laundry room.

  Andor is working on a garage mudroom space.  I saw it on Pinterest!  I'll post pictures of it and some other stuff I left out soon.  We paid extra to extend the garage by two feed wide and two feet deep, but honestly, it's still tight.  Not sure how we possibly could have fit two cars in our garage had we not done this.  We'd have bumped doors every time we got in/out.  ADVICE:  Get a three car garage!  Oh, and upgrade your garage door.  We spent $$ insulating our garage ourselves for nothing.  When we had our guy come out to install the garage door opener, he told us ours is the cheapest door available, and he had to specially adjust the torque on our opener so it wouldn't rip the garage door off of it's hinges.  It does let a lot of light and air rush in through the cracks.  I guess that's not a huge deal though, after all, you don't live in your garage.   

To Be Continued...