Wayne Homes Warranty Work 1 Year After Moving In

We've been living in our Wayne Homes Jamestown model for a little over a year now.  We've had a few warranty issues, all which have been addressed by Wayne Homes.  Unfortunately, our window leaking issue is reacurring, so we've had to place another call into Wayne Home's customer care.  They've sent out the window company (Anderson Silverline windows) to caulk the  corners where the windows (2 of them, one in the master, one in the spare, both upstairs) were leaking, but it's continuing to get water.  Now, the one ledge has absorbed the water and swelled, and the other window has signs of rot/mold in the corner.  We're hoping they do something more than caulk it again this time around, since that has not solved the problem.  On a brighter note, we still have one more year of warranty coverage.  I'm thankful for that!

We also noticed that in multiple spots in our basement, our concrete foundation is cracking.  Wayne Homes came out to inspect, and they said that this is to be expected, and as long as they don't shift, we don't have to worry about it.  The cracks go in a stair like pattern along the mortor, and they also go straight through the center of the concrete bricks, ceiling to floor.    Anyone else have this issue?

We're pretty concerned about this next issue.  When my husband was installing his cabinets in the garage, he removed a section of the wall, and what we saw behind it was very disturbing.  We have mold (black in color, but not sure if it's black mold or not) crawling the entire wall.  How did that happen?  Is it behind more walls of our house?  We were told to put some bleach on it and that Wayne Homes would get back to us.  It's Wednesday, March 2, and we alerted Wayne Homes this past weekend, so we're hoping to hear back from them sooner than later. 

On top of the mold, we were disappointed to see that we did not have any insulation behind the wall, like we were told we would.  We spent a few hundred dollars during the build to insulate the garage ourselves with insulation we purchased from Home Depot so that our garage would be warm in the winter- my husband does a lot of work in the garage.  During the build, our project manager told us where the garage would be insulated and where it would not, so we insulated all of the areas that Wayne Homes would not be insulating.  Now that we see Wayne Homes did not insulate where we were told they would, we can understand why our garage has been so freezing cold!!!  Bummer!

First Year Utility Bills Wayne Home

We averaged all of our utilities for our first year. 

Gas Average: 59.60/month

-Winter Thermostat = 65

-Furnace

-Fireplace

Electricity Average: 89.76/month

-Summer Thermostat= 68

-AC

-Oven

-Water Heater

-Well

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.