Day 87.
Color Stone Mountain Clay.
It's so darn cold here, this AM in the single digits...6 degrees.
Met briefly with one of our PM's yesterday to go over some concerns at the house.
First let me post our siding.
(my family/friends dislike that we are getting siding and not all brick - shout out to the FAM readers out there.)
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2 concerns I had with the house that I asked one of our PM's to meet us at the house today.
The Brick.
Two corners look like the morter is white. Now I took pics of these two sections for a week to see if it changed with weather, degrees or light......Nope no changes so this became a concern.
I am told that the brick gets cleaned and these areas just need cleaned a few times and he promises they will not remain white after being cleaned (which this cleaning is standard) they will look like the rest of the home.
At first glance it looks like ice...........its not.
Any thoughts?
(OK, a fellow blogger just commented that this will not go away after power washing? - I'm worried - how will washing really help this?)
Is this Efflorescence? Is RH reading my blog now? What if it doesn't resolve itself, will the brick be redone?
Tip on your brick.
Ask to keep any unused brick. They will just simply toss them into the dumpster, what a waste of money. There are two hug stacks left over that we will use to build a mailbox at the base of the driveway.
Tip on shutters.
We asked that shutters not be installed. We prefer the look without shutters. They are just keeping shutters in basement in case we want to later. Plus it really makes our house stand out against all the other houses with shutters. Just and FYI, it's an option. Our personal choice nothing wrong with shutters, shoot I may decide later to add them, but I think our brick is contemporary enough that I like without them.
The WASHER and DRYER location and surroundings.
Surprisingly the washer and dryer location turned so wrong for me..........at first glance I was fine with the location when construction began. As we moved forward more and more stuff started showing up "around" the washer and dryer and my laundry area became...........well........such a part of the basement.
Two sump pumps are directly next to my dryer in fact I will have to place part of the dryer on top of the sump pump.
They placed the drop sink between the washer and dryer which I was not aware of....just like my old house......Nooooo!
This area that I wanted to frame off and make into a laundry room became a nightmare for me.
PM is going to move the laundry tub into another section of the basement....
We were told that they CANNOT move the washer and dryer and this point and if they could it will be charge. Apparently this is NOT a choice and even in the beginning had I known, it would have been an upcharge to change location of the W/D.
PM and hubby did discuss that these can be easily moved after closing........RH just can't do it without charging us and PM says don't do that because Hubby is more than capable of doing it. In fact PM offered to give any advice after closing to move it down the wall towards the front of the house so I can have a framed off laundry room.
They had a conversation that sounded like chinese.....and it will be easy and cheap to re locate them. PM is super helpful, he does above and beyond what he can within the confines of RH.
It will just again be one of those things........."to get to after closing" list.
What you don't see in this pic is across from both pumps in the hot water tank, that oddly sits in the middle of the room, next to the furnace. But I am guessing this area will be framed off all together and be hidden, I am guessing this is the plan, I have a hard time imagining walls up.......one thing I have a hard time envisioning. (we are finishing basement ourselves)
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Our walk thru is next friday 11th, at 10 am.
Carpet installed this friday.
Granite not until wednesday.
Seamless shower not till early next week.
My big ticket items not till last minute.........I wanna see.. I wanna see :)
Cleaning crews come in 3x from now till pre walk thru.
Still need.............
coats of paint on walls
sidewalk
lights installed outside
PM says this ALL must be done by next wednesday at the latest for RH's walk thru before ours.
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No paint on our door until weather breaks, no landscaping, no driveway........I hate this part, outside will be an ugly mud pitt until spring.!!
Drawbacks of building in the middle of winter.
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Towel bar dilemma solved. PM says it's NOT an issue having it over a plug due to GFI. But I still don't like it so he is making the bar smaller so it can be on the wall next to the sink.......THANKS PM :) I have the best PMs.
We have the same brick and I love the look of it, but we definitely have a problem with efflorescence and it's very apparent on our house vs others in the plan. We've had it power washed a few times, and treated with CLR, but it keeps coming back. We're going to talk about sealing it with something during our 10-month review, but I'm not real pleased since we paid quite a bit of money for the full brick front.
ReplyDeleteMandy, so you have La Cava brick? Does it really still look like that after all the power washing? What has RH told you? Now I'm worried...Does it look white like ours?
DeleteYes, it's La Cava. The power washing clears it up, but then it returns in other locations. It does look like yours. Our PM told us it was mortar too, but then after it came back following the power wash we were told it's efflorescence. Since yours is so new, it may just be mortar, but ours definitely is not. Other homes in our neighborhood have it too, but for some reason it appears to be worse on our house (or you can just see it better with this particular brick).
DeleteMandy, thanks so much for the input. At least I will know what is ahead of me. I can't imagine ours would be the exception to the rule...What will sealing solve? Should I ask for that upfront?
DeleteWell there's another La Cava house in our plan that doesn't appear to have as much white stuff, so it may just depend on the time of year? Hard to say because PM has been vague. We closed in August, so definitely not the same time as you're building. I don't think you'd want it sealed right now if you're seeing signs of efflorescence b/c you don't want to seal it in. That's why we're waiting till our 10 month. He wanted to let the brick go through all of he seasons before cleaning it again and (hopefully) sealing it out. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but I can check back in and let you know!
DeleteThat seems so weird to put the sink between the washer and dryer. Clearly those construction workers don't do laundry often. I'm glad they moved it for you!
ReplyDeleteColette, yeah didn't make any sense to me, hopefully future bloggers can talk about placement, I never thought of it......I will be a Pro by my 2nd house build (jk about the 2nd house......NOT the Pro part..LOL)
DeleteMandy, thanks so much for your input, it's been priceless, please keep my updated......I'm such a worrier...but guess nothing I can do about it right now.
ReplyDeleteI think the brick looks really good with the siding. I hope they can get the mortar issue resolved.
ReplyDeletePlacement of the tub between the washer and dryer seems weird. Did you tell the PM that you intended to frame in the laundry room after closing? It seems like they could have done a better job with placement all the way around. I'm glad there seems to be an easy/cheap way to relocate everything after closing.
It's kind of funny that all of your "big ticket" stuff is being installed at the very end when we've already seen all of ours. Really the only thing left for us to see is the hot water heater, final paint, and the house all cleaned up.
DW, I always understand where you are coming from and this journey has such been such a huge learning curve. My laundry has diminished significantly too!!!! We chose not to finish the large storage room and have two options to give me more breathing room. I even asked for the sump pump to be moved as far to the left as possible and instead of it being piped on an angle it is sticking straight up in the air taking away from the location I wanted to install a laundry system.
ReplyDeleteAs for the brick, I absolutely love the La Cava!! It is so beautiful and I really hope that they can do something about this because your house looks gorgeous with this brick.
Your walkthrough is the same day we close and at the same time too.
What are your BIG TICKET items you are waiting to see??
DeleteDo you mean the carpet, granite and the beautiful seamless shower? I can't wait to see pictures of your shower. I need to figure out who I am going to use for the seamless shower because I really, really do not like the shower and plus I want an element of sleek design in the bathroom. You were so lucky to have gotten it! SCORE!!
DeleteMy seamless shower, you know the one we put so much effort into....and the Granite in the kitchen..!! We knew the seamless shower would be the very last thing we were told that from the very beginning, and the granite I confused the issue by wanting to see the slab first,their was some miscommunication and I think by wanting to see the slab lead to a setback due to the granite company. they have never heard of someone wanting to see it first, so I think that one is all my fault...
DeleteOkay, that makes sense now! I certainly didn't understand why they hadn't installed your granite. What color did you choose?
DeleteSame as yours, Santa Cecilia...
DeleteThe brick looks really good with the siding. And that is a good tip on asking for what is leftover to be left for you. We are getting stone for our front so I will be sure to ask them the same thing as I am planning on putting stone around the landscaping beds in the future.
ReplyDeleteSeeing a couple of blogs with the towel-bar-over-socket is something that I will bring up with my electrical contractor when we go see them tomorrow.
Brian, glad I could help with my tips...I only wish that all of us bloggers can learn from each other...
DeleteThe brick and siding go together really nicely. I had to look up effloresence...learn something new everyday. I think it looks too uniform to be that, but it's hard to tell from the pictures. Hopefully a good cleaning will clear it up.
ReplyDeleteThe laundry room situation is really strange. Are they planning for you to drain your washer into the laundry tub? Maybe that explains the placement. I don't know why they would have left you so little room for your dryer either. At least you have a work-around after closing.
Everything is coming together very quickly. Congrats on the progress :) You'll be moving in before you know it.
The brick color variance will not change. We were told powerwashing would fix it too....but they are wrong. :( That being said....I don't notice as often now. We also kept a huge pile of brick! We will probably use it for a mailbox too! Great idea!
ReplyDeleteCharissa, I am so worried about the brick, my PM didn't even bat an eyelash and looked and me oddly (which he never does) so I keep thinking it will go away, he looked at me as if he sees it everyday, he is such a nice guy.............here's hoping.......Now is your brick solid white like mine in a large area or in just small areas?
DeleteDo any of your guys know when they powerwash? If they powerwash in the cold weather?
ReplyDeleteThe brick/siding combo looks AWESOME. Do you have any new pics of how the brick looks like after its all done? We chose the same brick/siding combo for our new NV home (still under construction), can't wait to see the final product. :--)
ReplyDeleteSure, if you look at one of my newest posts, I think it says Garage door window pics.....
ReplyDeletealtho since its still so cold here, we still have no yard or driveway so it still looks like a construction ZONE.
I just checked the brick out (in the snow picture). The brick/siding combo actually looks amazing. :--)
ReplyDeleteDon't mind what your friends say, as others have already said here, that brick and siding combo looks nice. When it comes to insulation, brick and siding are both energy efficient but you have to make sure it is properly installed. Siding can help reduce your monthly energy cost so make sure the contractors you hired have done a good job in it.
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ReplyDeleteI think you should keep your sidings uniformed. The two look confusing and do not compliment with each other. Anyhow, your house looks perfectly beautiful especially with the bricks. It made your house stand out among the houses nearby.
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I can't understand why your family and friends didn't like the siding since it looks so great. You can explain that those sidings help in protecting the concrete that serve as the foundation of the house. It's been months now, and I hope they already appreciate your pretty siding. :)
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