Yard Completion - the closest it's ever been.

After two years of bitching and complaining - it appears that they are finally finishing the backyard.

While I'm stuck at work.
FML.

Here's some pictures from my awesome neighbor - and some to compare where we started to where it's at now. If you want to see them in order, go through the timeline.
Present Day:

Way Back When - in no specific order.

Yeah It's much deeper than this now.

 Lower dropoff into the neighbors yard, which ended up actually being deeper once they started to slowly fill in my yard.

 They tried to fix the dropoff by putting more dirt on the same hill, in the same exact form. So now it was just a drop off that stuck out more.

 Can't tell too well here, but that's because the drop off from I'm the lot I'm standing on.

 My house to the right, the drop off they failed to fix for any of us. Almost to closing.

 a heartland manager who shall not be named specifically except under the guise of lying asshole.

 When it rained....... Now they are adding another storm box but the water is still being diverted through my yard. Hopefully when the grass grows this won't be an issue.

Privacy Concerns

Due to recent privacy concerns a majority of stuff posted here has been taken down.
It may be put back up at some point, but I don't know when that'll be.
Thanks.

The Yard - part...100?

It's been a while since I've updated, but no less my blog has been getting slammed with views in recent months. So I figured now would be a good time to put something out there. If you've actually read any of my previous posts, you would know that Heartland & "the mysterious developer" basically left us and all of the surrounding homes/lots around us, jacked for any kind of use able yard space.  Well, my persistence so far has been paying off. 

Just before winter struck last year, we had some significant loads of dirt dropped on our lot. But they were never smoothed out so we couldn't use anything beyond the edge of the grass. Not to even let the dog go to the bathroom. They FINALLY smoothed that out after numerous calls and complaints. We've been pushing since before we closed to get  our - and all of our neighbors - back yards fixed, and recently (I hope) it seems to have gained a little traction - Some of which is in Thanks to new builds pressuring Ryan/Heartland/NVR/Mysterious Developer. So - new neighbors(and current neighbors), if you're reading this (and I know some of you are), Please don't stop pressuring them to fix your yard! In order for any of our yards to be properly fixed, the whole center area needs to be properly graded, top soiled, seeded and so on. 

All of the new people moving in, just starting to build or about to close have no idea how long and futile this argument has been. I've put a lot of effort into this, not just for us - but for all of the adjoining yards.  We could have very easily sought out an excavator and had our yard fixed last year - on our own and out of our own pocket, then disallowed them to access or change our land. Which to be honest the pricing I got wasn't That bad. But we didn't want that - we wanted all of the yards to be corrected as a whole because that was the right thing to do. Even still the slow progress is enough to drive you mad.
As one neighbors mother very wisely put it - "There's power in numbers."  Now if only all of the affected neighbors could band together and insist on a group meeting with upper management - who supposedly is taking care of our yards now (because yet again it's "out of my hands" of the current PM) - then and only then, I believe we will get this done within 60 days or probably less.  

 As of right now, all of that water is diverted right through my yard and into the back yards of 3/4 other homes. So essentially we have approximately 11 homes affected by this!!!!!!! That could be a class action law suit I bet. But that's not what I'm interested in at this point... Patience and persistence is paying off....a little at a time.

Isn't this just lovely??

To be totally fair, it kind of does need to go into that general direction - there is a drain there. HOWEVER, that amount is far too much and will flood those peoples basements if we wind up with a couple days straight of storms. 

That being said - We have yet again been promised that they are going to bring in dirt from all Ryan Homes developments within a 10 mile radius. We were also told that they were bringing in dirt from a huge roadside project to just get the whole back area all done at once. 

(Nothing major yet.)

So far - only a couple loads of dirt have been brought in. They were supposed to be used to finish flattening out our lot, but the ground was too wet and the truck started sinking. The excavator had the truck dump it and pushed it over as best he could. They are supposed to also (still) be raising the manhole cover. Right next to my house they're building a new home, and have to build a retaining wall and a large ditch to divert water from my entire right side of the house out into the back yard. Awesome.

That being said - Take a look at this. My shoes are a pretty hot pink. But seriously - look at where my feet are standing. When we closed, this wasn't even close to being possible. There was a 10 ft drop from the edge of the grass down to the rest of my yard. It's now just a small knoll. So small that once it's top soiled and properly graded, will likely be entirely flat.  Pics of the progression below. The biggest thing that helped reduce that drop off for us (and I believe it would work for most of my neighbors) - was the excavator chopping off the top knuckle of the drop off, and pushing that dirt down to the bottom of the hill. That forced the slope to be significantly gentler. From there on out, any dirt they dropped made HUGE differences. BUT - It wouldn't have mattered much what they put there until they chopped off that knuckle.





To the right is before we closed, just after the foundation I think - technically that road is the easement for all of our yards that they used as a roadway while back filling the giant crater they dug out.

This was pretty close to when we closed, I'll look at home for a picture from the day of closing but regardless - as you can see here, that's no gentle slope. That's a freaking drop off. Not what I agreed to buy.

Panorama of the backyards together while they were in the early stages of filling in. To the right is about exactly how that drop off stayed until they had enough of us complaining.

You can't safely raise a family with a yard like this. Luckily, it's been significantly improved as you've seen above!! It's come a long way!

Our yard at this present time is about 80% flattened. My kids can play and I'm not worried they'll fall off the edge and break a leg now. They still need to do more in the center to bring it up, and some in the far back to bring it down, and they'll have to do something with the side but it's hard to say what. Maybe leave it somewhat - we need a hill in the back yard for all the kids to slide on in the winter anyway.

 I've been told that they will work on the lower lots first (the one to the left of me, one lower left and my lot) then work their way up to the rest of the lot in order to grade it all properly. With the small amount that has to be done to my yard, they've told me by the end of July, and then again by the end of the summer. Honestly - I Think end of summer sounds about right. So - once again, crossing fingers and hoping for the best meanwhile harassing people on up the phone tree within both companies. Because let's face it, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Just imagine if we all complained as much, at the same time, to the same people.... :-)

Fighting for what's Right - Part 2

So, to continue the drama a bit more. Allstates called Heartland back and REFUSED to fix the drain at the Old warranty prices (which would have been at no cost to us.) Allstates quoted Heartland the cost of approximately $500 to fix this issue which in turn Heartland called us and offered HALF of that to fix the issue They screwed up to begin with!

They said it's either accept half ($250) or allow Ryco to come and fix it! Ryco never showed up last time, we spent 5 hours just waiting for them and then they never even showed up. Why would I Waste my time and another nice day?

I'm going to fight this - Heartland should be footing the entire bill. Period.
Clearly they know this or they wouldn't have even offered to pay half of the Full cost of the Allstates bill!

Fighting for what's Right.

We have never been comfortable with Ryco and do not wish to have them in our home for as long as we can stave them off. The bathroom rough-ins that were measured by two different plumbers and by two different heartland warranty guys -- they were simply installed way too close to the wall after numerous promises that insignificant things like this wouldn't occur. Heartland KNEW this would happen, yet failed to mark it specifically on our prints for Allstates to install correctly the first time. Why would you waste that much money as a company? If they do that on every single home, running about $400-600 a pop, that's an incredible waste and bad business practice.... bleeding money left and right!  Honestly - Do it right the first time, or not at all. 

That being said, Ryco never showed up on Friday as they were scheduled. The warranty guys did show up, and fixed a majority of my complaints. Currently the brick guy is supposed to come back and fix his ugly puddy looking job, materials are on site. No clue when he will be back.

My husband also called warranty again, since Ryco never showed up (Thankfully I will say), Heartland called Allstates and told them to come fix our plumbing rough-ins. Heartland is footing the bill. This makes me happy. We get to keep both of our concurrent warranties and get good work done at the same time.

Saturday morning as I was sneaking out the door to go to work I ran into the digger guy, he was making the water diversion ditches deeper because half of my seed on the slope/ditch washed away, as did some of my soil. He is trying to prevent that from happening. We talked a bit and he said that the folks at Ryan told him to keep working with us to get the yard fixed. As more lots are sold, more dirt will be dug up, and they can lose it in my back yard. For that, I am thankful. Again, he will check on raising the manhole cover, but I have yet to see anyone actually do that work. Personally - I think that needs done before anymore dirt is dumped. Then - we can have fill dirt brought in to speed the process up, if the township allows.

Eventually I will be able to plant the stuff I want and have an entire yard with grass on it. Someday. Oh, and did I mention that I will not give up? Persistence can and I believe will pay off. It just might take some time.

Our yard is looking pretty awesome, pretty green. We still haven't received the bag of seed and it needs mowed but it's so greeeeeeeeeeeeeen and pretty compared to the dirt lots around our home! I watered it last night just to get soaked in the thunderstorms. D'oh!

Other than that - life is good! I can't wait for the 10 month drywall to get that stuff fixed so we can paint! What low VOC Paints did you like best??

Better than expected / Pre-settlement / Agreement about Yard.

I bitch and whine, but ultimately our meeting today went better than expected. Words are nice, but until I see the execution of our agreement about the yard, I will be calling twice a day. 

So, as previously stated the pre-settlement meeting went better than expected. It might have been due to the fact that I was on a sugar high from these cupcakes Heartland sent to my Keller Williams office as a "Thank You" gift. Amazingly good freaking cupcakes. 

 When we arrived, the driveway had been paved, which was nice because it was due this past Friday. There's one tree that still needs moved in the  lot next to us, into our lot somewhere. This is just the first coat, there will be a final top coat probably next summer-ish.

We went through the house, pointed out issues that were affected but there was no blue tape. Nothing to mark the items with. Instead PM just wrote them down. I knew I should have brought my own. But, screw it. We discussed the hardwood flooring again, and the blue tape we had previously put down when we snuck in was still there. After explaining why they were there and what the issues were he realized everything we had been saying. So again he will have them come back out and take a look.

The screen door needs adjusted, this will be done tomorrow. The railing has to stay there until we build a deck. I'm ok with that.

 The sidewall of the finish cabinetry for the refrigerator was crooked. That would have drove me nuts, so - he will have them fix it, as well as adjusting several doors to ensure they are even and line up properly - and are tight. There was 1 door that the hinges are loose. The correct pulls are on order, and should arrive & be installed tomorrow. And I finally found the other seam on the granite. I didn't find it running my fingers along the dirty countertop (even after it was "cleaned"), I found it running my fingernail alongside the edge! Even then I had to look really closely to see that it was two pieces. If I had to look that closely, I'm ok with the fact that the seam is there. They did a good job.

 This "flat" antique white isn't going to withstand a damn thing from the kids. Why did it have to be Flat? So the nailpops don't show as much? yeesh. So I'm going to have to paint, ASAP with something that can be wiped off often. My little humans are girly, but they also love to get dirty.

 Asked that the railing be given another coat, and one portion of it sanded down and then re-stained because they lacquered right over pencil markings and that would have drove me nuts.

 Exterior painting on porch stoop and around door is on hold until spring. It looks like hell.

 The kick plate for the front door wasn't installed yet - I found it in a closet and since the door had been painted over this past weekend asked for it to be installed.

 The carpet with the exploded marker was removed and replaced. I can't find the seam so they did a really great job. I'm not certain if they replaced the whole hallway or what but it looks good. The carpet in the sitting room is still a different color, and will arrive & be installed the first week of December - I'm ok with that.

 I love my tub. I love this view. The only problem was we found something pushing or bubbling the sidewall of the tub. This may be due to the way it's seated or it may be a manufacturer defect. Either way, the punch list guy is going to have a look at it and work it out.

 Punchlist guy got rid of the rust, they think someone left a rusty screw or nail nearby and the cleaners just didn't try very hard to get rid of the marks of rust. They're all gone now though.

 The landscaping package was installed. Gotta say I'm not really impressed with it.

 This looks more brown than burgundy for some reason, but it's burgundy. Needs the kickplate installed but that's a 5 minute job.

There were other miscellaneous items like the brick gunk by the garage that I'd already pointed out to PM and asked to be fixed, the laundry over flow pipe, the garage door panel, a damaged window sash, plugs that aren't flush or level with the cover plates, some discolored trim, and a significant gauge in the kitchen island wood that some idiot tried to cover using the wrong color of touch up stain, Lots of caulking and touch up paint, etc ... all of which he said the punch list guy will take care of tomorrow and what he can't get done tomorrow, they will schedule another time to come do. Oh- there was 1 other item that was kind of big. The plumbers somehow managed to install the shower head pipe in the girls bath completely crooked. You can't notice it from looking outside the tub, but once your in it and look up, it's clearly crooked and by a significant amount.

Overall it wasn't too bad. He didn't really "demonstrate" anything to us, just showed us where the furnace filter was, where the humidistat was, and  let me pull my van into the garage to make sure it would clear without issues. Looked at the cracked concrete again and despite it being worse than before is still "within tolerance levels and will be monitored". Yeah, ok.

The biggest item was the drop off shown here. I let my husband handle this because he has far more finesse than I do. They/We came to an agreement that they would shave this built up hillside and use that shaved dirt at the bottom to even out the slope and make it graded much more like it was before - a gentle slope - aka safe for the kids. Since we don't know how far back our yard actually goes at this very moment, we are going to have Sperdute surveying come back out and survey & install pins in our property lines - at each of the corners. This way there is no question. But before we do that - Heartland has to request a final survey now that the house is completed which has to be submitted to the township.

The township inspector is due tomorrow to inspect and give the certificate of occupancy. Apparently he only comes on Tuesday and Thursday. (Facepalm).  Cross your fingers he doesn't fail us. If he fails us and doesn't give Certificate of Occupancy, we won't get it this week at all due to Thanksgiving.  The loan officer threw me for a loop with the exterior painting - which is not completed due to the weather, but will be completed in the spring. We almost ended up escrowing money for that, which would have been a bit of a mess but not entirely a bad idea. Whole lot of stress in that paragraph.

The loan officer also texted me to let me know they cleared all conditions on our mortgage except the final inspection by the appraiser. Once they get that, then we are clear to close. We should have it by noon-1pm tomorrow. Then we will get all of the final, official numbers, and go to closing Wednesday Morning. Before closing we have to go by the house, see that the punch list guy knocked out a huge portion if not all of our list, and the cleaning crew is coming back to do a deep clean of the house. I'm afraid I'll still need to clean it again after that, but who cares. At that point we will be "HOME"!

Yard - Before and after shots

 BEFORE:  Slight slope down 3-5ft down, then rest of yard. Disclaimer: I have more pictures and Arial video somewhere, I'm looking for it to add to this page.

AFTER Digging: 10ft Drop

 AFTER: Hope our cars don't slide off the driveway because we will be going down that 10 ft drop.

That drop doesn't look so steep from the 2nd story of my house, but it is once you are teetering over the edge.

 This is how they want to leave it. This is not what we agreed to purchase.