While we visited the hours on Sunday, we were happy with the way the siding looked. At that point, they didn't have the shake siding on the two car garage so we didn't have anything to compare the third car garage to.
Well....last night we meant our PM to walk through the house. And the first thing we noticed when we walked up the driveway was the difference b/w the garages. The two car garage has the shake siding, while the third car garage has the flat siding. Seriously?!?!?! His comment was that he built the third car "per plan". Their phrase which I am now believing is embedded into their minds. We argued with him that it looks really bad. We also pointed out that at the time we signed, the third car garage was not a standard option so we were never shown the plan of what it would look like. He acknowledged that and said he would reach out to Management today. As we questioned a few other things, his response was always "per plan".
After we left the house, E and I went home and compared our picture to other Venice Elevation Ls that we came across. Rachael-I hope you don't mind that I pulled your blog into our blog as reference (I hope the link works). Rachael's Venice
Differences:
We don't have the trim board above the brick.
The brick is also a little higher than it should be.
The shake siding at the top of the house does not have as many levels
They also used white trim (I think they are called J channels) to finish off the trim siding instead of the color of the siding.
They still need to install the column on the porch and the flower box. They are in the garage.
Fast forward to today....E received a call from our PM and he was able to come through and get approval to put the shake siding on the 3rd car garage. We are VERY happy about that. E then brought up the differences we noticed and the PM asked if E ever saw the plans. WRONG QUESTION!!! E got off the phone and drove over to the house and walked through each item that was NOT "PER PLAN". Some of the items weren't a big deal, he was just making his point. Don't tell us things are done "per plan" and then deviate from the plan when it benefits you and not us.
They are going to put the trim board above the brick, but since the brick is higher than it should be it will not line up correctly. E told him if it doesn't look good they will be taking it down and fixing the brick. I guess they started using a larger brick than the "per plan" brick.
All in all, I am very happy with our PM and the things he was able to get fixed for us during the process. That is what makes me feel bad that him and E got into a huge argument today. But then I look at the price of the house and think no we should want it 100% correct and not just 98 or 99%.
At this point, I don't think our PM is going to let us walk through the house until our pre-settlement walk through on 10/11. At that point, E is going to have a very large punch list.
I always thought it was going to be really good or bad that E has a background in construction. Well, it turns out very good for us and very bad for our PM.
Now to the inside:
I am very happy with the way things are going in here. They are installing carpet today and need to finish the electrical and plumbing fixtures. Our smaller cabinet for above the microwave still needs to be delivered to our PMs house.
Love the New Caledonia granite!!!
I am hoping once they fix the stain on the banister it won't look so dark. The pole is a lot darker than the hand railings.
I am very pleased with the way the tile trim turned out. I like it a lot more now that it is installed.
Our beautiful floors!
So far we are very happy with our build process even though we hit a few bumps here at the end.
For those building the third car garage - make sure to ask how it will be trimmed out. Most likely it is not the same as the other garage.
It's amazing how different our houses look even with the same elevation and color scheme! We do have different siding than you though, we have the wide beaded so maybe it has something to do with your siding? Your brick does come up a lot higher, but I guess I wouldn't mind that, the more brick the better I think! But the garage... I would fight tooth and nail for that, because it looks like an afterthought now. My favorite part about elevation L was the shake siding! I think it would look 100x's better on your 3rd car garage. As far as the j channels go, that's weird, all the houses in our neighborhood are finished with matching the color of the siding. I would ask about that and check other houses in your neighborhood. I know RH changes things all the time and can change your materials at the drop of a hat.
ReplyDeletesorry, I didn't read the whole post before I commented! lol it's great that they are fixing the garage siding for you and the trim over the brick! It's looking really good, I just love our elevation L! Not one single person in our neighborhood has it, I'm hoping no one else sees ours and likes it too and builds it :) lol I like being the unique house!
DeleteThey are going to add the white trim above the brick, but with our brick being up so high we will only have 2 peices of siding between the window and the trim board. We are going to see how it looks, but I think we are going to be asking them to take some of the brick off so the house as E says the house will be "architecturally correct".
DeleteWe do have another Venice L elevation in our neighborhood. They have a side entry garage so it does look very different. We actually told the PM to drive down the road to see the differences we were talking of.
I love this elevation too!! We have a Florence and Sienna both with the elevation L around our house. It makes everything look really good in our phase.
I think after their arguement yesterday we won't be allowed back until 10/11. But we can still drive past and check on how they fix the outside per our requests.
I just want to be happy everytime I come home. If they aren't fixed, we will see these issues everyday when we pull into the driveway.
I'm glad you were able to get everything sorted out.
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