Three years since dig day

It has been THREE years since we watched the first scoop of dirt move on dig day, and we have enjoyed making memories in our new home. We took some new photos to show the progress we have made on our property, but it is not done yet!

On the outside: We finished our paver walkway in the front and started our landscaping (although it isn't finished). It looks great, and we did it ourselves. It was definitely a labor of love...day after day, brick by brick.

Paver walkway outside of garage: We laid this walkway two times. We got it installed, and had a big issue with water backing up, so we had to take the entire walkway out so that it could be fixed. This was kind of a "cherry on top" of our disappointment with Tom Hiatt's Plumbing out of Findlay, Ohio.  Tom wasn't interested in fixing what he (technically his crew, because he wasn't out here) did wrong until we threatened to sue him..... but he begrudgingly came out himself and excavated part of this side of our house. He discovered that his crew ran our drain uphill underground, which was why it wasn't draining at all. Once he finished that, we rented a power tamper for the second time and laid this walkway for a second time. It hasn't been a problem since, thankfully!


On the inside: We are starting to finish the basement, little by little. We have (almost) finished the workout room, and it looks amazing. We painted the brick with semi-gloss paint in "Brick Dust", and sided the walls and ceiling with pine carsiding / shiplap. We added can lights, and are just now ordering the finishing materials and the TV mount. This fall, we plan to finish a bathroom downstairs and work on finishing the rest of the huge and open space ourselves. We aren't in a hurry, though.

 Framing in the workout room

 Piece by beautiful piece!

 Getting there

We absolutely love the painted brick form walls and are glad Wayne Homes had this as an option for us.

The walkout and porch are a work in progress. We got an estimate to have this done for us and it was upwards of 20k....as in over twenty thousand grand..... who has that kind of money?! So, for the last two years, we've scooped away and moved dirt like it was our job. It has not been fun, and given the manpower and hours we have put into it, I understand why the estimate came back so high. We did the first side in the fall of 2015, and are finishing the second side in the fall of 2016. We are hoping to have a usable space with a nice seating area for some fires this fall. This has probably been the worst and most time consuming project we have tackled outside.

 The start of the first side in Fall 2015

 First side 2015

 First side 2015

 First side 2015

First side 2015

 First side 2015 - the missing section on the left will eventually be steps up to the back yard

Getting there!

 Left side - Fall of 2016

Before and after stain / walkout in progress




On the inside: We haven't done much other than "decorate" (which is incredibly subjective, because I don't think I'm good at it at all), and buy my in-laws furniture when they moved. I played around with my iPhone's settings for these pano shots.

Looking at office doors, entryway, dining room

View from the front door

From the master hall way... the sunroom is so bright!

From the sunroom.... with my husband's trophies above the new(ish) entertainment center. The paint color doesn't look bad in this light, but we still hate it because it looks pink during the day. We just aren't ready to paint yet.

Issues: 
1. Communication. This has been the biggest stressor! We submitted our latest customer service request for our continually leaky sunroom window on May 19th, and it wasn't completed until September! It sounded like WH passed the request onto Carter Lumber, who dropped the ball until I called and e-mailed multiple times all summer when I was home. When something FINALLY happened, we found out they ordered a new patio door on accident, when we have not had a single issue with our patio door, meaning we had yet ANOTHER delay. It has been a huge frustration. Wayne Homes Customer Care doesn't seem to hurry to get things done without multiple phone calls / emails, but Within 24hrs. Of the job being completed (after May, June, July, and August.... FOUR MONTHS!), they check in with us to see how the work is/was. How about you fix it as fast as you check up on the work that's done?! This has been a really big disappointment and has kept us from referring a few of our friends to Wayne Homes.  Proactive vs. Reactive, people. Come on.

2. Leaking sunroom window. It was fixed at least four times, but was still a problem at the beginning of the month. Finally, the Silverline guy (who is incredibly professional and very apologetic) came on on a Friday morning that my husband stayed back from work and got the job done. When we told him we submitted the order in May, he showed us the request that he had just received the week before.... four months after we submitted the request. Four months. We are hoping that water hasn't gotten behind the wall or else we will have a big problem to clean up in the future.

3. Leaking pipe going to septic. WH blamed our plumber (Again, Tom Hiatt; we would never recommend!), but the plumber blamed the builder. We have to end up calling someone with a better reputation to re-excavate the side of the house and put a new exterior and interior seal around the septic pipe so that we don't keep getting water in our new workout room. This has been a complete nightmare, and I think if we had picked a different person for our outside work, it wouldn't have been an issue. What a headache.

Coming up: We plan to finish the front landscape this fall as well as the walkout. This spring, we plan to either lay a paver patio off of the sunroom (facing the pond), or have someone pour a stamped concrete patio. It has taken a long time, but we are getting there!