June 25

Upon arriving home from a busy work week, I found Daphne swimming in an oversized, inflatable pool on our patio while Mommy read her Kindle. Daphne insisted I "remove your clothes, Daddy and get in the pool". I obliged. Well, I put on my swimming trunks and hopped in.

"Look Daddy! I can swim like a little froggy. Ribbit! Ribbit!" cried Daphne. "Watch me float on my back! Can I water the plants? I want to be a robot! Oh look, Mommy has a birdfeeder! Watch, I count the flowers. 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 3, 6! Yay!" A mile a minute, her jaw never stops a flappin'. I wonder where she gets her talkative nature?

I grabbed a towel, proceeded to dry off, and went to see what the electrical contractors accomplished today. Okay, I probably need to explain why we had electricians here drilling and laying conduit...

At closing, the representative for our builder (who doubles as the builder's business partner) made several "hollow promises" to us. I say that because any time he has opened his mouth and promised us something, the end result is nothing. Let's just cite some examples (without sounding too bitter).

We asked for 3 simple items (favors, if you will) at closing. He assured us that all requests would be satisfied.

(1) Removal of the temporary, construction power pole. Is this really something that a buyer needs to ask of his builder? I called the builder 10 days ago and he promised someone would move the pole off of our property the next day. Guess what? It's still here... We initially called the electric company to claim their pole and found out it was the property of the builder. Just today, Jennie found out it belongs to the electrical contractor employed by the builder. They said, "We'll gladly remove it, but you will have to call the electric company to have it disconnected first." The electric company said that the builder would have to issue a service disconnect before they could unhook the wires attached to the pole. Is your head spinning yet? The electric company is scheduled to disconnect the wires on Monday. The electrical contractor may then move it off of our property any time afterward. By then, we will have lived here 6 weeks! I guess it could be worse, I suppose.

(2) Hook up post lights to base of front porch stairway outside. During our punch list, another representative mentioned that the builder should mount some post lights. At closing time, nothing was installed. In fact, the builder told us that if we purchased the lights ($50 - $60), he would send his electrician to wire them up at no charge. Gee, way to really step up to the plate, buddy. This guy is so smooth that he convinced us he was doing us a huge favor by having us buy the lights. No big deal. Jennie bought the lights 5 weeks ago and we called the electrician numerous times to schedule the installation. The electrician and a few co-workers arrived this morning to do the job. It seems they encountered several snags during the process. Although the builder stated otherwise at closing, no "pre-wired" conduit was present inside the hollow tube in the brick and no lightswitch was present in the house for the post lights. After installing the light switch, running the conduit through our wall, down into our crawlspace, and outside the house, they determined that the masonry contractor accidentally placed mortar over the conduit tube leading into the brick base structure which will house the lights. The electrician acknowledged this has occurred several times with this builder and expressed his frustration. So, now our yard is dug up with conduit exposed and we are at the mercy of our builder sending out his mason to unclog his mortar problem. Can you see why Jennie is beyond upset?

It is getting late and I will spare you the third item for now. I could write for hours about the bad stuff, but what good will it do? Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

Let me just say that we love our new house and want to put all of these issues behind us.

Until tomorrow,
Dave T.