We had a non-event of sorts yesterday, when we stopped by the house to find what we thought was totally the wrong tile installed. Convinced it was wrong, I looked at the paperwork, which matched the order. But the photo I took in the design studio looked much lighter, and the stuff on the manufacturer's website looked much darker. So they brought a tile to the design studio (which happens to be next door to work), and I went over at lunch to see that it was exactly what we asked for.
I kind of feel bad for being a pain in the ass, but only sort of. As we're finding out, it seems like it's largely up to us to act as QA people for the construction, which seems a little odd for a situation where you're spending a ton of money on a house. Prior to the drywall going up, we found a whole bunch of things that were totally wrong. They got the bathroom sink plumbing in the wrong spot. They mounted the light switch for the pantry where the fridge is supposed to go instead of in the pantry. The kitchen lighting wasn't particularly placed in logical places. The wiring for surround sound speakers (admittedly a splurge) was pretty much in front of where you would logically put your couch.
The other thing that I've noticed is that some of the contractors are a total pain in the ass for each other. For example, drywall guys appeared to have scraped off their tools on the exterior over the stucco, and obviously someone had to scrape that off before painting the exterior. The stucco guys apparently crushed the roof vents over the garage, so now someone has to fix that.
I have noticed watching some of the other houses in our row that some folks do really quality work. The tile guys seem solid all around, and any of the people doing finishing work (plumbing fixtures, exterior touchups, and the guys who clean up all of the wall dings and other issues) do great work.
The house is going to be so done a month before we close. Nothing we can do about that, but I'm sure our sales rep is going to stress about it. I'm still a little worried that the lender is going to flake out, just because life is otherwise going pretty well. I'll be a lot more relaxed when I've got the keys in my hands, and we can start having a little fun with painting and such.
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