The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[Sijray21]

I have 90 days to resolve it

What are they going to do if you do nothing?

[.RJ]

I have 90 days to resolve it

What are they going to do if you do nothing?

Goes to some review board, who will fine you.  If you dont pay the fine they put a lien on the house.

Now, I agreed to 90 days with the buyer.  Reston will give me 6 months to fix it.

[Sully]

Yeah I would agree, I'll never use a production builder again if I can help it. We just closed last week and I'm torn with fixing the little shit myself... Correctly... Or putting it on the punch list for the warranty because I paid you to build my house correctly.

My biggest complaints were the resistance I was met with while trying to get them to fix things that were wrong during the building process.
For some dumb reason, all the houses in the neighborhood, they dump the gutters out on the sidewalk right in front of the rear porch which is the main entrance off the driveway. I asked them to let me put a piece of pvc drain pipe in before they poured the driveway and sidewalk and they said I couldn't and they wouldn't either. I then asked them to move downspout to other side of gutter and run it down the 6x6 for the decks. They reluctantly agreed but never actually did it until we and our agent brought it up again on the walk through. Even then the PM tried to talk us out of it saying it wouldn't look good.

And I called attention to the wall not being straight the day after it was sheetrocked. They ignored it until I brought it up 3 more times. Then did some half ass job to fix it which did nothing so now I have a fridge in the middle of my kitchen. They have come out to look at it but I was basically told we have to be slotted in with their contractor who does their warranty work and go off his availability. Which didn't sound bad until it's day 4 since I was told that and haven't heard anything from pm to set up an actual time for work to start.

Tons of other things overall that it's just like why would you do it this way. But i guess for people who don't know better, they may get away with it and not have to fix it.

Overall I'm super disappointed and stressed about the build process which is definitely not what I expected. At least this bad. We went through 3 different counter installs and a backsplash that wasn't supposed to go on at all which required the entire wall it was on to be ripped out a week before closing. Almost all the doors had torn weatherstripping and some didn't even have any. The entire neighborhood is nothing but drainage issues and they just grade all the yards to create more. Of course I get neighbors that water in the rain and I'm pretty sure one of them is still watering... In December. Can't wait for his system to blow and flood my yard.

I could keep going all day...

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[WRXtranceformed]

I mean if they gave you a few paint code options and you used one of them, I don't see where they have much to stand on.

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Yeah I would agree, I'll never use a production builder again if I can help it. We just closed last week and I'm torn with fixing the little shit myself... Correctly... Or putting it on the punch list for the warranty because I paid you to build my house correctly.

My biggest complaints were the resistance I was met with while trying to get them to fix things that were wrong during the building process.
For some dumb reason, all the houses in the neighborhood, they dump the gutters out on the sidewalk right in front of the rear porch which is the main entrance off the driveway. I asked them to let me put a piece of pvc drain pipe in before they poured the driveway and sidewalk and they said I couldn't and they wouldn't either. I then asked them to move downspout to other side of gutter and run it down the 6x6 for the decks. They reluctantly agreed but never actually did it until we and our agent brought it up again on the walk through. Even then the PM tried to talk us out of it saying it wouldn't look good.

And I called attention to the wall not being straight the day after it was sheetrocked. They ignored it until I brought it up 3 more times. Then did some half ass job to fix it which did nothing so now I have a fridge in the middle of my kitchen. They have come out to look at it but I was basically told we have to be slotted in with their contractor who does their warranty work and go off his availability. Which didn't sound bad until it's day 4 since I was told that and haven't heard anything from pm to set up an actual time for work to start.

Tons of other things overall that it's just like why would you do it this way. But i guess for people who don't know better, they may get away with it and not have to fix it.

Overall I'm super disappointed and stressed about the build process which is definitely not what I expected. At least this bad. We went through 3 different counter installs and a backsplash that wasn't supposed to go on at all which required the entire wall it was on to be ripped out a week before closing. Almost all the doors had torn weatherstripping and some didn't even have any. The entire neighborhood is nothing but drainage issues and they just grade all the yards to create more. Of course I get neighbors that water in the rain and I'm pretty sure one of them is still watering... In December. Can't wait for his system to blow and flood my yard.

I could keep going all day...

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We had a literal golf ball sized hole in our wall behind our oven.  Like, you could move the oven and see grass and sunlight through it.  The only reason I didn't catch it from the outside was it was hidden by the last lap of siding.  I was wondering how a mouse got in to the kitchen and shacked up in the stove when I saw him chillin on top eating my freshly baked pizza one day....

Other big issues were a very poorly flashed roof threshold that was causing leaking under our porch and a punctured AC line that they said they fixed before closing so that we could close, but they actually just recharged the system with Freon so it would work temporarily and then die again a few days later.  I absolutely destroyed our PM over that one, he ended up getting moved out of our neighborhood due to everyone's complaints. I made them pay to run a completely new external lineset up the side of my house and cover it in downspout material so it didn't look weird. It was either that or completely trash the walls in two of our rooms after we had already moved in.

[Sijray21]

Goes to some review board, who will fine you.  If you dont pay the fine they put a lien on the house.

Now, I agreed to 90 days with the buyer.  Reston will give me 6 months to fix it.

I'd check on that threat to put a lien on your house; i don't think that'll hold. In the mean time if you used the paint code per the direction of the HOA what else are you supposed to do (pending you have proof that you bought the paint and had it put on the house)?

If the fine is less than lawyer fees i'd likely just pay it to be done with it if it doesn't resolve by then.

[Apoc]

Pretty sure DJ had some issues with the Reston HOA as well when he sold... Yep, I'll live on the outskirts of Reston in Herndon all day rather than deal with that...

Wife insisted on living in Reston.  She can pay the fucking HOA dues next year.

I hear Ashburn is pretty great. 

An HOA can most definitely put a lien on a house and totally eff up a house sale.

[Sully]

Learned that in closing. HOA can put lien on house if you don't pay your dues too. And although unlikely to actually pursue it, it'll throw up red flag for Bank and they put the loan in default.

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[Evan]

Home Depot and Lowes will match paint. It sucks that they said "just use this paint code" and it didnt match, but paint fades and changes over time so its probably not unexpected.
Ive painted on top of old paint with matched paint and you couldnt even tell there was ever a fix. (They give you a % match when they mix the paint so just make sure its damn near close to 100 before you pay for it)

[WRXtranceformed]

Yeah I mean I don't see what the issue is here. Produce a document that shows that you used a paint code that was recommended by them and the invoice from the painting company. If they don't like it you can lawyer up.

[.RJ]

I've gone up the food chain at the HOA complaining already, and they're all pretty flippant about it. I guess they've been doing it for so long and no one's really called them to the carpet on it that they're entrenched. Some of the shit I heard from them is mind boggling, they stopped JUST short of saying "if you dont have $3k to repaint your house stop being poor".

Hiring a lawyer will cost less than just repainting the fucking thing.

[Apoc]

Hiring a lawyer will cost less than just repainting the fucking thing.

That's how the terrorists win.

[.RJ]

Hiring a lawyer will cost less than just repainting the fucking thing.

That's how the terrorists win.

Yeah, its true.

[D_Eclipse9916]

It’s Reston HOA. It’s hilarious to me you think you will win. At least you got to enjoy the sweet sweet equity gainZ.

[ScottyB]

*builders suck*

that's pretty awful man. sorry to hear...how do these kinds of builders exist long term? do they just build a subdivision and then go chapter 11 and move on so nobody can pursue fixes to their crappy quality forever? my parents had a similar issue with nonstop quality problems on their new house in '99 and i think the builder did exactly that - owner made a bunch of money, folded the company after people started calling them on the workmanship, then started a commercial maintenance company somewhere else in town. some real bullshit.

a mouse got in to the kitchen and shacked up in the stove when I saw him chillin on top eating my freshly baked pizza one day....

i'm sorry but the image of this is hilarious. "sup bro? you make a mean pie"

our house was built in 2008. i'm peppering my angus for a whole slew of fun in the next few years...exterior paint, interior paint, backsplash, probably the water heater, landscaping...

[Sully]

It's HHhunt. Which is (at least around here) pretty big. Think they're national too. Honestly I think most people don't catch the small stuff or even know to look for most of it or don't catch it for years. I went over the house with a friend the night before the walk through so I could take my time without someone looking over my shoulder and look for everything. And I also am pretty handy so I knew mostly what to look for. I see people posting on the neighborhood Facebook page who you can tell have no idea about anything house (or common sense) related. Like even how to tell if the microwave is venting to the outside vs inside. ie: look to see if damper opens up when vent is on or just put hand above microwave to feel if the air is blowing out the top.

We had a family of mice living in my dad's stove. Discovered them when came in the kitchen one night and one was sitting in top of a rotisserie chicken on top of the stove. I despise everything about mice in houses. We fought them for years at my dad's. Pissing and shitting in literally anything they could get in.

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[.RJ]

It’s Reston HOA. It’s hilarious to me you think you will win. At least you got to enjoy the sweet sweet equity gainZ.

I've already given up and I'll have the stuff repainted.

They really are a shitty organization, like buying that stupid fucking lake house with no oversight and then trying to subvert any investigation into it.

[Apoc]

Reston sounds awesome.

[Jake]

Reston sounds awesome.

They invented the concept of the HOA. That should explain a lot.

[.RJ]

Reston sounds awesome.

Its not without its warts, thats for sure.  Fortunately most of the small housing cluster HOA's are no fuss.  Yes, we have two.  

I am glad that RA keeps the neighborhoods from looking like shit but for fucks sake their attitude is just awful and I dont know how these people sleep at night, although the view from their ivory tower must be awful nice.

[Apoc]

Reston sounds awesome.

Its not without its warts, thats for sure.  Fortunately most of the small housing cluster HOA's are no fuss.  Yes, we have two.  

I am glad that RA keeps the neighborhoods from looking like shit but for fucks sake their attitude is just awful and I dont know how these people sleep at night, although the view from their ivory tower must be awful nice.

After dealing with the toothless HOA in Leesburg, I'm convinced they're actually only any good if they're hardcore like Reston. We have none here and we don't have any problems an HOA would fix, so it can work without them too. Have you considered not being poor? That's clearly your problem here.

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I'm sure no one is surprised, but my battery powered chainsaw (top composite photo) wouldn't hold a charge after five years. The battery is plug and play, but I realized there's a chainsaw for the EGO mower system I have while googling replacements. Home Depot had a black friday 25% off sale and the reviews were really high, so I bought the chainsaw without battery and charger. The upgrade not only got me from 18v to 56v, it also removed one charger from my garage. 

I never had any major complaints about the old chainsaw, but it did require a good bit of downward force to cut anything worth a damn. I figured it was the price to pay to have a chainsaw on hand without having to deal with gas. Well, turns out a 56v mower battery does amazing things to a chainsaw. I've had this stump in my backyard for two years - a side effect of collecting free firewood from neighbors. I did a few test cuts, said "holy shit" out loud, giggled with glee, and then realized I had to film cutting this thing. The video is at the bottom. 

The ergos are pretty good consider the size and weight of the battery. I don't think I'd want to use it for hours, but it's well balanced for cutting. The 14" bar makes a bigger difference than I thought it would. Honestly speaking, I now realized how my old one wasn't really good at all. THIS is what chainsaws are supposed to be like. If I can do my entire lawn, when wet, on one charge, I can't imagine killing the battery on this thing... unless I'm disposing of dozen of bodies or something.

Now I'm thinking I need the blower.