Negative Normans

I try to be a Positive Peter or an Optimistic Oswald. But I'm getting pretty tired of Negative Normans. This weekend we went to walk through the house with Ian's parents. Afterwards, a woman walked by that Ian's mom knew. She basically went on to say how she's had all kinds of problems with our builder and, to quote her, "had to completely renovate the house". This statement was pretty shocking to us seeing as it is a brand new house. She went on to explain a few problems. Doors needed to be repainted. The hardwood has a few white spaces you can see. Nails have popped. Not exactly what I would call a "complete renovation".

I honestly wanted to explode on her. Her house was built during the winter time. It was also one of the first houses to go up. It's not going to be perfect and frankly lady, you're not paying the right price to deliver perfection. So what that the doors needed to be repainted? They did it, and I'm sure they look good. The hardwood... that's because it was installed in the winter time and it's shrinking and expanding. I'm sure they will get it fixed. And the nails popping... it's in our contract that those will happen and the builder will fix them. No big deal.

I realize that there are Builders From Hell in this world. Our builder isn't one of them. I'm tired of the people who believe that everyone is out to get them! The woman was convinced that these little problems were just another sign that the builder was trying to screw her over. It's a bunch of bull. She was stating these things like we should be seriously concerned about this beautiful house we are building. It was overly dramatic and unnecessary.

This isn't to say that our building process has been smooth sailing. We have our fair share of issues. Currently, it's our main bath that things seem to go wrong. The tile is in and the hole for the heating vent cut - it's about 1 inch from the toilet flange. It's obviously a mistake and the builder is aware they need to fix it before a toilet can be installed. The hydro was turned on this week and lighting fixtures installed. My electrician in the sky was off drinking a Long Island and didn't slap the guy working on our house... He clearly messed up the wiring to the fixture in the main bath because no switch controls it - it was on all weekend! They installed the wrong doors to the office. The right doors were delivered within a couple days. All of these issues are minor and will be fixed before we move in.

The difference between that woman and us is that we expect problems. We're paying a builder that is creating a development. It's not a custom home builder that only works on a single house at a time. I think it's better to be realistic than a Negative Nancy. Anyway, here is a picture of my awesome nephews that I get to see in 2 weeks!!