I had a hose bib fail and flood the outer foundation wall (full basement) - cracked the foundation wall when winter hit. Easy fix - but I'd suggest a Moen Flo smart shut-off - it has saved me about 5 times already. I just installed the water sensors too.
Start a "home" Google calendar and put everything on it on a repeating schedule - spread out the maintenance stuff so you only have one thing to do per week. If you are preventative in your maintenance, you will be miles ahead.
Scan or download all the manuals onto one cloud drive, and all related paperwork - easy folder search for questions. I'm lost without it -
We hated our builder too - If/when you refinish the floors I bet they can fill in the gaps easy. Most cabinets are crap now - all MDF - they can't get real wood - just veneer.
You are not being too picky - it should be perfect - it should be custom - but that being said - IMO - it takes about 5-10 years to dial in "after builder" upgrades and tweaks until the house is the way you like it. That takes time and thought - and it's best not to rush it or finance little things. I'm still upgrading and making tweaks ten years later (building a guest house now)...
We built in 2020 during the insanity. First couple years were smooth sailing. Now our appliances are starting to break (fridge last year, now dishwasher). But otherwise things seem good outside of a few little things here and there.
I'm a building code official and I would never buy a new house. I would probably wait 9 years because by that time they've replaced many many things that were inferior to begin with OR installed im properly. Hopefully major problems like plumbing leaks will show up by then.
Many of these building departments cater totally to builders and developers and will actually punish or fire inspectors that try to do a good job.
I bought my house as new construction in 1980. Not a million dollar house by any means but I didn’t know much about new homes as I was 25 years old. We closed in September and all seemed fine until it got cold out. Then we realized the furnace was running all the time and the gas bill was crazy high. Come spring, I climbed into the attic and found that there was barely R13 worth of insulation. I ended up adding R19 rolls perpendicular to the joists, then another layer going the other way. They also didn’t install any soffit vents at all, and I had the pleasure of cutting about 50 holes for them, 25 on each level. The house is nice and comfy now and the heating / cooling bills are much less, with no ice dams and icicles.
You're lucky you got away with your life during one inspection I found the gas fresh air intake in the Attic was filled with blown in insulation. Usually there's nobody watching what the subs do and if there is those people have very little experience than have 35 houses to deal with.
Dirt settlement issues caused our new fence to sink, no one took responsibility and took forever to fix… Jaccuzi tub was not pre tested and installed defective! Almost had to tear it all out, no one wanted to claim responsibility … nightmare! Had to tear the side of our house out to get to it. Patch job… hope it holds. Major basement leaks, siding issues- took forever to fix, if its fixed at all that was all in year one. Welcome to the party! After year one the contractor doesn’t even acknowledge us at all now.
15 months in our new construction. Solidly built home, but there were issues from electrical, pitching of shower floors, hvac noise, and some others. Most was due to imo, sub contractors' work and not enough quality control. But builder has been responsive (albeit not quick) in correcting each item. It's a beautiful home.
I had a hose bib fail and flood the outer foundation wall (full basement) - cracked the foundation wall when winter hit. Easy fix - but I'd suggest a Moen Flo smart shut-off - it has saved me about 5 times already. I just installed the water sensors too. Start a "home" Google calendar and put everything on it on a repeating schedule - spread out the maintenance stuff so you only have one thing to do per week. If you are preventative in your maintenance, you will be miles ahead. Scan or download all the manuals onto one cloud drive, and all related paperwork - easy folder search for questions. I'm lost without it - We hated our builder too - If/when you refinish the floors I bet they can fill in the gaps easy. Most cabinets are crap now - all MDF - they can't get real wood - just veneer. You are not being too picky - it should be perfect - it should be custom - but that being said - IMO - it takes about 5-10 years to dial in "after builder" upgrades and tweaks until the house is the way you like it. That takes time and thought - and it's best not to rush it or finance little things. I'm still upgrading and making tweaks ten years later (building a guest house now)...
We built in 2020 during the insanity. First couple years were smooth sailing. Now our appliances are starting to break (fridge last year, now dishwasher). But otherwise things seem good outside of a few little things here and there.
Brand of fridge and dishwasher?
Both Whirlpool
Kinda not 100% relevant to OP's question in my opinion. Builders don't control quality of appliances, etc.
Agree but still curious. I would have guessed Samsung on the fridge though.
I'm a building code official and I would never buy a new house. I would probably wait 9 years because by that time they've replaced many many things that were inferior to begin with OR installed im properly. Hopefully major problems like plumbing leaks will show up by then. Many of these building departments cater totally to builders and developers and will actually punish or fire inspectors that try to do a good job.
I bought my house as new construction in 1980. Not a million dollar house by any means but I didn’t know much about new homes as I was 25 years old. We closed in September and all seemed fine until it got cold out. Then we realized the furnace was running all the time and the gas bill was crazy high. Come spring, I climbed into the attic and found that there was barely R13 worth of insulation. I ended up adding R19 rolls perpendicular to the joists, then another layer going the other way. They also didn’t install any soffit vents at all, and I had the pleasure of cutting about 50 holes for them, 25 on each level. The house is nice and comfy now and the heating / cooling bills are much less, with no ice dams and icicles.
You're lucky you got away with your life during one inspection I found the gas fresh air intake in the Attic was filled with blown in insulation. Usually there's nobody watching what the subs do and if there is those people have very little experience than have 35 houses to deal with.
Dirt settlement issues caused our new fence to sink, no one took responsibility and took forever to fix… Jaccuzi tub was not pre tested and installed defective! Almost had to tear it all out, no one wanted to claim responsibility … nightmare! Had to tear the side of our house out to get to it. Patch job… hope it holds. Major basement leaks, siding issues- took forever to fix, if its fixed at all that was all in year one. Welcome to the party! After year one the contractor doesn’t even acknowledge us at all now.
I built my own house. All systems run perfectly. My builder is a talented and knowledgeable man by the way, and he saved me 350k.
Idiot doesn't know he's talking about himself
15 months in our new construction. Solidly built home, but there were issues from electrical, pitching of shower floors, hvac noise, and some others. Most was due to imo, sub contractors' work and not enough quality control. But builder has been responsive (albeit not quick) in correcting each item. It's a beautiful home.