Day 68-178 - Our house is Finished! Our build with Simplicity Homes

(What our build looked like in late October)

After all the issues we had with Simplicity in the beginning I stopped blogging about the process in detail (also it was the holidays and well... family). 1. I was getting depressed due to our family being uprooted and NOTHING going right, we just couldn't catch a break. and 2. When we heard we would not be able to move until February we decided that we were going to find a short term rental and we moved the next weekend and it all was a blur after that. Sooo I'll recap for you.

Once we got our new project manager, honestly everything was pretty smooth sailing. We did have to argue a bit about things we added as electrical upgrades that they didn't have record of on their end... but in the end we showed the contract and they did what we wanted. I would strongly recommend going to the house every day and making sure things are going as planned. They even framed a door wrong that they wouldn't have caught on their side till who knows when, and it was an easier fix at that stage than if it would've had electrical running or have been sheet rocked in. I did notice the things we added at our pre construction meeting as our last minute thoughts and additions were the thing they were messing up with the most... almost as if they had the plans printed and ready and didn't reprint after we added upgrades, they also framed in for a screen door and we had added French doors at the last meeting. So if you add changes at the preconstruction meeting, which is pretty common, make sure to double check those things specifically are being done correctly.

(Our build in November)

I do have some thoughts now that we were actually just the unlucky ones. Something happened at the beginning of our build that slowwwed us down. I am not sure that our experience with simplicity is the norm. I do know they didn't take responsibility for whatever happened on their end and that still to this day just rubs me wrong, but hey, things happen.

(What our build looked like in December)

We ended up getting into our house on February 6, 2018, 173 days after our pre construction meeting on August 17, and we would've gotten in probably around 1-2 weeks prior if our kitchen hadn't flooded. You know that saying "when it rains it pours" yep, that was our whole build experience... literally. When they install the bath tubs and/or showers they plug the drains and fill them with a few inches of water to check that they aren't leaking. Well ours had standing water in it with the drain plugged and somehow the faucet had been left on, all night. The weird thing about this is that we had been there the night it happened around 4 PM after all the contractors left and we did not notice any running water or that anything was left on, but sure enough we got a devastating call the next morning. Its still a mystery how it happened and I don't think we will ever really know. But it ended up flooding our master bathroom and leaching down to the downstairs kitchen and ruined sheetrock. Mind you we were literally almost done with the build all we had left were mirrors and light fixtures... but it happened and while I was devastated and assumed this would put us back months it really only set us back 1-2 weeks. They let it dry out for a week and then they literally went to work like mad men and got it done so quick (wish the whole house went like that ;)) We were told that our Project Manager wasn't sure if we would owe money or how it would work... which stressed me out but it ended up we never heard anything about extra money for the repairs or anything. They do have builders insurance for this but I don't think they ended up even making a claim because the damage really wasn't all that bad. We had tile upstairs that saved us and we chose Vinyl Plank flooring for the whole downstairs because our kids are CONSTANTLY spilling water from cups and it took all the water like a champ and not one piece needed replaced!

    (our build January)

                                                 (the water damage 😐😑)

You can see the finished product and how we think the house as a whole turned out and my opinion on which upgrades are worth it and what I wish I would've thought about on these blog posts:

(coming soon)

By -K-