Broken Wrist - Short Update

Upon a great suggestion that I should keep going with the blog for first house problems (and sometimes victories) I will be doing more updates very soon and continue.  First, I must find someone I can dictate to because I type much slower recently.  Tip of the day: don't fall off a horse as you could break your wrist yup yup.

Innovations by Jayman ... I'm Here! Happy Holidays!

Just thought I'd make one more mention.  I'm the 4th hit on Google if you Google Jayman Blog!!  I didn't try any other combinations so I don't know.

The real reason for the second post is to with everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, etc.  Whatever your celebration, hopefully it will be fun filled and full of people you care about!!

All Weather Windows & Jayman = Bad Combination

So I realize I have not posted any updates in awhile on the house.  So if my memory stands I will cover what I think I have not covered already.

So as I said before we had a three inch gap in our windows letting air in in winter.  After Jayman didn't believe us after the first inspection and finally agreed that there was, indeed, a problem on the second inspection they called All Weather Windows.  So a month and a bit after they put the work order in we had them come over to install it.  They measured it wrong.  So they had to come in again and we had more than just a few more sleeps with our gusty window.  Although the new guy that came to the house to meet us from Jayman was extremely competent (I wonder if he got lost in his career and accidentally ended up there not knowing the kind of company he was going to work for...yes, very biased statement).  Anyhow, All Weather Windows came by again and fixed the window and know what the installer had the nerve to tell me?  He told me that: "You should have called sooner because it's winter now".  I seriously wanted to punch him in the face (for record, I didn't and I would never do that but it didn't stop the thought from entering my mind).  Instead of assaulting his face I calmly explained to him that we started trying to show Jayman that there was something wrong with the window mid summer and that they didn't believe us and then the slow turnaround on customer service with both Jayman and All Weather Windows.

I think that everything is now fixed in our house...for now.  Maybe next post I will give a out of five rating on everything that I can think of.  Not including the peeling of the paint around our doors/windows that they said they will be doing in the Spring.

Recap of what went wrong:
- 3 inch hole in window that took 5 months to fix
- Garage pad was poured wrong (3 months to fix)
- Our island didn't have electricity
- Our loft's balcony leaked (stained the carpet as well)
- Missing 3/5 items on our clean air upgrade
- Installed wrong wires for our clean air upgrade
- Installed wrong wire to garage pad electrical
- Sod was laid lazy (big hole...i'm sure it will grow in as time goes by)
- Hunter Douglas blinds broke 2 months after getting them (fixed really fast by Hunter Douglas rep)
- Master Bathroom taps hot/cold were switched so the cold was hot and the hot was cold
- No central vacuum outlet installed in finished basement (installed ourselves)
- elbow (tubes) just behind central vacuum outlet on the main floor wasn't installed properly (combination of glue and screws) and fell about three inches down into the wall (fixed ourselves)
- peeling of paint around the front door and master bedroom window as well as the baseboard like object that surrounds the window seems to be detaching itself.

Potential wrong: our sod might die as they installed it two days before it snowed pretty bad (after fighting with them to get our landscaping done before winter.  Well, I guess technically they got it done before it snowed so kudos I guess.

Note: when they tell you that all floors are 9 feet they aren't on an Outlook.  The main floor is nine, the rest are 8, minus the basement which we thought about making it taller but they said that it would be the same height as the rest of the house (8) but what they don't tell you is due to the pipes and vents half of the main walking area of the basement is seven feet only (we have VERY tall people in our family).

Jayman Innovation Masterbuilt Blog Review Builder

I have amazing news for me, any future buyers, and anyone else that has had bad service by Jayman!!!

I am officially on the second page of Google even with just the words "Jayman Blog".

Yes, my title is to just give it that extra kick for having Google be able to find it.

Mua ha ha ha <---- Evil happy laugh!!

Oh aaaand......

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

Here's the pumpkin I made for tonight!!

Witch Putting Lizard Into Cauldron.

Jayman Innovations Really Means Dolts R Us

Progress:

So after harassing Jayman to do their job (apparently that's the only way to the job done) we finally got our front landscaping done October 16, 2012.  We had enough time to water it twice before it snowed and it hasn't gotten any warmer since.  We are quite worried about the time frame and if it will have had enough time to have properly taken root.

"Turf largely avoids these problems, and with proper care, newly laid sod is usually fully functional within 30 days of installation and its root system is comparable to that of a seeding lawn two or three years older." - Wikipedia

That being said, two days if far from enough time for our lawn to be properly installed and that isn't including that they didn't install it properly and we have a large gap because they didn't lay them quite side by side.  I don't understand why Jayman can't do things right the first time or on time.  Jayman this year won the lottery for being the first company to have access to the dirt and sod (the developer has a lottery for all builders and if your second or third in the "win" then you don't get the material to do landscaping until later) so there isn't any reason why they waited until two days before it snowed.

So a week before our sod was installed I had a meeting with the warranty manager to show him what has not been done.  Again, I was pretty much told I was crazy for our master bedroom being drafty (remember how I said we upgraded to triple pane windows but we have a draft like we have single pane 25 year old windows).  Well I showed him (I didn't know exactly where it was coming through so we almost missed it) but our master bedroom windows weren't installed properly and the window is bowed and has a couple inch gap once you take out the screen.  Well All Weather Windows just called me yesterday saying they JUST got the work ticket even though the meeting was almost three weeks ago.  I have to wait until November 19th but then they were like "well, I guess you'd want it sooner so we could do a rush".  Rush means apparently that no set date potentially and that they will call me 30 minutes before they are going to be there and at any given time I have to leave work (which is 25 minutes away) to meet them.  More than a month to wait in winter (yes, in Alberta right now it is winter; -9 and we have snow and it's only going to get much much colder) for the very large draft in the master bedroom.  It's ironic in a way because we upgraded our windows so our house would be more efficient and we would save on utilities...well, this winter we're getting the opposite.  Maybe i'll laugh about this five years down the road.

After 1.5 years of me telling Jayman to only call me and not my partner they still call him everytime.  Everytime I deal with them I remind them not to call him as at any given time he could be in meetings or with a partner but every single time they call him.  I don't understand how an established company can be so idiotic.  If you have children (even very young ones) how many times would you have to tell them something similiar: once? twice?  Our children aren't slow and so you'd expect that they could function better than a four year old.

So after a rage filled email to get things done (they seem to only ever respond and do their job after I do this which that's another thing I don't understand.  Shouldn't it be the opposite?  Respond to nice emails?  Well they seem to disregard those ones) we have FINALLY got our trenching done for the electrical cord going to our garage pad that they had to redo because they put the wrong wire in it (I have not been able to plug my car in because of this...well, that's a lie, I've had to put a really long orange extension cord running from the house to my car to plug it in).  So now i'm waiting on them to finish installing the wires so that the plug in for the pad is usable.  Hopefully that happens sooner than later.

So after meeting with Jayman I was suppose to have the electrician call me the next day to set a date as to when he'd come by and fix our island in the kitchen (it doesn't have any electricity running or working on it).  It's almost been three weeks and he's never set a date with us and he didn't even call us until two weeks later.  I had someone call me while I was out of town and I was sure it was the electrician that set up the appointment today but when he called (a week after the other call) he didn't know what I was talking about.  I don't know how it worked out but another electrician came by today (separate companies) to look at the island.  So going by the history of this blog and how Jayman works, what do YOU think happened?  Well, they couldn't fix it (and that's not because they were incompetent).  So not only did the other electrician not even wire the cords to the "easy box" the cord isn't even right behind it and since we have a finished basement it's not an easy fix.  There is a working cord running to the breaker but it's too far down so they have to get someone else in the take apart the island.  What does Jayman do with this information?  They tell me that the original electrician is going to try to come by today at "some time" to tell me exactly the same thing that the first one told me.  One: why do I want the electrician that couldn't even wire the easy box to come in if his work is that shoddy?  Two: why do I want to waste my time and have someone tell me for a second time the problem?

Jayman running their business like they are isn't doing them any favours at all.  I know for a fact i'm not an outlier in having this type of service as I've read other blogs and heard from other people.  The more people they give bad service to and don't do things right in the first place the more bad word gets around and that is death to companies.  Granted bigger ones it takes quite a bit longer but still, it's not good for business.

The last problem I have at the moment is the paint is flaking off around the front door, the front closet, and the master bedroom.  That I assume is an easy fix so we shall wait and see what happens toward the springtime as that is when they recommended it be fixed (winter will dry everything out).

The "Lamp" Picture

Progress:

So after two months of fighting about the concrete being poured extremely poorly (well it's not really fighting as they just didn't get back to me).  I was fed up after trying to get them to answer and I filed an official compliant with the Better Business Bureau and the very next day I get an email saying that they will replace my apron.  Funny how that works.  I did also contact the people Jayman "said" they were going to contact which is the Alberta Ready Mixed Concrete Association (ARMCA).  It also helped that I work next to engineers who deal with concrete in every kind of way from overpasses, highways, sidewalks, curbs, etc.

Did I already say my Hunter Douglas blind cord snapped?  Well, it did but I am bringing it in on Monday to have it fixed which shouldn't be too big of an issue.

NOTE: If you are building with Jayman watch out for where your oven is in correlation to your fire alarm.  Mine is under my alarm and so I have to make sure all windows are open and the fan is on and that isn't even when you burn something.  I don't know if you can make them on opposite sides but if you can, definitely try because it makes things a little bit harder.

And to my lovely co-worker; here are the pictures I promised you (sorry for them being a bit late):

The far right corner is where the lamp will be going.

Better view of the type of living room we have.  Phantom is laying underneath the table staring at me.

Not Much Progress Really

Progress:

So just to give an update on where our house is at.  We have waited for a very long time for Jayman to get back to us regarding our concrete pad but either they have conveniently forgotten or they couldn't find an engineer that would sign their name to their incorrect pour.

Sadly, we have also found out the backsplash in the master bedroom is crooked ever so slightly (doesn't matter too much I guess though as I don't know how you would fix that so it's just easier to not bring that one up to them aside from maybe letting them know so they can maybe be careful with that in the future, who knows).

Odd thing: our light switches are slightly crooked too.  Not the outside but the part that you press (again not something that I will bring up and that one might even be from the manufacturer itself).

Oh! Our Hunter Douglas blinds broke, yup yup.  The cord that you would open the blinds snapped in our kitchen.  Many of our blinds seem to have this weak point on the cord (not one that should be there).  Will let this know how it all goes down.

Our neighbours aren't having much luck with their builders either (their paid for garage pad that's suppose to have been up a month ago hasn't been because their builder hasn't poured the "curb" for the pad).  Among other things of course.

Ooooh and we're missing a part of our concrete walkway (so we get a moat when it rains) but I don't know what is happening with that though.