Our Builder and Why We Didn't Like Them

Once upon a time, back in the 1990’s, we built a house in Missouri. We had things go wrong and had problems with our builder. We loved the house, but the process itself, not so much.

When we started thinking about moving to Minnesota the idea of building a house again came up. We thought we had learned so much last time, we knew how to avoid the mistakes that were made.

Once we found our lot we had to find a builder. We interviewed a lot of different people. There were a couple of problems. First of all, building in Minnesota is EXPENSIVE, way more expensive than we expected. Secondly Lee wanted to do a lot of the work himself and a lot of builders didn’t want anything to do with that. 

One of the contractors we thought of using were the company that did Sarah and Erik’s master bath and bedroom reno. They had done very nice finish work, AND they had seen Lee’s work, so they were willing to work with him. But they were really expensive. 

We hemmed and hawed about using A Squared, but finally decided they would be worth it. Attention to detail, quality work. Or so we thought.

Lets just say things went wrong. Now nobody builds a house without having things go wrong, but we had A LOT of things go haywire. and it wasn’t just that we had problems. Nope, for the most part they eventually made things right, as much as they could. But  they never apologized, never admitted they had screwed up. It was always someone else’s fault, there was always a new excuse. That got pretty old after awhile.

Here is a list of the most grievous errors that were made:

1. The slab was not square. This was just stupid. The concrete subs didn’t use metal forms, they used wood forms and the lines and angles shifted. They had to fix this.
2. The slab insulation wasn’t done properly. Metal flashing was used to protect the rigid foam insulation that goes around the outside of the slab and holds it in place. That’s okay, but ours sticks out beyond the edge of the foundation and it should not.
3. The trusses in the great room were modified by the truss company without checking back with A2 or the engineers.  They made them 1 foot higher than the design.  That cascaded into other modifications to the rest of the house to tie into the great room properly.  They also had errors on the trusses over the garage including some that were an incorrect slope. The framers had to scab on lumber to correct the slope. Eventually it was fixed, but what they did actually changed the look of the front of the house. We’re the only ones that will ever know, but. What’s even worse, when they discovered the mistake the builder told the framers to NOT TELL LEE. This infuriates me every time I think about it. WE ARE THE OWNERS. My husband is one smart cookie AND an engineer. He had already noticed that something wasn’t right. It wasn’t the sort of thing you could hide from him.
4. The framers framed the entry closet and pantry wrong initially. Thank God Lee found this one before the drywall went up because if it hadn’t been corrected the credenza would not have fit.
5. The insulation company missed spots. They were supposed to use foam insulation everywhere except for the flat part of the great room roof, but they used blown insulation in the sloped part of the great room roof as well. Their carelessness caused two problems. First, we had a massive ice dam during the winter. We had to argue with the builder about going into the attic space and finding the problem and fixing it. At first the builder actually sent Lee pictures of old houses with ice dams and told him it was a cold winter and not to worry! Uh no, that didn’t cut it. Secondly, they should have done a blower test after the insulation was in and before the drywall was put up, but they didn’t. It would have saved them a lot of grief when it came time to pass the blower test. 
6. The drywall subs made a huge mess, of course. That’s to be expected, but they did a CRUMMY job of cleaning it up, damaged the windows as they put it up, got drywall dust into the window mechanisms. This makes me sad every time I think about it. I love our windows; they are one of my favorite parts of the house, and to see them be less than they should be is just not right. 
7. God knows what the HVAC guys were doing, but their initial installation in the mechanical room was a huge mess. This really irked Lee. They eventually fixed it, but they kept having to punch holes in the wall to do so, again, and again, and again.

So I have some advice for any contractors or would be contractors reading this. First of all, you need to supervise the work being done in your name. That doesn’t mean showing up, telling the subs what to do and leaving for the day. That means checking their work every step of the way. If you have to leave you need to come back that day and see how things are going. You are the one that is responsible. It’s your company and your work. If a sub makes a mistake it’s on your head.

Secondly, if a mistake is made own up! It’s so much better when you admit to a mistake than if you try to hide it. Building a house is a complex business and mistakes are going to happen. Admit it, make it right, and move on.

Third, please oh please, keep your construction site clean and tidy. Pick up your trash and scraps every day. Don’t let gravel and rock and miscellaneous building materials lie scattered all over the lot. Please.

Finally, is your supervisor in charge of the building site, or not? How much responsibility does he truly have? Is he authorized to make decisions on his own, or does he need to check with you before making a decision? This needs to be clearly spelled out. While Andrew, the owner of A Squared, was on vacation, we realized we had a problem with the slope of the land next to the house on the east side. The in-ground guttering system has a 5 foot wide and 2 feet deep perimeter around the house. The land next to the house falls away steeply on the east side and the guttering system needed to be supported. Lee and the supervisor decided that a retaining wall on that side would be the best way to accomplish that. But when Andrew came back he didn’t like that decision and he would NOT let it rest. For the rest of the build he would always manage to bring it up and complain about the money that it cost him. We tried over and over to tell him that Nick, the supervisor, had given his okay, but that was never enough. 

We think A Squared misrepresented themselves. We think they haven’t built nearly as many houses as they said they had, never a house as complex as ours, and never a slab on grade house. It just was very disappointing. I don’t like bad-mouthing anyone, but in this case I feel an obligation to be honest about our experience with them. They did a great job on Sarah and Erik’s renovation, but our experience was quite different. I would not recommend them if you’re looking for someone to build you a custom home in Minneapolis.

House Update - June

The Front Door, and a Couple of Tomato Plants!

We’re in!

We moved out of the rental in Waconia at the end of May, and moved into the RV. We thought (or hoped anyway) that we would only be in the RV for a week to 10 days, but it didn’t quite work out that way. Yes Lee needed to finish the siding outside and the stair rail inside, but there was another wrinkle in our plan. We had to pass the “blower test”. (link) I’ve mentioned this test before…when our builder failed the test for the second time in May they tried talking to the inspectors and seeing if they would let us slide….of course not. As we soon found out, this wasn’t just Shorewood being picky. This was Minnesota building CODE. It wouldn’t stop us from moving in, but it HAD to be fixed, and we wanted them to fix it before we moved in. Living in clouds of drywall dust is no fun!

So they went back to scratching their heads. They tried tearing out all the drywall in-between the house and the garage and putting foam insulation in there. It made things better, but not better enough. Finally we’d had enough. I started searching online to see what kind of consumer advocacy there was in Minnesota. I ended up talking to someone at the Minnesota Board of Labor Enforcement. We found out what we would have to do if we ended up having to file a complaint, but really didn’t want to go that route. The person I talked to placed a phone call to our builder for us instead.

The next day they had everyone and God out at the house to try to figure out what else we needed to do to pass the test. They finally found another leak, in an area in the attic close to where we had had discovered a different leak that caused ice dams to form last winter. Go figure! They blocked that leak and we passed the test. Thank God.

For most of the month of June our routine was as follows: wake up in the RV at the Jordon, Minnesota KOA, around 20 minutes from the house. Lee would walk the dogs and then take off for the house. I would go for a run (in circles around the KOA campground, which got pretty old) and then head to the house as well. I spent my time unpacking, cleaning, watching the dogs, while Lee finished siding and focused on anything that needed to be finished so we could live here in relative comfort. Around 4 or 5 we’d head back to the RV for the night. Then the next morning we’d wake up and do it again.

Last Thursday we had our occupancy inspection. Lee was worried about the siding, but the inspector didn’t say a word about it (really it looks wonderful). The inspector measured various things like the stair risers to make sure they were up to code. He criticized the safety release mechanism on one of the windows. He admonished us for moving our furniture in before we had occupancy (too bad!). But we passed. We spent our first night here on Saturday, June  22nd, our 39th anniversary. Yay!!

The Stairs and the Stair Rail

Lee is really making time now. Every day more interior doors go up, more window trim, more baseboards. Yesterday the door to the pantry and to the powder room suddenly appeared. Its astonishing how much more finished a room looks with doors and trim!

The outdoors is bugging me, but there’s nothing to be done, I just have to be patient. Its a jungle out there, though! The concrete for the driveway, the front walk, and the screened porch go in sometime in the first week of July. The screened porch will be built sometime in July as well. Both of those things have to be done before we close on the mortgage. As soon as the porch is done we can make a little yard for the dogs with sod and a temporary fence. The landscaper can’t get to us until the beginning of September, so the rest of the yard will remain a wilderness until then.

Its a Jungle Out There, Unfortunately

We are very happy with the house. Its not perfect, but there are a lot of nice things about it. We took the best of what we liked about the house in New Hampshire and brought those things to this house. Its bright, its quiet (even though one side faces a busy street), most of it is on one level. Its near a very nice park, a cute little town, a beautiful rail trail, a bunch of lakes. And its close to Leo and family.

I have another blog post to write, an evaluation of what it was like to work with the builder we chose. Its not going to be much fun to write, but it needs to be done. Stay tuned!

Addendum, July 7th. This blog post has been sitting around, and while it sat around even more wonderful things have happened to the house. We have some flooring upstairs, and will have even more in the coming weeks.

My Future Workout / Crafts Room

The lintels, which are the pieces of wood that go above the doors and windows, have all been installed downstairs. Lee did them in a little factory setup so we went from almost none to done in a day! They are beautiful. We took one day and hung some pictures in the great room. That got rid of some clutter, and made this room look more finished. But since flooring is going in upstairs my computer and printer are sitting on the dining room table. Oh well! 

The butcher block counter tops for the shelf in the pantry and for the credenza have been installed.

Credenza Countertop

Yesterday I reorganized the pantry to take advantage of the extra shelf. And Lee bought us a wine refrigerator too!

Pantry Countertop and Wine Fridge!

Today he has been working on the mud room. A bunch of hooks for coats and stuff have appeared, and the storage bench is almost finished. All of a sudden that room is a LOT bigger.

Storage Bench

A Place to Hang Stuff!

Still no concrete, sigh. It won’t stop raining long enough to dry out enough to do it. Maybe next week? Fingers crossed!

House Update - May

We are so close to being able to move in, and at the same time, there is still so much left to do to get our occupancy permit that it seems pretty daunting. We'll get there, I know we will, its just a matter of keeping at it.

Since I last sent you all an update so much has been accomplished. The kitchen is complete, except for the knobs and drawer pulls; they are next on my list.

Do you like the mix of colors? We do! White cabinets with black soapstone countertops along the wall. The island has grey cabinets with a white granite countertop. The credenza is a dark blue. The top of the credenza will be wood.

The HVAC is done and the fancy thermostats are installed.

I have to learn how to program them, but it will be very nice to have thermostats that can be on a schedule and changed remotely.

The plumbing is done; we have water, both hot and cold; toilets, including the one with the fancy seat in our bathroom; a water softener, and an arsenic removal system. Yes, arsenic is apparently a problem in this part of the midwest. We had to get our well tested, and although the levels are very low they are slightly above the recommended level, so better safe than sorry.

The toilet has a nightlight! 

The electrician has completed his work, mostly. The lights are all installed, but we're having an intermittent problem with breakers tripping. We can't get them to trip consistently so its hard to say what's causing it. Lee says it has something to do with the new requirement that all plugs have ground faults and wires arcing, or something like that.

I love the lights in the kitchen, and the dining room chandelier. This is the first time since the house we built in Missouri where we got to pick out all the lighting ourselves. I like the lights in our bathroom, but they're a little smaller than I would like, and they're not going to be bright enough for putting on makeup. I guess I'm going to have to invest in a lighted makeup mirror. I've wanted one forever anyway.

Bathroom Lights

Kitchen Lights

Chandelier

The light over the entryway is so cool, but the chain that came with it isn't long enough, so we have to fix that. Then it will hang below the timber beam in the front of the house but then we'll have another problem because it if is really windy it might start swaying and hit something. So Lee will rig up something to keep it from swaying; he'll figure it out!

Entryway Light Sitting in the Garage Until We Figure Out the Chain

We have ceiling fans in virtually every room; that's something I've really missed. We just bought inexpensive ones from Home Depot, but they look really nice! I especially like the one in the master bedroom for some reason.

So what is left? The siding is almost finished! Lee is doing the upper part of the first floor now; it takes scaffolding to do it; but a nice neighbor lent him some. The siding itself is going fast, but he still has to caulk and paint the trim; that's taking longer than he would like.

The stairs have to be completed, he's working on them as I type. They should be finished in another couple of days. Then we need interior doors, and baseboards, and the flooring in the master bedroom, and the shower tile in the master bath isn't quite finished. Mirrors. Bits of woodworking here and there. The shelves for the pantry, linen closet and the entry closet.


Most of the inspections have gone ok, but Shorewood requires a "blow test" to insure that the house is insulated properly, and we've got a problem. We've failed the test twice now. We thought the main problem was with the fireplace, but they pulled it and put a bunch of foam insulation around it and that wasn't enough. One of the INTERIOR walls is cold, which means that air is getting into it somewhere. The problem is, they can't figure out where, and they probably won't be able to without tearing into the drywall. So, they are going back to the inspectors, and hoping that they will allow us to skip this test. I don't have a lot of hope for that however. Shorewood is notorious for being super-picky.

Although its not a requirement for an occupancy permit, we want (and need) a finished pantry and closet or two before we start living in the house. Lee decided that I was perfectly capable of installing the Elfa closet in our bedroom. At first I was apprehensive, but then he said "oh its just like putting together Legos!" and then I was in. He did the basic tracks, which require a drill, but I did the rest. It was fun, and very satisfying, and came out pretty good, if I do say so myself!

So, the movers come on the 27th, and that night we will move into the RV at the KOA in Jordon, where we first stayed when we moved here a year ago. We'll finish moving out of the rental, get it cleaned up, and do the rest of the stuff we need to move into the house, hopefully by June 9th. It won't be "finished", not by a long shot, but it will be well on its way to becoming "home".

Wish us luck!

House Building Update March 2019

Well through these cold winter months we've made lots of progress inside. The interior painting is complete, both upstairs and down. Lee cut in along the ceilings and I did the rest, except for a few places in the stairwell that required scaffolding to reach; Lee did those. It was fun, in a strange way. I liked being useful, and I was pleased with out it turned out. You can see the light yellow color in the greatroom below. The bedrooms are a light grey.

 Lee has laid all the tile flooring downstairs, except in the master bath, because we didn't have all the materials for in there until recently. He did a beautiful job!

Then he did the interior window trim. I love it; it turned out great.

Then he started on the bamboo flooring. This was new territory for Lee; he'd never done such a large area of wood flooring before, and never directly on a concrete slab. But it has gone very well and looks great.

Here's a closeup of the bamboo

Here you can see the trim work around the tile in the entryway

Progressing right across the greatroom!

And down the hall!

The greatroom flooring is almost finished. Downstairs he has to do the master bedroom, and the stairs, and then that's it for flooring downstairs. He won't do the flooring upstairs until after we move in.

He has started installing the kitchen cabinets. He's getting all of them in place over the next couple of days because on Monday they are coming to measure for the sinks and countertops! After that it will be another 2-3 weeks before they are delivered and installed.

All the materials for the master bath are finally in so he's been working on that too. This is the heating system for the floor! We'll have a heated floor in our bathroom!

And every once in a while it warmed up enough so that the work on the siding could continue. All the gable ends and dormers are complete now, so its just the lower part that needs to be finished. There's still a lot to do but he'll get it done.

House Building Update January 2019

The Siding is Complete on the Front, except for the Entry

No we’re not finished, but progress is being made, bit by bit. The framers are finished, the HVAC, plumbing, and electric work are complete, the walls are insulated and the drywall is up. The drywall guys are sanding as I type and when they are finished we can start to paint the interior.

Looking at the Greatroom from the future kitchen

Lee is putting up the siding outside. Its a huge job. He’s been worried about it ever since he decided to do it. Its saving us a bundle of money, so its worth it, but I’m afraid he’s had a lot of sleepless nights over it.

He’s learned so much in the process. We are putting up something called Hardieplank. “A combination of cellulose fibers and cementitious materials, HardiePlank is fiber-cement siding that comes in long, horizontal strips, just like wood lap siding.” It looks beautiful, but its kind of fragile. I’ve been involved in some of the process of putting it up. First you put up this piece of metal at the bottom of the row of siding. Then you put up a half size row so that the first row of siding will stick out properly, then a full row. That’s the part I’ve helped with; the first part takes two people, then he can do the rest on his own, until its above his head. For that part he’s hired a helper. 

Just a few days ago

Then there are the Hardieplank shingles that go on the gable ends. This was the part that was really worrying him. Its high up, and there’s a lot of cutting. The lead framer has ended up helping him, thank God. He’s got the scaffolding, and the expertise too. Its a load off my mind, because the framer and his helper are the ones up on the scaffolding and Lee is below, cutting the shingles to size, etc. I didn’t want my husband dying on the job! Yes its costing us some money but its worth it.

Very Glad that's not Lee up there!

They have made a lot of progress, but there is still a fair amount left to do. For one thing they need weather breaks to work outside in Minnesota. Below about 20F Lee’s hands don’t function well, his feet get cold, and its just really hard to work. 

Lee is also doing all the exterior trim. (He'll do the interior trim too, but that comes later). I've also helped him put up the board that goes along the bottom of the siding, and the corner boards too. I mainly stand there, try to keep the shims in place and hold things straight as he nails it in place. He's done the trim around all the windows too.

I’m eager, and a little apprehensive, about painting. I’ve certainly done a lot of painting in my life! Lee knows better than to have me do any of the edging, but I can handle a roller just fine. But before we get to that point the windows have to be masked and covered with plastic. I get to do that part, so that’s the first thing I’m worried about. I hope I can manage those sheets of plastic okay! Then the drywall has to be primed. Lee will do this with a spray painting contraption, and my job will be to follow after him with a roller and smooth things out. But this will be a giant roller on an extension pole, so again, I hope I can manage it okay. We shall see!

House Building Update October 2018

Well a lot has happened since I last reported on our house building progress. For one thing, there is actually a HOUSE sitting on a SLAB! The house is in the process of being framed. Its fun to watch. Every couple of days I go by the lot and see what has transpired. Yesterday they put in the stairway to the bonus room above the garage. I was having trouble envisioning it but as soon as they created it I was like "of course, now I get it!".

The slab was kind of a nightmare but now it done and its fine. I won't name names, but the company that did the slab really screwed up. We think maybe because subs are so busy, or maybe because they thought "hey its just a slab no biggie" they sent us their "B" crew and they made a lot of mistakes, like not getting the slab square! Some of it they corrected, and some of it WILL be corrected. We're getting a concrete driveway out of it at cost so there was a little bit of something positive that came out of it, I guess.

Once the slab was done the framers went to work. They have been great. They are very accomplished and seem to really know their stuff. One thing that's very different about building a house now as opposed to back in the 90's is that a lot of it is done with trusses. All the floors, the roof, its all truss work. Again, the framers found some errors in the trusses too. If a truss is wrong they have to send a different one since they are all prebuilt. Too bad for them!

Trusses that Make Up the Ceiling in the Greatroom

While the slab was being created and the house was being framed, Lee built his garden shed. Its adorable; a miniature house. It was good practice for him, too, figuring out the best way to do the trim work. He's got a lot of trim to put on the actual house when the time comes. We used a couple of windows from the old farmhouse in the shed as well. It looks great.

The excavation guy has come, dumped a bunch of dirt around the house, dug the ditches for the in-ground gutter system. Once the dirt came we realized that we had a problem. The house sits pretty high above the surrounding ground on the north and west sides. The slab has to be mostly covered by dirt, to keep it insulated. There really isn't room to allow the dirt to gently slope away from the house on those sides, so we're ending up with a retaining wall. Lee is out there today with some guys he hired to do the heavy lifting. Its going to look pretty good, I think, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do about plantings in those areas.

A Layer of Pipes, a Layer of Gravel....

A week or two ago the excavation equipment arrived at the lot. The asbestos was abated, and then the old house was torn down. I’m glad I saved what plants I could, because dirt moving equipment has removed most of the vegetation. We have saved a couple of trees, and a large flower bed in what will eventually be the front yard, but that's about it.

Now there are stakes in the ground that delineate our future home, large pieces of gravel dumped where the driveway will one day be, ditches are dug with pipes leading to wells and sewers, and today, pea gravel is being spread where the concrete pad will soon reside.

Its very different building a house without a basement. All the plumbing and stuff like that has to go under the slab, and the slab has to be insulated, otherwise in a cold climate like this our house would soon be heaving up and down as the ground around us freezes and thaws.

Looking at the outline of the house right now it looks really small to me, but that's just an illusion. Once the framing starts it will seem large enough I’m sure.

We are already behind schedule, but I’m not surprised. There are always the unexpected when you build a house. in our case it took much longer to get our building permit than we thought it would. And oh by the way, you need a tree preservation and replacement plan! And your front porch is one foot wider than what is allowed! And on and on....

Its kind of nice to see equipment moving around on the lot today. It makes it seem like something is happening. That's a strange thing about house building. It mostly consists of sudden frenetic activity, and then periods of….nothing. I like the active parts! The other parts, not so much.

The Front Flower Bed I Saved

So Many Flowers

As most of you know, we are building a house. Well, we WILL be building a house, once all the preliminary activities are out of the way, and we've gotten over the sticker shock of building in this area of Minnesota.

We built a house once before, but it was a long time ago, out in country, in Missouri. We really had no idea what we were doing and made mistakes that in retrospect should have been obvious. So this time we're doing a lot of planning ahead. We're getting bids and pricing things in advance; we're encouraging our contractor to find savings wherever possible.

One thing we didn't plan for, however, is Shorewood, MN. Apparently Shorewood is somewhat notorious for being a difficult place to build. They have lots and lots and lots of rules. One rule that caught us unaware was the fact that we had purchased a "substandard" lot. The lot is 1/2 acre and apparently lots in this area are supposed to be an acre. Did the realtor say anything when we purchased it? No. Did the city planner say anything the first (or second or third) time Lee contacted them? No. So, we found out we needed a variance, and with a little hollering managed to get ourselves on the Planning Board and City Council schedules at the beginning of June. It was no problem getting the variance, thank goodness, so its on to the next hurdle.

I'm Saving this Pump!

There is an old farmhouse on this property that must be torn down. Around the farmhouse are many many many overgrown plantings of flowers. I weedled some large black plastic pots from a nearby garden center and have been digging things up to try to save at least a few plants before the demolition begins. There's no way I can save it all, or even a tenth of it, but there is so much and it all needs to be divided anyway. I'm going to get a lot of plants out of my 20 buckets.

Some Salvia That Showed Up

So far I have dug up hostas, day lilies, iris, peonies, vinca, salvia, and other plants that I'm not sure what they are. Every time I go there more things have popped up and bloomed, so I dig them up too.

Not Sure What This is But its Pretty

There are lilac and spiria bushes that won't survive the construction so a neighbor with a backhoe is going to come by and dig them up. He'll keep some of them and give me back a few. These bushes are really old so they may not make it, but its worth a shot.

There are a also a lot of trees on the property, and some of them must come down. They are either old and diseased or they are right where the new house is going to go. Another Shorewood rule - any tree of a certain type and size must be replaced, so we have to put in 5 new trees. That's okay, or it WOULD be okay, but Shorewood also says that the replacement trees must be either deciduous trees with a 3" diameter trunk, or conifers that are 6' tall. Have you priced a deciduous tree with a 3" trunk lately???? Suffice it to say we are buying 5 conifers and placing them along our new driveway, and along Eureka road. Sheesh!

Ginormous Maple that Was Right in the Middle of the House! We May try to Make a Table Out of It.