I have not chosen to write of this experience on the site until now. The documentation is already up, so people know the state of our home—and what has led to this point. I guess that means you have “the facts” but you don’t have my version of the emotional issues that have been part of all of this. In telling the story, it’s hard to know even where to start or what parts to include. So much of it has been so bad that it is ridiculous. You know, so much has gone wrong and not gone as planned that I really started to wonder if we were some how incapable of making good choices. This whole bad experience has profoundly affected my confidence. This has not been good in any part of my life. I have worked through a lot of this and I do know that in reality Kevin and I make generally good choices, it has only been where this house has been concerned that our otherwise good judgment has fallen to pieces. For this portion of the blog I will try to keep to the actual house building experience—not the mortgage broker, or the lawyer or the bank, although they have each had an impact in making this a horrendous experience. Maybe at some point I will choose to tell what happened with each of these individuals and organizations.
Kevin and I knew that we wanted more land than what we had. We hoped to expand our creatures and we needed more pasture and hay. We wanted a larger house as we had need for one more bedroom on the main floor. Although multiple children in one bedroom worked awesomely well on the Waltons, it was not going well within our family. As well, we were also very tired of commuting, as we both work full time in the city. We did not want to continue to spend large amounts of time hauling water (there was a well, but it could not meet our needs) and cutting wood (our furnace burned wood with an oil back up—inexpensive but hugely time consuming). Kevin had no time for a hobby and definitely could not assist with driving children to activities. When it was just the two of us, hauling water and cutting wood was fine, but as our family grew time became just too precious.
In January 2007 we heard that a particular piece of property that Kevin had wanted since he was a young boy, might be coming up for sale. This property would be perfect for us. There were some old “out buildings” which we would need because if we built a house, we definitely could not afford a barn right away. A barn is a prerequisite for us because of the assortment of pets we have. There was a mature yard sight and we would be much closer to the city and all the things the city holds for us (work, doctor, hospital, veterinarian, school where the children attend, church etc.). We decided to contact the owner of the property and some home building companies.
Obviously the owner of the property eventually decided to sell to us and we chose Town & Country Homes to be our builder. I, in particular, was very impressed by the salesman at Town & Country, Bob Botkin. He was willing to meet with us after work in the evening. I wanted to design my own house plan, and he was very willing to help. I knew that Town & Country Homes had changed ownership the year before. Everyone was very open about it. I spoke with the Saskatchewan Home Builders Association. I knew Town and Country was not a member, but the person I spoke with there told me that as long as the builder was a member in good standing with a new home warranty program, that it really didn’t matter (I really wish that I had taken her name—now I would--I take everyone’s name now). Town & Country was a member in good standing of the Home Pro Warranty Company. Kevin spoke with them. Home Pro spoke highly of our prospective builder. I called the Better Business Bureau. There were complaints against some other builders, but not against Town & Country. We decided to pay the deposit and get into the cue for our new home. We were told that this first deposit would get us registered with the Home Pro Warranty Company.
One of the stipulations with being a member of Home Pro Warranty is that every house you build must be registered. The bank asked if the house was registered. We told the person dealing with us that we paid the money but that we had yet to receive confirmation of the registration with Home Pro. Kevin asked the banker to contact Iain directly for the confirmation. The banker told us he contacted Town and Country and everything was all in order. Now, when we dealt with the bank, the banker insisted that everything needed to be documented and in writing. Apparently these rules did not apply when getting confirmation from the builder that the house was registered. We found out one year later (when it was way past too late) that the banker took Iain’s word that the house was registered and never required written documentation—lucky us. This means that not only do we currently not have ANY new home warranty, but the entire time our home was being built the builder had no insurance on it. Thankfully nothing happened to our home in the building phase. By the way, the bank does not assume any responsibility for the fact that they did not require the documentation, but on with the story.
Bob, the salesman, spent many hours with us helping to design the right home for us. It seemed like it would be our dream home (little did we know what the future would hold). The house was supposed to be ready for us to move into in September. This would be ideal. Our plans were to dry wall the basement ourselves and we would have the summer to do this. We would be able to move the animals when the weather was still good and we would be able to have Christmas in our new house. The timing would be perfect! It was a very exciting time.
The first hurdle with the actual building was digging the basement. The basement needed to be dug by a particular date because the digger Town and Country uses was going away to dig elsewhere in the county. Spring in 2007 was quite wet—hardly Town & Country’s fault. Everyday that the basement was to be dug in early May it was too wet. Late May and June were a different story. The basement was to be dug every Monday. Monday we would take our camera and drive to the new place after work with our excited children to see the broken ground. Monday after Monday we were faced with no action and no hole. By the time the hole was dug (not on a Monday) there was no excitement and no camera.
OK, we finally had a hole and work could start in earnest. The beginning of July saw great strides in the house but by the middle of July work had halted. It did not seem to me that we would be moving into the house in September, but Iain kept saying we were. In the middle of July I started to feel uneasy about the builder we had selected. Kevin did not feel the same way. He assured me that all was well; after all, Iain had agreed with him that we should get rid of the corner jet tub in the bathroom and get the biggest oval 6 foot tub that either of us had ever seen. I really wanted that corner tub, but after all, Iain was experienced and he thought this would be a better choice. Who was I to argue with an experienced builder, and the fact that his would save us money had Kevin very excited.
By the end of July the work had clearly stopped at our house. I was told that workers were on holidays and “it was too hot to work.” It didn’t make sense to me, but Iain kept assuring Kevin that all was OK, and Kevin kept assuring me. I wanted to believe that all was OK, so I settled down a bit and we concentrated on fencing the new place, enjoying the summer and selling our house.
By mid August work had progressed very slowly. The basement floor was not poured and shingles were not on. Iain said that we would not be moving in September but the first of October was still likely and if not the first then definitely by the middle of the month. We sold our house just before we were told that it would be the end of the month of October before the house would be ready. We would be homeless, but just for a couple of weeks.
Early on in the process Kevin asked about running our own water and power lines. The animals would need water and we need power to the barn and the waterers before we could move in. Iain said that his electrician was “very particular” and that he would not tolerate Kevin getting a Home Owner’s permit and doing any of the work. Iain went so far as to tell me that if I saw Kevin running power to the barn I should “push him into the trench.” When we moved the animals to the new place on Thanksgiving weekend there was still no power to the barn or the waterers. With no power we had to haul water in buckets for all of our livestock. Hauling water from another farm 2 miles away in pales for 5 horses, 7 donkeys, 10 goats, 4 llamas, 3 pea fowl, 4 rabbits, cats and dogs was not an easy task in October, but this is what we were faced with.
In the middle of November we still had no power to the barn because “the electrician is very busy and he just hasn’t gotten there yet.” We later found out from the electrician that he didn’t come because he hadn’t been called.
By the middle of November it was cold. The barn had no power. We had to run a cord from the power pole to the barn to run a heat light for the rabbits. Our oldest daughter’s rabbit had just had babies (her first litter). Unfortunately somehow the line got unplugged during the night. Mom and babies did not survive. Now the lack of heat light obviously was not the reason that the mother rabbit died. Rabbits do not tend to show many signs of illness before dying. Her death was likely related to the birthing process. The death of the new bunnies though is another story. With a light they should still have been alive in the morning. We would then have been faced with hand raising the litter (something we have done before when a friend’s rabbit died with newborns). The task is clearly not easy, but it is doable. For those of you who are parents, imaging the guilt in telling your child that her pet’s babies died because you could not provide adequate heat because the builder had not gotten the power in. It was an all time low for me. I felt sick. The whole scene was horrible. I called Iain. He dismissed me. He knew in February that there had to be power, but here it was November and there was no power. We did not make the same mistake again. Animals relocated to my in-laws home when they required extra heat from that moment on.
You can imagine how pleased this must have made my in-laws, although they never complained when they had two rabbits complete with litters in their house. They never even complained the night the mother bunny and 6 babies escaped and explored the entire house (leaving a trail of shavings and bunny poo everywhere—upstairs, downstairs and even on the stairs).
Trenches throughout the yard were also a nightmare. Eventually some of the lines were run. In order to run lines, trenching needed to occur; too bad that the staff members who dug the trenches couldn’t fill them in. We were left with open 3 foot deep trenches about the width of someone’s foot running through the yard, around the house and in front of the barn because Iain told us we could not fill the trenches in. He said that the inspector had to come see them. After it was too late we found out that this was not true. Once it snowed and you couldn’t see exactly where they were, it was especially interesting and dangerous. You could be walking along and suddenly have one leg disappear. I thought my mother-in-law had broken her leg one day when she went down. I have mentioned that we have young children. The kids could not be outside playing, they couldn’t even get to their pets in the barn, because of the trenches. In the spring it was worse because we had trenches filled with water. Have you ever wanted to live somewhere with a moat? It’s amazing no one was seriously hurt.
But I digress. We sold our home at the end of August to a very nice couple. I felt really good about it. We were told that we would be into the house by the middle of October so we made their possession date the 15th. This would enable us to move directly into the new house. After we sold, Iain changed the date to the end of October. Both sets of our parents graciously offered that we could move in with them for 2 weeks. We decided to move in with Kevin’s parents because they were only 2 miles from the new place and we could be closer to the bulk of our animals. To my in-laws we would take our 5 house cats (they would stay the 2 weeks in the laundry room in dog crates), the turtles, the frogs, the snakes, the bearded dragon, the 2 guinea pigs and three of our dogs. Our family of 5 humans plus the afore mentioned pets moved in on October 13, for what was supposed to be 2 weeks. Who was to know it would be 4 months?
My in-laws home is the perfect size for 2 and maybe even for three, but not for 7—three of whom are small children. There are two bedrooms upstairs and a room in the basement. They offered that Kevin and I should take their large bedroom and they would stay downstairs for the two weeks. All three of our children would stay in the second bedroom; after all, it was just for 2 weeks. I did not want to displace my in-laws and besides, everyone would stay more pleasant if we had our own beds. Kevin and I moved into the basement room with most of the belongings that we brought (most was packed in the truck because it was just 2 weeks) and two of our dogs. Although the room was far from empty before we moved our stuff in, it would be fine. By the time of the actual move, Iain changed the time line to a month, but even a month should be doable with boxes stacked on counters and dressers all around the bed.
Because we were only to be in our current living arrangement for 1 month we permitted each of the children to bring only a few of their toys—three each to be exact. They brought their plush that they slept with, 5 books each and three bigger toys. Each of the older girls brought their leap pads; they brought a bin of little people and a few Barbies. By the time Christmas rolled around and these were all the toys they had played with since October 13th, they were pretty happy to get toys. I felt very guilty that the girls had toys but did not have access to them. More of that mother guilt. Our youngest daughter who had just turned two had taken to playing with “non play things” like the coasters. I thought that this was a great adaptation at the time to a less than ideal situation. Who would have thought that 9 months after once again having access to her real toys that when stressed or uptight she would continue to return to play with the coasters. Every time she does this I am hit with waves of guilt for not allowing her to have more of her toys. More mother guilt.
Although she befriended the coasters, our youngest daughter really adapted to the space and toy shortage the best. (Let’s you know without my actually saying how the older girls were doing). She claimed my in-laws pantry as her play area. She played there and pretended that the pet food bins (one green and one red) were her kitchen. One bin was the stove and the other her fridge. Her imagination is wonderful!
Back to Iain--by the end of November Iain was still saying that we would be in by Christmas—just before Christmas, but for Christmas. I was not in good space. The rabbit and babies had died and so had some of the reptiles and amphibians (they don’t do temporary accommodations well). Of course it was always the pets of the same child who died. I felt sick that I had allowed my family to get into this. With every tear my daughters shed I felt worse. People had not been working on the house. There was a raccoon eating eggs in the house, but no people there working. We met with Iain and I lost my temper. Iain said I was stressed and needed some time away, so he would have his employee set us up at a motel with a water slide for a weekend. I calmed down; after all it was “all because of the labour shortage.” Needless to say, the hotel thing never happened.
Although Iain was still saying that we would be in for Christmas, the “drop dead date” was January 18. Iain could guarantee that we would be in the house January 18. The date was “etched in stone and carved on a monument.” I was not pleased. We were supposed to be in the house in September and then October and then in November. We did not pack to be living elsewhere in the winter. None of us had winter clothes or boots. Iain said there was nothing that could be done. Although money was very tight (we had not budgeted on renting the trailer for our stuff for so long and there was of course “overages on the house” --see the documentation for details) we had to buy the children new winter coats, boots, hats mitts and ski pants. I went all winter without warm boots—thankfully we never had vehicle trouble on the highway.
In early December, Iain did call and offer us the use of a two bedroom house in the city (very close to North Central Regina). We could take the dogs and cats. The house belonged to the painter and he was not using it. We spoke to Kevin’s parents about it. They agreed that to move in December when we would for certain be moving January 18 would be silly. As well, we would need to drive to the new place twice per day to continue doing chores. In the winter the drive could be problematic and it would be very time consuming to drive to and from the city. We didn’t want to lose any more animals. We thanked Iain for his thoughtfulness but decided to remain right where we were.
Needless to say that the January 18th date for moving in would not occur either. One week before we were scheduled to move in, Iain had one of his employees phone to break the news to us that they had forgotten to order the tub—remember that spectacular tub? I was not pleased to say the least. The tub was a problem, but really it was the least of our worries. The house was no where near ready to move into. There were no cupboard doors but we were told that we could move in without them. I said that with our cats having been locked up for three months, there was no way that doors were “optional.” Painting was not complete, but we could “just keep the furniture out from the walls.” Again I declined. The fireplace wall was not done and our toddler could get behind the wall but they offered to “board it over.” Again, I declined. Iain attempted to make it seem as though I was being difficult. Maybe at this point I was. After all I wanted a bath tub, all doors, my children to be safe and the walls to be painted. I was definitely asking a lot.
The fireplace itself was a battle. The “drop dead” move in date was January 18, but by New Year’s Day the fireplace was still not installed. We had selected our fireplace very early in the process. We knew what we wanted and we repeatedly told Town and Country staff when we are at the framing stage that the hole was not big enough for what was supposed to be in there (who would think that carpenters should use a tape measure). What a surprise, we were right and the hole was not deep enough. Did we get the fireplace we were supposed to have? Shockingly, we did not because “nothing could be done” by that point, but hey, I’m now good at settling for what I didn’t want but paying as though I got EXACTLY what I wanted.
We did finally move in on February 16. The house was not really done but we signed significant completion anyway. Camping in my in-laws home had to come to an end. The children needed to have some space—they did grow in that 4 months. I needed access to their clothes and toys. Our youngest daughter needed to move from a crib to a bed. None of us felt like we could go on the way we were. My good natured in-laws had agreed to have us come for 2 weeks and then 1 month. We stayed 4 months. By the time we moved into the house we had increased the animals in my in-laws home (we were not chancing having pregnant rabbits in the barn anymore). My father in-law, very much an introvert, had gotten used to trying to read or watch TV with our dogs bugging him on one side and his own dog vying for attention on the other; our cats yowling—did I mention one of the 5 is a Siamese and a second is half Siamese, in the laundry room; at least one child chattering to him and our youngest playing with some of her Christmas toys at his feet. He couldn’t even escape to the downstairs bathroom for peace because the surviving turtle and frog had become residents there. Although everyone had gotten used to the living arrangement, it needed to end. We needed to move into the house.
When we moved into the house Iain was still promising to return to complete all of the outstanding things, including get a rail on the stairs into the house. Actually, he promised to return the day we moved in. The rail did eventually go on, over a month later. The stairs into the house were treacherous with no rail. Because there were no eaves troughs either and the way the peak of the roof is, every time the snow melted the 9 stairs would become a solid sheet of ice. I had to carry our youngest child up and down the stairs on my bottom because I could not walk on the stairs and carry her. I’m sure it was quite a sight. Thankfully there are no pictures!
Things in the house were not as they were supposed to be either. It quickly became apparent that the basement floor was hardly level. Everything that went downstairs wobbled. Every piece of furniture we have in the basement must be shimmed on three legs. It’s doubtful we will ever be able to afford to fix this. I really don’t even know where to start.
I also don’t know where to start on fixing the bathroom. Our bathroom was supposed to hold a 6 foot long, oval, huge tub. Remember, “the biggest tub we have ever seen.” Well, apparently somebody at Town & Country did not accurately read a tape measure. The bathroom is only 5 foot 9 inches wide. It will not hold a huge tub (good thing they “forgot” to order it). So, instead of a beautiful large tub, we have a pretty tub that is 5 feet long but there is at least 8 inches of lip around it, thus reducing the actual functional length. I am a very short person and when I sit in this tub; my feet are crunched at the end. As well, the jets are in the wrong place for what we had described to Iain we wanted. There is absolutely no way to get a jet aimed at my back (or anyone’s who can not sideways in our tub). We specifically said we needed a tub with jets on the back. This tub is definitely not it.
When the tub finally arrived, as it is 5 feet long, it looked ridiculous in a 5 foot 9 inch space. Iain tried to blame this on us and his plan was to have a REALLY big space at the foot (more room for shampoos etc, he said). It looked awful. Thankfully our friend Rob was able to discuss this with Iain in a way that he understood (goodness knows Iain did not respect what I wanted) and Iain built a wall so it looked as though the tub was planned to be in its own inset space. It is still clearly not what we wanted. Oh, and did I mention that we paid extra to have this beautiful larger tub? Needless to say, I need to do something to fix this; I’m just not certain what.
At least the tub works, right? The very first night we were in the house, after a hard day of moving, Kevin decided to have a bath. For those of you who have read our documentation, you know that the tub was never tested and did not hold water. We had a flood of water into the basement because the water poured out around where the jets are located. We couldn’t get under the tub skirt to stop the water from pouring into the basement because it was glued on incorrectly allowing no access to the electrical, but again, that’s another issue.
The end result was that we had put our electronics in a space in the basement where we thought they should be safe upon moving in until we could set things up. I had been concerned that the washing machine might leak because it had been frozen and although I was hopeful that all of the water was out when we packed it, there was no way to be sure. As well, we were still missing a basement window so although it had a board over it, snow was still blowing in and causing for drifting in the basement ( how many of you shovel snow in the basement of a new house on the day you move in?). The location for the electronics was well thought out, or so we thought. We truly never considered that no one had tested to see if the tub would hold water. Lost in the flood was a TV, a VCR/DVD player, a stereo, and a wall unit (pressed board) to hold it all. Thankfully the flooring seems fine. So much for having things set up any time soon for the kids to watch TV in the basement. We could not claim insurance because this was a building issue (poor workmanship) and we were directed to claim it on New Home Warranty. This was how we found out that our home was never registered with Home Pro. Again, the kids suffer a loss, but this time it’s easier to take as it’s nothing alive and they haven’t had access to the stuff for months anyway. I phoned Iain. Surprise, he did not acknowledge my call.
Things were not done with the bathroom, obviously. The large piece of marble was left missing on the back wall. This meant that the shower was not useable. We need a shower, especially as the one in the ¾ bath off the master bedroom is not functional. Why, you might ask, is the shower not functional? Well, the individual who was installing the shower and sink/vanity in the master bedroom didn’t believe in tape measures either. The marble sink was too long so, instead of saying “oops this won’t work” he cut the marble in the shower surround so the sink would fit. This means that when he put the base in for the shower the sink over hangs the base of the shower. The sink effectively hangs over where the shower is. This means that you can not put doors on the shower. But have no fear I was told. Iain will fix it.
The solution for the shower in the main bathroom to make it functional was to hang poly on the back wall. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. I had long since given up the belief that my new home was going to look pretty when I moved in. I am in debt beyond what I considered possible, why should I expect it to look nice? The down side, besides that it looked terrible was that every time the tub or shower was used the water ran out onto the bathroom floor because the tub was leveled incorrectly—same person who can’t read a tape measure—the jets were no longer leaking as Kevin and Rob fixed them. Rob and Barb (Rob’s wife) were like our guardian angels. Thank God, truly that they were in our lives at that point.
Iain totally shocked us and the piece of marble for the back of the tub arrived in April. We did not think we would ever be hearing from Iain again. The house was not complete and the liens from the sub trades and supplies had started to roll in. We arrived home one day and the marble was sitting on the deck (the deck was just starting to sag—but not because of the marble). Iain made arrangements for Les, (his right hand man, and painter) to come to install the marble.
Well, the marble got installed but in the process the motor for the tub got broken, the walls got gouged and floor got scratched and the baseboards got wrecked. We did get the motor fixed but Kevin had to install it himself. The rest did not get fixed or replaced and on top of it, the marble is not hung straight and all pieces (back and sides) need to be removed and re-hung. What do you suppose the chances are that we are going to get all the marble down without breaking it? As well, the tub is again incorrectly leveled and likely warped. Now, instead of the water running onto the floor, it pools at the back along the wall. Every day we have water so deep it comes past the second knuckle on my little finger. One definitely looks at the water and water marks because your eyes are drawn to the fact that the trim that Les used does not match the tub or the wall and that he pieced the trim together. What a mess.
In case any of you are wondering, we did eventually get our window. Not as you might think because Iain brought it or installed it, but because an employee told us whose truck it was in and we drove about looking for that truck until we located it. We then asked for our window and installed it ourselves (one of the few that does not leak).
Our basement windows have always been a sore spot. There was a breakdown in communication when we bought the house. We were told it came with windows because we paid extra for a “day light basement.” We were told that the extra cost for the day light basement was because of the extra windows it entails. This made sense to me. We asked how many windows we could have and we used the full amount of what we were told. At the end, we were expected to pay even more because everyone knows that windows are extra in a home.
The basement windows became even more of a sore spot this spring when it started to rain in the house. Most of the basement windows leaked when it rained. During one storm we got over 3 liters of water in an ice cream bucket from one window. Iain was still saying he planned to finish the house. We started calling when the windows were leaking. I’m very afraid of mould in the house so I was very concerned about leaking windows. Iain did eventually send Les, 4 months after the first of the many phone calls to fix the leaking windows. Les spent an afternoon working on them, but they were not fixed. Kevin eventually went on the internet and read about what to do. We did it. The leaking seemed to stop. Hopefully it stays stopped.
While Les was here trying to fix windows and the multiple times we drove to Edenwald (Iain did not return our calls) I asked about what to do about the crickets in our basement. The crickets were making me crazy. Iain is in no way responsible for the fact that there are crickets around, but I was killing between 100 and 300 in the house daily from the end of June through into the beginning of August. I know that “all houses have crickets” according to Iain, but not that many. To prove how many there were I started putting them in bottles that I dated.
The crickets themselves were problem enough. The noise in the basement was deafening and the crickets were in everything. We have not completed unpacking so they were in boxes wrecking stuff. As well, our 5 house cats were catching them and eating them, so the cats were puking crickets everywhere. Does anyone know why cats insist on puking on furniture? I guess we have no carpet for them, so the furniture seems comfy. I was washing bedding daily. The crickets and the mess because of the crickets was everywhere.
Neither Iain nor Les could imagine where the crickets could be coming from. Kevin suggested that maybe they were coming in via the sump hole that Town and Country has yet to complete. I didn’t think so, because if they were coming from there they should all be of similar size. We had all sizes. Black cricket eggs must freeze so they had to be coming in from outside. Bob (the salesman) came for coffee so I asked him about it. Bob asked if we had checked our perimeter board. I said we couldn’t check it if we didn’t know what it was. We went out side and felt where the board should be. Oh my goodness.
I truly never thought I would be grateful that Iain did not get either the stucco we were promised or the siding we decided to settle for on our house. If he had, we would have had leaky windows and crickets (as well as other unwanted creatures) forever. The perimeter board was done incorrectly to say the least. It was pieced together, nailed ineffectively and done without any sealant—never mind the correct kind of sealant. All around the house there were spaces and gaps. In some places Kevin could get his fingers between the boards, in other places his whole hand. In one spot that is over 5 feet long there was no board at all. When we pealed back the house wrap we could see into the basement. The gap was over 4 inches wide. We are lucky crickets were all we had. Rodents of a very large size could have easily gained entry.
Doing the siding was an interesting experience. Thank God for family and friends willing to come lend a hand, the Internet for direction and our guardian angels and their family. I would never again be afraid to tackle this type of job but you do have to be able to read both a level and tape measure (another reason to be grateful Town and Country staff didn’t even try).
There are many more aspects of our home that I could decide to write about that others might find interesting and that have caused me no ends of stress/distress. For example to turn off our Christmas lights (should we ever be able to hang them because we still don’t have eaves troughs) we have to go into the furnace room in the basement. Somehow the electrical plan that the electrician was given had this switch in our daughter’s closet instead of in a logical place like say, near a door. Iain did get this moved but his solution was to put the switch in the farthest corer of the basement. Good grief. I guess its good exercise.
Another piece of good exercise is having to evacuate the house when the 7 (yes 7) smoke detectors that are all wired together start to randomly go off. Do you have any idea how much noise 7 smoke detectors make? We have a detector at either end of the very short hallway and inside each bedroom as well as in the furnace room directly below the bedrooms. When asked why we needed so many, we were told that they wire to both Canadian and American codes as they ship so many houses to the USA. Please answer me this, would anyone suspect that a house being built in our yard, on a foundation is ever being shipped to the USA?
We alerted Iain that the smoke detectors went off for no reason before we moved in. This was just another thing he promised first was fixed and then that he would fix. Thankfully it has not happened for a while. Each time it happens we use it as a “fire drill.” We evacuate the house and then check things out. I guess everyone should practice safe fire evacuation in the house. There is nothing quite like the adrenalin of being awakened by the fire alarms and pulling sleeping children (its true that children do not awaken when fire alarms go off) from their beds and taking them out into the freezing cold. Unfortunately the cold air does wake them up. We think we have the problem fixed, but there really is no way to know until the next time it happens.
The cupboards in this house almost deserve a blog of their own, so they definitely should be at least mentioned. Iain told us that he is a journeyman cabinet maker. Perhaps he is. I can’t say as I know for certain one way or another. What I can tell you is that I have cupboards made by a company he was president of, and they are definitely not something to be proud of. If my house is exemplary of what Iain Hall thinks is good looking cupboards, I would not hire him as a cabinet maker. The cupboards themselves seem sturdy enough but the finishing work leaves a lot to be desired. The hardware is crooked on many, if not all of the drawers. Nothing is square. In places were doors and drawers meet it is very apparent that things are not square. The door knobs are not level. There are gaps between doors. Drawers when pulled out are not the same length. Drawer handles are not at the same height across a bank of drawers. Many of the pulls themselves are not level. There are multiple screw holes in several drawer faces. There are screws sticking up inside the drawers. There are splinters in the wood. Some of the doors and drawers do not close all the way. All of the cupboards were supposed to have adjustable shelves but in one cupboard holes are only partially drilled on one side. In one cupboard the shelf does not fit so occasionally it falls off the pegs. Nope, if my kitchen is indicative of what Iain thinks is good workmanship, I don’t think cabinets are his true calling either.
The paint in our house poses quite a problem. Town & Country used good quality paint but it continues to wipe off the walls. The dealer suspects that it was frozen, but who knows? We have a lot of colour in our home. The main colour theme is navy blue. When we first moved in there was some dirt on a wall. I used a damp cloth and wiped it. The colour came off on the cloth. I called Iain (and called and called). Eventually Iain said that the paint needs to “set” for 30 days (might have been a handy piece of information to share). Well, it’s been 9 months and the paint still hasn’t “set.” On one occasion our oldest daughter happened to brush up against the wall with damp hair. The entire back of her head was blue. I must say the paint is easier removed from the wall than from hair. If we don’t want to have the paint transferring to others, we will need to repaint the entire house. This task will neither be easy nor inexpensive as every wall in the entire house needs to be done.
When we repaint the house we will need to remove the baseboards (obviously). This will not be an easy task either. The baseboards are not nailed on, but instead are siliconed. They were siliconed on top and behind so they are REALLY stuck. These will not remove well—there will likely be chunks of gyp rock that come too. This means that likely they will all need to be replaced and the bottom 2 inches of the wall will require extensive patching—yet another expense and make work project because things were not done correctly the first time.
Speaking of things not being done right the first time leads me to thinking bout our doors. Rather than installing knobs (knobs being so expensive and difficult to put on), someone from Town and Country ran a screw through where the knob should be into where the striker plate should go, this splitting the door. I was not worry as it would of course be replaced. I’m sure you can all guess that there was no replacement done.
Thinking of replacement makes me think of our kitchen sink. We are supposed to be in a lovely new house. New homes generally have new sinks. I have been told by a reliable source that my sink was new when it was installed, but it sure doesn’t look it and you really couldn’t prove it was new by me. Prior to our moving in someone scratched the sink very badly—stacked tools on it perhaps? The house I moved from had a sink that was about 20 years old. That sink looked better than the “new” sink I have in this house. Again, replacement was promised and again the damaged stuff is still here. At least the sink is usable and I don’t need to stress about that “first scratch.” When I moved in there were so many scratches that a new one really wouldn’t stand out.
Needless to say as we have moved through this process cash has become more and more of an issue. As soon as the first lien went on, the bank refused to let us draw any more on our mortgage. Some things had to be done on the house both to keep it from falling apart and to make it livable. Then there were added expenses that we hadn’t planned on, like the power bill and the trailer storage bill for 4 months instead of one plus others too numerous to mention. The power bill that we were stuck with was huge (over $1300). Although the furnace was supposed to be in the house prior to dry walling, it was not. Iain’s solution was to run electric heaters. Kevin told Iain that we were not paying for the power bill. Iain assured us that he did not expect that we would. He would cover it. Even on the day we moved in, Iain signed saying he would pay the power bill. Three guesses who eventually had to pay the power bill. I don’t know about you, but I don’t generally have this kind of money just sitting there with no allocated purpose.
When we asked for our mortgage we had planned that house sorts of things would be covered. For example, Town and Country was supposed to provide bathroom mirrors, which they of course did not. For several of these months I have been trying to do my hair and make up using little mirrors and the mirror in the van to get decent light. Once the liens went on we had to use other sources for money (credit cards, lines of credit, savings—what little we had left) so we had to be very choosy what we did. The bank was less than helpful (although the banker truly believes that he was very helpful) and there was definitely no money available for things that we could live without, like mirrors. I will likely eventually add the bank and the first lawyer’s parts to this blog, but for now I will leave it at that.
In my world, all of this financial mess translates into poor health and marital stress. We are trying to get things together to move on, but this type of experience has been difficult to move on from. I am, or at least I was, a very proud person (pride goeth before a fall). It was hard to admit to others that we had believed in someone who has hurt us so badly. It is hard to admit that we walked into this situation and allowed ourselves to end up in this mess. After we moved into the house, although I am very much an extrovert, I completely retreated. I didn’t want people to come to see this mess of a house. I wanted to pretend that all was OK, or at least would soon be. I am doing better, little by little. I can now readily admit that I feel as though we were conned. Our money was taken and it’s gone but we are trying to dust off and move forward. Part of doing that is closing doors on various chapters in all of this.
One chapter that we have been working on is paying off the lien holders. I must say that these people have been awesome to deal with. One person (a lien holder) told me that one thing we had in common with all of the home owners of Town and Country Homes whose houses he liened is that we are all “nice and good people” (that I guess is something to be proud of). This lien holder said we thought we had chosen a builder, but that in reality the builder chose us because we are nice. I can honestly say that each of you who had liens on our house were also chosen for the same reason (I hope you can be proud of this too). You are also “good and nice” people. We are all out a great deal. I hope that all of you too can dust off and move forward. We are not the only ones who have suffered a huge financial hit, so too have you. Thank-you for being so good to deal with in this totally horrible situation. I am choosing not to name you because I do not want to compound your difficulties by having people believe that you are too easy going and good natured. You all know who you are. Please keep being good and kind people.
To everyone else who reads this, behave VERY carefully when dealing with home builders and renovators. Saskatchewan laws are in need of change and currently do not seem to protect you. Do not trust that either your bank or your lawyer will look out for your best interest. Read everything carefully. Do not advance money and be very careful to try to ensure that you get exactly what you paid for. If you can not be firm, appoint an advocate to act on your behalf who can be. Your contract is only as good as the person it is with (builder, contractor, tradesman, lawyer etc). And most importantly, if you think you got conned, DO NOT hide. Go forward and expose it to the light. Try to help others NOT follow in your footsteps. The people who take from others will continue to do so as long as people trust them. Our situation has happened. I don’t think anyone can help us recoup what we have lost, but hopefully this site will help others from becoming victims to the same person/people or the same situation.