No More Lake Melby

If you've built a house, you know the stresses you deal with getting everything in order. In the first week Jason and I managed to break a couple expensive items. One was our vacuum attachment for the central vac- we hadn't even got the chance to use it! The other was the round glass plate for the microwave- Did you know that those suckers are $100!?!

And then the dumbest thing of all time, I melted an aluminum catch tray to the bottom of our oven the very first time we used it. We'd previously used them to keep from having to clean up the mess at the bottom of the oven when things cook over. When unpacking I found one, so I just stuck it in the oven without a second thought. Later we were baking a frozen pizza and the house filled with a nasty smell. When I opened the oven door I found the tray had become one with the bottom of our oven. As I looked at it more closely it occurred to me that the implement was actually under the bottom of the oven, to make it easier to clean, and it was applying direct heat to the tray! Thank God for warranties! What would have been $200+ was covered under the IDIOT clause.

In June the builder came to grade our lot to get it ready for irrigation and landscaping. There ended up being an issue with our next door neighbor's grade so it took longer than it needed. Once the neighbors yard was fixed we were able to move forward with ours. A few days after they were finished with the grade, we had a very green lawn. While everyone's yards around us were turning brown, we had a Kelly green lawn!

After we started watering the lawn we started to notice that one area in particular was a bit more spongy than the rest. We started experimenting by not watering that section of the grass and it still was really bad. When the sod started to stink, we knew there was a serious issue.
It's been a lot of back-and-forth dealing with this mess, but when you're an employee of the builder you kind of get placed on the back burner. It's not right, but I'm not going to complain because I know they're busy and I know that I got an awesome employee discount that I'm grateful for!

During heavy rains we'd get our very own lake, Lake Melby. The water would get so deep as to flood our irrigation control box. Even after a few days of no rain and no watering, you'd sink while standing there. Shortly after our backyard had a funky smell; rotting sod!

Since I work for the company, and the guy in charge of the Warranty Department is my boss' husband, I was able to complain my way up to the man in charge. He contacted the excavating supervisor and told him to get out to my place ASAP and resolve the issue. Well he did, and he tried to blame it on the landscaping....Jason does landscaping (part-time job) and he knew it was most definitely not a landscaping issue. The landscaper came out and said it wasn't, just as we said, but he sent out the irrigation guys just to be sure it wasn't a leak; It wasn't.

A few weeks later I asked Bryan (my boss' husband) where we were at with it all, and he flipped! He thought it had been resolved. Again he contacted the supervisor, and again was promised it would be resolved. He joked that someone could get fired over this...I joked that it would be me! One of the exhibitors did come out and look at the yard and wrote out what had to be done. When no one returned, I got frustrated.

Again...a few weeks ago I asked Bryan in passing and this time he went nuts! He was pissed that we were still dealing with this. He immediately picked up his Nextel and yelled, "BJ!" That same day Trent (Bryan's brother and the person that is really in charge of the excavation things) drove to my house and looked at the issue.

So was that it??? No. Unfortunately not.

On Monday, August 21st I emailed Bryan asking on an ETA. A few minutes later my phone was ringing off the hook...so obviously the shit hit the fan! I was given the promise that it would be all resolved by September 1st.......today is September 1st!!!

Lake Melby is gone...however they landscaping company won't be out until the 6th to lay the new sod. Please please please God, let this be the end of it! I want to use my backyard! If I wanted to live on a bayou I would move south!!