Possession

We closed the house last week, which was on time. There are some things left to be done, but no big deal. Below are some comments.

Pre-closing:

• Pre-closing service was excellent. Our customer service rep at head office has been nothing but courteous and helpful, and the sales office folks have been great throughout as well.
• The people at the site office were good as well. We made changes to the kitchen layout when we bought the house, and when they first started building, they built it to the original spec and not our modified spec. After a visit to the site office, everything was fixed without hassle.

PDI/Post-Closing:

• The rep that we had for our PDI was excellent. She found a lot of stuff that we didn't see and took her time to explain things to us. I was expecting someone that wanted to find as little as possible in order to minimize work.
• We are disappointed with the fit and finish of the house. There are many - and I mean many - details missed by the trades. For example, nail pops beside where window trims go were not filled in.
• The guy who painted our house was just brutal. The ceilings are so inconsistent. When painting, it looks like the guy slopped a tonne of paint onto the roller and started rolling. Ofcourse, the paint comes out the sides of the rollers, and you can see the "tracks" on the ceiling. Furthermore, there is wall paint on the "side" of all the window trims. He didn't bother to mask or use a brush for the wall area close to all the trimwork. I will be asking them to re-paint the entire house.
• We opted for smooth ceilings and found a tonne of seams. I must say though, that the drywall company has been very good about it so far. They already came and did some work on the ceilings. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they'll turn out nice.
• We ordered dark kitchen cabinets, and as a result, it really shows imperfections. The cabinet company came to inspect them, and approximately half of our cabinets need to be replaced due to scratches and chips. There are some others not being replaced that have scratches, so we'll see how they turn out when they use the touch up pens. I won't accept anything less than perfection though.
• The service from the service department has been very good so far. They respond quickly to my inquiries when I call them.

That's about it for now. I'll update soon.