In September 2024 we had submitted a year’s end punch list to the contractor of our house, Walk, Wright Construction, LLC. There has been little more done than talk about the list, and I’d been harassing them as best I could without much luck, even threatening to consult a lawyer, all to no avail.
In October, I reached out to the ARC for Ford’s Colony, asking for assistance. I got a fairly terse response saying that they had concluded their legal responsibilities, and WW’s surety deposit had been refunded.
I crafted a fairly long response saying that while they had fulfilled their legal obligations, that there was still a moral obligation to the homeowners to protect residents and future residents.
Amazingly enough, about 15 minutes later I got a phone call from Casey Meadows representing WW, asking if he and Larry Walk could come over and review the punch list. We scheduled an appointment the following Tuesday. Casey had been our “primary” punch list guy way back when. He did a bunch of the final completions stuff. Towel racks, mirrors, handrails, etc.
AS promised, Larry and Casey showed up, and we walked around and looked at the issues.
The list includes:
1. The middle upright in the right handrail leading down the stairs from the back patio is loose.
2. All the white caulking applied to the outside windows has discolored and is extremely unsightly.
3. There is a small section of caulking behind the stove that was missed.
4. The caulking around the crown molding/ceiling in nearly every room needs to be redone as it’s separating.
5. There are paint issues throughout the house. Cutting around the trim on many interior doors is substandard.
6. Caulking around the outside of many of the windows has separated.
7. The molding on the right side of the oven cabinet is unsightly.
8. Master bathroom needs extensive grout remediation.
9. The floor in the master bathroom has settled, and the resulting issues need to be addressed in a manner that doesn’t look like they were repaired.
10. Tops and bottoms of exterior painted doors need to be painted.
We had had an Engineer come out and look at the floor in the bathroom, and he pronounced the structure healthy. He was at a loss to explain what had happened, though.
A couple of days later, Casey came with the painter and we walked around. The painter was very quiet throughout the process, but did say that it was obvious that the paint had been touched up in numerous place as you could see the brush marks. He indicated that on these smooth surfaces, you really can “touch up”, you have to repaint the entire section.
The painters showed up a week later and began the cleanup on the outside. This was the most pressing of the issue because of the pending change in seasons. 2 painters spent 2 1/2 days here, cleaning up, repainting and caulking the outside windows. I have to say, they did a superb job.
Soon after, Sean, the tile guy, came to look at the gap between the tub face and the floor. He asked if we had any tile left, which we did, so he said he would just come and replace the tile, filling the gap. Which he did a couple of days later. It looks just fine.
And finally, after many months of taking a shower without the glass enclosure, Blake came and installed the glass back, getting it all secured.
So, about half of the punch list is done. Casey sent me a text last week saying he and the brick mason would be here this week to fix the loose handrailing. Unfortunately, though, Mother Nature is not cooperating. We got this yesterday:
So, hopefully we’ll see them, but the forecast is to be fairly cold for a while. Who knows?
As to the interior painting and caulking, to be determined.
Melanie is not going to be pleased if he decides to start the work next week.
Next time…. I’ll wrap up discussion of the Image Import Tool I crafted with ChatGPT. I had alluded to it here, but since then, it’s done, and executables have been created. It’s a fairly useful tool.
stay tuned:
