First off, I need to preface this post by stating I am not ungrateful for this home. Me and Mark have been married for ten years and this is our first "house"... I'm grateful... indeed grateful, it's just been a frustrating process to say the least with Ivory Homes.
Mark and I decided that we need to get into a home ASAP before the Utah market was out of our reach. We had discussed buying land and building plenty of times in the past but were blown away at how much property was (this was when land in Cedar Hills was going for about $70,000 a lot). We were always too scared to do it and we passed up many great opportunities. Looking back we are kicking ourselves... but who knew land would be driven up so high in such a short amount of time? As prices continued to soar (Thank you California and Arizona!) we got more nervous. So in December Mark got antsy and we had to buy a house "NOW"! Okay, so for those that don't know Mark and I that well... let's just say we don't do our research well. We basically say "yes" to anything that "looks like a good deal", we get suckered in and get screwed in the end... just ask me about the 7,000 vinyl records that sat in our basement for 3 years.
We started looking at homes that were fairly new but everything I was looking at had these tiny kitchens and bad floor plans for crazy amounts of money, plus I prefer new... so kick me. There's something creepy about buying and using a used toiled, bath-tub, sink, carpet, etc.
When we stumbled upon an Ivory Homes development in south-west Lehi, we loved the area and we loved the model home (open, roomy, large kitchen, good square footage). Plus the lots were $50,000 less than the Ivory Homes development on the "east side"... we're not that stupid. When we found out the price of the home with the lot, did we need to look further? No I tell ya, we didn't, it was right in our budget... or so we thought... Ivorys upgrades sting.
We signed a contract at the end of December and thus the nightmare began. I'm not going to get too detailed but I'm pooped and we're still not in yet. The closing date was suppose to be set for July 15th, therefore I didn't schedule any photo shoots for the whole month of July (except the wedding in California) and started booking August 1st. Well now I'm going to be crazy busy, with having to move on the side * with no fault to my clients, I love ya!*
We've had BIG issues that slowly got taken care of after kicking and screaming long enough
-Garage floor had to be ripped out and poured again
-Vault line in the kitchen (see scribble on photo) had to be re-lined and re-textured twice
-Front column had to be rotated to look straight
-Window on front of house had different tint (well it still does, we're waiting for it to be changed out)
-Front door didn't seal
-Kitchen cabinets not mounted to the wall correctly
-The usual scrapes, scratches, dings, and dents and a whole slew of other issues... too many to list
Everytime I've been to our soon-to-be-home, I've left ticked... I understand that things will go wrong, but we've had way too many. And to have Ivory Homes not come to us first pointing out the mistakes puts a bad taste in my mouth... I always leave thinking "Ivory Homes hopes we won't catch the mistakes so they can get their money, and get it quick".
Okay so not EVERYTHING has been horrible, but just about (Mark and I screwed up too in the beginning) . I just want to get into our new home and have it look and BE new.
By the way, who puts carpet in a bathroom where there's bound to be water soaked into the fibers? It makes me cringe just thinking about it. And I love how lighting these days in new homes don't emit enough light... I'm a photographer, give me light!
So as you look at the photos, I HATE my wall color, I mean despise it! And yes, that choice is totally 100% my fault. When the choices had to be selected, I couldn't choose a wall color because my other choices didn't match up to what I wanted in my head and I got all confused (they just didn't have what I wanted... the cottage look, you know clean white, with silver-blues? And well, simply put, Ivory homes has lot's of brown. So when crunch time came I choked and said "just give me the most popular, neutral color... blaaaaahhhhh"! Did I just say that? Yes I did. So when the "vanilla glazed" cabinets went up, I noticed my "vanilla" cabinets didn't look so vanilla anymore (although they look vanilla in these photos and very pretty I might add). They look mushroom brown/tan and they blend in with the walls. So now I am going to re-paint to what I had originally planned (silver-blue-gray) and I think it will make me happy.
Anyway, cheers to our new house.
Mark and I decided that we need to get into a home ASAP before the Utah market was out of our reach. We had discussed buying land and building plenty of times in the past but were blown away at how much property was (this was when land in Cedar Hills was going for about $70,000 a lot). We were always too scared to do it and we passed up many great opportunities. Looking back we are kicking ourselves... but who knew land would be driven up so high in such a short amount of time? As prices continued to soar (Thank you California and Arizona!) we got more nervous. So in December Mark got antsy and we had to buy a house "NOW"! Okay, so for those that don't know Mark and I that well... let's just say we don't do our research well. We basically say "yes" to anything that "looks like a good deal", we get suckered in and get screwed in the end... just ask me about the 7,000 vinyl records that sat in our basement for 3 years.
We started looking at homes that were fairly new but everything I was looking at had these tiny kitchens and bad floor plans for crazy amounts of money, plus I prefer new... so kick me. There's something creepy about buying and using a used toiled, bath-tub, sink, carpet, etc.
When we stumbled upon an Ivory Homes development in south-west Lehi, we loved the area and we loved the model home (open, roomy, large kitchen, good square footage). Plus the lots were $50,000 less than the Ivory Homes development on the "east side"... we're not that stupid. When we found out the price of the home with the lot, did we need to look further? No I tell ya, we didn't, it was right in our budget... or so we thought... Ivorys upgrades sting.
We signed a contract at the end of December and thus the nightmare began. I'm not going to get too detailed but I'm pooped and we're still not in yet. The closing date was suppose to be set for July 15th, therefore I didn't schedule any photo shoots for the whole month of July (except the wedding in California) and started booking August 1st. Well now I'm going to be crazy busy, with having to move on the side * with no fault to my clients, I love ya!*
We've had BIG issues that slowly got taken care of after kicking and screaming long enough
-Garage floor had to be ripped out and poured again
-Vault line in the kitchen (see scribble on photo) had to be re-lined and re-textured twice
-Front column had to be rotated to look straight
-Window on front of house had different tint (well it still does, we're waiting for it to be changed out)
-Front door didn't seal
-Kitchen cabinets not mounted to the wall correctly
-The usual scrapes, scratches, dings, and dents and a whole slew of other issues... too many to list
Everytime I've been to our soon-to-be-home, I've left ticked... I understand that things will go wrong, but we've had way too many. And to have Ivory Homes not come to us first pointing out the mistakes puts a bad taste in my mouth... I always leave thinking "Ivory Homes hopes we won't catch the mistakes so they can get their money, and get it quick".
Okay so not EVERYTHING has been horrible, but just about (Mark and I screwed up too in the beginning) . I just want to get into our new home and have it look and BE new.
By the way, who puts carpet in a bathroom where there's bound to be water soaked into the fibers? It makes me cringe just thinking about it. And I love how lighting these days in new homes don't emit enough light... I'm a photographer, give me light!
So as you look at the photos, I HATE my wall color, I mean despise it! And yes, that choice is totally 100% my fault. When the choices had to be selected, I couldn't choose a wall color because my other choices didn't match up to what I wanted in my head and I got all confused (they just didn't have what I wanted... the cottage look, you know clean white, with silver-blues? And well, simply put, Ivory homes has lot's of brown. So when crunch time came I choked and said "just give me the most popular, neutral color... blaaaaahhhhh"! Did I just say that? Yes I did. So when the "vanilla glazed" cabinets went up, I noticed my "vanilla" cabinets didn't look so vanilla anymore (although they look vanilla in these photos and very pretty I might add). They look mushroom brown/tan and they blend in with the walls. So now I am going to re-paint to what I had originally planned (silver-blue-gray) and I think it will make me happy.
Anyway, cheers to our new house.
