Yes call the mayor's office and if he refuses let him know your next step is social media and the local newspaper. Then follow through.

Have they at least told you what the offence is? What happens if you don't pay? I figure there's a lien put on the house, like unpaid property taxes. But could that at least buy you time? It kind of sounds like in my city, they assume if you've got the money to build a house, or do major renovations, you can afford to pad the city coffers.

We had to pay $5500 for a sidewalk repair. The previous house had a side load garage, and the sidewalk has the ramp in it. We had to pay for this before we were allowed to APPLY for a building permit. They have not yet repaired the sidewalk, almost 2 years later. There's a house up the street that's been finished for 2 years, it still has the old driveway cuts, so that's probably been 4 years since they had to pay for the repair. It's looking like they have just pocketed the money and have no intention of repairing the sidewalk.

Carol - wow, I'm so sorry! What a ridiculous mess!!!!!!

No pics of cabinets yet.. Cabinet maker didn't listen when I told him ordering from Conestoga would be a bit different from what he's used to. They're figuring it out, but he's not particularly happy about it. I feel terrible, but it is what it is.

On a happy note I chose island slab today. All of the slabs were very warm, caramel-colored which I LOVE! There was or that made my heart sing but had a crack. :( I like this one. Its.. Different. The far left will be cut off. Also, the colors are much warmer in person. Just a few gray veins.

TheN they'll do the rest g the kitchen using these, but the mellow parts.

They had SO MANY SLABS it was almost overwhelming! I love them! Here is what's going on our boy's bathroom. Not this exact piece, it was a remnant I couldn't get a good pic of. No idea what it is!

Amber - love your slabs! Who is your distributor? We are using global granite and have run into some snafus, thinking of finding a different one that will actually let me choose my slabs instead of randomly assigned and I have to take it. Yours are beautiful

carol - ugh that's so frustrating! I'm so sorry!

we aren't having much action this week but waiting on electric, should be soon!

Those are very nice slabs, Amber.

Amberm: Yes, they have given us the exact charges. DH had to plead guilty to 3 charges for himself and the same 3 for me (he represented me as I chose not to take a day off work without pay to attend). The first violation was for having a commercial vehicle that was too tall, the second was for having a commercial vehicle that was too long, and the final one was that we parked the commercial vehicle it on the land in front of our house (in a future grass area -- oh the horrors). The commercial vehicle was of course the same backhoe. If you look up the definition of commercial vehicle, it defines it as a vehicle for transporting large number of passengers or cargo (really backhoe does not fit that category).

All: Thanks for your advice on fighting the city. We will try, but they do seem determined to get more money from us (not like they didn't already get $3500 for a buildiing permit or anything). The worse is DH is not working right now and has been off work for a while so $400 is going to hurt the pocket book. Here is a picture of the backhoe at work on our property (taken last July), just so you can see it really was not that large of a machine.

Farmer we're using Stone Interiors out of Loxley, Alabama. I can't remember where you are, ATM. I drove about an hour and a half to use them, the customer service and selection had been AMAZING.

That's a bobcat, not a backhoe! My truck is bigger than that. Why did he plead guilty? It might be harder to fight that.

Thanks Amber! We are in Midwest. I'll check if they have a branch in our area.

Amberm145,

It is a medium sized backhoe (not a bobcat). DH was strongly advised to plead guilty. We are not denying that we had a backhoe on our property (we just didn't know a backhoe was against bylaw and nor did our contractor). I wouild imagine we are the first in our City to have paid a fine for parklng of a backhoe on a property that is clearly under a construction permit. It really is the bylaw itself that is flawed (construction vehicles when you are under construction should be exempt from their no parking on property of commercial vehicles).

DH was also told if he did not plead guilty, he would have to return to court in January. This time he would have needed a lawyer ($$$). The claim was we had gotten the best deal we were going to get. Originally there were 3 charges related to the backhoe (too tall, too wide and parked in the wrong spot). The charges were in both of our names. They agreed to reduce it to one charge. When DH pleaded guilty, he thought he was on the hook for one $200,00 fine. It was after the plea, he was told that the two of us would be charge $200 each for the one backhoe crime. They claimed if he did not plead guilty he would likely end up paying $1200 or more, not including lawyer fees. So yes, he was bullied into compliance. Yes, it will be hard to fight now. We are going to try.

Call your local city counsellor, too. If there's a problem with the way the bylaw is written, he should be fighting to fix that. And make sure to plead the poverty card. "We're not building a dream house here, we're trying to keep a roof over our heads!" Because really, it sounds like A) you have a neighbour who's an ass, and B) they're trying to take a cut of the millions you've got to do all your fancy renovations.

Thanks amberm145 for your support and ideas. We have been speaking to the city counsellor. He too thinks we need to revisit this law. We did try to use the poverty card (family of 6 living on one income), but that only got them to reduce the number of charges and allow us 60 days to pay (great the bill will be due at the same time our Christmas credit card bills are).

Yes the neighbour that called Bylaw is very mean spirited indeed. Sadly, we did not know that about him a few years back. Early on in our build, he did some work for us (he is an infloor contractor). Never mix business and neighbour's -- learned that the hard way. Well for various reasons (too long to write about) we had to go our separate ways with this contractor. Believe me if we could have stuck it through, we would have. We certainly did not want hard feelings with a neighbour -- but it had to be done. He was so bitter when we said we had to go our separate ways (even though we had paid him for far more work than he completed). He actually vowed he would seek revenge on us -- and that he has done in various ways, by repeatedly calling various city agencies and ESA to try to make trouble for us. He regularly slows his car down in front of our home and tries to peer in presumably to see what he can find to report in his next complaint to the city -- very creepy. This neighbour may even know the Bylaw supervisor that decided to give us a Summons to court (some evidence supports this).

The whole business is just too nasty for my blood -- not the way I roll.

Carol

Carol, so sorry for what you are going through. Just completely unfair. Hope so much it works out in your favor!

Kali, isn't it exciting when stain is added. We have dark stain as well for lintels and our just installed kitchen cabinets, ( Minwax Jacobean. ) Love dark wood stain.We have a ways to go with our straw bale house but each step forward is exciting.

Kali it looks beautiful.

Kali, that looks great. Did they not mask the walls? Stain is an absolute b!+€# to pant over so I am shocked. They got a few drops on my wall below the lintel on my open stairs and it had to be sanded off and retextured. It was already painted with 2 coats of wall color.

Sandy - would keep it next to master for few reasons- I would want extra sound proof between master and kid room more than kid room and bathroom. The closet will help with that barrier. Also if you put it on the other wall your door will open into a short wall of the closet, how it is in your lower bedroom, I would find that more awkward than seeing a closet. If I understand how you would move it anyway. Also you are losing closet space and a window, a double negative I would think for me. Seeing a closet doesn't really bother me, but my kids aren't old enough to clean their own room yet so that may change! :)

@ ontariomom

For what it's worth I wouldn't bother fighting it. I honestly believe that the key to living happily in any community, is to avoid looking into the local government. There is lots of doing stuff a very little thinking about why they do that stuff...

They're trouble makers and putting a wrench in our timeline.. But I still love them. ;)

This looks like a legit way to support the entire house, right?

Check out that sweet, sweet linoleum...

Things like this make me glad we only have one site visit a week!

www.greenwoodframed.com

Weather has been good - making progress ... Yay!

Carol- say what? Was that an HOA bylaw? Either way I feel for you, that is ridiculous and you have a permit for goodness sakes. That is over the top crazy. Just don't understand people and their motivations sometimes. It's sad really to spend your time trying to make other peoples lives miserable. What a way to live. I hope you able to find someone to help. What about the permit office - do they have any bearing as they approve the permit?

amber-those are really beautiful slabs, every single one of them. I like your favorite the best too. You can't go wrong with anything remotely similar to caramel right? ;)

amberm-you have grass planted and sprouting yet? Sorry if I have missed it if you have already shouted it from the rooftops.

We got grass planted in September, which was a requirement for moving in Sep 30. Good thing, too, since we've got snow now and we're facing -15C tomorrow. I probably didn't celebrate because it was overwhelming at the time, moving into a house with numerous unfinished projects, old house on the market. But I did manage to get the mulch spread out in the front, minutes before winter fully set in a couple of weeks ago, and I was happy about that.

I'm now tiling the guest bath. I got the wall where the plumbing goes done back in the summer in time for the plumber to connect everything. Now it's the rest of the shower.

The window seat and bath refinishing both got finished today. Carpet may be going in on Wednesday.

We're having our housewarming party this weekend. Aka: come see all the unfinished projects and drink our beer! I've decided to enjoy the imperfect house rather than waiting until next year to do a housewarming. I also had a few friends volunteer my new house for our annual Christmas get togethers.

Autumn,

Thanks for your understanding!

I am not sure what HOA stands for;, not a term I have heard. Our house is being rebuilt/added on to in an established neighbourhood. There is lots of new building a mere block away, but not on our street. We are probably the only people in our medium sized Canadian city that have ever been charged for having a backhoe parked on a lot that is under construction (and has a permit to be under construction). Generally the law referring to commercial vehicles is meant for buses, transport trucks etc. The builders park their construction vehicles every night all over the city. Sometimes the builders are building within finished neighbourhoods (like ours) and they still park their backhoes. Builders we have been told never get charged for this crime LOL. In all likelihood, the neighbour and former contractor who complained knows someone at the by-law office (in fact I know he knows someone). It is ridiculous for sure, and very unfair.

Carol

Carol you are a much better person than me. There would definitely be done retaliation if I were in your shoes. I would bring up to the judge what you think happened, or at least question why it's not being enforced any other time. So unfair! :(

HOA is home owners association. They aren't very common in Canada. I know some new communities have agreements on what colours you can paint, etc. But it's enforced by the developer. And once all the new houses are sold, the developer moves on and it's a free for all.

Today's walkthrough included lots of fireproof wood on our party walls:

And an unexpectedly beautiful rebuilt exterior wall using reclaimed bricks from other parts of the house. We thought they would rebuild in the exterior in CMU (it's a foundation wall) and stucco it which would have been fine, but they went the extra mile and cleaned and refinished the bricks on the exterior. Extremely impressed! Before (from the inside):

And after (exterior.) Looks beautiful and hopefully the bricks will survive another 160+ years!

www.greenwoodframed.com

Hi all! Jumping back in on these threads. I'm so far behind to comment on everyone's, but I do love seeing everyone's choices start to come together. We finally have siding going in, and almost all of our windows - this round one is my fave!

Welp, my house is *almost* done. Occupancy got pushed back from today to Monday next week due to landscaping delays. We have to have sod to pass (??? why I don't know, whatever, the rules are weird). My sprinklers are going in today then the landscaper will work Fri & Sat. Almost there.

In other good news, everything has really turned out just perfectly. It's as expected or better in every way. A few dings and dents need to be cleaned up but for the most part we are through the weeds.

There are a few odd electrical issues, like 3-way switches not working as expected, and missing switches where I am *sure* we talked about them but I don't know if I have recourse now. Electrical has by far been the biggest of my nightmares.

My house has been burglarized over and over during this process so I'm trying to convince DH that we need an alarm system, at least until the development is completed. It's mostly been construction supplies, not my problem as I have a builder's risk contract. HOWEVER, this week it got really personal. Our electrician said we could supply our own LED bulbs and dimmer switches because his pricing wasn't very good (he admitted he couldn't touch Home Depot on LED). So we went and purchased Lutron Caseta, a bunch of LED BR30 spots, some other switches, controls, keystones for our CAT6, etc and dropped this with the electrician last Monday. By Wednesday mid-day, the supplies were gone. Electrical company said they'd cover this and replace but then replaced with inferior quality items (Cree bulbs rather than the Philips we'd gotten, etc). I was irritated but we've had a lot of "stuff" of the contractors go missing (tools, all of the door handles that weren't yet installed, etc).

My Project Manager is claiming he doesn't know about this theft but I know for a fact he does because I saw the packing slip for the replacement door handles and it said "to replace stolen per PM Name" on the packing slip. So, he's lying to me. I hate that more than I hate the theft I think. Trust issues abound now.

So, this week I dropped of a VERY expensive mirror for my powder bathroom, which they hung on the wall, then removed to center the vanity light. The mirror disappeared. I had a piece of furniture delivered (not expensive) which I should not have done and I will own that but it too was stolen. I've had enough!

My garage door (rollup) has not been secured this entire time I find out because the opener is not working. I'm so flaming angry. A padlock would have done the trick so why was it left like this for so long I don't know. I see they shoved a piece of wood trim through the holes to keep the door from rolling up last night but it's too little, too late.

I think this thief is at about 2K for supplies from my house that I know of. As my builder didn't seem to be doing anything about this I filed a police report and I'm giving myself a credit on his final bill for my stolen mirror. I'll own the piece of furniture but that mirror was handed off in good faith and installed so that's on him.

Sorry so long. I promise the next update will be pictures showing the gorgeous happy ending of this miserable journey.

Mama Rachel, that's awful. I can't believe they weren't locking the doors!! We had someone walk in before the house was locked up and stole some metal flashing. We put temporary doors on and locked them. Then someone broke the lockbox off the fence, took it away to get the key out and then came back and opened the door. By then we had the permanent doors, so we started using the keypad on the back door rather than the standard lockbox on the fence. Every time, we got a little more vigilant. It didn't stop happening, obviously. But for your builder to just ignore the issue is shocking.

Cree isn't inferior to Phillips. At one time, they were the premium brand for LED. Other brands have come up to Cree in quality. But Cree may still be more expensive. Regardless, they should have replaced exactly what you had, because there's still differences. We bought our pot lights from HD, LED. DH bought 3 extra, just in case. The electrician was gushing over them, and then when all was said and done, there was 1 left over. We asked the electrician if he'd had an issue with some and had to use the extras. Nope, he swore there was only the one extra. Hmmm.

Not that CREE is inferior as a product but you can't pair any LED with any dimmer and expect the same experience, and only SOME of the bulbs were stolen so there is a mixture of the brands in the same room and it is obvious.

The CREE bulb they use is not a good pair for the Lutron dimmer per our research and can create a "hum" at low light. The Philips bulb we chose is tested to be a better match for the dimmer control and this is important for the life of the bulb and the look of what we wanted. As you said, they need to replace with the same product.

I feel your pain. Our GC is currently cutting holes in our bedroom walls to fix our switch set up. We walk into the closet and the ensuite is immediately on the left. We couldn't put the switch for the bathroom in the bathroom because the shower is on the left, the tub is on the right. Both spots aren't allowed by code. So the switch for the bathroom is just inside the closet. But then he also put in a switch for the bathroom fan. So instead of having the closet switch in the closet, he put the closet light outside the closet. But then he got a fan that's on a motion sensor, and didn't connect the switch in the closet (next to the light switch for the bathroom). So we have a switch in our closet that isn't connected to anything. And to turn the light on in the closet, the switch is outside the closet. Plus, the fan with the motion sensor drives me insane. #1, it goes off as soon as I walk into the closet. I don't need the ^*(&*&# fan on when I'm in the closet. It also has a humidity sensor, so it can be on when the shower is going. There's another fan in the toilet room. So there is ZERO need for this fan to go on every time I am near the bathroom. #2, they forgot to put the cover on it before the painters came in. So it got paint on it, and it's now CRAZY loud. The electricians are the only ones I'm still swearing at on a daily basis.

Not good Mama Rachel. As if building isn't stressful enough.... Hope you get in soon and can put all of this behind you.

Oh Mama

Stop leaving stuff at the house that is not nailed down. Also, make the builder secure a locked place for things that have to be left. That's nuts that things are left in the open after things are stolen time and again.

The mirror was installed so I thought it was safe. We handed off the box of bulbs and supplies to the electrician who was starting the job that day (and did). When the electrician left for the day, he left all of the supplies and poof... gone. The mirror was uninstalled by the electrician to move a light lead over (drywallers pulled it through in an odd spot). Mirror stolen after it was installed so I thought it was okay.

The furniture... well, I was supposed to have occupancy by now and the delivery of the piece was a few weeks ahead of schedule. I saw it there and intended to pick it up but I needed a truck, not my sedan. Gone in the mean time.

I just went to pay the lighting supplier and my invoice was several hundred more than expected. I inquired what the difference was... "to replace fixtures stolen". Yeah, BS my project manager doesn't know! The PM is the "builder" so for them to just lie to me over and over that this is isolated and blah blah it makes me sick. I mean, if this has been as rampant as I'm finding out this whole time he should have prioritized getting the garage opener fixed. Theft at construction sites is often a crime of opportunity. Eliminate the opportunity and the crime goes away. Lock the DOORS! They had the wrong lock between my garage and laundry room for weeks and the door didn't even latch, let alone lock. So, between the bad motor on the opener and the non-latching entry door to the house, my house has not been secure for the entire build. Anyone can walk in. A $5 padlock would have solved the problem.

That is on the builder. That is on the project manager.

He didn't bother to lock his site, and you're expected to pay for the replacements? I'd be livid. It sounds like people KNOW he doesn't lock his sites, so people just go in every night to find the new stuff. And he claims ignorance so he doesn't have to do anything about it. And he doesn't care if it's not coming out of his pocket. I'm so angry for you.

Mama this seems like something they should have insurance to cover. Depending on how you want he longterm relationship to me, you could definitely sue in small claims court. I would be absolutely livid.

Mama that is insane! It's his negligence, not yours! I hope he has an epiphany and reimburses you!!

They finally did our foyer trim. Before the trim everyone kept asking why they painted 'wrong', so I was really second guessing myself. I feel a lot better now. My trim guy did something creative to compensate for framers messing up my plan. His idea worked for the most part but there is an odd gap at the top of the beam the our in.. Very hard to explain, so pictures.

Ceiling color will actually go down to trim, painters weren't sure where to stop.

So here's the weird part..

Or maybe it's him or his own people stealing the stuff Mama. Sounds a bit too fishy to me

Oh Mama-that stinks, it really does. How very discouraging and frustrating at the same time. I wonder why they'd lie about it? That's really strange I think since obviously they can't really hide it forever. I hope you find a good resolution and have your home locked up like Fort Knox soon!

Amber-now that is very cool how you have the ceilings and trim done.

Christmas holiday #2 and we actually had a tree (okay so it's only one tiny one) outside to put lights on. I'll take it and it's gonna be bright! They put the same amount of lights that used to be on an 8 foot tree on this 4 1/2' one. Clark Griswold over here I tell ya!

Mama, so sorry for your situation. From my education here on GW, I've been paranoid about protecting our house build. I was in the basement one day and heard some running footsteps upstairs. Came up and caught a glimpse of neighborhood kids running off. With skateboards. We were just doing the audio wiring, and I had visions of vandalism. I mentioned it to our super, and within a day, there were temporary locks on all doors, and a lockbox. I've made a point of checking regularly, especially with weekends, and found a couple of doors or windows a couple of times. I also mention it to our super, and he seems to be reminding the subs to lock up more. But it isn't perfect. We went over Thanksgiving morning, and sure enough, one door and one window open. At least we are minimizing the opportunities. Thankfully, ours is an established neighborhood, so the construction is not easily seen. And we are fortunate to live close enough to be able to check often.

Chandis going up in foyer and dining room. Shades aren't on the foyer one yet. Crazy how small it looks in comparison to the ceilings. I'm thinking I'll eventually upgrade the 'crystals' to some bulkier strands, more like the pottery barn fixture in the dining room.

Dining room one will also get lowered, its just at this height so it's less likely to get hit. My Palladian blue ceiling looks so gray in pictures! :(

Thanks for the support everyone. I'm deducting the cost of the mirror from my payment to the builder. It just feels so violating.

I went over yesterday (Sunday) to install a shower curtain bar and found that the thief has been at it again. The builder had cleaned out my garage, which looks great (sealed floors = shiny and not covered in debris anymore). There are a few extra pieces of random tiles that have been collected into a corner out there. I *know* (because I was thinking of returning it to the supplier) that there was an entire box of Ann Sacks Lucien metallics tile out there. Now there are only 8 pieces. I can't return the tile anymore because partial case. I'll probably just keep the pieces in case something happens to the backsplash but who in the world steals 4 pieces of tile? That doesn't even make sense! What is anyone going to do with 4 6" arabesque tiles?

I mean, that is not really a financial loss to me but with everything else being locked up I feel like this thief is thinking he's just NOT going to walk away empty handed and takes the only thing he can get his hands on...

Whatever.

I just want my house to be locked because the keys are in MY hands. Then this nonsense can end.

And security system, pronto.

In other news, the house is really gorgeous. I only made one design decision I don't totally love and it's just paint so I'm in good spirits over most of it.

No occupancy, continued delays due to frozen ground with getting our landscaping in which is preventing occupancy.

Oh, and I had the lighting supplier move the replacement fixtures for those that were stolen to a separate invoice and bill the builder directly. I'm not paying for that!

Mama, have you considered installing a video camera and getting a picture of this thief while he still is checking the site?

We had cameras. Number 1, they kept getting moved, depending on the work being done, and nobody ever put them back. Number 2, we caught 1 guy on film, and he was wearing a mask.

Odd that a thief would wear a mask to an unoccupied house, as if he knew ( or maybe was told) that there were cameras in the house. Mmmmmmmmmmm

Precaution? Cameras are cheap these days.

If it helps Mama, it probably will stop once you're moved in. Some friends built near us a few years ago and they had similar experiences. Apparently someone committed a murder, was running from the cops, broke into their house and hid in their attic. Their house was chosen because it was obviously vacant. They assured us our break ins would stop when we moved in.

We have had a break in to DH's truck since we moved in. But I believe that was related to Canada Post putting the community mailbox in our yard. DH was parking on the street in front of it while the garage was full of construction stuff. Someone put a note on it telling him it was rude to park in front of the mailbox. Excuse me? You can't park in front of him and walk an extra 10', but HE should park an extra 10' away from his house?? The next day the truck was broken into. 3 other cars on the street were untouched.