July 18, 2019: Forwarded the Brookfield 11 month walkthrough package to Brookfield corporate in Phoenix. Request in email was to expedite the repairs prior to 1 August, 2019.

July 11, 2019: 1 Year walkthrough at 11:00 a.m. Rob came over, we walked through the items still remaining, 1 year later. The following items need addressing:

Exterior

1. Window stain/discoloration on windows. Repaint areas where staining has occurred. Windows are: kitchen (2), sewing (1), guest bath, guest bay window (west window), master bedroom (high, east facing), master bath, laundry. (paint)
2. Plaster cracks on west, east and north of house. Significant cracks on patio beams on north side. (repair, re-stucco)
3. Grading slope is mismarked on east side of property. Redraw/remark/regrade to remedy.
4. Air conditioner condensator PVC line not condensating, investigate. (clean/unclog/repair)

Interior

1. 5. Living room screen doors track is warped. Screen doors do not open. Screen door man replaced screens to fix mis-aligned handle issue, but ‘supposedly’ submitted a work order to replace the screen door track under warranty. Screen door track provided by Mi Windows, needs to be installed. (replace).
2. Granite inclusion/blemish, kitchen area, to the right of the sink. First fix was to grind down the granite blemishes. Blemishes need to be polished out. (polish).
3. Master bath tile floor grout flaking away. This was supposed to be Custom Building Products CEG-IG solid epoxy, which became Fusion Pro. (remove/regrout)

The walkthrough from Brookfield worksheet:

• Windows at house have stains showing
• Slider track to be replaced
• Buff out granite top where repair was made
• Grout master floor

August 3-5, Friday-Sunday: Both Rosie and Tommy and Douglas and Lauren came out to help unpack and move the 1982 Toyota to its new home. Starting at 8 am Saturday, we got the camper shell fastened down, loaded on the tow dolly (from Corona Self Storage) and up to the new house. We were at the house by 11:45 am. After lunch, getting it off the dolly was a challenge but Rosie and Lauren suggested we use the slope above us to assist getting it off. We used the RAZR (I bought a 1″ tow hitch and 1 7/8′ ball) and pulled it off and towed it into the garage. Rosie made a short video here, take a look. We were done by 1:30 pm or so and the tow dolly made it back to Corona about 2pm.

Doug drove the Honda XL250R home behind us as we towed the truck. It ran fine as well.

Saturday dinner was at Salt Grass at the Golden Nugget. Sunday, all were gone by noon, Sandy included, she will return on Friday.

August 2-3, Thursday-Friday: Appliances (washer, dryer and refrigerator) from Lowe’s and the bed arrived on Thursday. The sofa from Lake Havasu and the window coverings from Window Elegance came on Friday.

August 1, Wednesday: Picked up the 15′ moving van from Graceland, met our hired help at the mobile home and with considerable skill from the guys, managed to pack everything up from the mobile home AND the storage shed in one run to the new house. The younger guy, Randall (from Morgan and Sons moving, 928-219-4062) was an amazing packer. They are highly recommended in my book! We only put about 30 miles on the truck in total.

July 31,Tuesday: Today is the day, we made it! Our appointment was at noon, and we had Rob, the customer relations guy give us the walkthrough. Juan completed all the rear landscaping and it came out quite well. Photos are here.

We had done our walkthrough yesterday, Monday, so we had nothing really big to discuss. The take-aways:

• Wall of glass, hardened grout in the screen door channel prevents both screen doors from opening.
• East roofing nail missing on facia.
• West roofing nail missing on facia.
• North stucco patch under patio drip rail.
• AC condensation should be extended, not a Brookfield responsibilitly (a crock if you ask me).
• Granite blemish on kitchen work surface above dishwasher to be filled in with epoxy
• Sewing room carpet was a “place holder” for the occupancy inspection. It will be replaced and is already in stock at TK Flooring.

These are pretty small fixes, it went very smooth, Rob signed our list and we signed his list of things to fix. We were done by about 1:30 pm.

Sewing room carpet comes next Tuesday.

July 30, Monday: We drove to Lowe’s after the walkthrough and stopped at their appliance center. They had all 3 appliances in stock and ready for delivery on Thursday. Same price as Home Depot, they (HD) did not have the gas dryer until early September. Ordered them and will await delivery on Thursday!

July 27, Thursday: We arrived with the RAZR in tow and parked it in the garage. We do the final walkthru next Tuesday, July 31. It looks like it is really happening and we went back and forth with Brookfield Corporate and the sales office regarding our $2500 credit (for the Tim Koons departure).

Classic Brookfield, the sewing room carpet does not match the master and guest bathroom, wow. We’ll see what happens in the walkthru.

Juan will be finished with the back landscaping early this week. Sandy picked out her plants for the two planter areas of the east and west side.

We are almost there, the finish line in sight.  We shopped for appliances at Home Depot after a movie in Laughlin.

July 19, Thursday: Came out to find citrus trees (1 Mexican lime, 2 Arizona sweet orange and 1 Eureka lemon) planted, both medjool palm trees added in the rear corners as well as the front and back landscaping irrigation complete. With electric to the house, the watering system is operational and working. I turned them on manually and adjusted the flows to max!

The front door was open and carpet is complete. The guest glass shower door is hung, the chandelier in the kitchen is added and the garage lights shed some nice light all around. The gas meter is installed as well. The garage has a water softener system installed, we did not order it.

Other than  finishing up the rear landscaping, we are pretty much complete after a thorough cleanup. Photos are here.

July 16, Monday: Called Cindy at Brookfield to confirm the move-in on the 31st. She went off to check and said yes, we are good. We are setting things in motion and we hope that this sticks!

July 13, Friday: Stopped by after the Building Department visit. Carpet is in garage ready for install and tack strips are in the bedrooms, sewing room and walk in master closet. Carpet photos are merged with yesterday’s pics.

Stopped by Building Department to get a handle on what is required for the City Council approval on July 17 (no meeting) or July 24 (the actual meeting date). The building department didn’t know/expect/require an approval from the City Council. The Fox Creek Ridge (even phase II) was approved some time ago, according to the folks at the front counter.

Cindy, from Brookfield, was there, by chance. She is coming aboard to help out the construction office. Michelle is going back to California and she, Cindy is taking over some of her and Rob’s responsibilities. She promised to check into this Phil P comment, I showed her my email from Phil P, it may have been a confusion because he thought, maybe, we are in Phase III of Canyon Trails.

The Southwest Gas lady called first thing in the morning and we are set for a meter install on Monday, July 16. The construction office will be on call as SG gets ready. This whole meter confusion may have been due to a new SG representative in their office AND SWGas having our address as 2565 instead of 2561.

July 12, Thursday: Came out in the late afternoon and heard the air conditioner running! We have an electrical outlet in front, on lot 28! We now have water and electric.

The front landscaping looks great, see the photos here.

On the drive out, got a call from Paula and Michelle, with a message from Phil, that I need to order a gas meter install. We went back and forth and Sandy talked to Southwest Gas. They (SWGas) stated that there was no record of the installation process and the inspection tag. Until those are sent in, via electronic means, the gas meter cannot be ordered and installed. I called the construction office back and they were confused as much as I was. The Gas Co. said USUALLY, the contractor asks for the meter and then it is transferred to the owner. When I went out to look at the house progress today, there is an APPROVAL tag on the gas stub, see this photo. I will walk into the office tomorrow and figure this out!

I see NO install/site for a street light install somewhere in Phase 2.

July 11, Thursday: Juan called this afternoon with a front landscaping status. He took a few pictures and mentioned that there were lots of folks around the house today. He mentioned that there were electrical folks there too.

Coming out tomorrow with the Honda XL250R, anxious to see the landscaping.

July 6, Friday: Came out last night and stopped by this morning. The pavers are in and the flagstone and the garden wall blocks are on site for the tiered front landscaping and the citrus trees on the east.

The master shower is now complete with the bone colored grout, it looks great. The only question is did TK Flooring use the Fusion Pro? We will never know, I’m sure. The guest shower still looks like crap on the floor, we’ll have to figure something out after the final walkthrough.

Touched base with Carlos and Ollie, we are on the same page. Carlos is needing electricity for the flagstone cutter. Ollie has the plants and trees, we are ready!

Mohave Electric is on site, working on the Sonoma portion of phase 2. Sandy asked, “why, if we are the only house in Phase 2, why didn’t they start with our house”? You can’t apply logic to a Brookfield project.

Met Valentina, a new neighbor to us from down the road on Trade Wind Dr., she is a spitfire!

Picked up our receipt from Window Elegance too on the way to the mobile home.

Called A&N Garage Doors, we are scheduled for August 6, Monday for the 3rd garage door opener install. Belt drives tend to rot out in the heat, so they recommend sticking with chain drives.

Stopped by M&R Water, they will be installing the water softener on Friday, August 3.

Came back in the evening from Laughlin to see the sunset and noticed that the junction box and hard line  (looks like coax, see photos) for the electric is now in place in between lots 28 and 29 and on Sonoma  as well. Once MEC adds their top box connection next week, we should have power. Rob was wandering around as well, checking out the sunset and he re-affirmed the MEC electric approach.

See photos here.

July 3, Tuesday: Phone call from CraigN, July 31 affirming July 31 date.

June 29, Friday: Wrote email to Phil Peterson, President of Brookfield Communties in Phoenix asking for some help:

“Good morning Phil, We could use some help in getting an update to our home completion. We broke ground December 15 and still waiting … See below for our contact information.  My notes during this build are here: http://www.daveesquer.com/blog/“

He wrote back later in the morning, saying July 31 is a final walk-thru date. Wow, what a response, most appreciated!

June 28, Thursday: Took some flagstone samples from Star Nursery, buckskin, Sedona red and chocolate to the house and to show Juan. With Sandy, we picked buckskin. The gravel is going to be Cherry Mist and Rebel Red for the chunky rock on the embankment.

We are going to have 4 water stations, 2 of them being spares for future work.

I have realized that we only get 2 garage doors, the 3rd door is on our own, we didn’t specify it in the build, so we don’t get the 3rd. I called A&N Garage Doors to inquire about installing the 3rd, but no response yet. The garage door openers are Liftmaster.

Juan’s crew was off grading today getting ready for the pavers, these guys work fast.

While talking to Juan, Rob showed up. He had a first walkthru on lot 28 and was waiting on the customers. He mentioned to me that he didn’t know I was a ‘blogger’. Someone from above, told him to read my story, interesting! Maybe the email caught someone’s attention, yeah right. Photos are included in yesterday’s write-up.

June 27, Wednesday: No phone call or email followup from Corporate in Phoenix.

Stopped by to see the curbs and asphalt in place. The garage doors are painted and the stone work for the front of the house is on-site. Photos are here.

June 26, Tuesday: CraigN emailed me asking for clarification of the tile flooring/grout situation. His email:

• Still waiting on some final dates for the completion of the Infrastructure so I can reset your Orientation.I should have this information soon.I do need some clarification or direction from you on your Grout change requested in the showers. The master shower has not yet been grouted and you have requested to change the color to Bone. The tile company will change the color to bone standard Grout and seal it at no charge to you.The quest bath has been completed and you have requested to change the floor grout color to bone. In order to change the floor grout color the floor would need to be removed as well as the shower walls may be damaged or removed because of the epoxy grout used.So the estimated cost to remove and replace will run $2565.00. Please let me know what you would like to do so we can complete these final items.    Thanks, Craig Neubaur

He assumed, wrongly, that we wanted to remove the floor tile in the guest shower. This is the shower with the pits in the floor tiles filled with grout. The floor looks dirty, like muddy footprints.

I told him no, we are NOT removing the tiles. The email also stated that Brookfield is changing the grout from epoxy to standard run-of-the mill.

I called him after reading the email. He stated that TK Flooring had NO one to finish the epoxy grout in the master shower EVEN THOUGH they DID the guest shower.

I stated that we will use the Fusion Pro, in color bone, that they were trying to substitute (but in the dark grout) the day that I walked in on them. He is off “checking: with TK Flooring …

I followed up our phone conversation with an email and added Craig Peterson, at Corporate in Phoenix to the distribution. I asked CraigP to call Sandy and I to discuss this build and to arrive at a hard date for completion.

June 25, Monday: Juan Munoz called to discuss the stone work for the landscaping. He is putting the quote together for the backyard. I am coming out to meet with him Thursday morning.

June 19, Tuesday: We met  Dave, the wall covering guy at the house in the afternoon. We have finalized the look and he is off generating the estimate. We are ready to go.

We met with Ollie and Sandy picked out the remaining plants, we are good to go with landscaping. We are going to cost out some flagstone in lieu of brickwork for the back and side yards.

We were informed late that July 11 as a final walkthru is out the window. Mohave Electric can’t pull cable as promised on July 2 and is iffy as to when the next opportunity is. Brookfield is inept, they have had phase 2 houses since December and can’t  figure out simple lead times?

MISTAKE #18 – – The arrogance these folks have is just amazing, when I mentioned to CraigN that we had plans with airline tickets and folks coming in, his response was “well, you have a month”!

The grout/shower tile floor combination makes the floor tiles look dirty because of the grout remaining in the pits of the floor tile. TK Flooring did the guest shower first and Sandy pointed it out to me as we were meeting with Dave.

We now need to change the color of the grout in the master shower from dark to light because of the remaining grout in the pits of the floor tile. We went over to TK Flooring and Themis explained “of course that would happen” and that he was losing a lot of money on this deal. I called him out on the substitute grout issue and he acknowledged that he should have called and let Brookfield OR me know about the problem grout setting too fast. His attitude was that he was losing money and not happy.

I called CraigN after that discussion and that is when he informed that us that the walk-thru had to move.

The tile floor photos are here.

June 18, Monday: We We both came out again on Father’s Day, Sunday afternoon. The gas line was in and water line trenching was complete from the east side. The stove, and microwave are in place, closet doors hung, baseboard molding complete. We were locked out of the great room slider. The 3rd garage does not have the garage door opener, so we could walk into the garage but the door to the house was locked. Things are progressing but still NO ROAD!

We both came out again Monday to see progress. As we arrived, so did Phil, CraigN’s number 2 guy. He asked if I was the owner, in an abrupt manner. I don’t think we started off very well. Sandy was on the phone in the car.

We entered and saw the tile guys finish setting the grout in the guest shower. The guest shower was done, but there was a bucket of Fusion Pro, ready to go for the master shower. I made comments that the grout was not the one that we ordered. The tile guy mentioned that the guest shower was done in the part A/B CEG-Lite epoxy grout, showed me the empties but also that the grout was setting up way too fast, duh, the heat!  I guess he talked to Themis at TK Flooring. Evidently, he (Themis) replaced the grout with the Fusion Pro for the master shower. See the photos here. I don’t think Themis coordinated/informed Brookfield of this change as it was occurring in real-time with schedules to be met.

Had we not stepped in when we did, I believe, Brookfield would have never told me that they had swapped the grouts. I was not happy and Phil was not happy and tossed ALL of us out of the house. He was on the phone, supposedly, with Themis as I was talking to the worker-bees in Spanish. After he stormed off, the worker guys and I talked. He said, stick by what you ordered, don’t settle for anything else. Even the worker-bees knew what was wrong! They apologized and tried to assure me that everything would be as we requested.

I am very disappointed in TK Flooring and this just goes to show that Brookfield is not the most credible builder. Mistake #17 was a big letdown for me.

We stopped by the construction office and found CraigN, again, available. I explained the grout mixup, Craig stated he didn’t want to ever do it, but that TK Flooring convinced him to go ahead. Sandy asked, again, and the July 11 final-walk through is still a GO. The curbs and road paving are scheduled for next week, he stated.

The Carrier air conditioner is now installed and the water line is hooked up as well.

In the afternoon, we met with Juan Muñoz and Ollie for the landscaping layouts, it will look very nice with the addition of flagstone around the property! Given that the road should be in place next week, Juan stated that his charter was to jump on the house, landscape-wise to wrap up this build prior to the 11th.

Things inside to do:

• Carpet in master, guest and sewing room
• Speaker hookups, inside and out
• Fans in the bedrooms, sewing room, living room and kitchen
• Backsplash on the west wall of the kitchen
• Final wiring and labeling for the coax, cameras and internet hookups

We are moving …

June 1, Friday: We both came out for the weekend and stopped by. The plumbing fixtures are in, disposal, etc and things are shaping up. The roof tiles are on, stone work complete and all 3 garage doors installed. All we need are appliances, carpet, doors painted, closet doors hung and water, gas and electric hookups completed. Even the outside light fixtures, door bell and security camera cover plates are installed!

Still no road, but, supposedly, real soon now. Still no 2nd attic access either in the garage.

The shelf in the master bath is by the shower head and is in the wrong place for Sandy. It is in place, but not grouted in. I guess the tile guy didn’t know about the epoxy and I found both empty “Part A” epoxy mix on the ground outside of the front house. I called the stone folks and asked about relocating the shelf. They will do whatever CraigN tells them to do, bottom line. They also mentioned that they had an “epoxy” problem and were re-ordering some more.

Sandy and I talked about it and at the end of the day, I called CraigN and asked about relocating the shelf. We are willing to pay to make the change. Craig actually answered and he promised to get back to us by Monday. To his credit, he did and we are making the change at no cost. He mentioned something about us being willing to work with Brookfield. This is probably a bone for the house being 2 months late. If Sandy is happy, then I am. Photos are here.

May 23, Wednesday: On my way out of town, I get a call from CraigN. July 11 is our final walk-thru, he was asking. We accepted the date … we’ll see, I’m not sure why it is taking so long!

May 22, Tuesday:  Stopped by about noon time and there were lots of folks working, the granite installers, the garage installer and the vertical stone workers. I decided to come back after work to see the progress. The granite “team” mentioned that they should be done by tomorrow.

Its amazing what can be done when someone has a plan that is organized. I wonder who lit a fire under who?

Stopped by again after work, 4:45 pm. More activity, the 2 single car garage doors are in as are most of the light fixtures. The granite “team” was hard at work and with the exception of the vertical backsplash by the stove, all sinks and granite counter tops are in.

The outside vertical stone work is continuing and the master bath is underway. The guest bath tiling is complete and just awaiting the grout. The epoxy grout is on site and ready!

Things are moving quickly. At 4:45 p.m., the granite folks were wrapping up. I added today’s photos to yesterday’s folder.

May 21, Monday: Folks have been busy on site. The house is painted on the outside. The color is Griese, I think, sort of gray/tan. The vertical stonework is also on site and ready to be installed.

Tiling in the guest bath is underway, the master is next. The house floor tile continues vertically (to the ceiling) and the floors are both drop-down, not the beach access as originally planned, perfect! Our plan was to specify the baths to follow the Yosemite baths in the model homes, so far so good.

The plywood is on top of the cabinets, ready to accept the granite in all locations. Granite is onsite, cut and ready to be installed, it is already installed in the master bath with all sinks (master bath, guest bath and kitchen sink) in place. It looks good!

The drop-zone cabinets are now in place as is the door for the linen closet in the master bath.

No progress on the road yet. Suddenlink came out and the tech has submitted a “survey” from their office to see and define the requirements to install internet to the house.

Photos are here.

May 15, Tuesday: Went back to check on the house and see if I could talk to Juan Munoz, couldn’t find him but did talk to the framers on Lot 28. He said curbs should be coming in this week. He mentioned that the graders didn’t grade the Trade Wind extension correctly and that the city made them do it again. He was behind because he needs a crane to add his rafters on the lot next door and the curbs or lack thereof will cause/caused a delay.

I have no confidence in an early June move-in. Juan an I talked later on the phone, I think we are on the same page.

Sandy emailed Audrey to inquire about our move-in date. She will ask the Construction Office and someone will get back to us by the end of the week, she said.

May 14, Monday: All of the tile is in place. Carpet remains for the 3 bedrooms and the 2 showers are still not complete with tile. The 2nd coat of stucco has been on on for a while. You can see where the stone work will be added to the vertical surfaces.

Still no drop-zone cabinets.

Stopped by TK Tile and thanked them for a great job. There are 3 jobs ahead of us as far as granite install goes. She is checking on the shower tile work and will let us know.

The road extension has been somewhat graded. Photos are here.

May 4, Friday: Tile laying is underway! Almost done, the bathrooms and showers and laundry room are remaining but everything else is looking good.

Utilities are in place, finally. Not sure about gas though. Photos are here.

April 25, Wednesday: Released Draw #5 via Pioneer to Brookfield. We now have 90% of our dollars committed.

Stopped by Tr-State cabinets to see what he knew about the missing drop-zone cabinets. They are on order and couldn’t pinpoint where the ball was dropped and why they were not in the order initially.

Met with Dave, the window treatment guy from Ft. Mohave, at the house. He does most of the window work in the new housing developments. He took his measurements and is cooking up an estimate.

While he was there, a Suddenlink guy showed up. I snagged him and fiber-optic to phase 2 of the Ridge development is still on the drawing board, if that. There are no plans provided by Brookfield to Suddenlink, so he could not provide an estimate for when phase 2 would have internet access. He stated that he just couldn’t tap into phase 1. It may be a while.

The subcontractor to Brookfield was also there trenching his conduit for electricity. He is adding the utility for the 10 reserve lots in phase 2. I count 11 phase 2 lots: 28, 29, 30, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 11 and 12. 

April 24, Tuesday: Wrote an email to Audrey, in the early morning, requesting help in getting the change-order and move-in date nailed down. She responded quickly and forwarded her response to Phil Peterson as well. She asked CraigN to work our concerns in her curt email. I sent my email to her, CraigN and Carolyn. I guess she sought to forward it up the chain of command. We mentioned that with 90% of the $$ committed, we should have a move-in date.

Arrived in the afternoon, called Rob on the way out with no return call. I was wondering who, if anyone, I was going to meet.

Stopped by the house, and with the exception of the drop-zone, all cabinets are in and in place. Photos are here.

Construction is going on in front, again, with another trench. This one looks like electrical to me. You would think that the utilities would coordinate their activities! Access to the house is limited now. There are boxes of tile in the master bedroom, this is promising.

The 12×20 concrete slab behind the 3rd car garage has been poured. It was poured along with Lot 28’s foundation. They are moving quickly on that one.

Stopped by the construction office, talked to Laura and mentioned my meeting with Rob or CraigN or PhilL. She was surprised and had no record, but I don’t know who keeps anyone’s schedule.

Lo and behold, CraigN was in the back room and came out. We had an impromtu meeting, asked about the change order, received copies of them and everything  is to be added at no charge. We have the:

• carpet in the sewing room
• 2 extra can lights in the master bedroom
• granite backsplash to the cabinets on the stove side of the kitchen

to be included!

The drop-zone cabinets have been reordered. Craig made it sound like Tri-State missed these cabinets. I asked about a move-in date and … he went to the backroom … consulted his schedule and stated that the first week in June is what he is shooting for! I was shocked to say the least! We don’t know what if any effect, our email had. Mysteries never cease with these folks.

April 23, Monday: Audrey called requesting the  20% draw for drywall and taping. I was called by Laura at Pioneer Escrow and mentioned that I am having a meeting with Brookfield hopefully tomorrow, to ensure that we are all on the same page.

The first request from Draw #5, was on March 13.

We have yet to see ANY change-order.

April 19, Thursday: Called Brookfield and requested a meeting with CraigN and Rob next week to do a walkthrough and make sure that we are all on the same page. Rob called back and is working the meeting, it can’t be Monday or Wednesday per their schedule. We are shooting for Tuesday.

April 17, Tuesday: Cabinets are going in and the scratch coat is finished on the outside. One of the guys from Tri-State cabinets was finishing up inside, nice friendly type. He was finishing up as we walked in and said that the cabinets should all be in by tomorrow.

Cabinets for all areas are accounted for except for the (face-frame doors) linen closet in the master bedroom and the uppers and lowers for the drop-in area from the garage. Mistake #16. The installer stated that all cabinets for our build are in and nothing was included for the uppers and lowers. I looked up the build and in the first addendum (September 2017), we paid $1650 for this upgrade. As he was leaving, I showed him the uppers and lowers on the addendum. This triggered a series of events.

I called Brookfield Construction and asked for CraigN, PhilL or Rob, the customer service guy to discuss the missing cabinets. No one was available but later that afternoon, Rob, returned my call. This is the first time that any representative called me on the same day, a first!

Rob ‘requested’ that I not interfere in the build process, and that he had additional information about my missing cabinets. I don’t think so … they dropped the ball again (just like the master bedroom window)!

With him on the line, I tried to get an estimate of completion for our house. No comment as he questioned the 4.5 – 5 month build that everyone has been giving us. He mentioned that we ‘might’ have to accept the house WITHOUT the road being in place. I said in no uncertain terms that we would accept the house without a road! Rob tried to pin the delay on the utility companies as well. He mentioned that lot 5 (George) just  “celebrated” his 6 month date of building. I think he was a little flustered with me.

Stopped by the granite folks, just to touch base. The granite, carpet and grout are all in, just waiting a go-ahead. Their business is really picking up and I can see a bottle-neck coming again.

Photos are here.

I hate having to be the bird-dog, why can’t people do their jobs? Will we make the end of May, who knows!

April 13, Friday: Sandy and I came out late today to see what’s new. The exterior stucco has begun on the south and east side of the house. Inside, most of the baseboard is in, shelving in place in the closets, door jambs in place and doors ready to be hung. The interior was being painted today, with 2 guys at work. The first painter guy wasn’t exactly friendly, didn’t even acknowledge my ‘hello’. Computer code samples of the Bear paint, from Home Depot, are on SmugMug for future reference. We get either flat or semi-gloss as options.

The 2 additional can lights above the sinks in the master bath have been added, but still no 2nd access to garage attic for access to my antenna wires.

Lot 28 has begun excavation, we are disappointed and didn’t think we’d get a neighbor so fast. We thought for sure around the end of 2018 at the earliest …

Still no work on the extension of Trade Wind Dr. I’m wondering that even Memorial Day may be iffy. Photos are here.

Stopped by the construction office to inquire about a key to take photos and  interior measurements. Michelle was closing up and no one else was around. She said any type of access to the house would have to be through CraigN or PaulL. Fridays they try to close up early. This builder is really a pain in the ass to work with, customer service is NOT their forte.

April 4, Wednesday: Drywall is taped, sanded and texture has been applied. Came out in the late afternoon, door added from garage to house and front door glass installed. Front door also locked. All interior doors are being placed as is the baseboard molding and shelving in the various rooms.

CraigN also showed up by chance and we had an opportunity to walk through the house. Carpet in the 3rd bedroom is noted, can lights to the master bedroom to be added and both master and guest bath  shower floors to be lowered 1 inch, not flush level with the floor. These notes have been added to our file, according to CraigN who notified Michelle to add them to our “change-order” (my words, I don’t know how he is keeping track).

We now have a water meter box shared with Lot 28 to our east. Southwest Gas is slowing down the street progress according to CraigN.

Photos are shown here.

April 2, Monday: Called TK Flooring and spoke to Gina. She (TK Flooring) has ordered enough carpet to add it to the 3rd bedroom before or after the tiling. At least TK Flooring thinks ahead.

I called Craig’s office in the early morning trying to get a jump on things and ask that we work a change order to add carpet/delete tile in the 3rd bedroom. I talked to Michelle about the 3rd bedroom carpet and she sent me to Craig. He was not there and she promised that he would get back to me by the end of the day. I am still waiting on that call!

March 30, Friday: Received a call from TK Flooring (on Good Friday) asking me to clarify page 10 of the build. The first paragraph says carpet the master and guest bedroom. The next paragraph states that we are tiling everything but the bedrooms. She, Gina, counted 3 bedrooms and is asking us to clarify the confusion.

Sandy and I think that a change order to add carpet and delete the tile for her sewing room/office would be the best approach.

I promised Gina that I would call CraigN first think Monday and put that change order request in. Gina mentioned that they would just order extra carpet, in case we need it, or if not, they can have someone else use it.

March 29, Thursday: As I was preparing to leave, a received a text from Carolyn that our meeting had to be cancelled because Brookfield Corporate is coming to talk to the sales and construction crews this morning at 9am. I was pretty furious and left a text and phone message. She knew the day before that they come every 2 weeks, I doubt this was  a spur-of-the-moment thing and did not think of extending us a courtesy call! Mistake #14, no courtesy extended.

We talked later, before her 9am meeting, and I gave her my displeasure. She did not even offer a reschedule for later in the morning. Our meeting would have lasted 15 minutes at most. She is NOT a customer “advocate”, she stated. She represents Brookfield sales. Any issues/concerns we have need to be worked now need to be with the construction office. She ‘inherited’ our file, and her responsibility is completed, she stated. The conversation was quite a disappointment!

She did state that our updated change order paperwork would be available at the construction office and I just had to stop by to pick it up.

I did some research in the morning on the new Aristocraft cabinets and found a distributor in Fort Mohave. Tri-State Cabinets, 928-704-3701 on Reagan Drive. I drove over to check these guys out after looking at their online catalog. I sent it to Sandy and we talked about the options.

As I talked to the sales rep at Tr-State, there was a meeting going on in a conference room. Rob Slaught (?), the customer service rep for Brookfield was talking to Tr-State about orders for The Ridge, talk about coincidence! He came out because he “recognized” my voice! It turns out that CraigN had our new choices – Birch Saybrooke in color Cafe and had relayed that to Rob. Rob had our file and somehow knew what we had changed to. The Tr-State guy provided me with a sample of the cabinets, nice guy.

As I was driving up to the house, a Suddenlink tech was on Trade Wind starting an install. We talked about our new need and he said it could be done with no problem. His name was Martin and his tech number is #15121. He took the action to check and update the staff on Miracle Mile. He saw no issues with getting our internet access. It will be 100Mbs fiber and then coax to the house.

Water line is going in to lots 28 (east of us), 29 and 30 (west of us). I think out water line is on the east side of the house, our water line is together with 28. The access to the house is hampered by the water line installs. I talked to a water company worker and the furthest east they are going, for now, is lot 28.

Earlier, Rob mentioned that the water guys are slowing up progress a little due to the inaccessibility issue.

Drywall is almost complete, taping is done on all edges except in the shower stalls. I assume that is because of the tile going in. A little sanding and I think Brookfield is ready to texture and paint. Photos are here. The next to last draw should be ready RSN.

On my way out, I stopped by the construction office to pick up my change order. I met with Michelle and Paula, both very nice. After a little ‘we can’t find the file’, they did locate it and realized that the change order was NOT in the package. It was NOT in the package because Carolyn and the sales office had the responsibility to generate it, wow! Mistake #15

Michelle took the action to get with Carolyn to generate the change order and get it emailed to me. Carolyn gives us crap and she doesn’t even do her job! This process is sometimes just a pain!

Stopped by Frontier on Hancock to check on Internet options. Receptionist was very rude and stated that we have no service options, “at this time”. Wow, what customer service!

March 28, Wednesday: Drove over to TK Flooring to pick the new carpet. We chose Mohawk carpet in color Ginger Snap from the original Arabella, Apple Cider, grade 5. We hope this is the same grade and do not have any way to tell that. You can see these in the sample pics above. They had no samples for me to take, the photos will have to suffice. One of the photos has both the original Apple Cider and the new Ginger Snap. I also picked up a copy of the tile that we are adding. It is “Coral Reef”. I hoped that my conversation regarding TK Flooring with Carolyn yesterday, did not mess up our relationship with them, all seemed well with those folks.

Stopped by Suddenlink on Miracle Mile. They will look into adding Suddenlink to the new address. They took my information and contact stuff as well. They do fiber-optic now at 100Mbs.

March 27, Monday: I called Carolyn Barker and we played telephone tag. She called me back on Tuesday early afternoon. We are set to talk at 9am on Thursday. The goal is to pick up a sample of the carpet and the new kitchen cabinets. Brookfield switched cabinet subcontractor. She said we could do the legwork on Thursday morning. I asked HER to do the legwork, so that I could just have a quick drop-in and then head back home with samples. I stressed that I did not have time on Thursday to run around gather the carpet, tile and cabinet samples and that I needed her staff to do that legwork for me. Again, I stated  that we the homeowners are having to keep up after Brookfield, especially in the carpet, tile and kitchen cabinet areas!

More importantly, I also needed the updated paperwork (page 10 and 11 of our build package) that showed the change order from the original carpet and cabinets to the new stuff.

Called TK Flooring after Carolyn to get up an update on the carpet. They verified 100% that the original manufacture is not available and we need to pick another brand/color. I will do that tomorrow afternoon.

March 21, Wednesday: Drove by on our way to Las Vegas to check out Walker Furniture store. All exterior corners and joint taping are complete. All interior corners remain to be completed. Dry wall and taping IS NOT COMPLETED YET.

The 2 additional can lights in the bathroom and the access hatch in the NW corner of the garage are still not completed. Two things to watch! Photos from Monday and today’s visit are here.

March 19, Monday: Before we drove up from Lake Havasu, we stopped by 1 Builder’s First Source. David Hilton, (928) 855-4061 and I talked about solar tubes. They carry, I remember, Solatubes and we were able to see one on display. With the extensions, 4 x 2′ we would have enough to go up 12′ from the master bath. I am concerned about the darkness in the master bath.

He gave me the name of Richard Lendecker, (928) 727-7946, their Bullhead City representative. Richard agreed to meet at the house at 1pm to scope out the job requirements. He was on time and we agreed that now would be the time to add the tube in place. The roof tiles are not set, it is the ideal time!

He Richard, agreed that it could be done, but the subject of warranty by a non-Brookfield installer could be an issue. After that discussion, Sandy and I wandered over to the Brookfield Construction office and got to speak to CraigN in the office. We gave up on the 2nd tube in the guest bath and hope for just one in the master bath.

Craig mentioned that the trenching work, for the sewer line, slowed up their progress a bit. The road work did not allow construction crews to get on the property for a bit. Not sure how much the progress was slowed.

He does NOT want to add the tubes and in our discussion, he brought up the option of 2 more can lights in the master bath. This, he said would be a much easier solution (with more light) and we could place them where-ever we wanted to in the bath. They would be on the same circuit as the overhead light.

CraigN gave us mark-up chalk with orders to mark the locations of the new lamps. Off we went with a solution and … we did!

Sort of on a fluke, we drove over to Themis’ granite place to just touch base. It was good that we did, they, the office staff had little (NO) information on our stone, grout, tile and carpet choices. They knew who we were and showed us the ONE piece of paper that they had on our materials. Luckily, we had our construction package and the staff was able to get the items that we will require on their order list.

The carpet may no longer be in stock, so we are waiting for them to call us and tell us to pick another color and brand. Themis wandered in at this time and we re-addressed the Epoxy-Lite requirement for both the master and guest bath. He said, again, that it was no problem! Mistake #13 is not Brookfield not keeping us in the loop about the carpet and failing to keep their subcontractor in the loop about our build requirements (epoxy, tile, granite, carpet …)

March 18, Sunday: We wandered over to the Lake Havasu home and garden show in the pool facility. Lots of good leads for garage floor expoxy, garage shelving, garage screening and spa designs.

We drove up from Running Springs on Saturday, after the snowstorm, to spend the night and hook up with Carol and Nicole at the Campos house in Lake Havasu. We drove out the 10 to the 62 (Vidal Junction) to the Arizona 95 up to Parker and Havasu. It is about the same time on the 10 to Havasu as it is to Willow Valley, about 3:45 non-stop.

March 13, Tuesday: We received an email from Aubrey at Brookfield with 2 pictures of the drywall activity “complete”. We traded emails and phone calls, she stated that the construction team told her that the drywall was complete and they were ready for Draw #5. Mistake #12.

Per my pictures and the blowup of her pictures, the “drywall and taping” is NOT complete. I told her, she apologized, mentioned she was on vacation next week and that we would address this when she returns. That should be week of March 26. We’ll see. I wonder if they were assuming that I would just blindly approve the 2nd to the last draw! Argh, keep after these folks!

March 5, Monday: Dry wall completed in the entire house. It looks much different with no see-through walls.

In front, on Trade Wind Dr. , there is a huge trench for, it looks like, a water line.

Lot 28 to our east, is SOLD and Lot 30 to our west, fell through, but has been re-sold for about 4 weeks now, according to Carolyn. We now have neighbors on both sides, we assumed that the earliest was around the end of 2018. Lot 28 is one of 2, the other being Lot 84, across the street from us, that is in Phase 3 (according to Carolyn, but we think it is Phase 2, because we were Phase 1a). This is all confusing.

With the absence of any kind of change-order, we are assuming that the granite backsplash in lieu of the travetine $$ placeholder is a push and should cost no more. We are doing granite vertically to the bottom of the cabinets on the stove side and the standard 6″ backsplash by the refrigerator. I called Carolyn to make sure that this is a legitimate understanding on Tuesday (March 6) morning!

Communication with the builder continues to be extremely sparse.

I met Butch, the new owner of Lot 37, the house by the clubhouse, on the same side. He is very excited for his first new home and he is ATV buddies with George Royal. Lot 36, across the street is also being framed at the same time.

TO WATCH: The access to the attic in the NW corner is marked on the drywall, but it is NOT cut out like the other access in the garage.

Photos are shown here.

February 24, Saturday: Insulation is underway and the drywall is on site. On all exterior walls, we have insulation and all interior walls are awaiting drywall on one side, then insulation, then drywall on other side. See photos here.

Final tweaks of coax for Carolina Windom brought it down to the access panel in the garage roof. The 50′ is just right!

Saw Tim Koons driving by. We had a nice chat. His assessment – – maybe end of April completion date? Time will tell.

We took interior measurements for the sewing room, guest and master bedroom, kitchen and living room. We measured for furniture and the washer/dryer and refrigerator.

We peaked in yesterday to see if Carolyn was in, she was, but was working. We left a message with Sami. Carolyn texted today. I asked the status of the change order. I bet her response will be … ‘change order?’ No word this evening on her reply.

We continue to be on our own in this process. I’m not sure I can recommend this Brookfield outfit. Still no response from Corporate and Harvard Investments …

February 17, Saturday: All windows, including the master bedroom are now installed. The outside insulation is all added. I met Phil Longstrom, CraigN’s number 2 guy. I was adding the Radio Wavez OCF Carolina Windom with Gilbert (we removed the Buckmaster OCF) and he wandered by to see what was going on. It was late in the morning and Gilbert and Trinidad had already left.

No word, other thank a quick email from Carolyn earlier in the week, that she is processing the change order for the backsplash. We’ll see what that cost is, it should be pretty close to a push of our original travertine.

The following fixes from the walk-thru are done:

1. Master bedroom and sewing room TV power and cable outlets are moved per our request.
2. The additional switch and light fixture over the garage workspace is completed.
3. The access to the garage roof is still in work, according to Phil.
4. The gas line is also in work, he said.

I talked to Phil and mentioned the phone jack in the kitchen, he though it would be no problem to move it to the east side. We’ll see.

February 11, Sunday: We walked thru the model again and decided to have granite backsplash to the cabinet height on the west side, by the stove. On the east side, by the refrigerator, we will go with the standard 6″ granite backsplash.

While we walked thru the model, we saw the kitchen phone jack on the side by the refrigerator.

In an email to CraigN and Carolyn, we asked that the granite be as above and if possible, to move the phone jack or delete it. The granite backsplash replaces the ‘travertine’ stone we had as a placeholder. NO word or feedback …

February 10, Saturday: Gilbert, the local guy recommended by Tim, helped install the skyloop in the rafters. We were able to install 251.5′ of wire. We also installed the Buckmaster OCF dipole. I have a Radio Wavez Carolina Windom that was ordered but it arrived on Friday, and we left Thursday afternoon.

February 9, Friday: The first walkthru is complete and we are proceeding! The walkthru was very smooth and we had CraigN, his customer service person, Rob, Carolyn and Sandy and I. Carolyn was originally not  going to attend, per CraigN, but I requested her anyway.

The fallout was, with no additional cost:

1. The solar tubes in the master and guest bath are not available and will not be installed. (This is not in the Frame Walk Release writeup, but probably should be).
2. We are relocating the master bedroom and sewing room TV power and cable outlets  to the upper right corner of the bedroom and the upper left of the sewing room.
3. We are adding a an additional switch and light fixture over the garage workbench area.
4. We are adding a roof access above the loop antenna wiring in the corner of the garage above the workbench. It is small, and narrow but will be fine for wire access.
5. We are strapping all exhaust vent flexible piping to prevent vibration in the future.
6. We are relocating gas BBQ stub around the corner, facing north rather than east in the patio corner.
7. Shower floors will not be flush (or beach entry) but will drop in about and inch or so.

These are the official conditions of the “Frame Walk Release”. I am satisfied, I guess.

With a little more work, SolaTubes could have replaced the Velux. CraigN stated that the Velux tubes wouldn’t work because of our long (11.5′) extensions required to reach the roofline. NO way, no how, he stated. We would be issued a credit. This credit was traded for the items 2 thru 6 above. SolaTubes has a dealer in Havasu, the same dealer that the windows came from, Probuild #36 store. The SolaTubes come in 2′ extensions, we probably could have made it work, but the question would have been the loss of light, BUT, it could have been looked into and given to us to decide. This is NOT how Brookfield works, however.

There were mistakes in the building process so far. I pointed them out to make a point. But, we accepted these “oversights” during the walkthru:

1. The master bedroom slider was specified as left-to-right, it was installed as a right-to-left
2. The hose bib by the front door and the garage was missing. There are 4 hose bibs however, with one being on the east side of the garage. CraigN offered to relocate it, but we declined.
3. The front door window side lights are clear glass. We thought they matched the 1/2 Lite Georgian door that was spec’d, but no … We are stuck with them because of the long-lead time of the windows. The builder does not keep stock of common doors and windows, I guess, and each build is a separate order process. Mistake #11.
4. The kitchen island and living room power outlets were not included in the subfloor but added after the fact, right before the walkthru. The cement was still wet during the walkthru, but at least they are in. Tim Koons said, worse case, the builder will trench the power into the slab. That’s what they did. Mistake #10.

Today, we had a request from Brookfield for Draw #4. We gave the go-ahead after the morning walkthru. We have committed 70% of our funds.

The cabinet maker has been changed to Aristrocraft, we have chosen the ‘Saybrooke’ style (level3) in color ‘Cafe’. This came up after the walkthru! Mistake #9, you would think a courtesy call would be extended notifying the buyer.

February 8, Thursday: We are coming out today for the walkthru tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if anyone gives us a reminder phone call. UPDATE – no reminder call.  I called Carolyn Friday morning to verify the meeting. She asked us to stop by after the walkthru, I assumed she was going to be there. CraigN requested, twice, that she not attend. By the beginning of the walkthru, this story had changed. He asked her not to attend because it was her day off, she said Friday after the walkthru.

February 2, Friday: Draw #3 occurred today, 20% = $74,830.80. Audrey at Brookfield called me after sending just ONE picture and Janice at Pioneer Escrow verified the draw as well via email. I was tempted to send a link to Audrey about my photos.

January 31, Wednesday: Except for the master bedroom 4’x2′ window and the wall of glass in the living room, all windows are now in. Looks like all the electrical is in as well.

The half lights accents for the entrance door are clear as are all others. The accents are supposed to be in the “1/2 Lite Georgian” style. An email has been sent to Carolyn and CraigN. Click here for windows photos, I tried to get the labels for all, just for reference. Mistake #8.

January 30, Tuesday: Dropped off the letter in support of Tim Koons to the Brookfield Corporate office in Phoenix as well as the Harvard Investments Group in Scottsdale. We’ll see what happens.

Talked with Themis about the granite vs. composite. We can make a change to the Level 5 material AS LONG AS Craig Neubaur approves the change. I think Brookfield is trying to control its suppliers. Themis is more than willing to work with us, as long as Brookfield approves. He want to keep TK Flooring and Home Improvements in business too.

Electrical work is progressing and almost done. I think we need a light fixture in the garage over the workbench area and another outlet by the gable vents for a whole-house fan option.

January 29, Monday: Came out and had 3pm meeting with Carolyn. We are off to a good start. We signed the $2500 credit. She called Craig Neubaur’s office to find out about our first walkthru. Our first walkthru is scheduled for Friday, February 9 at 11am. The landscaper, Muñoz will also be there.

The Alphonsos, The Royal’s and the Esquer’s were re-assigned by Candice to Carolyn. Carolyn had an interesting story to tell about how Candice sandbagged her. The Alphonsos husband is the high-powered Federal Patent Attorney.

Windows have begun, most of the wiring is complete. The windows are called MI and manufactured in AZ.  Click here for the photos.

January 28, Sunday: Received a call from Carolyn Barker, the broker at Brookfield. She is now our point-of-contact. I mentioned that I was coming out tomorrow, Monday, to sign the $2500 backyard credit. I will talk to her, instead of Candice, I guess.

January 26, Friday: I talked with Janice of Pioneer Escrow to hold all future draws from our build. She confirmed that it is our right to do so, given the turmoil that has just occurred.

I confirmed that the 3rd draw is walls and roof sheeting. That is done and I’m not sure why it hasn’t happened yet. Draw 4 is electrical, plumbing, ready for wall closure.

Draws 3 and 4 amount to 70% of money spent, an additional 15%, I think.

The first walkthrough should be real soon now.

January 25, Thursday: Tim Koons was fired today by Craig Peterson. We were notified by Candice Brown that Tim no longer works there. For our pain and suffering, Brookfield is adding $2500 to the backyard landscaping. She, Candice, is our new point of contact.

Tim is not happy, and we are not happy. Mistake #7.

We will write a letter in support of Tim asking for re-instatement. He was pushed out by a hostile work environment instigated by the office manager.

January 20, Sunday: We stopped by on our way to Quartzfest to check out the build. Click here for the photos.

The master bedroom window has been added to the house. No explanation as to why.

Upon seeing the build, the 2 niches/alcoves are probably not do-able. The walls are too thin, only 2×4 construction.

We went to the model homes at Canyon Trails to see their niches, they were built in specially for that particular model.

There has been no feedback from Craig Neubaur regarding our request, par for the course.

The HVAC, ducting and rough plumbing are complete. Interesting that most of the water lines are plastic with stubs of copper for the hose bibs.

January 17, Wednesday: Talked with Craig Neubaur, called him, he answered. We emailed him on Saturday, January 13 about incorporating the 2 niches/alcoves that we saw in the models at Canyon Trails (Mistake #6). We requested the additional niches through Tim, who suggested that we send the formal request to Craig Neubaur. This morning, Tim suggested that we send another email to Craig but cc his boss, Craig Peterson.

I did the 2nd email, then called Craig Neubaur. The framing is complete and he will go look, talk to the framers and see what can be done. We will wait to hear.

I think today should be the 3rd draw, once framing and sheeting is complete. 55% moneys drawn (20, 15 and 20%).

January 12, Friday: Wanted to meet the framers, so I came early and dropped off some coffee and donuts. Don, the framing crew chief, to his credit, could not have his crew drop everything and entertain the buyer. There were 8 guys on his crew that day, 5 white guys and 3 hispanics. I talked to one of the hispanics and he exchanged pleasantries. He asked me if this was my house and I replied, yes. Click here for the photos.

As Don and I talked after a bit (he on the rear patio roof), he asked if they could do anything to fix any problems that I had seen. Since he asked, I brought up the master bedroom window (Mistake #4) that was missing. I told him it was in the mode, but not in my build. We looked at the full size plans in his truck and no window is shown. Last night, I verified that it was not an option in the pricing sheets as well. It is not shown in the tiny 8.5×11 copy they gave me too. After discussion, he said that he would fix anything as long as Craig Neubaur gave the go-ahead. He, Don suggested though that the east facing window would be a pain in the summer and that his personal opinion was that it was best not added. Furthermore, he mentioned that his team had raised the master bath window just a bit. As spec’d, the shower head would hit the window and with the hard water there, best to avoid that issue entirely. He asked that we keep that change between us.

Don asked me if the kitchen counter was to be 2-tiered or all one level. As built so far, it was 2-tiered for bar stool seating. I told him that we spec’d it out as Sandy wanted one level. Don said that they would fix that today! (Mistake #5)

After calling Sandy, we both agreed that we would leave the missing windows as is. I called Tim, mentioned the missing window. He mentioned that there are some things in the models that are not priced out in the house building option sheet, this was one of those items. I asked if there was anything else that we would not be getting as-built in the model home.  We explored that some more and he suggested that we walk the house to ensure that everything we ordered/requested/paid for was to be included. We walked the model about and our build about 10:30 am, and everything we spec’d is included to my satisfaction.

The sheeting process is going fast. I stopped by in the afternoon about 3:15 expecting the framing crew to be gone. The 3 hispanics were still there, no white guys around. The 3 guys were working on the transition from the garage roofline to the house roofline. They do good work.

The house should be fully framed by Tuesday-Wednesday ready for the HVAC, plumbing and electrical guys late next week. Brookfield will be asking us at that time to come and walk the build before drywall begins to cover up the walls.

January 11, Thursday: The framing process is going fast.  I stopped by in the afternoon and took some pictures. Tim had me sign an addendum that we had signed before in September. Some one lost it I guess, but we had a copy. I signed it again.

There is no east-facing window in the master bedroom, I noticed (Mistake #4). Click here for the photos.

I asked Tim when the crews work, he mentioned their hours are 7am to 3pm.

As I was leaving, I stopped by Lot 5 and introduced myself to George and Sherry Royal. Their home is about 2 weeks ahead of our build. We compared notes and ‘issues’ with Craig Neubaur. They have had a more rough time with him than we have so far. Probably, because we haven’t had any changes or mistakes … yet.

January 6, Saturday: Pictures arrived from Tim, we have walls beginning. The Smugmug photos have walls beginning, this with 2 days work and a crew of about 6 folks. Progress continues! I was hoping to come out to see the first 2×4, 2×6 being laid, but oh well. I’ll take the quick progress.

I hope to come out on Thursday to see for my self! Click here for the photos.

December 28, Thursday: Took pictures of the final pouring complete. Now the foundation cures for 2 weeks or so, lumber will be delivered soon and the walls begin to take shape!

We compared the house foundation to that of the mode homes, including the Yosemite model. We are coming up with some landscaping ideas and a small list of our “change order” as the build is progressing. We measured the master bath/shower and it is as requested, we were worried that this would be mistake #3, but all is well! Click here for the photos.

December 27, Wednesday: The 2nd foundation pour was completed today. I received an email and a photo of the garage portion of the foundation completed and a request from the builder for Draw #2 from Audrey Sangerman .  I also had a receipt of the 2nd from the escrow company, a Lauren Diaz. The 2nd draw is for $56123.10.

December 26, Tuesday: Sandy and I came out to see that the first foundation pour was complete, The next pour is to complete the garage, entry way, and front and back patio.

Again, the 3rd car garage and pullthrough had been modified, see the SmugMug pictures, to NOT have the foundation footing, but to make an opening for the two pathways. Some one made a mistake (Mistake #3) and has NOT acknowledged it.

This is mistake #2, #1 was the 5′ property line adjustment. Do I have to keep watching these guys all the way through this process? Click here for the photos.

December 21, Thursday: The electrical box is now in, see the pictures on SmugMug. I noticed that the 2 car driveway and the 3rd car driveway and pullthrough did not have the same foundation layout. The 2 car garage did not have a foundation wall pouring (with bolts for the walls) but the 3rd car and pullthrough did. Accidentally, Tim and his wife pulled up as I was taking pictures in the afternoon. I spoke to him about my concern and he was also confused. He took an action to ask the construction office via email. Click here for the photos.

December 18, Monday: Road trip to see the progress! Plumbing is added in place. I arrived in the afternoon and the workers had already finished. The pictures are now being published on SmugMug so that progress can be shown to family and friends.

Interesting thing to note is that the extension of the property has the northwest rebar marker on the downslope of the northern boundary. The northeast corner is on the edge of the slope with lot 28 to the east.

I stayed until the 21st, Thursday.

Lunch with Tim Koons revealed that it was the foundation builder that noticed that the property was 5′ short in width. As he tried to layout the foundation, it wasn’t measuring up correctly per the layout on the property map. He then went back to the construction office and then the error was noticed and has finally been corrected. Click here for the photos.

December 15, Friday: Tim sent us a picture that ground-breaking and trenching are underway! Click here for the photos.

December 13, Wednesday: Talked with Craig P in Phoenix expressing my our concerns about the re-grading and an updated status. He relayed the same story that Tim provided, we are short 5′ of property line. I think Craig P mentioned that we might be trenching real soon and pouring concrete next week (December 18-22). We’ll see.

December 12, Tuesday: Text from Tim “Dave, Today I see tractors working on lot 30 next to your lot. They are doing something between your two lots but I can’t figure what. Regards.” It turned out that lot 29 was too small and lot 30 was too big by 5′ width-wise. The contractor was re-compacting the soil between the 2 lots. Mistake #2.

December 8, Friday: Message from Tim. “Dave and Sandy, Weekly update on lot 28 Ridge. Nothing happened this week on the lot. Sorry!” Called Craig Neuebaur after that to find out the status.  Craig stated that the wind was too much (40-50mph) to prevent begin any foundation work and that slab pouring would take place at the beginning of the new year. The week of December 12-15 might be a time for foundation layout.

December 2, Saturday: Tim asked for an update after his return from vacation, we said we had things under control.

November 28, Tuesday: Held phone call with Craig Peterson, Craig Neubaur and Audrey Singerman. Craig P and Audrey are at 602 265-4400. Craig Neubaur at (cell) 928 704-0550 and Michelle, the receptionist at the construction office is 928 715-7863. Craig should have provided feedback and all of this could have been avoided, this is Mistake #1.

Audrey promised to give us photos as each of the draws will be requested as per our plan below:

1. 20% First draw – plans submitted for building permit
2. 15% 2nd draw – foundation completion
3. 20% 3rd draw – framing/roof sheeting completion
4. 15% 4th draw – rough mechanicals completion
5. 20% 5th draw – drywall hung and taped completion
6. 10% 6th and final draw – close of escrow completion

November 24, Friday: Drafted an email to Craig Peterson, inquiring about the progress of our build. Sent it and he returned our email, promising to check on things and get back to us. He called, left a message and promised to address our issues.

November 23, Thursday:  We visually verfied that as of yesterday, November 22, there is no progress on Lot 29. Communication is key to a succesful partnership and so far our communication has been very poor and pretty much one-way from the buyer.

November 16, Thursday: We texted both Tim Koons and Craig Neubaur about progress on Lot 29. Tim responded quickly with a “nothing happened” message. With no communication from Craig, we called Janice Burkey at Pioneer and found out that the Draw #1 had been released on November 7. We had signed the CASH BUY addendum with the DRAW SCHEDULE, but misplaced our copy. I asked Janice if she had a copy and she stated she could not find it in our escrow package, but would, post haste, go find it. She did find it and emailed it to us as well shortly after. We asked if it was normal to disburse funds without a draw schedule and she really didn’t have a good answer, other than … the builder asked for it.

November 7,Tuesday:  After prodding from our salesman, Craig finally returned our call. He had agreed to the changes that we proposed (with no feedback to us). He stated that he had submitted our plans to the city on the previous Friday, November 3. He mentioned that it was taking about 3-5 days for the permits to be granted by the City and that he, Craig, would distribute the plans to his subcontractors to begin the building process after approval. This conversation led us to believe that by Monday, November 13, at the latest, we should see dirt starting to move on Lot 29. Craig promised to keep us in-the-loop.

Unbeknownst to us, Pioneer Title released the first 20% draw to Brookfield on November 7. We were not notified by anyone. Supposedly the first draw follows, “First Draw to be released … upon completion of plans drawn in order to prepare … for building permit”.

November 6, Sunday: We called Craig Neubaur to get a verbal update. We received his voicemail and left a message.

November 5, Sunday: We emailed Craig Neubaur… “We are Dave and Sandy Esquer purchasing Brookfield Lot 29 at the Ridge with the Yosemite floorpan. We are working with Tim Koons and wired 1/2 of the house dollars (approximately $170,000) to Pioneer Escrow on October 20th. This is an all-cash purchase.

We understood that our signatures on the draftsman drawings (birds-eye and front elevation) were the go-ahead to Brookfield to begin the permit procurring process. That was about 2 weeks ago. We modified (submitted on the front-elevation and birds-eye views), the garage street-facing windows (increasing to 3 or 4) and the elimination of the garage-to-house wall niche cutout.

Questions:

• Can we make these 2 changes work?
• As soon as we have feedback that the permit is a “go”, we are ready to wire the remaining dollars. When might that be?”

We received no answer …

October 20, Friday:  With an all cash build, we wired $170,000 on October 19 to Pioneer Escrow. On October 20, we called Tim Koons to help us finalize the drafting and elevation views. We made 2 final tweaks. These final, agreed-to drawings were, we assumed, the green light to begin the building permit submittal process. We thought we were ready to go.

We had confirmation that approximately $170,000 was wired to Pioneer Title Escrow in Bullhead City. 928-758-4848,  c/o Janice Burkey. We assumed that the plans were being submitted to plan check and in 3-4 days we would be ready to push dirt around.

October 18, Wednesday: The Hiki-Ku house closed this Wednesday. Here is the lot we settled on, it is Lot 29 and it looks northward from the back of the house. It is pretty much located aligned with a compass rose at N, S, E and W.