Yard Rant

Before I get talking too much I just want to say this will be a long rant about our yard, I’m not whining I just hope someone else will learn from our experience.

Keystone Custom Homes is the builder of our home. So far our house is wonderful. Truly, I love the house. I’ve heard a few people that have had problems with certain parts of the house. Ours is great, we’ve had no problems with the structure.

As I said in the last post we moved in, in October. But our yard issues began when they started construction in July. Right after they dug out the basement they hit an underground spring. The builders decided that we needed a waterproof barrier around the basement because of that spring.

Okay, No biggie.  They continued working.  The whole family would come out on the weekend to see the progress. I mean this is an exciting time! Seeing buildings built is always fun, but when it’s your own you want to watch everything being done. One weekend we came out and saw this huge metal grate in the backyard.

Right in the flattest part of the yard, where we planned on our children playing. Of course, we complained about it. They said due to the water issues that the drain was needed. It would help get rid of water coming off the hill. Really disappointed about that. No one from Keystone ever said that our land had water issues. Why would they? They wanted our money.

Our neighbors told us that when they were building their house they had water issues also. They said that on our property water was gushing out and running into their property.

Keystone called up my hubby one day, told him they had a perfect solution to our yard issue. Hubby went out and they had dug a swale on the top of the hill, taking away more of our flat area. They said that will help with the water and we can remove the drain.

Wow, Okay. No more drain, YAY!

Not yay, two weeks after moving in we knew the drain needed to be put back in. We did not want that but it was either have the drain back in or have a new pond. So we called up and mentioned that. We were told wait until spring when the grass grows. I told my husband the grass won’t grow. All the grass seed has been washed away. Seriously, the grass seed had been washed down the hill into the neighbor’s yards. Not only did we have a pond in our yard so did our neighbor.

We mentioned this to Keystone multiple times. Every time we got told to wait, they didn’t know of anyone else having problems.

Over the winter, Mushu went ice skating. He didn’t have to go far, just walked out to the back yard. Zeus even got in on the action. I wish I would have recorded them sliding all over the place back there.

We told Keystone that they needed to come fix the problems with the yard. Half the water was coming from rain the other half was coming from the sump pump.

We’ve been given the run around since October. It’s now April, they are just now starting to talk about possibly doing something. As I’m writing this they are woking on re-grading both our neighbor’s yards.

The possible plan they are talking about doing in our yard? Just re-grading. They basically said that the sump pump is our problem. That seriously pisses me off. You built this house, installed the sump pump, graded the yard, and are telling me it’s my problem. Keystone gives a year warranty type thing for the house and yard. So no it’s not my problem. They aren’t going to do anything about that. The sump pump runs practically every hour. Even when it hasn’t rained.

We have had at least three people tell us they don’t know how Keystone thought this plot of land was suitable for a home. Our realtor was shocked that no one ever walked the property with us. We weren’t kept in the loop. Keystone admitted they weren’t going to tell us about the metal grate, the underground spring, or the water problems. It was just going to be a surprise.

Speaking of surprises. One really amazing one we found was glass shards all over the yard. We’ve also found tire pieces and a window frame. Told Keystone about this also. You’d think their response would have been shock, or maybe an apology. Nope! We were told that it probably came from whoever they hired to bring top soil out and just be careful. I kid you not. It was like it was no big deal. Oh, by the way, we didn’t have top soil! All they did was lay straw down over the clay.

So in addition to all this, the construction manager and her boss are no longer with Keystone. We are dealing with new people. People who have no idea about anything that’s happened with the property. They said don’t have any idea about the spring. They didn’t even know who the excavator was. We’ve sent in all the pics we have taken. Sent emails from the previous construction manager. I’m seriously surprised that they don’t keep any information on their own properties.

We’ve spoken with other neighbors. One a few streets down told us that he had problems with water and drainage also. He was getting the run around too. He casually mentioned lawyers, and BAM things started changing. Another had his basement flood a few months after moving in.

Oh,yes they are still building homes around us.

Stay tune…More to come

Kristina