The Chronicles of Potomac Shores: The Brick, the Blunder and the Builder

First, the good news - we got an offer on our condo! She came in a little low at first but our amazing realtor negotiated and got EVERYTHING we wanted including waiting to close until the house is ready. Right now we are scheduled to close on both houses on the same day, June 15th. And she is OVER-qualified! Woohoo! Inspection has already happened and they are asking us for NOTHING.

The appraisal happened today, but we won't talk about that, everything being "still under investigation and all..."

Now, to the actual "brick and mortar" (meat and potatoes, if you will) of this post: it all started with a particular nosy neighbor (I hope that neighbor is not a follower of our blog!). This particularly perceptive plebeian noticed that the brick on the foundation of our house did not look like the brick that was found on all of the other “homes with the Iron Grey color scheme. This prompted our construction manager to ask some questions of the design office, sales team, etc. Turns out the neighbor was right! They had put "Castle Rock" when the design specs called for "Craggy Mountain". A side by side photo comparison will do

Castle Rock 

Craggy Mountain

Now, my wife, the master designer of the homes' options and amenities, swears that "Castle Rock" is the only brick option that was ever discussed with us by the sales team. Furthermore, I can attest to the fact that "Castle Rock" is the only brick option that appears anywhere on our various option selection sheets. Third, we sorta did start to fall in love with the look of the burgundy colored brick against the grey-blue hardy plank siding. We also liked being different and the only home in the community with that combo.

Well, different shall not be tolerated here! 

Craggy Mountain

Craggy Mountain

Potomac Shores spoke to the builder, SunCal, and SunCal promptly told Potomac Shores/Ryan Homes that it was a mistake and the brick must be replaced by the 'Craggy Mountain", the approved brick design for the 'Iron Gray' color scheme (it all gets a bit tedious and onerous, don't you think?)  Here is the new brick, which was literally replaced before I could even raise a fuss (more on that later):


 A quick word about our community and the developer; it is unlike other RH communities in the sense that RH's had to negotiate and present ideas to the developer before the floor plans were acceptable to the developer's master "plan". SunCal wanted all the exteriors to have the same "Tidewater Architecture" theme.  This is the reason why we have floor plans that won't be found anywhere else (although they were just approved to add the Venice and Milan models but their elevations and exteriors have been changed to blend in with the rest of the community). This is also why PS has front porches and upgraded landscaping packages as a standard feature.  

So I called SunCal to see if complaining about the oversight with the brick would accomplish anything. It didn't. SunCal are the ones in charge of our HOA until it is released to the homeowners so we are a little worried the HOA is going to be a huge pain (but aren't all HOA's?) In fact, they didn't return my phone call but instead, went directly to RH/Potomac Shores and told them that the brick needed to replaced immediately. Apparently, they said my voice mail message was garbled and they couldn't understand just exactly what I was calling about. Either way, by the time I got a hold of anyone at RH, I suspect the brick had already been replaced.

I love the bronze finished fixtures in the master bathroom and our "free" granite