KB is bailing on New Mexico...and homeowners

I recently posted on a local Albuquerque blog site about our builder (KB Home). They recently announced that they are leaving the state. Initially they said they would finish all projects, but they later clarified the statement to say they would finish the homes under contract. This leaves residents like us wondering:
1) How long will the empty lots remain empty?
2) What will be done to control the dust from those empty lots?
3) If and when the lots are sold to another builder, will that builder have to adhere to our community's design standards? Will they be in the same price bracket as our community to prevent negative effects on our home's value?

KB won't call anyone back - even the people running our homeowner's association. As you all know, KB was less than pleasant to deal with during our building (the crazy outlet that kept jumping all over the wall for four months, the A/C in the wrong place, a lack of mailbox for two months, etc. etc.) That being said, I'm not surprised they aren't very responsive now, but I feel like they owe their current homeowners some explanations and so far they haven't given us any.

Fast forward to today - guess my post generated some interest because I just got called by a local reporter and she's coming to the house tonight.

Keep your fingers crossed that it does something.

Some updates to the house

We've been slowly but steadily making changes here and there.

MASTER BATHROOM

Here are the new fixtures in the master bath. We replaced the lights and sink fixtures with these. The faucets were a steal-of-a deal at Lowe's. We found them on clearance and even negotiated the price (we had no idea they negotiated - but it's only on clearance stuff).

MASTER BEDROOM

And my favorite changes - the master bedroom. I've always wanted a red bedroom, and when we found this comforter set on clearance at Linens N' Things, we decided to go ahead and do it. We're planning on painting sometime soon as well.

Before:

After:

Even the dogs got a new bed. Of course, this is the last piece of bedding we'll be buying them for a while since they ate their old one.

Excuses excuses

I already talked about how hard it's been to get a mailbox and the same crap is still going on - KB points the finger at the post office and the post office points one right back at KB.

The real kick in the mailbox situation is that they have put in mailboxes about 1/2 a block from our house. We thought ours would be part of it. Nope! Those are apparently for homes they have not even built yet! It didn't occur to anyone that people living in their houses already might like a mailbox.

I gave up arguing with our sales person (she has her commission, what does she care?) I called the local KB main office, asked for the person that deals with mailboxes, and let's just say I think Dan wasn't very happy he picked up the phone. He had an excuse for everything. "The post office put those boxes in so I'm not sure why you don't have a mailbox in there. Oh wait - we put those in? We're just working through a list and reviewing all the slabs and posts that have been put in. Oh wait - you don't have a slab or post yet?"

It just went on and on.

At least now I have the name of someone who I can bug repeatedly and become the squeaky wheel in his day. Bet he's gonna be sorry he gave me his direct line and email address.

We should have been more specific in our prayers

We have a mailbox.

We don't have a key.

Apparently the key will take another week.

Our mailman asked us if we wanted him to start delivering mail to it.

My response "Um. No (you moron - that part stayed in my head). We'd prefer our mail not sit in there for a week + while you guys figure out how to get the keys ready."

So for now...more trips to the mailbox.

No mailbox yet

Who knew getting a mailbox was going to be harder than getting a house? We're going on 32 days in the house, and all we have is a slab down the street where the mailbox will go. Our community has the big group boxes at the end of each block instead of the individual ones. I'm fine with that. But I just want a mailbox.

The post office says it's KB's fault.
KB blames the post office.

Apparently ordering the box was very low on their list of priorities. I guess they think we just love going to the post office to pick up our mail on a regular basis. Who wouldn't love multiple trips to the post office right before Christmas?

They should bring all perspective buyers out at sunrise

Check out the view this morning while I was letting the dogs out. They should bring all the buyers out here and have paperwork in hand because it's the most amazing selling point.

Finally...some pictures

I'm sorry it's taken so long to post these, but it wasn't until last night that the house was ready for photos. It's been two weeks of boxes and junk sitting everywhere. But with the arrival of family for Thanksgiving, it definitely lit a fire under our butts to get the place looking beautiful (not that it didn't already).

Sorry that most are of the living room and dining room. Bedrooms are hard to take pictures of because there was no way to get distance to get a sense of the whole room.









I have always loved these oversized clocks, and this one was a steal at Kohl's.


The guest room.


The guest bathroom.


My cute shoe ads designed by some friends made perfect wall art for my shoe-themed bathroom. It's a set of 3 with cute sayings like "There was an old lady who lived in a shoe - lucky bitch." They make me smile and they are so chic!


There used to be 4 of these plates but one fell off the wall at my old apartment. Oh well - now they fit in one plate rack.


There was just no way to get a good pic of the master bathroom. I couldn't get an angle that would let me get a full room shot.


And my favorite place in the house...our big comfy tub.


The pics just don't do it justice, so feel free to come visit when you can!