The Quick and the Crappy

My trips to Arizona always leave me questioning life style choices. I think it’s because central Arizona, to me, is a conundrum: It’s a beautiful state in the winter, and a horrid place in the summer. The newly paved roads make driving pleasant, yet the endless mini-marts and beige-colored housing developments make for a boring and repetitive landscape. Which brings me to the topic of endless housing developments.

With each visit, usually twice a year, I notice a new community that wasn’t there before. Of course building has slowed over the last 18 months, but there are still areas that are going strong. For instance, my sister-in-law lives in a new development in the far east end of Maricopa county. On our last visit, her’s was the only one in that vicinity, making it easy to find. This visit, we noticed many more had been completed and we had the darndest time finding her street. Every house was brown or beige, or a variation of taupe, making it very confusing to find the right street to turn on. With housing communities all butted up against each other, there are very few landmarks to cue a driver where to go. Eventually, we figured out that by counting the streets, we could navigate her look-alike community.

After four years of my sister-in-law (SIL) and her family living in their newish house, many things are already falling apart and looking worn. Some of this may have to do with their three children. Children usually aren’t very careful with banisters, doors, or cleaning up after themselves. However, some of the things my husband and I noticed, had nothing to do with little hands touching it. They seemed to have more to do with the quality of the houses. Like the creaky doors, for instance. I live in a rental house that is over 50 years old. My interior and exterior doors don’t creak when opened. The back patio door of my SIL’s house sounded like a door off a haunted house. Since my husband smokes, he would remove himself to the back patio, but felt horrible that every time he opened it, it would make a loud crrrrrreaking sound. Another item that seemed like it was really poorly made were their bathroom floor tiles. The edges were already chipping and the grout was completely cracked in many places.

Knowing that they paid a premium price for their home four years ago, I decided to keep my opinions about the quality of their house to myself. Or in other words, I kept my mouth shut. Yet I realized that they may not have had much choice in the matter. With home builders developing mass quantities of homes in short periods of time, the quality of the homes seems to have been at the bottom of the contractor’s check list. Why pay for premium materials when the home owner may not notice the difference? Or at least, not when the house is brand new. A few years back, when buying homes was a frenzied activity, home builders could get away with building quick and crappy homes. With time and wear, however, the lack of quality really stands out. I’m not sure if my in-laws are thinking of selling their home anytime soon, but the wear and tear will definitely have to be remedied before they do.

Have you bought a new home recently? Is it made of quality material? Have you lived in an older home and noticed that the home seemed more durable?