Lessons in patience to me

[ckessel]

The forms are done on the foundation. Later this am, there will be a mud party!

 

[ckessel]

21yds worth of mud for the foundation today! I'm very happy. All vibrated in to eliminate the voids. Tomorrow, off with the boards.

 

[ckessel]

Form boards are off. With them gone, I can better picture the floor size of the garage. They are prepping the area for the slab this week. Tentative slab pour is monday. I marked the rebar locations, for the slab, on the stem walls so I can better place my lift and compressor when their placement happens. Don't want to hit rebar when I drill for the anchors.

 

[GetX'd]

Looks like a hell of a job. I get the PRC stuff. After all we live in Laguna - what could be worse. Congrats on the progress. Hope it continues.

 

[ckessel]

The steel is down, post bracket in, lines snapped, form boards in at entrance. Supposed to pour monday morning.

 

[ckessel]

The slab got done on thursday. Today, I'm going to saw cut it so the cracking can get corralled. For the finish, I'm going to do grind/polish/clear coat. Its about the same price as doing epoxy and should look pretty neat. The framing won't start for two weeks or so do to other job constraints for the crew so in the meantime the contractor will be doing drainage, terracing of the sand and other tasks. Also they will get started, from what I heard, on the stem wall for the street side fence. That will be nice as the existing fence is rotted from age and the posts being in sand. New stuff will have galvanized poles, picked up 13 10' sticks of 3" EMT, in the concrete and be above ground. We'll make frames to fit in between with new material.

 

[skicker]

Nice...

FWIW I found when the concrete was down the garage felt pretty big...Once the walls went up it seemed like it got smaller...

 

[ckessel]

This week, someone stole our fence! LOL.

 

[ckessel]

New fence foundations are in, good bye rotted posts! The crew started throwing some sticks up this week.

 

[ckessel]

I cut my fence posts yesterday. The landlord at work had a bunch of 3" EMT they were going to toss. Scored it for the posts. 3" galvanized, perfect for my needs. I put together one fence panel. My wife and I found this design on the net. Easy to do, just pressure treated wood and galvanized flashing roll material. Going to alternate them between vert and horizontal. On the vertical ones, I'll put some mesh behind, on the lower foot or so, to keep vermin out. We'll leave gaps at the three inner panels to help get air flow through. It can get pretty windy here at times and we want to prevent them from blowing down.

 

[Oldreddodge]

Far Out Man ! lesson in cash too,going to be Killer

 

[ckessel]

Well, the garage is on hold for now. The contractor has used up 2/3rds of the funds with less than 1/3rd of it done. He wanted 30+% more to finish it. We asked him why the big change and why his figures of what he shows that he billed us for does not match the invoices we've paid. No good reason on the 1st and no reply on the 2nd. The accounting difference was $30k. Someone can't do math or is trying to hide things. As of today it was a mutual parting of the ways. Now we need to find another general to take over where #1 left off. I was hoping to have been in it by now but not this year. I've tarped off whats up to protect it from the rain.

 

[Richard Cranium]

 

[Brandy]

lawsuit in 3...2...1….

 

[Hemirunner]

Well, the garage is on hold for now. The contractor has used up 2/3rds of the funds with less than 1/3rd of it done. He wanted 30+% more to finish it. We asked him why the big change and why his figures of what he shows that he billed us for does not match the invoices we've paid. No good reason on the 1st and no reply on the 2nd. The accounting difference was $30k. Someone can't do math or is trying to hide things. As of today it was a mutual parting of the ways. Now we need to find another general to take over where #1 left off. I was hoping to have been in it by now but not this year. I've tarped off whats up to protect it from the rain.

View attachment 883315 View attachment 883318

Damn... I’d be mad as hell!

 

[ckessel]

I'm supposed to meet up with one new potential general today. Luckily he does not know the previous dude. We agreed that taking on a project like this will be tough but he is up for it. We have a truck at work that has similar traits as its been to two other shops for 10 years and $500+k out of the owners pocket. When people agree to take on problem projects from others and get them done, that really makes them shine. For sure we are not happy but are holding ourselves together with help from Him who's birthday is tomorrow. So far our initial plan of the one section being a deck extension is neat. The viewing area of the back bay is nice. I'm hoping we get this wrapped up and done asap next year especially since the permits have a time limit.

 

[skicker]

I can't speak for your municipality but I was able to get an extension on my permit of 6 months for zero extra dollars... .02

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I'm supposed to meet up with one new potential general today. Luckily he does not know the previous dude. We agreed that taking on a project like this will be tough but he is up for it. We have a truck at work that has similar traits as its been to two other shops for 10 years and $500+k out of the owners pocket. When people agree to take on problem projects from others and get them done, that really makes them shine. For sure we are not happy but are holding ourselves together with help from Him who's birthday is tomorrow. So far our initial plan of the one section being a deck extension is neat. The viewing area of the back bay is nice. I'm hoping we get this wrapped up and done asap next year especially since the permits have a time limit.

FWIW I have a friend who moved to Cambria probably fifteen years ago, he's primarily a plumber but has his general contractors license.... When he first moved down there he worked his butt off cause most all the other construction guys had added surf board racks to their trucks.... If the surf was up not much work was getting done.... Last time I was down to visit he had a surf board rack on his truck too.....

 

[ckessel]

We are on our second step with the state board now. Waiting to here back from them once they have done their investigation. From there its mediation, arbitration and potential court time. We've given plans to three other generals and should have some numbers from them next week. From there we need to secure financing to finish as our good buddy pretty much drained us. In the mean time we are building more fence panels. Got two up monday. Painting the others and should have two more up today. Already getting lots of good reaction from people driving by. Makes us very happy.

 

[ckessel]

We talked to the state board earlier this week, they have other cases in front of ours, maybe hear at the end of the month about the investigation. In the meantime, our case worker said we can continue on the build. I had made contact with a very helpful general in december about whats going on. If we need to, he will be an expert consultant if we need it. He is hooking us up with his subs, we'll pay them directly, and I'll do some metal patch panel work on his truck in trade for what he has been helping us with, The framers may be here tomorrow but the sub said most likely tuesday as he needed to make his shopping list, place the order and get it delivered. Said most likely they'll have it framed by the end of the week. The portion thats been done so far took a month. Big difference. He already spotted mistakes on whats already done. The roof/subfloor on the short section was supposed to have been done with 1"+ plywood. Moron used 3/4 OSB T&G. The general and him are working on a fix so all that does not have to be torn off and redone for the 2nd time. Dipstick and his crew of clods got the elevation too high to meet the existing deck for the tie in so they had to pull it back off, after getting nailed and glued. DOH! I stripped off the tarps and plastic on friday to get it ready for them. Very exited now! I'm just about done with the fence other than some minor detail stuff. We've been getting quite a few nice comments on it. One lady stopped by and said it looks like public art. I'll be very happy when the garage can be occupied and have access to my equipment again. I want to do some artsy stuff with the machines, since I'm in a big art area but minimal metal stuff, when I get it operational. This will provide me with some income for home and scratch for my continued 65 project. Get that baby back in a shelter! I've had quite a bit of free time to work around here as I got a big surprise the first week of january. I got the boot! Did not make me happy. He said my quality was not meeting his standards anymore but I think there were other elements going on as I have felt that something was amiss since the summer. I do feel beyond lucky for even having the opportunity to work for someone like that. GOD closes doors and opens others. I feel that this change has worked out for the best as I'll be able to keep an eye out on the contractors here plus do other stuff like build a stacker retaining wall for the backyard and other stuff. Here are some pics of the fence and stripped off section of the garage. Cheers to all! For you snowed in types, you can see that the weather sucks here. LOL!