Lessons in patience to me

[ckessel]

This is the progress so far. I'm way stoked!

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Good to see things back on track!

 

[ckessel]

As of friday, this is how its looking.

 

[ckessel]

The framing is done, rough electrical is run. I called in for the electric inspection for next week. My contractor coach is looking to see of there is a less complicated/quicker route for the change needed on the fire sprinkler main line. The outfit that designed it put the feed on the east side of my old garage believing thats where the water supply to the house was. They were wrong. I will have to cut across the existing driveway for a new 2" line, as opposed to the 3/4" thats there, that will be the main feed. Their rep said it will have to be re-calculated and then run back through the county for approval which will be a month plus. My coach says you should be able to make a quick adjustment and get it ok'd in like a day. He, as of yesterday, was going to try and do that. If successful, I'll get the underground stuff started and stubbed up for the sprinklers. Have to get a new meter too. Thankfully its free! I had planned on doing some digging and re-routing of the water line anyway as the previous dirtbag contractor had capped off our main feed into the house when they were doing the dirt work. Instead of re-routing it into the house, he did a bypass with a garden hose that comes off a faucet on the east side of the house and hooks to the faucet that is on the remainder of the house feed line. I kept after him to get that done but it fell on deaf ears. Its been this way since september. When I get it re-routed, I'm going to get our ECOWATER unit installed with some simple plumbing changes added to what I aready have to do. The water line butchery is one of the complaints made on our claim to the state board. Have heard back on that, it looks good, but we are not done yet. The investigator is going to recommend to the dirtbag and his shark, with some force, that he settles this with us because its big enough for a civil suit. We'll see how it goes and do lots of praying. Don't want to get sucked into a court session and get bled dry with legal fees. Anyway.... Getting more subs lined up to continue work that can be done without weather issues as its finally been raining.

 

[ckessel]

Roof got done yesterday along with windows.

 

[Don selleck]

looking good, what a pain in the as the stuff you guys have to deal with out there.

 

[ckessel]

The pain has been what the canned contractor has caused. Slowly but surely we are getting past his boo-boo's. My coach was supposed to be here today so we could get the deck fascia started prior to putting the membrane on for the deck but he may have the cooties as he has a grandson over at his house thats be held away from another grandson who has the bug. Now he and the kid may have it. Hopefully not as he has prostate cancer which could give him an easier way to get ill. As I'm sure you have seen, people with underlying conditions have to be extra cautious. Hence another reason for my wife and I to hibernate and limit contact with others. We are going to do what we can while the fire sprinkler eggheads re-do their calculations on the main line instead of doing a quick field fix. Once the framer comes back and does some fixes, he can wrap/install siding. More lessons in patience!

 

[Don selleck]

patience for sure. I mainly do construction in occupied homes so we are pretty much at a stand still till a couple of new homes are ready for us. The construction codes there are way over than what we do here, they vary from township to township in Michigan. I have seen many additions to the codes over 35 years here mainly for the better but always an increase to the cost of construction. hanging low sounds like a good idea thats what were doing here its kinda nice turning off the nonsense for a while. good luck.

 

[ckessel]

Slowly but surely stuff is happening. This week the membrane was laid down for the deck after my friend and I put the fascia boards on the week before. Don't need to put the tarps on anymore!

 

[ckessel]

Time for some updates. We are currently in round 2 of the claim with the state board. The first one was just mediation and we got nowhere with the the prior contractor. Now its investigation time plus we have contacted an attorney and he will have an expert consultant come eyeball the project, go through invoices/log sheets/pictures etc. My wife has been burning the midnight oil finding statutes/codes/laws etc for the case which we will turn over to the investigators and attorney. News as it happens on that. In the meantime, the installation of the fire sprinklers has started. The plumbing is run in the new garage, house is retro fitted. The company has to do some more piping to join the systems. Old garage has to wait as its filled with stuff. Once the new garage is done I can move stuff over to make room so the unit can get plumbed and we get final on that inspection. Next week? I will pull some trenches and run the new water main to the house which also takes care of the fire sprinkler system. Have to get in touch with the water co. to have them swap the meter to a 1" outlet unit, currently its 5/8". At least thats no cost! The new main is 2" up to where the riser is for the sprinklers. The riser is 1 1/2". I tee'd off of the main to 3/4" for the new line to the house and will string out some more off that for some faucets on both sides of the new unit. A benefit of this new main line is that I can finally fix the F UP that the previous contractor did when he capped off the water feed line to the house, it is under the slab now, and re route it into a new spot on the house. When I go under the house for that side, I'll hook up our Ecowater system and have filtered/softened water in the house plus one outside faucet for car wash duties. The boob contractor did a bypass with a garden hose from the east side of the old garage to a still existing faucet that was tied onto the house feed. This has been our water feed to the house since september. Its non potable water since its run through a hose. Thank you ex-contractor! This was also one of the complaints on the case. The framers have been here since wednesday wrapping with Tyvek then hanging siding. Looking way nice. Once the siding is on. I'll dig trenches for the water line and we'll get on the painters schedule so it and the house can get painted. I made up the last two fence panels along the street. Put the first wave panels on. Looks nice.

 

[ckessel]

All of the siding is on now. Looks nice. Next on the list is some dirt work, water lines then paint.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Starting to look like it's really gonna happen... Glad to hear it, flakes always suck but when it's your home they screw up thats the worst....

 

[ckessel]

Dug some trenches this week for the new water lines. I have most of the lines done except for the last 4' to the meter. We are waiting for the local water company to switch it, luckily no cost, then I'll finish the lines. After that, fill in the trenches. My wife dropped off a 6" thick binder of paperwork/info/photos/timelines/codes/laws etc to the attorney this week. We are waiting for investigators to come and eyeball the project so we can continue with the case. I managed to cut up a lot of the excess lumber and make 3 sets of wheel/tire stands plus I had already cut up the excess posts and beams to make the ever needed wood blocks.

 

[ckessel]

I got the water lines done, purged and good to go. The fire sprinkler company got the under house portion done so I was able to get the partial ok on last weeks inspection. The insulation company comes in for their portion next week, trying to get on the dry wall companies schedule for the week following as there has to be an inspection done once the insulation is done. I had been waiting to hear back from a civil engineer on a storm runoff pit/tank design for the back yard. After hearing 3 weeks of crickets, called/texted/emailed, I decided to cut him loose. After talking things over with the inspector, he came up with a much simpler design that serves the purpose and will work with the flagstones to be used for the walkway around the garage. The flags will sit on top of a rock filled pit that the drains will dump into. Way cool of the inspector to help on a quick low tech solution. I'll have a case of cold brews ready for him when he comes back for the next inspection. I am moving things out of the way in preparation for the next series of subs so there won't be any obstacles in the way.

 

[ckessel]

A company out of the valley, San Joaquin that is, shot the spray foam insulation in yesterday. Tomorrow the bats get put in, schedule next inspection for thursday, then drywall starts next week.

 

[ckessel]

The drywall got hung today. Mud and tape start next week.

 

[Thrashingcows]

Looking good!! I finished my 2 year journey on building a shop back in April and can't imagine having to jump through all the hoops you had to to get to where you are now. I live up in Northern Canada and outside the local city limits so permits and inspections were pretty laid back....heck a couple of the the inspections the inspector never even left the vehicle.

 

[ckessel]

The inspection and permit process has been straight forward. The jacked up part has been because of the previous contractor. We are going through the investigation phase with our attorney and an expert consultant that he found. They came by yesterday to meet and great plus go over what we sent the attorney already. Couldn't meet face to face because of the cootie shutdown. The state inspector should be showing up in the next month or so to do his investigation. From there, arbitration or civil suit. The previous dirtbag took 2/3rds of our funds and only got maybe a 1/4 of the work done. We had to get a loan to help us continue plus I cashed out my IRA to hopefully give us enough to finish. It looks way different inside now plus very quiet. My wife and I were pre-plotting where to put my signs and aviation art on the walls. Want to get most of those up before the garage gets populated. The only reason we've made any progress since december is due to the devine appointment of meeting our guide/mentor/new friend from Cayucos named Randy Brindley. He is a general contractor that is helping us through this nightmare with guidance and hooking us up with his subs which saves us a ton. We are on the permit now as owner/builder.

 

[ckessel]

Mud and tape have been happening. Should be done next week. Drying time is a little long due to the cool/damp weather thats been happening lately. I poured out some piers so the ends of the existing deck can have its supports back.

 

[ckessel]

More mud and tape yesterday, should be the last load. They applied the texture, which is mostly just smooth with some craters here and there. Next week they'll sand and then it will be paint time. I installed the two posts back under the decks onto their new piers. Put in one of the gutter drains before I started bringing in fill sand to replace what was taken out from the excavation.