Easy Come, Easy Go

It's been a big week around here, everytime you turn around there is a wall going up or coming down. Since there wasn't much drama this week, I'm going to let the pictures do (most of) the talking.

Saturday: Progress as of Aug 1 (see previous entry for more detail).

The I-beam which will form the main support for our current exterior wall and the new addition.

Sunday, AM: A nice view of the kitchen after we got all of our stuff out of the way. It looks suprisingly big without the table and fridge. The good news is, it will be about this open once the addition is done.Sunday, PM: Taking the cabinets down (fyi, not really as fun as it looks).Tuesday, AM: Our kitchen, minus one wall. They actually cut less wall out than I expected. Basically they cut out the door and window plus 6" or so, and they cut about a foot from the ceiling all the way across. The big problem now is that the concrete used for the poles holding up the beam needs a few days to dry, so they put up a support inside our kitchen. Since those supports had to line up with the rafters they have completely blocked access to our silverware drawer.
Tuesday, PM: Rafters!

Wednesday: They took their time getting the rafters hung just right so that the new floor would line up with the old floor. But once they were in they put the second story floor and two walls up in a hurry (one next to the carport can't be seen in this picture).

As a final update, we were told on Tuesday that if the roof trusses don't arrive by Friday, they will start to put holes in the upstairs wall. So once again Colleen and I find ourselves with a room to move/reorganize and one day to do it. I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend.

Fair Warning

Monday and Tuesday were relatively quiet days for a change. Two big loads of framing wood arrived, but no work was done. After the walkway incident, it was good to have a bit of a break. Wednesday the framing crew was out in force and our Architect was there to give them the big idea. We met with him briefly. After a few questions we learned that they planned to tear down the kitchen wall two days later and with some prodding, made our Architect realize (and confirm our suspicions) we needed to pack up everything on that wall. One wonders what would have happened Friday morning if we hadn’t had that conversation, because no one seems to consider that there’s a living kitchen on the other side of that wall.

Since Colleen and I have volleyball Wednesday nights, that left one night to clear out half our cabinets and move enough furniture to put the fridge on the other side of the room. Colleen and I didn’t exactly demand that they give us another day, but we made it pretty clear that one night was not really enough time and we would appreciate it if they could delay for a day or two. Fortunately, the next morning I talked to our Architect again and he said they had come up with a few more things they could do to stall the wall removal and give us one last weekend without a hole in our house. Whew . . .


Colleen and I did actually get a lot done last night, but we were very happy we didn’t have to finish completely. As of this morning at 9am, the wall was just barely there. The siding and outside layer of plywood was off and Tyvec was up to keep out the weather. It’s very weird to be able to see daylight seeping through your electrical sockets.

Floored

It got a little lost in the drama with the walkway, but the concrete slab was also poured on Thursday. Getting all concrete form supports out and making this big flat space makes the room look much bigger. I’m excited.

It's My (walk)Way, or the Highway

There was another run in with the concrete guy this morning (the previous one almost costing us a tree) concerning the walk way. I’ll try to keep this brief, but some quick background is necessary. The original plans had a walkway that was quickly sketched in by the architect more or less as a placeholder. The problem with that plan was that the walkway went directly through the azalea bushes. A few days ago, the PM asked what we wanted the walkway to look like. I drew it on a digital copy of the plans and sent it to him. He then spray painted it on the grass and he, the concrete guy, and I, all had a talk about it.

Last night I got home at 11:30pm to find that the forms for the concrete had not been laid as per my instructions, or the way of the original plans, but in a kind of weird pattern that made the whole thing look like it was leaning slowly to the right. I have deduced that the head concrete guy left, his assistant decided that he didn’t want to dig out the extra dirt that would have been required to actually run a straight line, and so we got this weird hybrid thing. So I got up at 6:30 this morning to have a little chat with the concrete guy. He was very irritated when I told him it was not satisfactory because the concrete truck was due at 7:00 am. He proceeded to say that Colleen’s dad had approved the new lay out and as such, we would be held responsible for any costs incurred due to the delay. I compared that excuse to a certain animal’s fecal matter. He quickly switched to another excuse and then another. Eventually I told him that if it was going to cost someone more money, he needed to call the PM and talk about who was going to pay.

After a short phone call with the PM, the concrete guy immediately said, “I have an idea.” This was progress. His idea actually required more work than my original plan. I tried to explain several times what I wanted it to look like only to have him suggest something else. Later I realized that most of the problem with fixing it was that all of their tools for laying out forms were back at the shop, so they could only use what they could scavenge from the original formation.

In the end, they were able to create something similar to, but not exactly like what I wanted. It only took them about 20 minutes to make the changes (about as long as I argued with them about it), and it was all done before the concrete truck was ready to pour (largely because it took the driver 20 minutes to successfully back into the driveway.) The walkway is also a little lighter gray than Colleen and I were hoping for, but we’re satisfied with it. On the up side, the stone pattern is really neat looking (pictured below), and I’m glad I got up at 6:30 to fight for my sidewalk.

One Down . . . er, Up

We have a wall! We're hoping there will be more, and perhaps a roof at some point, but we'll start with a wall. The excavation/concrete team was out on Monday adding additional rebar to the footer to form what would ultimately become both the retaining wall and the rear wall of the addition. They later put up the "forms" (big metal sheets) into which they could pour the concrete to make said wall.

It was around Tuesday that I noticed that they were putting up forms around both the left and right wall in addition to the rear wall. After some questionting, it turns out that we are going to have some pretty serious portions of our side walls be concrete. I don't really know if that's any better or worse than 2x6's and insulation. If anyone does know, feel free to comment.

Some additional excitement came early Wednesday morning when we awoke to them uprooting a tree in the yard. I won't go into detail, but let's just say that Colleen's mom 'had a bad experience' during the original addition with certain plants being bulldozed so now she's particularly on edge about that sort of thing. Apparently they were not willing to pay the extra $800 for the concrete pump to get the concrete high enough to pour into the forms and so they were going to blaze a trail into the backyard for the truck. Fortunately, Colleen's dad was able to talk with the excavator and they mutually agreed on a path that would spare one of the more favorite trees. Crisis averted.

Once that was all figured out, they poured the concrete and all was well. Our new wall is currently drying out (it's such a wonderful, quiet activity at 7am). Rumor has it we'll have a floor on Monday or Tuesday.

The joys of washing dishes

You know it's been a tough week when you're excited about washing the dishes. The plumbers were out yesterday morning to permanently fix the broken pipe, restoring water to the entire house. We're still getting some startling pops and sprays from the faucets as the air works its way back out of the pipes, but we're very happy to have life back to normal.

Moving forward, our project manager asked us to choose our new walkway pattern and color this morning, so Bruce and I put our heads together over IM and both liked this the best (if only all decisions were so easy!):

Paula Abdul & Peter Griffin

After two days of construction on the addition, I've learned that there are good days, and bad days, and days where you just fight to keep your head above water. Its those latter kind of days that remind me of the wisdom of Peter Griffin and Paula Abdul: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Xnosq1ei4&feature=related

As you may recall from yesterday, our place was without water for the night, but Colleen's parents did have water. Today, the plumber came out (step forward) and said he'd have to break through the footer they just laid yesterday to fix the broken pipe (step back) and then he left without actually doing any work (step back). The county tax assessor also came out. He said that he could lower our tax assessment (see previous entry: Money II) (step forward). Later in the day, the cap on the broken pipe ceased to hold (step back) which was then later recapped (step forward). So we pretty much ended the day the same place we started, only with slightly lower taxes and the looming problem of having to jackhammer open and the repour part of the footer.

Good luck getting Paula and Peter out of your head.