Doubt comes in at the window

On Sunday eve after a busy weekend, R went out to measure the framing to check the rough openings for the windows.

Uh oh.  Not only was the framing not large enough for the rough openings (instead, they used the actual window size, which doesn't account for the trim around the window), but he discovered a problem with the wall thickness.  It seemed they might need to tear out and redo two of the three walls they erected so far.

And then, as he studied the window order for the 49th time, which we placed a week ago, he noticed that the "final wall depths" were wrong on half of our windows.  (Window salesman error.)  It seemed we might need to pay for windows that we couldn't install.

This was definitely a low point for the project.  And yes, we panicked a little.

On Monday, R didn't go into work.  He waited until noon for the contractor to show up so they could discuss the path forward.  While he waited, he called all our advisers (our architect/engineer/contractor friends) to gather insight, then drew up a framing plan.  Meanwhile, I called the window company and was informed that we had until 2pm that day to make final changes.  Just in the nick of time!

By the end of the day, Engineer Extraordinaire (R) had done it again.  All problems were resolved; the contractor was on board; and the window order was updated with the correct wall depths.  There was little framing to redo (just some changes around the windows), and we did not have to pay extra for window changes.

To the contractor's credit, we realized that his plan for managing the wall thickness was the right way to go, and it was his right-hand guy who misread the window rough openings because he was working off the plans instead of the window order.  It pays to keep a careful eye on a project like this.  We are feeling very grateful to have engineering in the family!

Happy Halloween everyone - hope yours wasn't as scary as ours was!

Bwaa haa haa haa haaa.....

What do Halloween and remodeling have in common?  They can both lead to nightmares!

First floor framing

The space is taking shape...

The contractor worked all day Friday and Saturday. We are moving forward again!

Where are the workers?

Tuesday, they had two guys here.  Wednesday, they had one guy here.  Thursday, nobody.  And not a stitch of framing has gone up.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

We have gorgeous, clear weather, a pile of lumber, and no workers!

I know that they are finishing my friend's sister's house this week... but it's the typical case of the contractor biting off a little more than he can chew.  We are trying to be patient - trying to remember that it's good for this guy and his crew to have work, trying to remember to trust in God's perfect timing, trying to remember that there's not much we can do but keep applying firm pressure to get the contractor out here...

All the while I am managing my panic about the upcoming rainy season, and hoping with huge hope that the timing when the roof is off the back of the house does not coincide with a huge storm.

Think dry thoughts!

Lumber delivery

Wood for first level framing

These guys have an interesting way of delivering lumber: they pull down a hinged portion at the back of the flatbed, and the wood comes sliding off of the bed and lands with a crash on the ground.

Foundation and slab complete

Ready for walls!

The UPS delivery guy keeps asking if we are building a swimming pool.  (?)

Concrete pour #2

Today they are pouring the concrete for the slabs and deck footings.  It's amazing how much time and effort goes into getting the foundation and drainage right.  We are all very ready to start seeing the framing go up next week!

I'd be excited to see the end of all the dirt, gravel, sand, and dust mess if I didn't know that we'll just be trading it for sawdust!

Skunked

Do not come wiz me to ze Casbah -
we shall make beautiful musicks togezzer right here!

We woke up Sunday morning to skunk smell wafting up through our heat registers.  "Oh great!  A skunk is in our garage!" we thought.  Another night creature drawn in by our construction crew's smelly lunch garbage.  We called ACC, but they don't come out until there is positive identification, i.e. we have to see it.  They recommended holding a wet towel in front of me so that I could spread flour on the ground to see tracks in.  Right.  I am so not doing that.  Have I mentioned my fear of skunks?

We ended up putting a loud radio in the garage and left the door open for a while, and R did end up exploring the area first with a wet towel waving like a matador.  We left for church in a totally skunked car.  Later we found chewed through garbage bags on the side of our house.  Our assessment:  skunk and raccoon had a fight over our garbage, skunk sprayed at the side of our house and then maybe hid in the garage.  Our workers found paw prints left in the dust on some pipes on Monday - confirmation!

For the eleventh time, we reminded our workers to secure their lunch trash!  No more critters, please!

18 cubic yards of concrete

A concrete mixer gets the whole neighborhood's attention!

Nice strong footings!

You can't help but get excited when the concrete mixer arrives.  Make way!  The yellow trailer in front of the mixer in the pic above is the pump.  The guys pumped that whole mixer full of concrete into our footings (that's 10 cubic yards) and then went back for more... All told, we've got 18 cubic yards of concrete in the new footings (the contractor was surprised, thought it would be 12!).  Solid.

We passed our underground inspections!

Major drainage - connected up to our sewer line out

Footing with rebar - see the shiny copper wire down near the bottom?
That's the grounding wire.  It has to run all along one of our new footings,
and then it needs to be connected to our electrical panel in one continuous wire.
God bless the building inspector for mentioning this before we poured the concrete!

Forms and rebar all ready for concrete pour tomorrow!

As our contractor put it, "San Francisco very difficult inspections."  But we did it!  Yesterday we passed underground electrical inspection (for a grounding rod and wire that runs along the rebar in the footings), and today we passed underground plumbing inspection (for the footing and surface drains that run from the backyard through the footings to the lower garage).  We are thrilled to have this milestone behind us - this underground stuff was the sticky wicket!

Tomorrow is our first concrete pour for the footings.  (Second will be for the slab.)  Forward, harch!

Our first delay

Friday was supposed to be the big day of the concrete pour.  The rebar was ready, forms installed, plumbing routed.  We were all excited at the prospect of moving in the direction of actual building.  J in particular is tired of all the digging and has tearfully complained that the project is going too slow!

But not so fast, said the building inspector.  The contractor, R, our structural engineer, and I all agreed that we didn't really need to put the footing drainage all the way at the very bottom of the footing as shown in the typical foundation detail on our drawings.  "It's rock," we reasoned.  "There won't be that much water down there."  And since we already made the plumber reroute his drain lines once (he had them too high for the surface water drain on one side of our house), we hated to make him lower everything yet again.  Plus, we could only go so low in the first place, as we were limited by the depth of the existing sewer lines.

The building inspector gave us a tongue lashing over this.  He strongly encouraged us to get the drains all the way down as low as possible.  He lectured me about water vapor and mold.  And so, after doing the conversational rounds again (and with some input from an architect friend on R's big stadium job), we decided to have the contractor dig deeper and lower the drains.

Interestingly enough, on the day that R was to explain to the contractor that we needed to do this extra work, the contractor had flipped water off of the rain tarps over our backyard.  He noticed that although the water splashed onto the surface, in a few minutes the water was oozing through the rock down at the base of the footing.  He looked at R and said, "We need to get the drains deeper."  At least we are all completely bought into the need for this work and on the same page now!

We are hoping to pour the concrete next Thursday or Friday, after our plumbing and electrical inspections on Wednesday and Thursday.

Tentative schedule for the week:

Monday&Tuesday

Move drain pipe under slab down as far as possible, get ready for plumbing inspection.

Electrician to install grounding rod.

Put plywood forms on outside of perimeter footings.

Wednesday

Electrical inspection of grounding rod in the morning.

R calls plumbing inspector to see if he can come Wednesday.

Possible plumbing inspection???

Thursday

Plumbing inspection of drain pipe under slab.

Possible concrete pour of foundation if plumbing inspection happens Wednesday???

Friday

Concrete pour of foundation.

Following Week

Dig next to footings to install drainage.

Get slab on grade ready for rebar inspection.

Communication breakdown

It was bound to happen, what with English, Korean, and Spanish freely spoken around our construction site...

On Thursday we scheduled the building inspection, and although I thought I had mentioned that there were to be separate inspectors for building, plumbing, and electrical, the message did not get through.  The contractor is used to working in cities where one individual performs all three inspections, so when I told him the building inspector was coming at 1:00 p.m., he told the plumber to be ready for the plumbing inspection.

The plumber was pretty miffed when the inspector finished with the rebar inspection and prepared to leave.  "Aren't you going to inspect the plumbing?" he asked.  He had rigged up the whole system to run water through in order to test the plumbing connections.  Our inspector replied, with his thick Irish brogue, "You'll be needin' the plumbing inspector for that there." 

The contractor, plumber, and I all pointed fingers at one another: "I thought YOU called the plumbing inspector!" we exclaimed in unison.

We have all agreed that from now on, R and I will arrange all inspections.

Masked avenger

At 2:00 AM last night, I awoke to R saying "Did you hear that noise downstairs?"  "Yes," I replied.

So on with the shoes, pants, sweatshirts and out into the night we went.  R had the big bludgeon of a flashlight, I had the keys and the phone, just in case we needed 9-1-1. 

The burglar turned out to be a raccoon, wreaking a bit of havok in the family room.  He didn't stand a chance against our Starsky and Hutch team.  As we approached, he ran out through the hole in the foundation, drilled for the drainage pipes that hadn't yet been installed.  R shoved a bunch of pieces of wood around the hole (not easy considering all the rebar in the way), and we shuffled back off to bed, adrenaline still pumping.

Where's a BB gun when you need one?? 
(Just kidding, don't go reporting us to PETA.)

At 5:30 AM it was time for a reprise.  Back down we went to investigate the rustling.  That wily raccoon had managed to slither in past our blockade and was starting to rummage around in the contractor's lunch garbage.  We added some chunks of broken concrete to properly seal off the entrance and went back to bed again, knowing there was no way we'd be getting any more sleep for the night.

First rain

It's raining here in SF... but our contractor has us covered!