Day 23 (October 26)

I was a bit doubtful, but at 0850 the concrete crew showed up and at 0910 the cement truck arrived.  I will say one thing for this concrete company--their management of a timeline needs work, but once the concrete hits the ground, they are very very good.  It was impressive watching the sequence of pouring that allowed the serial removal of forms from the partially set concrete to back fill the steps.

I spoke with the GC foreman about my frustration regarding the timeline and I asked if he was aware of the issues.  I am used to the foreman having eyes on target--a dinosaur approach I suppose.  He had on his phone a sequence of pictures from the previous two days allowing him to monitor progress--hadn't thought of that.  When I discussed the progress timeline, he understood the issues, but he also understood that you can't push a rope (Newton's Fourth Law).  However, he was also the one that drove the Saturday work, something that we had not been forced into on previous jobs. 

The patio and the closet are poured and it is really looking good.  I am feeling a bit more upbeat about the project--hopefully this is not in preparation for another slam into the dirt a la the shipyard.

The plan is to get lumber delivered for framing on Monday and to start framing on Tuesday.  In parallel, the masons will be breaking out a section of the driveway that is fractured and they will pour a new section the next day.  It is only about four yards of concrete, but it will make the driveway much more stable.

Day 22 (October 25)

Today, we reached 66% of the objectives for the day.  The "plan" was to install rebar starting at 0730, inspect at 0900, and pour in the late morning.  After meeting with reality, the execution looked more like start work at 0930, start installing rebar at 1000.  Finish installing rebar at 1430 and complete the inspection for the pour at 1600.  Frankly, we were fortunate to get the inspection done.  The inspector was initially scheduled for 0900, then renegotiated to 1200, then finally the last slot of the day.

In order to catch up the plan is to pour concrete at 0900 tomorrow (Saturday).  Hmmm!  I want to see this one carried off.  I will be there to watch.

One thing of note.  As you can see from the pictures, there is quite a bit of rebar going into this patio.  Apparently, this is the commercial patio arrangement--it will certainly support a hot tub. 

It was interesting to see this constructed.  Once the plans were reviewed thoroughly, it was off to the hardware store for more rebar. 

I will provide pictures of before and after rebar to the GC tomorrow so that he understands that the time of completion estimates that he has been getting from his subs have been gloriously optimistic.

Day 17-21 (Oct 18-24)

Well, a general breakdown in communications tubed the last aggressive plan before it had a chance to get off of the ground.  The plan to poach concrete from the neighbor's driveway pour never made it down the chain from the planners to the doers.  As a result, all of the concrete that came out went into Bob's driveway and he still needed about 7 more yards.  They have run out of time to get another truck in before knock off work on Friday, so the plan slipped to pour the closet on Monday.  As for the forms and spray this week--pipe dream as I suspected.

Then it goes from poor communications and execution to rework.  It rained heavily over the weekend flooding the sunken closet and invalidating the termite treatment.  The gutter downspout for the back roof had been removed to make room for the footer pour.  One problem, the water still drains from the gutter without a downspout and the gutter outlet is perfectly located above the sunken closet.

So, we saw no work on Friday (our day to get lots done), nothing happened on Monday while the remedial plan was devised.  It rained on Tuesday.  I am sensing a pattern here.

Wednesday afternoon work started again.  New plan.  Fill and grade for the patio today, move a couple of bushes, start the forms for the patio.  Thursday, reprep the closet, add rebar linking the poured foundation to the closet foundation.  Spray the patio and closet.  Finish the forms and rebar for the patio.  Friday, inspection and pour the patio.  Well, Wednesday went sort of according to plan--within reach of the goals anyway.  Thursday, the termite spray happened and the area was covered.  It took until 1500 to finish the forms.  Ahh, rebar for the inspection tomorrow morning--well it is getting late. Close to tea time I suppose.  Plan changes to install rebar Friday morning before the inspection before the concrete pour.  Concrete crew expects to arrive at 0730.  I attempt to contain my laughter.  We will see how far we get tomorrow.

The plan of record is to put down rebar, inspect and pour on Friday, deliver framing materials Friday or Monday, and start framing next week.  The fear is that if they do not get the pour done today and it rains this weekend (not expected but possible) all the rebar and plastic will need to come back out so that the termite treatment can be started again.  If this happens, the sunken closet will have been treated three times--that should be termite free well into the next ice age.

Day 14-16 (OCT 15-17)

This started off badly with the Nor'easter continuing to blow.  I consulted the pest control company about the termite spray.  Since they have to repeat the treatment if it rains between the treatment and the concrete pour, they recommended deferring the spray for a day.  Since nothing else can be done before the spray is completed, Day 14 is a lost day.

Fortunately, Day 15 broke bright and sunny.  The pest control folks arrived at 1300 and then work actually started to happen.  The vapor barrier went down, the rebar was bent into place the new rebar was epoxied into the old foundation, and the forms were installed for the outside closet.  We are ready for the county inspector.

The inspector arrived and he was good with everything except for the floor height of the outside closet.  He wanted it raised 3 inches.  No big deal.  It was only depressed below the level of the extension room floor to ensure that any water that got into the closet did not seep under the sill plate.  Concrete arrived at 1420 and the madness began.  We were scheduled for 10 yards of concrete.  As it was being poured, four guys were traipsing through the mud to get everything into the right spots and smoothed out.  It turns out that we are about half a yard short and will have to pour the floor of the outside closet when the concrete truck makes its next delivery.  Fortunately, my next door neighbor is having his new driveway poured tomorrow.  We will be able to poach the needed concrete from the three truck loads coming to his house.

The plan for tomorrow is to set the forms for the patio concrete pour, finish the outside closet, move a plant, do the final termite spray on the foundation, and take delivery of lumber for next weeks framing effort.  Unfortunately, it looks like rain early next week, so there will probably be another weather delay because of the need for another termite spray.  Once we get past all of the concrete work, we will be less constrained by weather.

We did have one major hiccup.  When the contractor was measuring for the trusses, he discovered that the planned roof pitch did not fit below the installed solar panels.  As a result, a change to the architect's plans was required along with a notification to the county building office. Initially, we were a bit ticked, but once we figured out that this was mostly an administrative exercise, it was less of an issue. As initially drawn, we would have had greater than a 15 foot ceiling at the peak in the extension. That was never our intention because it would make things like changing a light bulbs in the recessed fixtures a major event. Lowering the peak a couple of feet makes things much more reasonable.

Day 11-13 (October 10-14)

The surprise of last week has morphed into the skepticism of this week.  

Right now I feel like the schedule being promulgated is similar to those I saw in the shipyard—very optimistic and highly improbable. As you can see in the pictures, the fill is in place, the final wall is built, the soil is compacted and testing is done. Sounds good, eh? Oh, but wait. That was all done by noon on Friday. Compare Friday’s picture with today’s picture and you will see little difference. All momentum has been lost and we have crammed two man-hours into a day and a half. The rebar holes that were supposed to be drilled in the old foundation on Friday afternoon have not been started. But worse, I had to point out that the allowance for the door for the outside closet had not been made in the stem wall. Most of the two hours of work that was done today was recovery and rework--not real progress. Last week we had great weather which was not fully leveraged. This week we have a Nor’easter blowing, so rain will be a factor in termite treatments and concrete.

Termite treatment is scheduled for tomorrow morning, but the weather may put it on hold. Let’s see where we go from here.

Even Starbucks is perplexed!

Day 10 (October 9)

Today I was surprised by the progress.  When no workers had appeared by 0930 I queried the contractor who said that they would be there by 1000 and have the first two walls of the foundation done by 1500--yeah right.  By 1430, they were cleaning their tools and getting ready to go.  I asked how long it would take to do the final wall and why it was delayed until tomorrow.  The answer was 30 minutes to an hour to complete the third wall.  This wall was deferred because they needed to bring in a bobcat to put fill inside the walls and a tamping machine in to compact the soil.  The flow of equipment will be through the open side.  Doing the wall after all the stuff has passed through minimizes the chance that the new wall gets damaged--didn't see that one coming.

They are predicting a foundation pour on Monday PM.  We need to get the fill in and compacted, the final wall built, the final compaction done, a compaction test completed and the results certified, the volume inside the wall treated for termites and a county inspection done before the slab can be poured.  We shall see.

Days 8-9 (Oct 7 &8)

Well you know that thing about the plan and the enemy, there is another saying: "we have met the enemy and he is us."  The plan was to have the inspection done Monday morning.  Just a little problem.  The masons thought that their boss had called for the inspection.  Their boss thought that the GC had called for the inspection (I got it, I got it, you got it).  So by 1400 we figured out that there would be no inspection on Monday.  Reboot on Tuesday. 

Sweet!  The inspector arrives at 0900, we pass, the call is made for concrete, the driver figures out that he can drive behind the house saving ferrying concrete by bobcat.  The footing is poured, the concrete blocks are positioned for installation tomorrow.  We got a bit of rain--hopefully not enough to be an issue while the concrete cures.  We will see tomorrow.

DAY 7 (October 4)

The plan was to install rebar this morning, inspect at noon and pour concrete in the afternoon.  Great plan, but the first meeting with the enemy (you know the story).  The rebar was put in the ground, but the verticals were not installed per print, so the inspector gave us the thumbs down and gave us permission to try again.  With additional rebar installed (18" OC vice 36" OC), we plan to have the reinspect done on Monday morning and pour concrete in the afternoon. 

 

 

 

 

Days 3-6

Well, the going is slowed to a crawl.  The rain last week has put all of the masons behind on other projects, and we are waiting for labor and materials.  The footing is dug as you can see in the pictures.  Maybe soon we will have rebar and concrete to put in the hole.  The plan is to pour the footing tomorrow after the inspection for the rebar positioning.  Hmmm, I am not sure that it will happen but we can hope.