Issues, Issues, Issues

Today is thursday - yesterday, we had a few potentially serious issues come up.

First, our architect drove by the house to check on the construction, and found that the way the support for the major beam to go across the family room, kitchen was being cut, would cause the beam to hang down into the first floor ceiling. This was not supposed to be done that way. She immediately told the framers to stop, and got in touch with the GC. He said this was not specified in the plan, the architect says it was. Not sure who is right or wrong. But, the end result is that the GC has ordered a replacement support beam, and he thinks this will set us back up to 2 weeks.

Second, as my wife was looking over the site, she saw two large, paint-type buckets sitting in the center of the house site. When she looked closely, she found the buckets were filled with oil! Apparently, when the builder's crew ripped out our oil tank (which they were not supposed to do), they emptied the remaining oil into these buckets and left the buckets sitting in the basement. Fortunately, this is all above ground and there is no real risk of contamination, but it really showed these guys did not know what they were doing when they ripped out the tank. I asked the GC for a letter confirming he removed the tank, where the tank went and that there was no noticeable leakage when the tank was removed. This may be need if we are to sell the house in the future.

Third, a minor issue - we found that there is still no port-a-potty at the site. We told this to builder, and he assured us one would be there by Thursday.

Fourth, we still have quite a bit of water sitting in the basement, and it is raining again today. They are going to have to pump the water out, and finish removing the soaked carpet (which was coming out anyway). And with the water still coming down and the house not closed off, there is probably no way the remaining floors can be saved. (The GC had told me the floors can handle one or two days of rain, after that they warp and need to be torn out).

So, here are the outstanding issues:
1. Get oil out of there
2. Get basement water pumped out
3. Get signed letter re oil tank
4. Floors need to go
5. Confirm we have port-a-john
6. Status of support beam

Well, today is Tuesday - the end of last week and Saturday saw a lot of demolition get done - the house is really down to the studs. Looks pretty much non-existent. I was actually surprised to see how much of the house is gone - I had envisioned more being left up. But, hey - all the better - my preference was to totally remove the old house - so, we are pretty much at that point.

On Monday, it rained a lot - all day, hard at times. My wife was upset that the house was getting flooded, since builder never tarped the structure. I was less concerned, figuring there was nothing left that could be destroyed. But, we did have the basement still with some interior left - sheetrock, carpeting - which is now soaked and needs to be removed ASAP to prevent mold. And, the builder was hoping to re-use the hardwood floors in the front 2 rooms. Those floors were pretty well soaked yesterday, so they are going to need to be replaced (in my opinion).

I spoke to builder today - he said he is going to be removing the carpeting, and mentioned that there is about 6 inches of water in the basement, which is being pumped out today. He also said that the floors in front two rooms could probably withstand a couple of days of rain - they begin to expand and warp, and are then ruined. He said if they have to come out, they will - he is OK with replacing them. I was clear to him that it certainly looked to me like they were soaked and would be destroyed.

And finally, we are at the point where framing is starting, and the builder need us to make some decisions on plumbing accessories - faucetts, tub, etc - since the decision impacts how they run the final plumbing. We are close to deciding on these. Also, we picked the tub but need to tell the plumbing company whether the tub is a right or left-hand drain. Builder said he will contact the plumbing supply company directly and let them know, some time today.