And One More (Bigger) Issue!

OK, this morning my wife called in a panic - the framers have started to build out the frame above the front door. This is something which was written into our construction plans but which we had agreed (with the GC) that we would re-visit before anything was done. We really want to add some columns and extend this a little. What we will probably do is wait for the construction to be complete and to then add some of this finishing. But, we did not want them to build anything until we sketched out where we were going with this. My wife had the framers stop their work on this.

I put a call in to the GC - which is also becoming a problem. I had left a message Wednesday, and still have not heard back. So, now I have two calls in to him. He is away on vacation, but assured us he would get messages.

And Yet More Issues!

Well, a few more items came up - hopefully, none super critical, but each has to be dealt with. This is certainly something that I have learned - there are an unbelievable number of little issues you need to deal with as the homeowner - regardless of the fact that you pay a GC to basically deal with all of these issues, that's not really how things work.

One new item that came up, which one of our neighbors raised when my wife was talking with him, is that the way the Tyvek was done around the windows is not totally correct - the way it is currently would allow water to get into interior of window. So, we just need to confirm that the builder further wraps the windows.

Second issue - I learned from my wife that the top of the driveway, which will be the front half of the garage, still does not have the floor concrete poured. We need to confirm with GC that this will be done as we expect. And ask why it wasn't done before they framed out the garage.

Third issue - there is a window in basement (where the bar was) which has not been removed yet, and yet the new framing has been done around this. This will now be difficult to remove. We need to confirm with GC that it will be removed. And again, why wasn't this done first?

A roof!

Another item to report, on the positive side of things - the roof is just about completely up (not counting this new skirt roof thingy). The roof tiles are all up and look nice. One question I had - I can see the roof tile nails poking through into the inside of roof (what will be the attic). Is this OK? Is that generally how roof tiles are attached?

This cannot be fixed!

Today is Tuesday, and we had two big problems arise this past weekend. The first is that the first and second floor outside walls do not line up - that is, the new second floor foundationa and the left wall above stick out almost a foot from the second floor wall line. This apparently was a result of the architect incorrectly measuring where the foundation was to go, and the GC not catching this as the frame was put up. To add to the problem, our GC is on vacation this week (!). So, I have been working through his foreman on the site. It looks at this point that the only solution is going to be to leave this and put a "skirt roof" over that section of the first floor. The architect seems to think this will not be too bad. But, as my wife correctly points out, this is not what we agreed to and someone - the architect or the builder or both - are going to need to compensate us for this - otherwise, tear it down and do it right.

The second issue which came up over the weekend was that one of our neighbors stopped us and said during the week last week, at some point, something happend with the port-a-john and the smell down the street was horrible. He said he was very close to calling the board of health, which could become a major hassle for our builder (he said when he worked for the town a few towns away, this happened and the fines were over 100K and ended up putting the builder out of business).

Lesson: Do not trust the builder and stay on top of things. Do a walk through yourself every week, looking at the detailed building plans and raise any concern immediately!