The Lost Week!

Well, its Monday morning. And as of yesterday, nothing much happened at the house. The electrician never came - originally supposed to be there Tuesday and didnt show. Then Sheldon assured us Thursday he would be there - never showed. Also, K-Shaw never picked up the tiles, which are waiting for them at the tile store. And so the mason never came - was scheduled for Thursday. And the rails for stairs were not put in - we were told that those would be in some time last week. And nothing was done with the floors.

Another week gone by, and it looks like exactly nothing was done. Very frustrating. After our GC gave us a very specific list of dates of when things would be done.

Slow Motion!

I spoke with Sheldon this morning, since it seems that none of the items Ken said would be done have gotten done this week. Here is some info:

Electrician - was supposed to be there Tuesday, but missed this - busy on something else. Then was supposed to be there Thursday and did not show. Sheldon thinks he will be there today (Fri) . I told him I want to talk with him so I want to know he will be there today.

Tiles - said the tiles for boys bath are in garage, but they are waiting on the tiles for master bathroom. They are not in yet.

Masons - cannot come until we get the remaining tiles.

Floors - he said once these guys are in, they are in the house for 2 days and nothing else can get done. So, they are trying to get tiles and electric done first. They will probably not be there this weekend. So, we have time before we pick stain. Sheldon did say if we want to pick a stain, if these are in Ken's office, he can open the door for us.

Painters - will not do anything until floors are done.

Railing - they are backed up - will not get rails till end of next week.

Basement water - someone will be there today to remove remaining water.

Missed First Scheduled Item for Week!

Frustrating! Heard from my wife this afternoon and it looks like the electricians never made it to the house. This was the first scheduled date we had on our list since we met with GC and expressed the importance of hitting these scheduled dates. And, the GC is away in Florida for the week.

OK - this may not be terrible. Hopefully, the electricians show up some time in the week and we get that done and this does not affect the other scheduling. But still, its frustrating to see large project managed as loosely as it is.

Also, spoke to my wife just now, and she said the GC's office called and our next payment is due. I think if nothing gets done in the next day or so, we will try to hold off the payment.

Scheduling, Scheduling!

We met with GC on Sunday and walked through the house and discussed what is left and what will happen when. My biggest concern is managing the final work to be done, to really try to keep close to schedule, since we are now about 4 to 6 weeks away (hopefully!) from completion. So, we have the following scheduled:

Tue 10/18 - electrician scheduled to install fixtures, remaing outlets and switches, etc (he will be back at least once more after this)

Thu 10/20 - Tiles scheduled to be installed by masons

Sat 10/22 - into following week - floor guys scheduled for sanding, staining, etc

* By Thursday we need to have chosen stain color

10/26 - 28 - Painters will finish work - they will give second and final coat to walls, touch up ceilings, finish remaining molding, etc

10/18 - 10/23 - sometime during week - the railings are to be installed

Long Time!

Been a while since I wrote anything, and I wanted to make some notes to catch up. The house is now totaly enclosed, the indoor framing was done, the sheetrocking done, the interior doors hung, the taping and spackling done, a first coat of primer done. The hardwood floors are in (but will not be sanded and stained until near the end).

We are now picking out the electrical fixtures - lights, ceiling fans, outdoor lights, etc. Electrician is coming this Tuesday to install all of these. He will come back once more at end to finish up things like the kitchen connections.

I spoke to builder today, and expressed my frustration on how things are progressing - he said they are getting things done - scheduling is always a problem. We will meet Sunday to walk through house. I will hopefully get over there today to look at the inside and make a list of issues. We are actually having rain for the 8th straight day today, so the house is getting a test of how well sealed up it is. The basement leaked, the chimney leaked and (possibly) the laundry room leaked. I let him know all of this, and he assured me they would take care of it.

Still to be done:
- order kitchen cabinets
- order countertops - kicthen and all bathrooms
- buy remaining lighting fixtures
- electrician install lights
- get tiles in-stock or re-order
- get tiles installed
- get kitchen cainets installed
- get countertops installed
- get kitchen plumbing done
- order appliances
- get appliances installed
- finish painting
- floors sanded and stained
- backdoor deck done
-

Do You Hear That?

Another issue came up - wife saw the insulation guy working and asked about insulation around the bathroom walls. This is not included in our contract, but might be worth it. We need to decide and see what the cost really is.

Everything Gets Smaller!

Well, I spoke with our GC this morning, and - after losing 4 feet in our walk in closet the past few weeks due to problems when we re-configured things to allow for our large shower and vanity in the kids bathroom, which itself had to be done because the architect messed up the measurements - we now have a problem with our large (6 foot) shower. It turns out, the shower-depth is 36 inches - most are 32 inches. So, the one we purchased does not fit. Our only option is, apparently, to go with a 5 foot, 32-inch deep shower. (We will get a one-piece unit, so no tiles need to be done). So, after sacrificing alot to get our large shower, in the end we lose it. This is very frustrating.

How do we Get in the Attic?

OK - we have been dealing what you would think would be a real stupid little issue - where do we place the pull-down stairs for access to the attic? Well, this has not been so simple. In our original plans, we had a nice large walk-in closet in the master bedroom, which happened to be perfectly situated for having an access into the attic cuit into the ceiling. Life was good.

Then, we had this little problem which I had detailed last week. And, we lost a few feet in our closet. Which also resulted in a very tight fit for the drop down steps. So, we went back and forth - I really wanted to keep the stairs in the closet (and out of site). My wife met with builder on Monday, and as of now we left off that he will most likely move the stairs/access into the hallway. Not what we wanted, but I guess not the end of the world.

Lesson: document and include in the contract, and your house plans, things as small as the attic access stairs. Since we did not have this specified, we really couldn't push too hard on the GC to move them when the closet change took place.

Lesson: as I have learned, the flooring for an attic is generally not included in a building contract, unless explicitly stated. This is not too much work for the builders, and probably easily negotiable upfront. But later, they'll try to charge you alot for this.

Its Appliance Time!

Just another note for today - we have finalized our appliance list. (My wife and I had a babysitter last Monday and went shopping for the kitchen applicance - and then out to dinner! - and came up with a rough list of the general pieces we wanted and price range). In the past few days, she has been researching and nailing down the final list. Today, I put together a document with the exact model numbers we want - we will use this for two things:

1. to give to our "kitchen designer" (who works for the builder - we do not pay for this guy) - he will need the exact model numbers to start drafting the exact kitchen layout, and to prepare for the plumber who will need the exact locations for the connections, etc.
2. we will use this list to fax to a few kitchen appliance stores to request a package quote.

A Foot Here, a Foot There!

Well, since we discovered the measurement mistake, we have looked to find a way to have the large kids bathroom - with 6 ft tub and 6ft vanity, and a separator door. We could have moved the vanity across from the tub, but would have had to lose the separator door. We asked our architect (since, as we understand, this was her error), to come up with a solution, and she provided a hand-sketch of a way to move the bathroom wall out, and take some space from our very large walk-in closet in the master bedroom. This seemed like a perfect solution.

But when I met with the GC, he saw that this would take alot of re-work and re-framing - this part of the house has been completely framed out, and his framing team is on to the next project. (Lesson learned - stay on top of this stuff. If I had caught this earlier, the correction coudl have been much easier). In the end, the GC agreed to make the change (and said he might send the architect his bill!)

OK, as of last Friday, we walked through the house to see the change. He did in fact do what was in the sketch - which, it turns out, included taking almost 4ft from our walk-in closet!!! Our very large walk-in closet is now an OK sized walk-in closet. (But, our bathroom is - from what we can tell - exactly what we want). So, at this point, I guess it is a reasonable compromise, and I must say I am pretty pleased with the GC for doing this - he could have pushed back on this. And, he agreed that this is no cost to us - either he or the architect will eat the cost. So, I guess I am happy? Would have been happier if we had just gotten what we thought we were getting, without feeling that everyone did us a favor.