Atco, siding and fireplace issues

Another month, another head banging with the city.

I am trying to order the fireplace. But I need to get it from somewhere that can install it using a city approved fireplace installer. When we applied for our building permit, we had to specify who would be installing the fireplace. I listed the place BIL buys his fireplaces from, and the city said no. So Ryan listed someone else. That someone else doesn't sell anything I am interested in buying. Expensive, and not very efficient units. No thank-you. 

So, I find a fireplace dealer, who tells me they install and they are city approved. Before actually placing the order, I call the city to verify. No, Barbecues Galore is not approved. Hang up, go to Barbecues Galore's website. Hmmm, it's "Barbecues Galore and Woods Fireplaces." Call the city. Is Woods Fireplaces approved? Woods Fireplaces on Edmonton Trail? Yes. No, they aren't approved. 

What? How did you know their address if they aren't in your system? Oh, they pay taxes, but they don't have a business license. 

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Can I get the list of approved fireplace installers? "We don't have a list." Then how are you able to tell me if someone is or isn't approved? "We type the name into the system, and it tells me." So, there's a list somewhere, how do I get it? "Well, maybe try sending a request in writing to the commissioner of licenses?" Umm, maybe send a request in writing, and maybe that might get me the info I need? Maybe? 

So then he suggests I try asking the business. Ok, so what do I ask them? "Ask if they have a license." What kind of license? "A business license." Just a business license? "Yes, a business license." Okay, my hair dresser has a business license. Can she install my fireplace? No. Why not? "She doesn't have the right kind of license." So, what kind of license does a fireplace installer need? "Something issued by a governing body." Which governing body? "I don't know, I just know that I type their name in the system, and it says yes or no." 

So I went into Barbecues Galore and asked them if they ever install in new builds. Yes, all the time. Infills, like ours? Yes. New infills, from scratch? Yes. So I called the city again the next day and asked again if Barbecues Galore is approved. Yes, no problem. 

So, I figure that the system completely falls apart if the person on the phone is unable to type "Barbecue". 

The next headache of the week is the gas hookup. I went in to apply for our gas hookup 2 weeks ago. It's about an 8 week wait. Ouch. But at least we're on the list now. They have sent out 2 people to the site to verify that there is not currently a gas line. This is in addition to the 2 times we've had the site checked for gas lines before we were allowed to excavate. MrDinks asked me to call and verify that we're on the list. Hmmm, nope. "Our system is showing a request to disconnect back in 2012 that was never completed. So until the disconnect gets completed, we can't give you a new one. You can't have 2 gas lines on 1 property." Ok, give me someone else to yell at then. Because we've been waiting patiently for 2 weeks. If your system is not up to date, and the guys you've been sending out haven't been updating the system when they come back to the office after confirming that I don't already have gas, that's not my fault. I am not adding on however long it takes to get this resolved on top of the 8 week wait I'm already under. 

After a few calls, it turns out that when the moron we bought the property from had the gas hooked up to the house next door, he put the wrong address down on the request. So now apparently we have a gas line, and our neighbours don't. But somehow, they have heat, and we don't. Go figure. But now, because we're a special case, we don't have to wait on the regular queue. Now, we are looking at getting gas hooked up the first of January. 

And then there's the siding. They started right away on the exterior insulation and house wrap, and told me to get the siding ordered and they would start last Friday. So, I ordered siding that I don't love just so we could have it onsite instead of waiting 3 weeks for the stuff I liked better. But then BIL pointed out, we don't have all our windows in yet and we don't have the fascia and soffits in. We're not ready for siding. Just finish the insulation and house wrap. Okay, the siding guys agree. But then in the last week, they've basically stopped. I've been busy at work, so I don't know the details. But a week after they were supposed to have started the siding, they still aren't done the insulation and wrap. So much for that rush on the siding order. 

But, they've gone ahead and charged my Visa for the insulation and wrap work. MrDinks saw the charge, didn't recognize the name, so he googled it. And he found a news story about a guy with the same name in Saskatchewan who was getting paid for work that he wasn't doing. Hmm. Well, at least it's on the Visa, and not a cash payment. 

The laugh of the week came in the mail. You may recall from a few weeks ago, the dispute with the lumber company over the deposit for joist designs that they then refused to do? They refunded my money and basically told me they don't want my business? Well, they sent me a Christmas card.

Siding progress

Getting the sewer hooked up.  

More sewer people!

Kitchen struggles

So, I thought I was all on top of this stuff. I had pretty good idea of the kitchen layout, the appliances, and a kitchen company picked. That's all gone to pot in the last few weeks. First, the walls keep moving. So the space I have to work with on the kitchen keep changing. Minor issues I guess.

A big problem is that the oven I wanted is no longer available. And there are no replacements. My current oven is a free standing, all in one unit with 2 ovens. My favourite feature is the small upper oven. It's big enough for a cookie sheet, or casserole dish. And because it's small, it heats up instantly, so I use it 90% of the time. It even acts as a toaster oven. 6 months ago (or more), I looked into the options for appliances. They don't make wall ovens small like my current oven. If you've got the space for a wall oven, surely you'd want 2 full sized ones, right? So, I was sticking with a stand alone oven/stove unit. But, I wanted induction. At the time, they had *just* started making dual ovens with induction tops. There were 2 models available, and I was hopeful that more would come out by the time I needed to purchase. So that was my plan. Now, those 2 models have been discontinued. And not a single manufacturer has come out with another one. The current trend in ovens is not a true double oven like I have now. Instead, they sell single ovens that come with a divider. What? How is this an improvement? Instead of a full size oven and a small oven, you now get a regular size oven that you can divide into 2 small ovens. And they may or may not have different temperatures, depending on how well the divider works. And you can't bake in both, because the upper "oven" won't have a bottom element. And you've only got 1 door. Geniuses. I could get a gas stove with dual ovens. But then I'm getting a gas oven. They don't make dual ovens with dual fuel. So, I've decided to get a free standing induction stove/oven, and a second wall oven. No more lovely little, efficient oven. But at least I'm not stuck with a single oven.

The next major issue is that the local company I picked, based on the manufacturer of the cabinets. is no longer carrying those cabinets. So now I either need to get different cabinets, or work with a different company. So I'm pretty much back at square 1.

And I am going away for work for a month, and need to get the cabinets ordered before I go. Argh!!!

Still going

Despite my lack of posts, a lot has happened at the site.

The basement floor got poured, and Framer came back and framed it in. The house looks almost finished down there. BIL (with a little help from MrDinks) did the gravel and under slab insulation. The cost of the concrete was getting out of control, so I elected to forgo the heating tubes under the slab. There's a good chance we'd never need it, with the insulation there. And we would have to know what the plans for future finishing of the basement would be, and hope that we picked the right zones. And then there's a chance that whoever puts in the walls might put them in the wrong spot and use nails instead of glue and pierce the pipes. A lot of ifs to spend the $2k+ on now. If we decide we want heated floors, we can always put in electric in the future.

Looking towards the cold storage/furnace room, after the gravel was put down, before the foam.

MrDinks taping the foam.

Looking through the furnace room into the cold storage. 

From the furnace room, towards the stairs. 

From the furnace room to the front west corner. 

The roofers are being a pain in the ass. They were supposed to be on site the first week on Nov, and be done in a couple of days. Well, it snowed in early Nov, and they said that put them behind. Um, well, you were supposed to be here BEFORE the snow, so you can't blame the weather. They finally showed up 2 weeks later. They've now been around for over a week, and aren't even half done. When they show up, they're around for a couple of hours and then take off again. I came to the site one day to see if they were there, and they'd left a torch on, inside the house, unattended. (They are doing the flat roofs, so they need the torch for melting on the rubber.) They also cut off  below the windows instead of wrapping it around on TOP of the window ledge. The whole reason for having this done before the windows go in? So they're going to fix that. MrDinks has pointed out that they are the first crack head crew we've had so far, so we're lucky there.

The other issue I've been dealing with is with one of the lumber suppliers, who is also a joist company. Back in August, they gave us a quote for joists and trusses. It was a lot lower than our original joist company. But they wanted a $500 deposit to drawn up the joist plans. It was enough of a savings to pay the deposit. But then they dragged their asses on getting the joist plans done. It took them twice as long as it was supposed to. Even when I called them and said "I need it today or I am ordering the joists elsewhere." They still took another couple of days. And then the floor joists were wrong. And then they wouldn't sell us the roof trusses unless we bought their wrong joist design, even though it was too late. Meanwhile, we've been buying a lot of material from them (studs, subfloor, etc.) and they've been pretty good in that respect. But I've been fighting with them over the deposit on the joists and trusses that they refuse to sell us. I finally told the salesman this week that I was going to take it up with Visa. He agreed to give us the deposit back, and basically said they won't be selling us anything anymore. Huh. Okay, I was going to not buy anything from them again if I had to go to Visa. Weird that they chose to give us back the deposit AND lose the rest of our business.

The exterior doors have also been a struggle over the last few weeks. A couple of days before they were supposed to be delivered, the door company called me and told me that the style of door I'd picked couldn't be fitted with the key pad lock I wanted. Buh. I struggled with the choice of doors in the first place. Most door companies have zero options that are suitable for a modern style house. The ones that do, have very few. And then since Ryan spec'd 7' doors, I'm even more limited. I had picked the only 7' door with modern styling they had. And now I can't even get a keypad lock on it? The problem with the majority of doors is the windows still have this curly trim on them that all doors have had since 1984. Even doors the manufacturer considers to be "modern" have trim on them that matches everything at Home Depot. In the end, I settled for the modern door with more glass than I wanted for the front door, without keyless entry. And for the back door, we're getting the keyless entry on a somewhat ugly door, with less glass. Both are 7' tall.

We decided to hire one of the siding companies to do the exterior insulation and house wrap so we can proceed with stuff on the inside. So I hired one of the companies. Then he said to just get them to do the siding, too. And the price has come down, so we booked it. They started on the insulation on Wednesday. They'd probably have been done already if they weren't working around the roofer.

We also had the temperature drop to -25C on Friday, and got about a foot of snow, so neither the roofer nor the siding guys have been back since Thursday. There was enough wind that we had big drifts of snow INSIDE the house, too. We shoveled that out yesterday. Windows are supposed to come on Thursday, pending the roofers actually finishing their part. So I am looking forward to that. And the plumber is supposed to start putting in pipe tomorrow. 

Crawling along

The plumber came back, and did his basement stuff, so BIL asked me to book the inspection. Calling the city always makes for great blog material.

Person #1: You have a building permit. If you want a plumbing inspection, you need a plumbing permit. Here. let me transfer you to someone who can look that up for you.
Person #2: There's no plumbing permit number, it's part of the building permit. I'll transfer you back. 
Person #3: I can't book just a plumbing inspection, you have to get mechanical and framing inspected at the same time. (But I can't do mechanical until the basement slab is poured, and I need the plumbing under the basement slab inspected before I have the slab poured?) Well there's nothing I can do about that, I'll transfer you to another department.
Person #4: What you're doing is called "groundworks plumbing", not "plumbing rough-in". Groundworks plumbing is inspected without the mechanical and framing done. I'll transfer you back. 
Person #5: This building permit doesn't cover groundworks. (How can we have a permit to build a house, that includes plumbing, and heat, and doesn't have pipes under the basement floor? Even if we weren't roughing in for a bathroom, we'd still need a drain for the furnace room.) You have to check off "groundworks " when you apply for the building permit. I'll transfer you to the department that can add that.
Person #6: That'll be $121. Do you have a credit card? Thanks. Oh, I can't transfer you, you'll need to call back to book the inspection.

So the inspection got booked. And we passed. I was talking to the plumber later in the day and he asked how it went. When I told him we passed, he replied, "Really? Wow!" He then laughed and said he was kidding. Um, not funny.

Meanwhile, the garage got excavated and the foundation poured. MrDinks was on site when the concrete truck showed up for that. He was giddy because he missed it the first time, and also, it's his garage. It was somewhat dramatic, too. A concrete truck showed up and sat for about 20 minutes, then pulled off into the alley across the street. Then another truck showed up and they poured out of that one. And it was a dark coloured concrete. We are speculating that it was leftover from another job.

So then we're on to looking for concrete for the basement and garage floors. The quotes for concrete were reasonable, but once we asked for foam under the concrete, the price got jacked up. Part of it was an extra $800 for rebar in the basement just for something for the plumbers to tie infloor heating pipes to. We could have argued against that, as the plumber should be using staples over the pipe that go into the foam. But I'm no longer eager to get the in floor heat pipes put in. We're not finishing the basement, so we wouldn't put in a boiler to actually heat the basement floor until we did. Which might be never. And we'd have to decide now where the walls would go and create zones of pipe. And according to our environmental consultant, with the extra insulation, we might find we don't need the extra heat source. PLUS, it would require yet another addition to our building permit. The only reason for that is so they can charge us more for another inspection, in which someone from the city will come out and say "Yup, there's pipe here!" And also so they can increase the property tax on the finished house. I am not excited about paying more for property tax for having a feature that we may never actually have. If we do decide to heat the floor, an electric pad seems like a much better plan, especially since we wouldn't be using it to heat the room, just to make the floor warm. So we're cutting out the infloor heating pipes to help offset the extra expense for the garage.

But of course, the concrete guy can't wrap is head around putting in foam insulation without putting in hydronic heating. The foam is only required if you're doing hydronic heating, who would add insulation if it wasn't absolutely required? So BIL is doing the foam and other basement work so we can get the basement poured before the windows show up.

The other thing that needs to be done before the windows go in is the finishing of the flat roofs. I met the roofer on site today to get that started. He was supposed to start last Saturday. It started snowing on Saturday, and kept snowing on Sunday. By Monday it had stopped and was warming up. So I called to see where he was. He claims the snow delayed his previous job, and he's starting early next week. But since we never signed a contract, and I hadn't picked a colour, we met on site today. He pulls up in his truck, and sits there. Eventually I walk over and invite him to come up and look at the flat sections. He can't. He's in a wheelchair. He's just the business guy, and another crew does the actual work. But it was a surprise. So we chatted while he sat in the truck. I didn't ask why he's in a wheelchair, but several people have speculated that it has something to do with roofing. He forgot his colour samples, so I still haven't picked the colour, but he got his deposit.

We're also trying to get someone lined up for the siding. Ouch. We figure it's about $15,000 in materials, for Hardie board, cedar soffits and 2" foam. The quotes are all coming in around $50k. That's $35k in labour, for about a week's work. Ouch. I'm considering doing it myself, and launching a new career. I'm also considering vinyl siding even more seriously now. But before they can start, we have an issue with the eaves to resolve. In case you haven't seen the sketch, the roof overhang is supposed to look like this:

But we currently have this:

The truss company gave us trusses thicker than Ryan planned for. Once again, the truss company screwed up, and if the architect had actually looked at the truss plans, he should have caught it. And our fascia board is already almost twice what standard fascias are. So building it out even more would look silly. And cutting down the trusses would weaken the roof structure. There's also a beam sticking out on the upper right corner. That was in Ryan's plans, and I assumed MrDinks would like it, as he loves the idea of exposing the structure. But there isn't a matching one on the other side, so he doesn't like it.

Otherwise, framing is complete, and this is the general shape of the house.

Stairs and posts and plumber?

It was an exciting day at the site today. I picked up our posts for the main and second floors.

And our stairs were delivered and installed. No more scary ladders to get upstairs.

We also have super huge window wells.

On Monday, the plumber called me at work and said he was available to start that day. I've been trying to get him in to do the stuff in the basement so we can get the concrete poured. That needs to be done before windows can go in. So I happily met him there with the plans.

But before I could get there, he was calling me freaking out about the fact that we have a lift station. The sewer in the street is higher than our basement floor. So, we have to put in a pump that lifts anything from the basement up above the level of the sewer so it can flow down and out of the house.

When I arrived, I told him he shouldn't be surprised by the lift station, because he quoted on the lift station, and he already discussed the lift station with BIL. He claims he discussed it with BIL about BIL's other project, not this one. But he's freaking out because "the entire house needs to be redesigned." Hmm, maybe you should have gotten your butt out here 2 months ago when I tried to get you to put the sewer pipe through the foundation? Maybe then you'd have had time to think about problems caused by the lift station? And then we could have maybe made changes? But I kept my mouth shut. And listened to his hour plus rant about how he couldn't just do the basement stuff because of how he has to figure out how to do everything upstairs first.

He then mentioned that we can't start on the garage until we get our gas hooked up. He claims that the gas company will hookup to our garage and we'll have to pay an extra $5k to run it from the garage to the house. But if we get it hooked up to the house before the garage exists, then they have to run it to the house. I was pretty sure we wanted to run it to the garage, and then from the garage to the house. But he insisted BIL did that on his last house because he got burned by having the garage in first, and it was such a huge deal.

On my way back to work, I sent MrDinks an email telling him to figure out the gas thing and the garage was on hold.

Once away from this guy's panic and rant, I realized how ridiculous his "issues" are. The reason the lift station caused him such a headache is that without it, he'd run all the pipes into the basement, and slope them down towards the sewer under the basement slab. Now that he can't do that, the basement stuff is actually a lot simpler. All he has to do is the pipe works for the basement bathroom, a drain from the furnace room to the lift station and the incoming water to the furnace room from the front street. Done. Whatever happens upstairs later is irrelevant. Okay, upstairs will be more complicated in the future, but it doesn't prevent him from being able to do the basement now.

And as for the garage/gas, aka chicken/egg problem, we definitely want the garage to go in first. The gas company has promised MrDinks that they'll hook it up wherever we ask them to, and pay accordingly. Not that we'll pay for having it hooked up to the house, but actually getting it hooked up to the garage, and then paying again to have it run further like the plumber claims. Plus, in preparation for excavation, we had to have the gas company come out and check that there are no gas lines in the property. So burying a gas line days before we start excavating seems like it would cause a whole new set of problems, to say the least. Did I mention this plumber is the gas fitter, too? So the garage is going ahead as planned.

On Tuesday, I find out that after I left, this plumber went upstairs and drilled all the holes for our drains. Every single one of them is in the wrong spot. And again, there's not even any reason for him to be upstairs. I also found out that after I left, he spent over an hour of my framer's time preaching to him about Christ.

So, I'm not impressed with this guy. But he's BIL's guy, so BIL talked to him, and he's going to do the basement stuff.

The excavation is going ahead on the garage on Thursday.

The framer is done with the roof trusses. He just needs to do the roof sheathing, the front porch, and a few other details. 

4 weeks of framing

It's been a while since the last update. and I'll blame the new job. I actually only worked 2 days, and then we went away for a week. But I'm blaming the job anyway.

Before we left on our trip, some progress was made on the house, baby steps. The most exciting thing is that the tub got lifted up to the second floor.

We also got our building permit for the garage, and got the garage marked out and the utilities marked again for the excavators. 

This is what the house looked like when we left on our trip. Framer was working on the roof trusses. 

We then left for a week long road trip to Whistler for mountain biking, Surrey for Thanksgiving dinner with family, and Spokane, WA for architectural salvage shopping. Salvage shopping was a bust. 

While we were traveling, I got our steel post ordered, as well as our temporary stairs. We also found out that our garage is actually planned, approved, and marked out to be placed 2 feet from the property line, not 4 like we thought. So that means that our temporary power pole is in the way of the garage. So I have that scheduled to be moved this week. Excavation will happen on Wednesday. 

Otherwise, not much progress happened on the house while we were away. Not much noticeable progress anyway. Framer is still working on the roof trusses. They weren't built according to the plans, so he's having to adjust walls as he goes. The roof trusses are mostly on. 

2nd week of framing

Still waiting on the cribbers to come out and fix the basement pads. The latest word is tomorrow, or Saturday.

We've decided to go with the full, expensive garage foundation. We had originally assumed we'd do concrete piles to help stabilize the pad. But it turns out that there aren't many engineers who have actually designed this, so they are either telling us to do the 4' frost wall, or a thickened edge slab. The thickened edge slab seems like the cheapest option. But some engineers won't sign off on this and it's seen as a cheap corner cutting solution. The engineers who will sign off on it are requiring the edge to be SO thick that it's not really any cheaper than doing the full foundation. 

Our foundation guy suggested that metal screw piles would be the cheapest solution. But the screw piles company wants us to put in so many, that it ends up being MORE than the full foundation. So, we're back to doing the full foundation. 

So we need a drawing for the city to issue the building permit. We could use the drawing we got through our engineer, but it doesn't have the proper dimensions. It's also a bad drawing. It shows a 6" curb all around. The measurements on it show that it's 6" from grade, and the slab is 6" thick, so it works out to be flat in reality. But we'd have to hope that the concrete guys read the dimensions and not looks at the picture. Rather than sending it back and waiting another 2 weeks to get it done right, we've asked Ryan to do it. He's promised to have it done by the end of the week, and it should be cheaper. Hopefully he'll do it in less than 2 weeks. 

One of the metal companies came out and looked at my post and gave me a quote. $2280 for 2 metal posts. For perspective, a stock metal post in the basement is about $100. We need someone to take a metal post, and weld a bracket on it. Apparently welders make several thousand dollars per day. I guess this is why they expect us to pay $115k for stairs out of metal. I should get a welding ticket.

MrDinks found out that one of the companies that makes basement posts in located here in town, Wesure. I went to visit them, and they will make us a fixed height post based on their stock designs for $275 each. That's a little more reasonable for custom posts.  

Framer sent me to another metal shop to get some supports for our window wells. It's a little hole in the wall. And their price for the supports are very reasonable. So it's another potential source for our stairs and/or railings.

Ryan came by the site yesterday to discuss the post. He has contacts in the steel construction industry, so I set up the appointment with him before we found Wesure. We also had some other things to discuss with him, so I didn't cancel. 

The first thing to discuss was the size of the stairwell. Using a guess about the size of the treads, MrDinks calculated that our landings would be 8' wide by 5 1/2' deep. We'd end up with landings that can be used as sitting rooms. But Ryan's plan was for 11" treads, so we're abou 4 1/2' deep. Less crazy. And probably not worth putting in extra joists to close in the stairwell. 

The second item was brought to our attention by framer just minutes before Ryan arrived. Ryan's designs assume that our joists are 14"+ thick. The joist company plans call for 11 7/8", and that's what they sent. So by losing 2" between each level, our house is now 6" shorter than planned. We hired a bucket truck, TWICE, to find out that we want to maximize the height of the house. We had to justify our height to the city. We are NOT giving up 6" now. The easiest solution is to add 6" of headroom on the 3rd floor. That's nice, because it means MrDinks would actually get to use more of the space up there. But, it means that we'll see a lot less from up there, and the view is the whole reason for even having a 3rd floor. So we've decided to build up the flat roof that becomes the 3rd floor deck. 

Ryan claims the joist company pulled a last minute switch. He says that the joists were originally 14", and he changed his design to fit that, and spent an evening doing it. But I checked the various versions of the joist plans, and it's always been 11 7/8" joists. Again, perhaps he should have LOOKED at the joist plan? 

I went up to the 2nd floor today to discuss something with Framer. And we can see the tops of some of the taller downtown buildings from there. So I'm optimistic that the 3rd floor will be worth the hassle. 

Another development today that affects the build is that I accepted a new job. We are officially DINKS again, which makes MrDinks very happy. But it means that I can no longer devote 22 hours a day to this build. No more calls from Framer or BIL asking for materials and off I run. I will be working reduced hours, so I can do some during business hours. But I expect some delays because of it. 

1st full week of framing

Framer has now been on site for a full week. And although he's still waiting on materials, he got started on the 2nd floor this week. He then took a couple of days off to wait for the rest of it to show up. So this is basically what we've looked like since Thursday afternoon.

The electric company arrived on Wednesday, so we have our temp power. He may have just been in the area, but I like to believe that my polite phone calls convinced them to move me up in the schedule. 

For the missing fireplace, the joist company wants us to sister in some joists for support. Framer doesn't want to do it, but his quote for the extra work is low enough that I think we'll do it. And we can use the joists that have already been sent to us by accident. 

The engineer has given us the go ahead and repair the footings in the basement. We're now waiting on the cribbers to decide if their repair recommendations are worth doing, or if they'll just pour a new pad. 

We also got a drawing for a garage foundation. Not OUR garage foundation, but A garage foundation. The engineering company farmed out this job to someone else, and didn't pass on the message that we want the cheapest possible option. So they gave us a stock drawing of a garage with a 4' deep frost wall. It doesn't even match our dimensions. I sent it back to our engineer telling them this isn't what we're looking for. He simply replied that we've got a big garage, so this is what they recommend. Uh, yeah, we have a big garage. That's why we need it engineered. That doesn't mean it needs a foundation that matches the house. MrDinks has sent out some emails to some other companies to find out our options. 

I am also looking into options to replace a post on our main floor. This post. 

I knew from the joist layout that it was a "stacked wood" post. I assumed that meant it would match the wooden beam. But it's 5 2x6s nailed together. And it's really ugly. It was intended to be left exposed, or potentially clad in something prettier. But 2x6s look temporary, at best. And they're so big that once I clad them, they're just going to be too large for the space. So I'm looking for something to replace them with. 

Option 1 is a wood post. The problem here is that it'll probably end up prettier than the wooden beam above it. 

Option 2 is a metal telescopic post that matches the one in the basement. The problem with that is that it's also kind of ugly. It looks more "basement" than "industrial loft." But it's an improvement over the 2x6s and we can at least wrap something around it and it won't end up being 10" across. 

I also looked into getting a metal i-beam or square post cut to size. But it's not going to be as simple as just buying what we need. So I've got a list of metal workers to call and get it done. If this works out, I may end up hiring the same guy to do the stairs. At least the railings. 

MrDinks has expressed concern about waiting too long to get this post replaced. But Framer isn't worried about jacking it up for a few minutes to replace it even once the upstairs walls are on. I'd still like to get it done sooner rather than later. We'll also want to do the same thing with the post that will be visible on the second floor. 

The other piece of frustration came from the company I was going to order the doors from. When I was talking to them about doors, they mentioned that they do roofing and siding, too. So I sent the plans and asked for a quote. After 3 weeks of stringing me along, they have informed me that they are currently booking jobs for next spring, so they aren't going to even quote on my house. Ugh. I am not too comfortable ordering doors from them at this point. But I'll have to order them from someone this week. 

The mistakes keep coming.

First thing Monday morning, I called the joist company to find my joist that was missing for the second time. They insist they sent it, and maybe I just didn't see it? You think we all missed a 17' joist? No. So instead of waiting all day again to find it, I sent BIL out with the big truck to pick one up. When he arrived, they told him they'd found our joist in the back, and it never made it on the truck on Friday. So he brought it to the site. He got there 20 minutes after the truck dropped off the first one. So it turns out we have 2? No. They actually sent 2 wrong joists last week. One was the wrong joist, but the right length. So Framer used it. The other one was the wrong type AND wrong length. Framer replaced the one he used and now we have 2 joists to return.

I then solved the mystery of joist company #2's tall wall quote. They misread a measurement, and quoted on a 30' wall instead of a 20' wall. Once that was straightened out, they were able to revise the quote and came in at half company #1. Except they've now missed a whole bunch of stuff. But it's inexpensive stuff, so they'll probably still be a few thousand cheaper.

The electric company was supposed to come yesterday to hook up our temporary power. They didn't show. Several phone calls and a day later, I find out that when the electric company says "scheduled for Monday", they mean "send it to be scheduled on Monday." Why on Earth would I want them to wait 3 days just to get in the queue? I thought I was waiting 3 days to ensure I was 100% ready. I'm now waiting another 2 weeks for them to actually do the work. But at least I'm in the list.

I woke up in the middle of the night with the realization that Framer didn't make a hole for our fireplace. When we pointed it out to him (this morning, I didn't call him at 2am!), he said he didn't realize there was a fireplace because the joist plan didn't have joists to support the fireplace. He thought the markings on Ryan's drawings were indicating something on the 2nd floor. The joist company missed this, and Ryan missed that they missed it. So now we need the engineers to determine how to support the fireplace. Do we cantilever more joists out the side? A bracket screwed on the outside?

Framer missed the mudroom door. This was discovered by BIL. I guess that's why he kept calling it a closet.

BIL was then teasing me about our giant hole for our staircase, which seems to take up half the house. So we measured it, and we realized that Ryan has left a 6 inch gap around the staircase. So our landings are floating in mid air. Perhaps this is why our stair case quotes are so expensive? Because they're spec'ing a force field to keep the stairs suspended? I think MrDinks would happily pay for that. So I guess our landings are going to be 6" deeper. But otherwise, it's a normal sized staircase.

I spoke to the engineer about a fix for the pads in the basement, and he asked me to take some measurements. So I climbed the ladder into my basement for the first time since the floor went on. The big one is 54" square. According to the engineer, they should have been 60" square. So, another Oops.

Framer started on the interior walls on the first floor, and commented that the double wall between the kitchen and mudroom seemed weird. I explained that it's a utility channel. He pointed out that it's sitting on top of a joist, so we can't drill up through that.

The joist company was supposed to deliver the 2nd floor joists today. Another truck didn't arrive.

The garbage bin was dropped off, and they put it in the wrong spot.

I think I need to increase the wine budget.

MrDinks and I picked up a bathtub from Kijiji last night. I had looked at it months ago. It's in worse shape than I thought, so I'll need to have it refinished. On the upside, I can take it directly to the site and not worry about trades dropping bags of nails into it. 

Stumbling along...

Monday started busily with the excavator at the site finishing the backfill. We managed to get it filled before the neighbour's air conditioner fell into our hole. BIL pulled the last of the shoring wall out just before the dirt got dumped in. There are basement windows in front of the air conditioner, and until we get window wells, they can't fully fill in there. So the backhoe dumped about 5 feet of dirt in below the windows, and BIL put the shoring back in for the 5' up to finished grade.

Back in May, I sent our plans to a second joist company for a quote on the joists and trusses. It took them so long to respond, that by the time they did, I completely forgot I'd emailed them. And in addition to the joist & trust quote, they sent me a materials list for the framing. So I missed the joist quote. In July, I realized they actually quoted on the joists and were MUCH cheaper than the first company. So much cheaper that it was worth paying a $500 deposit to get floor and roof layouts drawn up. So I paid, and they told me it would be 7-10 business days to get them back, and we had to wait until then to order our joists. By that point, we were already digging the foundation, so the sales guy promised to put a rush on it. After 12 days, I had to call them and tell them to send me the drawings immediately or I would be ordering the joists from the first company. I figured we could keep moving, and then order the upper floors from the cheaper company. The 2nd company finally got me the drawings on day 13, and they made the same mistake with the post I already had the first company fix. Now on Monday afternoon, they have informed me that since I went ahead and bought the first floor joist from the first company, they won't supply any joists or trusses, and they're keeping the deposit. So that ended Monday on a grumpy note. I spoke to company #1 and let them know that we got a much cheaper quote, so hopefully we can get our costs down. But there's still an issue of our deposit with company #2.

Now that our giant pile of dirt is gone, either dumped in the hole, or hauled away, we were able to check on our time lapse camera. We filled the memory card, so we missed most of the backfilling. The good news is that we only lost a day of filming. The bad news is that the file is 4GB, too big to post here. More bad news is that most of it is just staring at dirt. So, I'll need to find an editor so I can post it here, and people would actually want to watch it.

On Tuesday, the joists and beams for the first floor got delivered, and I ordered the studs and sheathing for the first floor. I ended up having to change suppliers at the last minute. I had contacted the first choice on Monday, and they weren't going to be able to deliver until Friday. Also, we decided to upgrade from OSB subfloors and sheathing to plywood for more stability, and so it doesn't swell if it gets wet before we can get siding on it.

On Wednesday, the framer arrived with his helper. My first thought was that he'd brought his girlfriend. She was a tiny little thing, with perfect makeup. I felt really bad for that assumption, as I have been the girl in a "man's job" myself. And it's horrible for people to look at me the way I looked at her. But they didn't bring a generator, and we don't have temporary power yet. So they did some minor prep and left.

The excavators dug up the ground plate that MrDinks buried last fall for our temporary pole. He was cranky about the fact that he already buried it once. So I did it the second time.

Thursday was a hive of activity. Framer came back without his assistant, but with the generator, and got to work. The city inspector came to check out our temporary pole so the utility company can come hook it up next week. And our toilet got delivered. We have plumbing!

I had to be at the site for the afternoon to wait for the inspector. The toilet was supposed to be delivered in the morning, so I didn't ensure I went to the bathroom before I got to the site. The toilet was late. By the time it arrived, I was afraid I was going to have to use it before they even got it off the truck. But I managed to hold it until the delivery guy left.

MrDinks and I spent the evening at the home show, collecting contact info for more trades. A lot of siding and mechanical guys.

On Friday morning, I found out that Framer is missing a joist. Either the joist company sent the wrong one, or Framer cut it too short and isn't admitting it. The joist company offered to send one out right away, but I had to pay $150 for it. Fine, send it and I'll worry about how it happened later. Unfortunately, the new joist never arrived. I'm particularly upset about this, since I could have found a way to pick it up if they weren't going to bother actually delivering it. Framer made impressive progress on Thursday, but he was handicapped by this missing joist on Friday. This photo shows what the house looked like on Thursday afternoon. By Thursday evening, all the rest of the joists (except one) and posts were in place, and a couple of sheets of subfloor installed. Did you catch where the dude's assistant didn't show up? One guy did this. By himself.

Framer also discovered that the foundation guys made a mistake on the placement of our footings. There are 3 pads in the basement, upon which the posts holding up the first floor sit. They're supposed to sit on the middle of the pad, and they are sitting near the edge. Oops. So that'll need to be fixed.

Also on Friday, we had a first floor survey, which the city requires to ensure the foundation isn't too high. A high foundation means a higher final house. The survey shows we're 2cm lower than planned. I want my 2cm back!

At some point this week, the subject of fire rated sheathing came up. BIL said the whole wall facing the neighbour needed pink treated sheathing. The plans only show that for the bump outs on the second floor. Code says it's only necessary if you're less than 4' from the property line. And we decided to go for plywood instead of OSB, but nobody in town sells pink plywood, since all the builders go for OSB. I checked with Ryan that his spec of fire treated sheathing only on the bump outs was intentional. He confirmed that it was, but he still thinks it's a good idea to put it on the whole wall. But why? The siding will be fiber cement, so isn't that enough fire protection? Framer cleared it up, and the pink sheathing is required DURING construction. So MrDinks and I went and picked it up on Saturday morning.

Dropping it off on site, we found that Framer had finished the first wall, and was waiting on the pink OSB before putting it up. MrDinks noticed that he built it to 16" on center. Our plans specify 24" OC to allow for super insulation. So I had to call Framer, and he promised to fix it.

Framer has said a couple of times that he works 7 days a week. I've been feeling bad that because of the lack of joist, he doesn't have enough to keep him busy. But it turns out he took the weekend off. Or at least worked somewhere else. And no progress has been made since we dropped off the OSB on Saturday morning. I sure hope he's coming back on Monday.

Here's the progress by the end of Friday.

I'm also trying to get the materials ordered for the tall walls. These are the walls that span more than the typical height of a floor. We have 4 of them. 2 around the staircase which span 3 stories, and on the second floor in the office and master bedroom. They are so tall, they need to be specially designed by an engineer, and need special material. I managed to pull the quote for this material out of joist company 1 on Friday morning. I sent the list to joist company 2 and asked to have a quote that day. They assured me they would. At 4:57 on Friday, they sent me a quote. It's 40% higher than company 1, and I'm not sure they're quoting on the same structure. So I need to get that straightened out. I also need to get the roof trusses ordered. But I'm waiting for company #1 to update their pricing, and/or company #2 to agree to sell us the roof trusses. Dealing with the 2 of them is a huge pain, but in the end, we'll have hopefully saved a few thousand dollars. 

Weather delays

Last week, the second week of September, we got about 3 feet of snow. This is what the site looked like after day 1:

The snow continued for 2 more days. Before it started snowing, we were going to be backfilling on Tuesday. By Wednesday, we decided that we were going to need several days to let it all melt, and then dry up. We had puddles of water just outside the footings, so we didn't want to dump wet dirt on top of that. So the plan was to call the excavators back on Monday.

On Thursday, I stopped by the site to see how it was melting, and I found this:

The dirt pile in the middle of the photo used to be in the neighbour's yard. The black thing hanging under the fence is their landscaping cloth and mulch from their flower bed. And I'm pretty sure that concrete support for the fence post used to be surrounded by dirt. 

It turns out with the massive amounts of snow we got, and the quick melting, along with the fact that we had removed the shoring in the corners in preparation for backfilling, caused the dirt to give way. BIL doesn't think the shoring would have held it here. But a few hours later, another pile of dirt appeared at the other end of the hole. 

But because the excavator didn't want to backfill the whole side until our subfloor was on, the middle section of shoring was left up. And that's the silver lining here, because if the dirt had fallen in the middle, it would have taken their air conditioner down with it. So the shoring appears to have worked very well. 

So, the excavator came back on Friday afternoon. And they realize that because of the collapsing wall of dirt, we can't wait until the subfloor is on. But they weren't able to get to the side because they didn't have the right equipment. So, fingers crossed all weekend that it didn't get worse. 

In other news, we got the building permit for the house on Friday. But there's now a delay on the garage. Remember when the guy at the city told me a week ago that the garage was good to go as soon as we got the house designs completed? Apparently he hadn't noticed that our garage was a tad bit bigger than average. So now we need to have the concrete pad of the garage engineered. So now we wait on that. 

 Also on Friday, the inspector from the new home warranty program came by and gave us mostly thumbsup. There were comments about how they were "unable to inspect before the concrete was poured." Well, we barely caught it pre-pour, and we're there every day. They weren't planning to come by until the end of September, at which point they were planning to inspect framing, too. So, they're lucky to see it pre-backfill. 

Ready for backfill

Our building permit is still on hold. It turns out that the joist company decided that instead of a cantilever, we'd have a post on the outside of the house. But they forgot to mention it, other than a tiny little number in the spot where the post would be. Ryan missed this (along with everyone else). So when the city caught it, they wanted to know why none of our other plans indicated the location of this post. Even if he had seen it, Ryan wouldn't have designed in this post. Not only does it not fit the design of the house, but it would require putting the post into our lot setback. We can do an overhang, but we can't have footings in the setback. I called the joist company to get them working on a redesign. Their response was that they designed it that way because it was cheaper. Well, now the foundation is done, and there's no support for this post. Calling back the excavator to dig the hole bigger, and calling back the concrete guys to pour another footing is going to eat up any savings that the post would have given us. Not to mention that moving the entire foundation back a few feet to make room for the post would be rather expensive. So they're redesigning it.

On Tuesday, we got a hole cut for the sewer pipe to come into the basement. Our basement is deeper than the main sewer for the street, so the pipe doesn't come in under the footings. And we'll need a lift station to get the "stuff" into the sewer from the basement.

Waterproofing, weeping tile and gravel went in on Wednesday, apparently by ninjas. Nobody had started by the end of the day Tuesday. But the waterproof spray was done before BIL went to visit the site at 8:30am. Weeping tile and gravel appeared a couple of hours later.

This posed 2 possible problems. First, MrDinks expected the weeping tile to be wrapped in fabric to keep out debris. But he didn't specify that, and it's not commonly done around here. So it wasn't done. Second, they brought in an extra truckload of gravel to support our sewer pipe. But now it's piled up in front of where we need to put the foam insulation (which the foundation guys refused to do).

So after further research and discussion, we decided to leave the fabric off the weeping tile, and just dig out the sewer pipe, then replace the gravel once the foam insulation is installed.

Foundation inspection was done on Thursday afternoon, and he found no issues. However, MrDinks noticed on Friday evening that he didn't sign off our paperwork next to the sewer pipe connection. I'll have to call the city on Monday to find out if this is just an oversight we can quickly resolve, because the city's paperwork shows it's acceptable. Or was there another guy who was supposed to come on Thursday that I didn't know about, and therefore, this wasn't inspected?

BIL suggested doing the insulation after the inspection to avoid any complaints. Although the extra insulation outside the basement walls is apparently code now in Ontario, it's unheard of here. So we didn't want to have to fight yet another person about it.

BIL and Intern spent Friday doing the majority of the insulation. MrDinks and I finished it off today, adding an extra 12" to the bottom all the way around. While there we also went inside the basement and picked up all the loose concrete around the footings. We also dug up all the concrete that was dumped out of the pumper, right into where we planned to put a future basement bathroom. Running the plumbing rough in pipes in the concrete isn't going to be easy. In the process, I dropped a large piece of concrete on my foot. The only time I've gone into the hole without steel toe boots since the footings were poured. Because, as MrDinks said, "What's going to happen? Are we going to drop foam on our feet?" Ouch.

MrDinks also discovered that the weeping tile that is under the window wells was not tied into the weeping tile around the footings. Instead, it was dumping out ON TOP of the footings. BIL stopped by and explained that they usually only bring the pipe down and stop a few inches above the gravel, above the footings. The fact that they'd left us a few extra feet to direct the water away is an improvement. So MrDinks moved it out a few inches, so it's now at least on top of the base weeping tile.

Window well weeping tile before MrDinks inspection

All foamed up

After working ourselves to exhaustion, we rode our bikes from the site to a craft festival on the downtown waterfront. Getting there was pretty easy. And nice to be so close. Getting home, unfortunately, not so easy. Have I mentioned we have great views, due to being on top of a hill? I'm either going to be in great shape living there, or I will bike even less than I do now. I guess it's a good thing we live on top of the hill, instead of the bottom. I'd probably be less inclined (haha!) to get out the bike if I have to start off going up hill.

Next steps, I'm trying to get the excavator back on Tuesday to back fill. Assuming we don't need to do another inspection. BIL and Intern need to pull out the wood retaining wall on Monday. Joists for the main floor are due to arrive on Wednesday. Then, hopefully, on Thursday, the framer can start closing in the basement.

But then, we're stopped until the permits come in.

I came up with the plan to start on the garage next. Surely, since we're only waiting on the design of floor joists on house, there's no reason not to start the garage, right?

Ryan said no. The garage and house are part of the same building permit. And since we don't have that permit yet, we can't build the garage.

Building inspector looked at our paperwork and said the garage is NOT part of the house building permit. In theory, we could start that, except we're going to need to actually apply for a separate permit.

But one of the comments made on our BP application was that we needed to have the garage door headers engineered. So, if the inspector is right, why did they ask that? If Ryan's right, why isn't there a mention of a garage on our paperwork?

So I called the city. It turns out the garage IS a separate permit, and we applied for it at the same time. But it's also on hold, along with the house permit. So I asked if we can get that, and start the garage. No, they won't issue a garage BP on a property zoned residential unless there's already a house, or at least an active house BP. They don't want people only building a garage, storing their cars or using it as a workshop, but not actually living there. But, there's a foundation for a house! Surely this is a lot of trouble to go through to just build a garage? They suggested I email the guy reviewing our application. He phoned me back and said no, process is process, and they "can't" release the garage permit until they release the house permit. But, he's reviewed everything, and as soon as we get the new joist design, it should be "really quick." I guess we'll get to see what that means in city language.

Our basement has walls

Yesterday morning, I went to the lot bright and early, expecting to see the cribbers arriving. DH came along, and rode his bike from there to work. This is what we found:

 Apparently they came on Tuesday. When they said "hopefully" Tuesday, I interpreted that as "probably not Tuesday". But they arrived on Tuesday, and by Wednesday at 8:30am, the forms were almost complete. The concrete was poured on Wednesday afternoon. So when I came back on Wednesday afternoon, the forms were full.

While they were finishing up the forms in the morning, BIL stopped by and we discussed the options for getting the sewer pipe through the basement wall. On his last project, they left a one foot by one foot square hole in the concrete, and then filled it with spray foam. This time, they were not willing to cut into the forms. They offered to stick the pipe in the form before the concrete, but it would only be as wide as the wall. There wouldn't be anything sticking out to connect to. So we agreed to get a hole cut by a concrete coring company. I kind of felt choked up at the thought of what that would cost and how long the delay would be. But the first guy I talked to said $150. The second guy said $225. The third guy didn't call back. Okay. First guy it is.

I asked the cribber, and he said the forms would come of on Friday. BIL is away on Friday for the long weekend, so I arranged for the corer to come on Tuesday morning.

On Wednesday afternoon, there was a pile of garbage and construction waste left behind. So I went back late Thursday morning to work on getting it cleaned up. The city charges $110 per tonne for basic garbage disposal; $70/tonne for recyclable garbage, such as raw wood and metals; or $150/tonne of basic garbage with the recyclables not sorted out. So, I'll put some effort into sorting it out. Besides the cost, we're trying to be green where it's feasible. A few hours of my own time to sort the waste is feasible at this point. The city fee structure doesn't seem like really an incentive to recycle. Compared to the cost of hiring multiple bins, and harassing the crews to sort it, just tossing it all is probably cheaper. Plus, we can hire companies to provide bins and haul them away, but I'm sure they charge the city's disposal fees PLUS bin rental and trucking charges. Taking the garbage to the dump myself saves that. At least until we start accumulating a lot. We don't have room on the site to put a dumpster at this point, anyway.

When I got to the site, I found this:

The cribbers had been back and removed their forms. We have something that resembles a basement!

Once again, we're moving faster than I expected and the next guys aren't lined up until next week. I guess it's better than having the next guys waiting and having to put them off. 

A few days ago, I was talking to Ryan, and he hasn't heard back from the city on our full permit. We're currently allowed to build up to the first floor, but then we have to wait on the rest of the permit. We should have had the permit by now. But I've been distracted with the building of the foundation, and Ryan's been on vacation, so we hadn't chased it. 

So I called today. Apparently it's been "on hold, waiting on further information" since Aug 14. But they hadn't notified Ryan until I called to check on it. Argh. 

Hopefully it doesn't set us back too much. The new truss layouts are due tomorrow. So we won't be able to order our floor joists until next week. We're probably about 2 weeks until we are stuck waiting on the permit. 

Moving again.

The spraycrete guy called me on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, I left my phone in the car, so I got a voicemail rather than answering myself. His message said that he was sorry, but our job didn't make it into his operator's file. But he IS the operator? And also his office staff was out of town. All week? So, he'd "try" to get the mesh placed on Monday, and spray on Tuesday.

I think he heard that I spoke to several concrete guys in the city and told them that he'd disappeared. He's now getting in touch with me to put an end to those rumours.

Since MrDinks and I had already picked up the wood, and BIL was scheduled to start the wall on Monday, I phoned the spraycrete guy back. I called back the number that he called from, so he answered. I told him that because he hadn't come to the site when he was scheduled, and nobody had called, we had since made alternate arrangements and his services were no longer required. He didn't seem surprised or upset.

I am still in shock that after a week of silence, he thought we were going to just allow him to come when he felt like and pay him crazy money.

So BIL and his labourer (who MrDinks refers to as "the intern"), started on Monday morning with the expectation of being done on Tuesday. At 11am, he sent us a photo of the finished wall.

The foundation walls are starting tomorrow, Wednesday.

I've made a decision on the window supplier. The Direct Buy finally got his installation quote, and he comes out to more expensive than the other company. So, we're not going with Direct Buy. Gotta get these ordered this week.

I also decided to go with the cheap and/or fast framer, and scheduled him. I'm nervous, but we'll watch him closely to start.

Also, we were at the lot yesterday, and found an empty beer can in the hole. That's going to the bottle depot. If we get 9999999 more, the house will be paid for!

Aaaand... Stop.

Today was concrete spraying day. We've waited the 2 weeks until the concrete spray guys could get to us. I called on Monday to confirm we were still on for today. No response. The foundation guy wanted to know if he was going to be able to start on Friday, so I tried the spraycrete guys again on Wednesday. No response.

Surely the silence is affirmative, right? If they WEREN'T coming, they'd send me a quick email, or leave me a return voicemail, "hey, we're a little behind, see you on Monday," right?

Hahahahahaha! Silly newbie.

I went by the lot at noon today. Nothing. No sprayed concrete. No workers. Nothing. So I called the office again, and left another voicemail.

I also called the foundation guy, who works with this company fairly regularly. Could he poke these guys for me? Turns out, they aren't returning HIS calls, either. He has several other jobs that are waiting on the spraycrete before he can start, and they aren't showing up to those jobs, either. Hmm, this doesn't sound good.

So I spent the afternoon calling around to see if there's anyone else to do it. Before booking these guys, I spoke to the 3 companies who come up when you Google "spraycrete Calgary". The first guy was booked for the next year on commercial projects. He suggested we try #3. The second guy does solid, engineered retaining walls, overkill for our needs. Also, they want us to backfill the lot so they can bring in big equipment to drive spikes into the dirt, which only has 3 feet before it hits the wall of the neighbour's basement. Besides spending a whole lot of money to go backwards, driving spikes into the neighbour's basement wall seems like a bad way to start off in the neighbourhood. Number 3 is the guy who has disappeared. Calling around to various companies in related industries got me lots of "have you tried Number 3?"

So back on the phone with the foundation guy. What can we do? There's nobody to spray the concrete. BIL has done wooden walls in the past, can we do that? Well, since we've gone 2 weeks, during which we've had serious rain, and high heat, and the wall of dirt has not moved at all, the wood is probably fine. But the foundation guy doesn't have guys to build it, and he doesn't know BILs schedule. I told him if not BIL, then MrDinks would get it done. So the plan now is to build the wooden wall on Monday. MrDinks and I will pick up the materials on the weekend. Hopefully, we don't have to clean out all the Lowes stores again. 

The first step needs a foot.

On Sunday, I got an email from our foundation guy asking for our plans because they might be starting the footings on Monday. Apparently this can be done before the sprayed concrete because it doesn't require standing between a wall of loose dirt and a wall of plywood. But then I asked if he wanted me to bring him paper plans, and he didn't respond. On Monday, I sent him another email asking if they were starting, and in the afternoon, he replied yes, and they were hoping to pour concrete on Tuesday. So I stopped by the lot, and there was a guy there setting up the forms. Yay!

I decided to stop by again this morning, to take pictures of the finished forms waiting for the concrete that would "hopefully" be poured today. A concrete pump truck was there before me. I snapped a picture and sent it to MrDinks. His comment was "A pump truck? How much are we paying for this? I expected wheelbarrows!"

After a half an hour or so, the concrete truck showed up.

And 23 minutes later, we had footings and the concrete truck was on his way to the next job. Apparently the pump truck is cost effective when it allows them to do 16 houses a day.

Yesterday. I went to visit the Direct Buy window place. They didn't have samples of my windows because they had taken them to DB (around the corner) for me to see. DB was closed yesterday. So I drove all the way down there for nothing. They also don't have their install price yet. The guy seems hesitant to get that. He wants to refine the order before getting an install price. I explained to him that I need an install price because if he's $3k cheaper than the other guy, but his install price is $3k more, then they are actually the same price. And the other guy doesn't require me to purchase a membership at Direct Buy to get that price. He also doesn't have the French doors we were planning to get from the other place. He can sell us French doors that are not from the same line as our tilt & turn windows, so they'll open, but don't have the tilting windows. And they probably aren't as weather tight. For patio doors, they offer sliders. For weather efficiency, instead of just sliding, they come loose from the track and then slide. Then, when it closes, it snaps back in place. Super cool. But super expensive. Plus, these are super heavy doors, so they take 2 hands to operate. So carrying stuff to the BBQ would be difficult. And, since we've only got a 6' opening, the opening would be 34" or less. French doors would allow us to have the full 6' open to the deck. On the 4 days a year you can do that here, that's important.

Anyway, the install guy was supposed to be back from holidays today, and the salesman would call me today to set up an appointment. But he didn't. So I'm going to have to harass him tomorrow.

I also found out that another truss company in town would be about $6k cheaper than the company we've been working with. So we're getting new layout from them, which may delay framing.

But we're probably not going to start on framing until October anyway. The new guy is really cheap, and available. But he's a little too good to be true. He claims he'll be done in 2 weeks. With one helper. The other guy says 5 weeks, with a crew. Hmmm.

But, anyway, we have footings!! We have officially started the build!