What do I have to do to get a shovel in the ground?

If you've been past the lot, you'd have noticed that we have some shiny orange sticks, courtesy of the surveyors, but no hole.

The excavators were going to be ready "maybe Friday". I took that as "probably Tuesday", since Monday was a holiday. On Friday, the equipment didn't arrive, so I emailed them to confirm they would be there on Tuesday. That's when they noticed that they never got their paperwork from the Alberta One Call, the "call before you dig" people. They had requested it last Monday, and it was supposed to be done within 2 days. But they didn't look into it when it didn't show up because the locators are busy these days, and they weren't ready to start yet anyway. 

So, at 7:45 this morning, I called to find out what was going on. At first, they told me the locating had been done last Tuesday and they would request that the paperwork be resent. Then I got an email letting me know that the work actually hadn't been done, it had been sent to the locator's work queue last Tuesday. It would be done today, and the paperwork would be emailed tomorrow. Well, that means the excavators won't come until Thursday, which is almost a week behind schedule. An extra day to wait on paperwork is not acceptable. So I called them again, which would be call #2 to "One Call", not including the excavator's original request. They explained that the locators go out in the field to do their marking, and they bring the paperwork back at the end of the day. And then people in the office process it and email it out the next day. So I asked to speak to a supervisor. They gave me the number of a supervisor, and also explained that it had only been 5 working days since the original request, and they are only required to have it done within 5 days. I refrained from mentioning that not only do they advertise TWO days, not FIVE; but even if they get it done today, and the paperwork submitted tomorrow, that's still SIX working days. I phoned the supervisor's office (call #3!) and the woman there said they actually don't bring the paperwork in at the end of the day, they bring it in the next morning. But she offered to have the locator call me when he was onsite. If I could meet him there before he was done marking out the utilities, he could give me the paperwork. Hmmm, well, I can skip my noon workout at the pool and be available. But if I stay home and wait for the call, it'll still be at least a 20 minute drive to the lot. 

So I packed up my laptop, my cell phone and my notebook of other calls to make today and camped out at the lot in the truck. After about 5 hours, I was making plans to rent a backhoe from Home Depot and start digging. I'm guessing they'll show up when I report a gas leak. 

I phoned the supervisor's office again at 3:30 (4, 4 calls to "1 Call", mwahaahaa! -said with a Transylvanian accent), assuming that the guys only work until 4ish, so my job wasn't getting done today. She told me they work until 6 or 7. It's peak season for them. Okay, I'll stick it out. When I started feeling light headed, I picked up dinner nearby, so I'd still be within a quick drive if/when the call came. 

The guy arrived just before 6pm. Yay!! He mentioned that I was not on his list of jobs today. And he'd even been in the neighbourhood this morning, driving around, killing time. He got a call early this afternoon begging him to fit it in. It sounds like when I insisted on getting the paperwork, they realized that nobody had actually been assigned. So it really could have been Friday, or even next week before I got digging. 

So, early this evening, I sent the paperwork over to the excavator and got this response: Machine is on the trailer. Will be on site at 7am. 

Wait. There's a 7 AM? Oh, what have I done? On the other hand, MrDinks pointed out the email doesn't say what DAY at 7am they'll be onsite.

In the mean time, I decided on tiles for the shower, so I'm not going to order the fancy shower base. However, after making that decision, I was scouring kijiji for a shower base for the mudroom (for the dog/bike shower) and came across an ad for the fancy Urbana. Exactly what I would have ordered if I wasn't feeling frugal. In fact, the ad used the exact picture I used in the previous post. The seller paid too much for it, so their kijiji price is what I would have paid retail. But I've made her an offer, and I'm willing to wait a few weeks for her to decide. 

I also found 2 alternatives for tile for the bathroom floor. One of them is the same tile that got discontinued, just a different colour. It's also discontinued, but the store in town has lots of stock. I just need to buy it asap. The other one is a similar colour to my original choice, but a different size. I'm waiting on a price for that one. 

I'm also finalizing the window order. We've got quotes for 2 companies. One of them is a much better price, and better quality, but they don't have third party certification yet, so we might have an issue with city inspection. We don't really want to buy $25k worth of windows that we might have to rip out. They are going to try to get a firm date this week of when their certification will be done. The other company is more expensive and not as nice, but we're allowed to use them. 

Both companies' doors are horrible, though. They are basically door sized windows. If you don't want them to be all glass, they stick a big plastic insert in where the glass goes. They're ugly AND expensive. No, thanks. So I'm on the hunt for exterior doors. Exterior doors are actually quite hard to find, it turns out. I have tracked down several "door" companies, but they all either only do interior doors, or garage doors. I have found 2 companies advertising contemporary style doors which are actually contemporary style. I called both to get quotes. First one, I called and explained that I'm building a new house and asked for pricing. They said they would have a salesman call me. A few hours later, I got a text asking me for my address so they could come and do a consultation. I responded that there is no house, I just wanted pricing. They texted again telling me they can't give me a price without seeing the space for the door. So I asked how long it would take to order the door. 2 months. "It's our busy season." I'm not going to wait until the house is ready for a door before I even order the door, and then wait 2 months. They aren't the first salesman to have trouble wrapping their head around a NEW BUILD, and pushing for a home visit. But they are the first using text to give me the sales pitch. The other company gave me a quote of $1100 and $700 for the 2 doors I was interested in. After seeing the window companies' pricing of $2k-4k, I thought the guy quoted me $11k. Oh, only $1100? And you aren't sending me stupid texts? Guess what doors I am buying?