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!
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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.
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!
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.
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