A new week, a new Boss

Dad's surgery went well and he hopes to be out of the hospital by Tuesday. Seeing as how it's Saturday night, that means a few more days in T-town for me. Tomorrow Wendy and the kids will return to Atlanta and take over as the General Contractor.

Since Insulation Inspector did not show on Friday, they should arrive early Monday. Had to call Brad and tell him sheetrock couldn't start first thing Monday. He was understanding and said to just call. Hopefully, they come early Monday, sign off on everything, we call Brad, and they may even come over sometime the same day. If not, I'm hopeful that they'll be there by Tuesday.

With 4th of July hitting on Thursday, no clue what that means for our timetable. Ideally, they can start sometime Monday and it goes very smoothly. Then they could finish Friday or maybe Monday. That means Peter can come and do bathroom tile by Tuesday and be done by end of week. Got a call into hardwood flooring guy to see what his timetable is. Maybe he could start a day or so after tile and then all flooring would be done by the 19th.

Wishful thinking I know but this whole project has been based on that proposition so why not continue? Pix of the "cloud rooms" are pretty impressive, huh?

TGIF, I hope!

Around noon on Wednesday I got a call from Donna in Tuscaloosa and learned my dad was going to need quintuple bypass surgery on Thursday morning. He'd gone in for a routine physical and they admitted him saying he was going nowhere.

As I hung up I realized my chimney guy was in mid-chimney, Eric was upstairs helping install pocket door, and kids and Wendy were gearing up to go to the pool. How was I going to get everything done AND get to Tuscaloosa tonight? Just get to it was all I could think of.

Asked for help from wonderful neighbors on either side of us, Justin & Whitney. Finished up my fireblocking and caulking. Completed the pocket door since Eric had to leave for another task. Contacted spray foam Josh to say Thursday is a go but I'd leave a key for him at the house. Emailed friends cancelling our night out for Wendy's pre-birthday (Thursday was her big day). Got family to pack up the Prius. Showered and changed clothes and we were on the road by 7:45pm headed west on I-20.

They moved his surgery to first thing Friday morning, so I'm typing from his Tuscaloosa computer at 650am Friday. Waiting to hear what I need to take to the hospital to make Donna more comfortable.

In my brain, I know I've scheduled the insulation inspection for today but have to rely on Whitney & Justin to insure he gets into house. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly. Chimney work should continue as Arvydas tries to raise the chimney 3+ feet. Tony says he'll have a crew there within the next hour to get back porch framing finished and install windows. Sounds like auto-pilot but doesn't feel much like it with me so far away. Thoughts jump back to Dad and the adventure he'll be on today. Need to get over to the hospital now.

Hump Day Humps

It's been an insane few days. Tuesday I used the sprayfoam fire block in holes between the floors, Deacon helped get all other woodwork done, Bryce sent his OK on our framing methods, so I felt pretty ready for Wednesday's inspection.

Asked friend Eric Campbell to come help me put up pocket door and frame in casement window on Wednesday. While I waited, I realized that I needed to use some of scrap Hardie siding to redo the clapboard siding below office windows in front of house. Figure bottom corner should match the rest of the house, right?

Wouldn't you know that I removed those 3 simple runs (5' x 3') and find that the plywood behind is wet. I've got a leak! Nothing is simple anymore it seems. As I started to pull away more and more wood to try and expose the leak, Eric shows up and we decide that it may just be due to having no gutters above window over the past 2 weeks. We leave it to dry out for now.

Here comes the inspector... but it's not the same as the last framing inspector. Well, that's not a problem for him. Will he decide there are other issues that I have to address? My stomach is in my throat as I lead him toward the stairs. He looks at the notes the last guy made and glances around the room. Doesn't care about the LVL support or new casement window (though he agrees that we could have avoided all that if we hadn't named the room "Bedroom" on the architectural plans).

What he does care about is the fireblocking and foamed penetrations. Seems I needed to take that foam and get it in the penetrations going through the roof as well, and every electrical hole drilled vertically in the outside walls. Exterior of bathroom wall needed to be blocked since we're dropping a ceiling in that room as well. Now my stomach was back where it belonged and my heart was right next to it. How many times would I have to do this re-inspecting? Wanted to have spray foam done Thursday.

Then the sun came out and he said, "It looks pretty good. Fix those couple of things and you'll be done. I'll give you a partial but finish that blocking." We talked about kids today and work ethic and summertime. Shook hands and he rode away. I had passed my framing inspection and was on my honor to finish the last things but could stay on schedule. Hallelujah!

Great news!

What a difference a day makes. Heard late yesterday that Dieter was out of ICU and possibly discharged today. So glad to hear.

I worked on hurricane straps on the back of the house (because those pesky Atlanta hurricanes can mess up a roof) and detailing a frame for Wendy's medicine cabinet. Took me surprisingly long but then I'm not a carpenter.

Today it's after 9am and no workers. Got a sense that I may be solo today but that's ok. Read up on fireblocking and feel like I know what needs to be done. Installing the casement window will be more complex but I'm sure there's a way to get it to work. Just need to spend the hours doing it. As Wendy said, "It's gonna be a hot one!" and I'll feel even with our wonderful windows open today. Either way, I'm going to carry on and try to get the framing inspector out here on Wednesday.

Yesterday she pulled 4 tester colors from S-W. Green's almost totally out of the picture as you can tell. The one she did choose wouldn't have made the cut no matter what so I think that speaks to our "blue future". Feel free to weigh in.

Tragic news

Our foreman Dieter Finke had a heart attack on Saturday and was in intensive care as of this morning. Horrible, horrible news. He's in our thoughts and prayers, as is his family.

Nothing more important to say on a day like today.

Crisis? Crises? Or overreaction?

To be honest, Friday afternoon was one ugly scene inside my head. The inspectors notes had me tortured seven ways from Sunday. Sure the fireblocking was not a big deal and he there could have been really big things that we'd be facing, but the window & floor joists had me stymied. Piece by piece though, things seem to fall in place over the past 48 hours.

First, the issue of window egress is something I know far too much about at this point in time. Wish I'd had this knowledge BEFORE but got it now and think I've found a solution that's not terribly painful or expensive. Window I ordered  was wrong size for a fireman to fit through - though I think they'd break whatever was in their way to begin with. In order for a right sized window to be ordered/bought, we'd have to cut the brick and that's doable but no fun. Since this is an existing window on the north side that will be in a corner of a room where we don't frequent, I was focused on simplicity and economy. Something the inspector said stuck in my brain and turned into a solution. He said, "If that were a casement window (one that cranks outward full-sized), you'd have no problem." But casement windows are usually 2 week orders and I really hoped to get re-inspection this coming week so I can keep things moving along with the insulation and sheetrock.

So Saturday morning Wendy and I took off on a hunt. We went to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore where they have surplus and reclaimed building products. Nothing fit our 34x48 brick opening. Then we went to Builders Surplus where they have new and random surplus products. BINGO! A casement window was somehow found amongst the plethora of random windows. Looks like it'll fit the 5.7 cubic feet required and is 32x38. Window just needs to be inserted and trimmed out to fit. Issue #1 resolved.


Saturday night I got an email from my structural engineer Bryce Hattori with a letter attached that vouches for the correct and safe framing of our second floor. Issue #2 resolved. Funny how life can work out from time to time.

Tuesday, Painting Plus will have someone - maybe Pedro - come out to do the fireblocking upstairs and then we'll be ready for reinspection on Wednesday. I've pushed insulation guys to Thursday so we might have that done by next weekend. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, I've asked Wendy to decide on a color for the house. All along she's said it'll be some shade of green. Now, for some reason, blue is in the picture. Past two days have included going to Sherwin Williams and scouring the neighborhood for homes in shades of green and blue. This morning we took paint chips and held them against her most favorite homes to see what color they really are. No clue how long this process will take but I see a sample painting party in my future (meaning tomorrow).

and then came the Rough Framing inspection

Crew showed up this morning bright and early. They wasted no time getting to work with hammers, air guns, and more. Even though Wendy, Keely, Spot, and I were up and about, Deacon managed to ignore the fact that the sun was up. How he could sleep through their incessant pounding above our heads, is a true testament to the pre-teen sleep cycle.

We waited eagerly for the Rough Framing Inspector to come so we could learn what may be left to be done before moving on to the next stage of progress. Some minor woodwork (fireblocking mostly) was cited as needing to be done but then we had the egress window issue (window not big enough for fire code) and the fact that he didn't get to see the 2x10 floor joists before the decking went down. Window will be a challenge but I think there's a solution somewhere. Floor joists will be a different matter. Though we can see them through a trim gap along the stairs, not sure that's good enough for City. Hoping Structural Engineer can write a letter verifying their installation to resolve this issue.

Crew worked quickly today getting the rest of the siding up. Looks really good, though really yellow. A good coat of green and white paint will make the thing look finished. Little will people know that there's a whole world of inside work to be done.

Either way, looks like we'll be at least 3 days behind schedule and possibly more. Insulation had to be put off. Met with Peter (tile guy) and talked about how we'd like the bathroom and shower done. Seems like it will be pretty standard for him - about 4 days work. Now I just have to get schedule set to lock in his services. Hoping to find window solution tomorrow and Pedro's supposed to be back Tuesday to get the framing corrections done. This was the hardest day so far for me. Not feeling so much in control of the process right now but I'm sure it'll all work out in the end... at least I hope so.

Wednesday no sides, Thursday brings sides

So the random rain on Monday & Tuesday pushed our siding crew back a day. They got here Thursday and started scampering around. They quickly seemed to solve my window snafu and we could start to see the "face" of the house coming into view. Nice to get a breeze up there too with the windows installed.

Finished repairing the closet a day ago. Painted solid stripes where the plumbing runs behind the wall just to remind us not to put nails into those parts of the walls. Once ceiling holes are patched - from workers clearing out bracing blocks between 2x8s so they could sister in 2x10s - all the rooms can get back to normal. At least normal until we decide they need to be painted.

Workers should be able to finish siding on Friday, but it might be Saturday. Funny how this one part of the process really makes the house look a whole lot more put together.

Tradesmen descend upon us

So most of Monday Lou worked amongst the "sticks" to get all of our electrical needs met. It was taking shape. His work was key for HVAC to install on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning 7am Danny (from Comfortair) showed up like he promised. Lots of HVAC stuff to unload in our yard before his crew showed up to get
it all in the attic.

Not to be outdone, Mike and Lorenzo got here to finish out the plumbing vents through the roof and other such fun. They had good weather to vent through the roof and work out the kitchen vent from the back deck. Part way Still Mike was here until almost 9pm making sure everything was right.

Coolest part of the day was the sheetrock delivery. Seeing as how they had 12 and 14 foot sheets of gypsum that wouldn't make it up our stairs, they came while we were without windows and just lifted it up and through the front of the house. Timing was right since Wednesday they planned to come do siding and install all the windows. Still hard work loading in sheetrock but I can only imagine how much easier life is for these guys with a remote-controlled crane helping get the work done. And their timing couldn't have been better. Less than 30 minutes after they were done, the skies opened up and gave everything a good dousing.

Danny's crew got out by dinner time with all of their pieces set. He'd have to come back Wednesday to add a piece to the unit but it worked out well as he was here at the same time as the inspector. He made sure everything met the inspector's checklist.

I called all 3 rough inspections (Electrical, Plumbing, & HVAC) for the same day. All passed and now it's just waiting for the Rough Framing Inspection.

A little peace and quiet

By Friday after lunch, Pedro and his amazing demo/framing/roofing crew were gone. Their tornado of work was impressive. Again I remind myself how we give too little credit to the hardworking craftsmen who build our homes. They may not have a Masters degree but there are few Masters who could do what they do - especially under the conditions they work. Sylvester, Pedro's brother, managed to staple his thumb on his last day. We put together a M*A*S*H team quickly and got him back to work. Didn't seem to slow him down.

So Friday evening was quiet and peaceful on our back deck under our new porch roof. Elation might be the best way to describe everyone's feelings about our "toddler home". Before long it will be a teen and we'll be even more excited to realize the true adult home we'll inhabit.

Saturday I tackled repairing our closet from where the plumber and electrician ran their conduits between floors. Cleaning up the plaster and cutting sheetrock to fit are not my favorite Saturday hobbies but getting that closet operational would help our clutter factor around here. Deacon helped and listened to me drone on and on about how to cut and install drywall. He saw how un-easy it can be to find studs when screwing in drywall. By the time I started mudding the seams, he was off to Wii land. If the closet wasn't so small, I'd have had him helping but it was too tight and I wanted to get done as fast as I could. As usual, I didn't finish until probably 7pm.

With great weather and Father's Day at my disposal, I asked the family to pack up and let's go jump in the lake on Sunday. The thought of just floating in Lake Lanier made me almost salivate. Turns out it was just the tonic I needed to recharge a bit and Wendy got to see her dad as well. All we have planned for Monday is for Lou to come run more electrical. He's got a key so we spent the night in Gainesville.

Roofing done and screened porch begun

Wednesday was to be last day I thought. They finished the shingling, my structural engineer (Bryce Hattori)

signed off on their framing, and they began the screened in porch. Adding a skylight to the screened in porch took a bit longer with the framing.

At this time I was notified that I'd ordered the wrong windows. Custom windows ordered wrong are not a good thing. Basically, I had the rough opening sizes and ordered windows that should fit. Problem was the windows needed to be ordered as "twins" - meaning 2 windows together. Miscommunication with the window folks meant I didn't get front and master rooms right. Supposedly, we'll make them work but not until siding gets done next week.

Shingle, shingle, who's got the shingles?

We went back and forth on shingles. Wendy long ago picked out a pretty architectural shingle (more

expensive with longer warranty). I'd agreed to it but then we had some interesting discussions about spray foam insulation with Tony and Dieter. Seems conventional wisdom says a roof needs to breathe to keep it cool. This is done with either roof vents or a ridge vent at the top of your house and then soffit vents under the eaves which allow fresh air to move through the roofline.

With spray foam, they basically seal up your whole roof. Between the rafters there are no spaces for air to
flow. It's a closed system that doesn't need soffit vents under the eaves. Supposed to be a true encapsulation but some roofing folks were saying this would "bake" the shingles because they never got any relief from the intense heat. They said shingle manufacturers would not stand by their warranty for the shingles if applied.

A few phone calls/emails to Spray Foam Alliance and CertainTeed painted a different picture. Turns out spray foam is still pretty new and not everyone has all the latest info. In the end, shingle manufacturers say temp only raises maybe 1 degree with spray foam underneath, so not much of a difference. Docs get shared saying all manufacturers support spray foam.

But now I realize that with our big gable front and shed roof in the back, there's hardly any roofing that you'll see. So why are we spending more on shingles? Wendy didn't like the change but could see how we could use the extra $750 elsewhere and her second choice was a very attractive shingle.

Raise the roof time

Good weather was forecasted for the week so Tuesday the roof was the goal. Actually, they worked on getting roof decking down while others framed up walls inside. It went pretty fast. Interesting to see how quickly framing was marked on the decking. When they said plumbing and electrical were "off", I panicked for just a moment. Then Pedro showed me how we could just move walls slightly and it'd all work.

By end of the day, roof decking and felt paper were down - good for waterproofing. Though we had huge holes where windows were to go, Few walls were up but no screened in porch yet. Wednesday looked to be the last big push.

Other than feeding the crew lunch each day and providing some end of day libations, I was mainly answering questions and calling contractors to notify them of the ever-changing calendar. Somehow it was invigorating and exhausting at the same time. Each night I'd finish around 730 or 8 cleaning up or planning for the next day. Many nights I was emailing even later to keep things moving. Not sure how folks would do this if they just went to work and hoped for the best.

Time to deck

8am was the usual arrival time of most of the crew. Around 830 or so they'd get cracking. Think there are City rules on how early you can begin. Since some were coming from as far away as Cartersville, I wouldn't
expect much before 9.

Rough plumbing inspector showed up early, since he missed Friday's appointment, and was gone in about 5 minutes. Talking to him I learned even more about how inspectors see their job and one's opinion and ok might be countered by another's view and denial. We got the thumbs up and that was the key to me.

Talked to Pedro about why floor joists weren't done Saturday and he said the wood was all on the bottom of the giant pile. He knew they had to get tarps up, so focused on getting the main ridge and front ridge up with a few rafters. Spilt milk. Told him they'd need to get rest of joists done first thing but he already had that planned. Lou showed up around 1030 to get wiring done and it was chaos under the Blue Dome.

Framers were already laying down decking on half that had wiring done. They were moving fast. Things
came together and by lunchtime joists were done and deck was down. The intense pounding from framers removing the support blocking between existing joists was about as loud as anyone could live through. Fortunately, none of the ceiling came down but many little plaster spots fell from the ceiling below. Looks like I'll be busy patching with mud.

By end of the day, rafters were up and exterior walls were almost done.

Let's pull some wires!

I told Lou I'd help him pull wires since he was coming out on a Sunday. That way we'd make sure it'd be ready for Monday morning.

Saturday night we got some rain - some heavy. Fortunately, they tarped the house very well. There were 2 spots where water pooled in the tarp but I could take a large broom and "push" the water off the "roof" pretty easily. Just two episodes lasting about 10 minutes each and we were good for the night.

Sunday brought beautiful weather and Lou showed and was impressed with the new space and increased height (about 4 feet) of the new ridge. Have to admit I was too. Never can get a true sense of space from a one-dimensional drawing. Then he asked the question, "Where are the 2x10s?" I'd been so enamored by the new blue ceiling I neglected to notice that the framers had only installed HALF of the 2x10 floor joists!

Couple of calls later to notify Tony of the misstep left us with no real option. For some reason framers didn't make floor joists the main goal. They'd have to do the other half first thing Monday. Lou agreed to pull half the house and then get there and work around framers Monday.

Even though I'd thought and planned and communicated with everyone, the plan went awry. Such is the life of a GC.

Saturday IT IS

Crew showed up ready to rip. They hit the house hard taking off the shingles, then breaking down the whole

roof. They stacked the old wood in three spots around the house. Turns out Pedro wants to use the wood to build horse stalls on his property in Cartersville.


So the plan is to focus on getting those floor joists in today. That way Lou can come tomorrow/Sunday and run all his electrical while crew is off. They can come in Monday morning and put down decking and throw up the walls and roof in a hurry.

They raised the new ridge and covered the whole house in blue tarps - they had me go get a 2nd. An extra $150 is worth keeping rain out of our house. Those guys worked from 9am to 9pm. Can't fault them for their work effort that's for sure.

TGIF

Nope. No crew today. They're officially coming Saturday to start. Tree work still isn't done either. Storms pulled them away for emergency jobs. I've asked them to leave the wood so I can split it and try to pay for
taking down the tree. That may be folly. We'll see.

Inspector didn't show today. Called and learned they'll put us on the top of the list for Monday. Was really hoping that this would be out of the way so that framers could work as fast as they want - AFTER getting new floor joists done for Lou.

Georgia Power came out and switched over our power so we'd be ready for the crew on Saturday. Lou
wrapped up some electrical stuff and we just set our alarm clocks for early in the morning.

Thursday?

Now we did get some heavy rain last night but it didn't last super long. Sure it felt nice knowing I didn't have the roof off my house. Rain's around today so crew ain't coming. Just means more time for plumbing I guess.

Lou finished his service stuff and electrical inspector signed off on his work. We'd set up Georgia Power to come first thing this morning and switch over the service. For about an hour power was off but now we have a sparkly new service.

Meanwhile, Mike did his best to measure where walls would be and ran his plumbing. He set up everything so that we could call for a rough plumbing inspection Friday. Something's getting done.

Finding Mr., or Mrs., Right

The Building Permit process has its own issues. Thought I'd play the innocent idiot - which I usually am - and head down to Buildings office and ask how to make the permit process as smooth as possible.

Triage is what they call it. They took me and my 8.5x11 plans and got me started. An hour or so later, I was in the system just waiting for Variance approval. Someone looked at my plans then came out and redlined everything that was a flag for them. With this info I could go back to Architect Allyson and she could refine the plans for submission.

Sounded easy enough. So I went ahead and planned my start date as Monday, June 3. Painting Plus signed on for demo, framing, and roofing. Got excited that we might actually begin and see how things would work out.

Problem is that once changes were made and plans (four 18x24 sets) were submitted, a different plan checker could come into the picture. And mine's name was Bistra. A nice enough Eastern European bred woman, with a biting sense of humor, but she had a different take on my plans, so triage wasn't much help.

She redlined a whole different set of things. So I sat there demoralized realizing that I knew not how I would get these changed again or how this would impact my plans. This was on Thursday morning before my Monday start date. Fortunately, the changes she wanted done were waaay superficial and had very little to do with the structure being built. It was more style over substance.

My wonderful friend, Sally, let me use her computer to make the alterations. After about 4 hours I was done. I sent the plans to FedEx/Kinko's and to print two copies (these 18x24 sets of 20 pages are not cheap). Next morning I would take them down to Trinity Avenue first thing. Hopefully, Bistra would see my revisions and give me a thumbs up.

Ok, Wednesday will get things going

So no rain Tuesday either - at least for us. Bright and early I get a call from Tony saying that due to a miscommunication the crew is double-booked and won't be here. They'll plan on coming Thursday. Frustration starts to set in but I see now how things run in homebuilding.

Meanwhile, I keep getting more deliveries from STOCK supply because they want all materials on site so they don't have to wait for supplies. Just about every inch of my front yard is covered in lumber covered in plastic - in case it rains.



Fortunately, Lou is still making progress with the electrical. Mike decided to come in and start a plumbing plan. He wants to go up from the basement through the back of our bedroom closet to get vents/supplies up to the second floor. So I'll take out the plaster to make room for them to run plumbing and electrical. Tomorrow should be interesting.