Wood and Beams - Day 21

The wood got delivered yesterday and support beams installed. Better than nothing.

Waterproofing inspection now passed, basement slab passed, and garage slab scheduled for April 2nd...   Apparently they need to installed an "Engineered slab" and that takes longer to prepare.

http://www.home-building-answers.com/slabs.html

Fwd: Ready to Inspect - Day 19... Still stalled.

Day 19 started out looking good.  I stopped over on my way to work and took a bunch of photos.   The waterproofing looked good and both inspections (waterproofing and slab) were scheduled for today.

Got home from work.  Checked the permit logs, and more bad news.  

 Waterpoofing - FAIL - NO DRAIN TILE EXPOSED 

BASEMENT- FAIL -  PLASTIC NEEDS SPREAD OUT- WIND BLEW OFF-GARAGE NEED ENGINEERING -OVER 2FT DEEP  

Starting to get a little nervous...

Day 16 - footers and basement walls

I have been out of town all week, but our Sales Rep sent these to me on day 16.

Footers are finally in and walls poured.

Tomorrow will be day 19 and the waterproofing/slab inspections are scheduled. Hopefully all goes well. Obviously I will check it out first thing in the morning. I hate being away when progress is going on finally.

Waiting for Footers... Still. Day 8

I was out of town all week, so I couldn't follow the progress, which was probably good -- because there wasn't any.  I guess technically there was a little progress.  They prepped for the footers and laid a bunch of gravel.  

...and then they ran into permit trouble.   Short version of the story is that a year ago they filed similar plans on our lot but the buyer backed out.   The RH tried to just file a permit extension and plan amendment (to avoid some of the permit costs I'm assuming).   At our Pre-Con meeting I brought this up and was assured the permit was good to go.   I knew it wasn't, but I am trying to bite my tongue on some things and not micro-manage the professionals (honestly, I'm trying, and this is hard for me).  Turns out I was right.  

Some of the county's comments on the permit history are funny.  

3.12.12 This plan change is rather extensive, changing all sheets. This will be processed as a major plan change. The fee for a major plan change is half of the previously paid fee. We will let you know how much that is when it is ready to pick up. I need revised truss engineering and a revised energy analysis in duplicate to go with these plans. 

3.16.12 Apparently the home is supposed to have brick all around but the plans call for brick front only. Submit revised revisions. Called Mellanie 

3.16.12 Revised plans showing additional brick; total plan change  

In the end it cost them $550 anyway, and a week of progress.  PM called me Friday morning and told me the whole deal and said they are on schedule to pour on Monday if they get the permit Friday (they did).    Secretly I'm sort of happy though.   One, it proved I am on top of  this build and they know I am going to check and catch every little thing -- and two, I would have been out of town during framing which really bugged me, but now I will be home.

I should clarify that I do like and trust our PM so far, and don't really blame him for this one.  Technically permits are his responsibility, but RH has people that handle permits and that make sure they are filed properly, and they dropped the ball on this one.    You have to wonder how it is worth it though.   The labor to fix this mess has to be a lot more than the $500 they were trying to save.

Does anybody know what those square's are in the basement floor?  My guess on the small ones in the middle are Support Poles and the Sump Pump pit, but I'm not sure what the other one under the morning room is for.   Seems about the same size as the the sump pit.

Pano of the whole site from on top of huge dirt pile

This is why they install Sump Pumps... Day 2

I stopped by today to see if they finished digging yet (20% left maybe...) and there is definitely some ground water.  It rained about 1" the day before they dug (day 0), but nothing overnight.


This will all get picked up by the drainage under the foundation and pumped out by the sump pump, but this convinced me to get a inline 2nd pump and battery backup.    Interesting how the half of the hole near the driveway is very dry though.

See the trace amount yesterday (lower left corner)

Today there was a bunch more

Same angle as the Day 1 shot, see all the new water...

Better  angle..

Photosynth Pano of the whole dig.  Neighbor house is distorted by the Pano, Driveway visable to left.

...And They're Off... Day 1

Well,   rain delayed them a day, but today the heavy equipment was out digging basically on schedule.   Honestly it was a little less exciting than I had expected.  

Our PM had called me this morning with a heads up, so I stopped by after work to take some quick photos.   He mentioned that they determined the slope of our yard was going to be 6%, which he said was almost flat but still enough to drain.  This was one thing I hadn't thought of --  some yards apparently need a much more severe slope to properly drain.

And the digging has begun

Construction Driveway

Side view of our corner lot with the neighbor in the background

Closeup of "Our Hole"

I snapped a photo of the next door neighbor (no bricks yet) and the across street neighbor (courtland that just got bricked)

Ravena

Courtland

One last thing to mention.   PM said framing will begin 3 weeks from yesterday -- which is perfect.  I will be out of town most of the next 3 weeks and it would kill me to miss the walls and roof going up.