Not Much Progress During the Holidays

The pace of this project has been slower than I ever could have imagined. From when this project started in August, I would guess that I've averaged one full workday per week of actual work from my contractors. Every week, I've gotten promises on what is going to be accomplished, and most of the time it doesn't happen anywhere near the timeframe I was given. I don't understand the contractor mentality. I've heard the same story from every single person I've spoken to: contractors NEVER do what they say they're going to do when they say they're going to do it. Period.

Jeffrey made a door jam for my back door, the one I bought last winter at the ReUse Center. I bought the door for $100. I didn't realize what a good deal I had gotten until I priced entry doors. Entry doors with glass windows, especially fancy ones like this one, cost around $2000 new. It's perfect for the back door, as the stair tower is designed to let in a maximum amount of light. Here it is:
I didn't have my camera on site today, but Jeffrey and Devin have been busy putting in windows. The windows arrived on Monday, December 22nd. Jeffrey got them into the house, but the weather turned extremely cold (minus 19 on Tuesday), and it was just too cold to work outside. Then came the Christmas holiday weekend, which I didn't expect anyone to work on. But they got busy yesterday, and got 5 of the 19 windows in. They did a couple more today, and I think they are working tomorrow, also.

Joe Haaf of RockSolid Concrete has the basement floor covered with commercial electric blankets to get the basement floor thawed out. We need that done to get the floor leveled, a bed of sand put on top of the dirt, the pex tubing (for infloor radiant heat) set up, and the plumbing in before we can pour the basement floor.

First, though, the roof has to be finished. The roofers were supposed to put a waterproof covering on it last week, but it was too cold. This week, they gave their workers off. So we have to wait until next week to get the roof closed in. There are very large gaps everywhere due to the design of the roof, and even though we had tarps on it, it was letting in streams of water from the rain and melting snow last Saturday, when it was so warm out.

Everything is dependent on something else. The metal roof can't go on until the skylights go in. The solar panels can't go on until the metal roof is on. The basement floor can't be done until the house is closed up, which means the finished roof has to go on and the windows and doors all have to be in.

Joe is still working on the cement work as best he can in the winter. The three south window wells are done, and he's working on the front ones and the front retaining wall this week. It has to be above 10 degrees above zero to pour concrete, and it's supposed to be pretty cold this week.

More Progress: Some window wells, water/sewer hooked up

This was taken on the morning of December 14th. Plastic has been put in the windows, and the driveway has been cleared for the first time since the groundbreaking.

Joe is operating the backhoe and clearing the dirt from the front. The final result will be the the two windows in the lower level will be exposed. A retaining wall goes between the front door and the bay window. This will allow the grade to go up to the front door, and still leave the two front basement windows mostly exposed.

Above and below: Joe shaping the front.

Below, the official site for the water hookup.

Rudy is in the back backfilling up to the house. We needed to do this so we can easily access the back door.

Below, Joe is taking some of the dirt from the front and backfilling the south side around the window wells.

Below, the window wells after the forms were removed. Instead of putting the top of the windows over a foot below ground, I'll take the grade down a foot or so on the south side yard. The window wells are really good and much better than metal ones which I could have installed. There are drains in each one which go down to the foundation, where a drainage system takes the water away.

Below, Pete's Water and Sewer at work digging out the ground for the installation of water and sewer pipes. The ground was frozen solid and they had a hard time digging the trench from the house to the water and sewer hookups.

It was a deep hole for the sewer hookup.

Below is a smaller hole for the water.

The water and sewer pipes go under the foundation. You can see the plastic grey sewer pipe and the copper water pipe on the right.

Taken about a week ago, the concrete forms for the south window wells. The concrete had been poured. Stuff (chemicals) can be added to concrete to make sure it cures in weather down to 10 degrees above zero.

So things are progressing. The temperature dropped from 37 degrees yesterday morning to minus 7 this morning. It's supposed to get down to -18 degrees tonight and stay cold all week. The windows will be delivered end of this week or early next week. Once we get the windows and doors installed, we can bring in a temporary heater and heat the basement enough to do the floor. Everything is uphill from there.