Things have been going fast and furious the past few weeks. My stress level has been way up, because my mom fell and broke her wrist a month ago, and two weeks ago had to have surgery to put in a plate because it wasn't healing correctly. So I've had to take 3 1/2 days off work in the past two weeks to take care of her and get her to doctor appointments. My full-time job keeps me very busy, and I've been getting behind with all the time off I've been taking.
The issue that has me the most upset is the call I got Friday from Contractors Capital Corporation, where I was getting my construction loan. This 45 day process has been ongoing for 3 months now, not due to any problems on my part. I am absolutely the perfect candidate for lending money to, in every respect. So what's the problem? First it was the loan officer got pneumonia and no one else could help me for the two weeks he was out. Then he sent me a slew of papers to sign, which had all the blanks left empty. I don't sign blank paperwork. That took another week or two to straighten out. Then there were problems with his appraiser, and the appraisal took an entire month. It finally got to the title company, and we were supposed to close this week. Until I got a call on Friday telling me the underwriter had withdrawn permission for CCC to write construction loans, effective immediately. So now I'm back to square one after three months of working with CCC. The only positive thing is that the bank that was underwriting CCC has taken over the construction loan business from CCC, so much of what has been done so far will transfer over. The really bad news is that MI Bank will NOT accept the appraisal that CCC had done, which I paid $450 for. So now I have to pay for a new appraisal with the same underwriter-now-construction-loan-lender, and have to worry once more about the house appraising way under the construction costs due to the neighborhood it's in. This is all related to the mortgage meltdown; after banks and mortgage companies spent years lending huge amounts of money to people who couldn't pay it back, now they are skittish about lending money to anyone. So this new development wasn't aimed at me, it's part of the overreaction by banks trying to cover their rear ends for their past irresponsible practices.
Adding to the stress are continuing conflicts with Richard, the architect. He has not been at all happy with changes Jeffrey Swainhart, my GC Consultant, and I have made. Some of the changes have been minor, but the major ones have Richard in kind of a snit. I am having Innovative Power Systems (IPS) do the solar, and most likely White Bear Mechanical will do the radiant in-floor heating. Richard has been set all along at having Norm Tesmar do both, but the guy can't give me any references, even though he supposedly has been doing this for 20 years. He isn't licensed, either, so he can't do it himself anyway. I have been unhappy with Norm and his complicated solar system with both tanks and an under-the-basement sand pit for heat storage. IPS is an established company. If I have problems, I'll know who to call, and I know someone will be there to answer the phone. In addition, I'm taking out the sand pit, as both IPS and Bob Ramlow (who wrote the book, literally, on solar heat and sand bed heat storage) have recommended against it in this case. It's also saving me about $5000, and now I don't have to worry about living above an oven in the lower level. The other issue is the skylight over the stairwell. Richard had initially designed a cupola over the stairwell, with an elevated roof with widows around it to let in light and ventilation. That turned out to be quite an expensive addition. Then Richard decided a large skylight, 5 feet by 20 feet, would be better. It wouldn't open, so he proposed adding a window in the rear gable, near the peak, to add the ventilation. I loved the skylight proposal, but it was going to be around $6000 just for the plastic skylight. There were many seams in it, which I didn't like. One seam goes bad and the whole thing starts leaking. I wanted to put in some regular skylights instead. Jeffrey came up with a good plan putting in three 3' x 4' skylights, with one being operable for ventilation. I feel more confident that this system will be less likely to cause problems (with leaking) over the long term.
So the bottom line on the project is that the new bank said it would be 2 to 3 weeks at a minimum to get the construction loan approved, so my plans to break ground this week have been put on hold.
I know that all projects have things go wrong, and I'm just hoping that I'm getting all the kinks out before we even start, and that once we start digging, everything will go relatively smoothly.
A course of blocks is one layer all the way around the perimeter. Friday morning (the 19th), there were 3 courses done (above). By Friday evening, 6 courses of block were competed. 6 courses equals a "lift." For Faswall, a lift is 4 feet high. Once the walls are 4 feet high, the concrete can be poured into the holes. Below shows the completed first lift. The empty space in front is the start of the opening for the basement bedroom egress window. As the second lift goes up, you'll see a lot more openings for windows appear. (Don't forget, you can get the picture to enlarge if you double click on it.)
Below is a view from the rear of the property.
Below, a view from the hill in front.
Here's Joe Haaf pouring cement from the boom into the walls.
If you look carefully in the close-up above, you can see the cement flowing between the blocks from left to right. As the cement is poured down into the block, it needs to flow between the blocks, as there is rebar placed horizontally every third course.
The photo above shows the cement truck operator moving the boom, the bottom shows the boom extended its full 55 feet.
Joe's worker is using a vibrating snake to get the cement to move down and fill up all the holes. the cement level dropped about a foot after he used the snake. Shelterworks, who manufactures the Faswall here in the U.S., recommends against using a vibrator, but this is a small one especially made for ICFs.
First lift is finished and ready to cure!
