Bricks and Rain Delays

It rained on Thursday and Friday of last week, so no brick work happened on those days. They are back at work today. The two longer sides of the house are complete. As of this morning, they had completed the bottom 4 feet of wall around the patio and back of the house. Here's a picture I took this morning:

They were starting to work on the front by the garage door. I told them how we had to move one wire (the AC electrical feed) from the rear wall to around the corner on the side wall. So they have a hole to plug up with mortar.

The son had called this morning asking for another draw so he could pay his workers. Last time, I gave them $3,000. This time he asked for another $3,000, but I gave him a check for $2,500. I don't want to get into a position where I've paid for more of the work than has been done. They still have the front and back to finish, as well as the entire garage and the flatwork on the porch and patio. What I paid them today brings me to about 50% of the total price. I figure they've done roughly 50% of the work.

My address number plaque was shipped on Friday. I have the FedEx tracking number. The logging ends on Saturday, so I don't know how close it is to being delivered. The brick layer assures me that doing the wall with brick first and then cutting out a place to fit the address plaque is just fine.

I also called the engineer that did my wind load inspection. He had sent a letter stating that it's okay to lay brick down on the front garage floor. But I will probably pour a 2.5 inch layer of concrete instead. So I need another letter explicitly stating that concrete is okay. The woman on the phone was great. Within an hour she called back to say the new letter was ready and she's mailing it to me.