OK to Close!

As of yesterday, my electrical and framing inspections are both complete and I'm ready to insulate and close in the walls!

When we last looked in on the adventure that the electrical inspection had become, Mr. Inspector was playing the Barney Fife game: making trouble and letting everyone know he could do it because he carries a badge. He failed me for a couple of things and was making a drawn out deal about coming to inspect again. He showed up when the door was unlocked and left claiming it was locked. Then he said he wouldn't be coming out the next day. (We unlocked it early in the morning anyway, just in case.) He didn't come out the whole day, at least up until 3:30 when my friend wrapped up work on the outside trim and left. He locked it up as he left, and I came along later in the evening to find a sticker on the window saying the electrical inspection had passed. So after all that, he passed me without even going inside to confirm the extra work had been done!

That was on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, I called to schedule the framing inspection. The woman said he was available to come that morning if I was ready! So I went over and unlocked the house, and I waited for him. He called soon after to say he was on his way (which in itself is a miracle!). When he got there, he looked around in each room while making some small talk with me. Then he checked "OK to Close" on a piece of paper and handed it to me. Gee, that was easy!

So I updated my insulation guys and my sheetrock guy. I'm trying to schedule the insulation for July 7. That'll give me the long July 4 weekend to finish up stuff I need to do in the outside walls.

I went to the house at 7:30 last night and worked by myself until 9:30. It was cooler in the evening and it was peaceful being there by myself. I could take my time. I usually have my dad helping me. I appreciate having someone to help, but having him there flusters me sometimes, and I feel like I'm babysitting him more than taking my time and thinking things through.

Electrical Inspector, Round 2

Okay, this guy's starting to get on my last nerve. It was known last week that he was supposed to come by today for a follow-up inspection. I wanted to have the door unlocked early so he'd be able to get in if no one was there. Since I get up around 7:45, I asked my dad to go over and unlock the place at 7AM.

He did that. The door was unlocked and the alarm was turned off at 7:00. My electrician just called at 9:10 to say the inspector claims he went by and the door was locked! Now come on. Either he went by before the sun came up, or he just couldn't get up onto the back patio by himself (my electrician had to help the old guy up last time...) so he's claiming it was locked.

He was given my electrician's number to call in case there was trouble. He didn't call until after he left. Now, I don't know if they're gonna try and charge me for another visit, but I'll fight that notion. They know the place is locked up. They can't come by in the dark of night without calling anyone to meet them and expect it to be open. How unreasonable is that? I even made an effort to have it open before business hours for them. If I'm going to leave it unlocked overnight so he can come before his first cup of coffee, then what's the use of me having a lock on the door?! :(

This Week in Homebuilding...

So it's been a week since I added an entry, huh? Let's see what I can remember:

The electrical inspector came back on Wednesday or Thursday, and he was a jerk about some stuff. I wasn't there, but my electrician was (he was working on the outside trim at the time). The inspector was an older gentleman who complained about everything from having to step up too high to get into the house to several electrical issues. These included the need for deeper gang boxes wherever there were three wires going into a single gang switch box, an additional outlet under my bay window by the patio, and some additional stuff he wanted to see done in the breaker box.

I had read somewhere that code requires an electrical outlet for every 12 feet of wall. However, who knew that they'd be butt-heads about it even when the 12 feet consists of a bay window that stretches from floor to ceiling. When my electrician told him there wasn't room for one under the window, the inspector told him I'd just have to cut a notch in my floor trim to make room for it. Yeah, that's attractive...

The trim work has progressed to the front of the house. One gable is now done (see photo below). The other gable looks to be the only thing left on the house. My friend is moving slower than he predicted because the guy he assumed would help him has dumped him for another job at the moment. The garage is next to be trimmed. I had to return the Durock sheets I bought from Home Depot in order to get the Hardie Backer (from Lowe's) that he really needs.




I also returned the two 8-inch round columns I had bought. The tops would have extended out in front and behind of the header around my patio. I didn't think that would look good. So I special ordered two 6-inch square ones on Monday. These are made of fiberlgass like the round ones were.

I got my quotes for interior doors this week. The first one was from the door & window place. He came out to measure first. The total is around $3,200. Next, I took his list to Home Depot and Lowe's to get comparisons. It's hard to compare every door as apples-to-apples because two of them are different (a fire door and the double doors leading to the office). But overall, it looks like my window & door guy is cheaper. He's also told me that prices are going up on the 24th of this month.

I also ordered my exterior door locks. I got all Schlage locks from handlesets.com. They can be ordered so that they all use the same key. That's going to be very nice. Just like everything else, ordering these things means wading through a sea of options and decisions: single or double cylinder locks? What handle type? Which finish?

Most-used Tools

As an owner-builder, I'm not doing the intensive hands-on work myself. That's for the professionals. My work has been limited to running structured wiring, site clean-up, and miscellaneous things like putting the wood blocking in the walls for hanging stuff later. That said, here are the tools I've found to be most useful:

• My mobile phone with all my subs and suppliers entered as contacts. I use a Motorola Q. That's a Windows Mobile smartphone which is more like a pocket computer than a phone. This is overkill for the most part. You can use any phone that stores contacts. I also add reminders about tasks I need to get done and meetings I have. All this synchs with my computer at home when I plug it in. It's a life saver to have all the contact info handy when I'm on site and, say, need to call Lowe's to see what time they close.
• Paper and a pen or pencil. You always need to write stuff down or draw a diagram. The one time I go to the house without it is the time I'm sure to need it.
• Digital camera. I always take pictures along the way to document the process. Later, I want to be able to see things like how the underground plumbing runs, or what's behind that wall that I now need to cut into.
• A Leatherman Wave multi-tool. I try to keep this in my car. That way, when I stop at the house, I have what's needed to take care of something unexpectedly that requires pliers, a screwdriver, a knife, etc.
• Garbage cans. I have not had the need for a dumpster at my job site. It's an added expense, and it's been unnecessary as long as I've stayed on top of things. I have two garbage cans that I use my dad's pickup truck to rotate out when they're full. I consistently spend time picking up trash and debris and filling the cans. The parish won't pick up garbage cans from a construction site. So we take them home and put them out with the garbage here.
• A tape measure. There's always something to measure. Maybe you're cutting a piece of wood to a certain length, or maybe you need to measure the dimension of something to take home and research prices. Always keep a tape measure with you.
• Extension cords for power. It seems like you can't have too many of these. One cord plugs into the temporary pole outside. Inside, we've got a 3-way adapter that we plug other cords into. So far, three power cords have been enough for the most part.
• A hammer. Now we get into the traditional tools. A hammer is good for a thousand uses. Where there's a hammer, you should always have nails. But I've found that subs leave a lot of nails left over.
• Drill and screw gun. The electric drill (that we use for pilot holes) and battery-powered drill (that we use for screws) are the most common power tools we've been using. Mostly for mounting the wood blocking that's going behind the sheetrock to hang things on later. Of course, you could always use a hammer and nails for this, and I have in some places. But I find that using screws makes it easier to adjust the wood up or down later when I determine that I need to move it.
• Circular saw and chop saw. We've used the chop saw (a circular saw mounted on a small table with an arm) to cut wood to size for installing blocking. We've also used the circular saw for this and other things.
• A chisel and file. Occasionally, we've had to file a rough edge off a piece of wood or something. And the chisel is good for the times when an electrical wire loops over a joist and you need to notch out a channel so that the wire will be recessed. This has been the case when installing plywood decking in the attic. You don't want to pinch the wire between the joist and the plywood. So you create a slot for the wire to pass through when the plywood is screwed down.
• A shovel. This also has a thousand uses. We've moved sand around, broken up excess brick mortar, cleaned the sand that's run off the lot into the street during a rain, and many other things.
• A wheel barrow. Again, the uses are limitless.
• A vacuum cleaner. This is a must if you like keeping things relatively tidy. We have a small wet/dry vac that we've used for isolated messes and a full-size vacuum claener for broader jobs. Another good thing to have around is a broom.
• A fan or blower. If you're going to build in the south during the summer, you'll definitely want some way to keep a breeze blowing as you work inside. I don't have my insulation in yet, and it's in the 90s every day now.

That's all that comes to mind right now. This covers a great majority of what we've needed on site. I hope this helps someone out there planning for their build!

Copper Theft!

My bricklayers left on Thursday afternoon. I went over that night to pick up around the yard. Friday morning, my sheetrock guy went over to take care of the walls that will be soundproofed. On Saturday morning, my dad and I arrived to find that some of my copper had been stripped from the house!

They took the entire line of copper from the air handler in the attic to the unit in the backyard, and they got some plumbing pipe. Luckily, that's all. As far as plumbing, they took small pieces from the master bathroom and a good portion of the middle (guest) bathroom. In that room, they got all the copper out of the wall with the bathub faucet. They even broke one line off at the concrete slab...

I filed a police report (for all the good that will do). It's hard to tell whether it was kids, or one of my contractors or their workers, or just somebody looking for quick money to support a drug habit. They didn't take any tools, equipment, or other materials we had laying around. They didn't get to several copper lines that would have been easy to remove. They dropped a couple of pieces on the way out the front door, which may mean they left in a hurry.

So I spent Saturday boarding up the openings that have no doors in the front and installing my back door with a lock. One upside is that I can now say I have the keys to my new house! I also setup security lights inside. Of course, all anyone has to do to eliminate the light is unplug the extension cord from the temporary pole in the front yard, but it's something I guess. I also setup a battery-operated motion detector with a siren just inside the back door.

I would tend to think this was someone who had been keeping an eye on the place over time. They must have known that the brick-layers were packed and gone. And having the sheetrock providing new privacy from the street meant it was safer for them to work without being seen. Did they work in the middle of the night? If so, why did they seem to leave so suddenly? Why did they leave stuff that was so easy to get to? It makes me angry and stressed and also creeped out. Like someone is now watching me and my project without me knowing it.

The plumbers have already been there to replace all that was taken. They had to bust up the concrete where the line was broken at the slab. The HVAC guy has been by to assess his situation and plans to reinstall his line this week. And my electrician needs to look today at one line that they cut in order to get at the HVAC line.

And wouldn't you know that the electrical inspector FINALLY showed up this morning and couldn't get in because the place was locked up! I wonder how far that's going to set me back. He's supposed to try again tomorrow. Yeah, right.

All-in-all, I'm glad it wasn't much worse (Thank you, Lord!). It served as a wake-up call to get the place secured. The insurance company informs me it might not be worth my while to file a claim. I have a $2,000 deductible to begin with. If the replacement costs aren't much more than that, then filing a claim will cost me more in the long run because my insurance will go up. I'll lose my "no-claim" discount, and yada yada... Gee, I'm so glad I have insurance.


Here is the house with completed bricks after all the scaffolding was removed.



In this picture, you can see where they snapped off copper lines at the slab.



This is the master bath where they broke off small pieces.



Here, you can see the straps that used to hold the AC copper line.



And here are my first real walls of the house: the sheetrock is in place where they need to spray insulation on the other side.

Bye-Bye Brick Layers

They managed to finish the second gable on Wednesday, but they didn't start the acid wash as promised. When I called, he said they were waiting for all bricks to be done before starting the wash. So they did the wash on Thursday, along with taking down their scaffolding and hauling their tools & equipment away. That morning before they got there, I noticed a window in the front was cracked. This was the last area they worked.

I told the son about the broken window and the crooked and chipped address number. He said I'd need to wait until the dad got there to talk about the money stuff. After a couple of cycles of me coming & going and missing the dad, I finally caught up with him. I told him the window was going to cost $200 to replace and that I needed him to pay $90 for a replacement address block. He agreed to both. We settled up and I paid him everything I owed minus $200, which I will pay when he comes to install the replacement address block. His son wasn't too happy with me for wanting to withhold money, but $200 out of $13,000 is something he's just going to have to get over.

I also had to ask him about the acid wash he was doing. My mom and others had lead me to think they would get all spots of mortar off the bricks. So my expectations were higher than I was seeing. They were using an acid solution on a scrub brush with a long handle. It got the dust and maybe some mortar off, but there are still many spots. I expected they would scrub with a wire brush by hand. My friend Matt (my electrician) said what they were doing is all any of them do.

Boy, I hate the conflict parts of this job! When I pointed out to the son that the address block was chipped, he claimed they often come like that and the damage occurs during shipping. Umm, no. I had taken it out of the box and thouroughly examined it. So I had to contradict him. I don't like to essentially call people liars, but geez...

I'm thankful that his dad admitted it was not broken when they got it out of the box. Also, the son put up an argument about me withholding money. I said I would withhold $500. He had a strong reaction. I told him he was going to have to work with me here. There was still labor to do, and I needed some assurance that they'd be back to do it. He gave the usual arguments that they'd be right back to do it as soon as I called. (And maybe they would have.) But I still need some assurance. So we settled on the $200.

So the bricks are done and the scaffolding is gone! That leaves a lot of cleanup to do. There are bricks, mortar, and other debris everywhere. I had my friend Tim come over yesterday evening and help me gather all the broken bricks into a pile. It's a start!

My friend Matt is also working on the vinyl trim on the outside. They worked their fisrt full day on Thursday. He and his brother-in-law finshed underneath the patio and the eaves across the back and a ways up the sides. They're supposed to come back on Tuesday to continue.

I called the parish today about the electrical inspection since Matt can never get a straight answer from his local electrician boss. The boss claims he called in for the rough-in inspection, but the parish government says they haven't gotten a call. So someone's either screwing around with me, or they're incompetent, or both. It's been about three weeks and I'm getting tired of this run-around. I need to move past the elctrical inspection to the framing inspection so I can get the insulation. I have calls in to Matt asking him to get to the bottom of it.

Also today, the sheetrock guy went over to put up the rock where I am going to sound-proof. I haven't been over there today to see how it looks. I'll pass by tonight when I go get the two columns I'm going to need for the back patio.

The columns are a bit of their own story. My plans call for three 6-inch wooden or fiberglass columns. I want fiberglass, and all the local stores carry is 8-inch columns. That's fine. And my friends tell me that I don't need three of them. That one will do, but I might want to put two. The framer agrees. But I'm sure the parish will balk at that because it's different than what's on the plans. So to head that problem off, I'm getting the engineer who did my wind load certificate to write me another letter with his stamp that approves of the change.

Well, that's my brain dump for today. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! :) More pictures to come soon.

The Brick-laying Drags On

Yesterday, they showed up to work on the front porch pavers and the two front gables. I was there just before noon, and one guy had almost finished the porch and the others had laid the first 2-3 rows of bricks on the right-hand gable. At 5:30 in the evening, I passed again. One guy was starting to acid wash, and the others were just finishing the first gable! I'm not sure what would take an entire day on one gable.

These guys are starting to outlast their welcome. Not just because they're taking too long but because they've been using my tools that I've left at the house, using my lumber for their purposes, and making a mess inside the house where we've already cleaned up. Some small things have gone missing. Luckily nothing expensive. But it's time for them to finish up and move on. They should finish today, I think.

Yesterday, they also put in my stone house number plaque. In the process, they managed to chip it in two corners. On top of that, it's not placed evenly in the wall!

I Just Want to Complete One Thing!

I have a to-do list of items that need to be completed before they insulate. We worked all day Saturday completing most of two items, but there was just a little bit more to be done on both! So we had to come back Monday evening to continue. I did finish one item (lowering all outlets and wood backing for the living room TV), but there's STILL a little more to do with decking the area above the front garage with plywood!

I would feel so much better if I could go over there and finish one project before I left. Everything always takes 10 times longer than I estimate, and there's always one piece of something that we don't have with us in order to complete the job. Oh well, at least I'm making progress. Most of what's left is running last-minute wires someplace or adding more wood blocking behind where sheetrock or viny trim will be.

Speaking of vinyl trim, my friend was planning to come and start that job today. But at the last minute we thought about how acid-washing the bricks would affect the vinyl. So he's waiting an extra day. Yesterday, the brick layers didn't show up. I don't know why. Hopefully, they will be there today to finish the job and do the acid-washing.

The electrical inspection that was scheduled for today got pushed back to tomorrow as well. So it's doubtful that I'll get that and my framing inspection by Friday. That pushes my insulation back again. The sheetrock for the walls that will be sound-proofed is on-site. We're debating whether to do anything to the bowed studs to straighten them until the framing inspection is complete. I don't want to give anyone reason to give me trouble.