They got a bit of a late start, but their plan was to get ready to install flooring by next Monday. Today was supposed to be the completion of plumbing (gas) and electric, Tuesday was supposed to be inspection, Tues/Wed insulation, Wed/Thu inspection, Thu/Fri to start sheetrock.
The builder had been working with the cabinet shop to come up with an island design made from the same wood as our cabinets. They emailed out renderings of two options - one with a couple of slabs for the legs, and the other was more table-like with four smaller legs. We forwarded it on to the architect, and indicated that we preferred the slab legs.
At the architect's request they swapped out our ill-advised can light over the dining table light for the MR16 can that the architect had originally specified.
The architect's PM sent an email back to us about paint suggesting that we pick a few colors then meet to go over them. Of course, this was exactly what I wanted them to take the first crack at, but we figured we'd give it a little thought and be ready to change it all up when we met with them.
At the end of the day we got an email from the builder's co-owner (who we worked with initially to get the estimate and contract in place) stating that plumbing and electrical inspections should be tomorrow. After work it looked like the gas for the dryer had not yet been run. And I noticed that the vent pipes had been run through the roof, but there was no flashing or vent caps installed. I called the builder, and he said they they would be running the dryer gas tomorrow, and that he didn't realize that they hadn't cleaned up the holes in the roof, but he would make sure that they took care of that first thing. He also mentioned that the inspection for plumbing and electrical got moved to Wednesday, since the inspector wanted to do plumbing, electrical, and framing at the same time. So that meant that the framers would be out in the morning to move the pocket door.
Hole in Ceiling/Roof with Vent Pipe
TUESDAY
Met with the builder first thing and discussed a few miscellaneous items. He said that the framers would be there right after lunch. We discussed painting the hallway. The drawings don't call for it, though they have opened up a few feet of the wall to get the pocket door frame in, which they will sheetrock over and have to paint. Also, they are pulling the house fan out of the ceiling in the hallway, and there's a blank switchplate that they installed where switch for the house fan used to be. He said they don't intend to paint the whole hallway - just paint the new sheetrock to match the rest of the hallway. Several years back I patched some cracks and bought some paint to touch it up with. You can pretty much see every spot I touched because the paint never quite matched; I don't know if I got the wrong finish or just am not a skilled painter. But we figure if they don't do a good job of matching it, we'll put it on the punch list and they'll need to fix it one way or another.
Came back at lunch and we met with the architect to discuss paint colors. We spent some time looking through some of the colors we chose, with some similar colors that he was suggesting, while looking at the cabinet door, countertop sample, and backsplash sample. I am AWFUL with paint and color, but we ended up with three different main options of color. There were a couple silvery grey colors that we both really liked, and some yellows that (I'm told) went well. A third option was a few different whites. It should be noted that all the colors were pretty light and neutral - the grey wasn't a dark grey at all.
We also talked about a few minor changes to the builder's proposal for the island. And we talked about hardware for the cabinets.
After 4pm I got an email from the builder saying that the plumber wasn't able to run the gas line for the dryer since the house gas pipes weren't large enough to support the additional BTU requirement. So we sent back an email asking how they came to that conclusion, since there are several old wall and floor heaters that are no longer connected. We also voiced frustration about this coming up at the end of the day before inspection, and several weeks after the plumber was supposed to start working. Plus the fact that we were already more than a week behind schedule, and it wasn't due to running into problems like the vent in the laundry space - it was due to the fact that no one addressed the problems until much later after they were (or should have been identified).
When I got home I was informed that the framers never actually made it out there either. So there's all sorts of holdups.
On the way home I picked up a pint each of our two top contenders of paint, so we'll put some of that on the wall in the next few days. On the bright side, with all these delays, we've got a little bit of time before we have to choose paint color.
WEDNESDAY
Met with the builder first thing. He was in agreement that even though a few changes have popped up, they should not have had the delays that they did. It sounded like he was a little frustrated with the lack of availability of their own forces (plumbers and framers).
The plumber was supposed to be working later today, and he was going to perform the calculations required to confirm our gas capacity, and the builder was going to forward the calculations on to us. We hadn't heard anything by the end of the day and hadn't snooped around to check progress.
Around 8:15pm we got a call from the builder, this time the on-site guy's supervisor. He indicated that he had seen the email about the gas plumbing, and wanted to talk to us to make sure our expectations were aligned. I was never really too sure what he meant about the expectations part, but I think he wanted to go over the remainder of the schedule. This was an opportunity to voice the fact that we had never got a corrected schedule, and we were just getting week-by-week reports about the upcoming work. It sounded like he was going to work with our on-site guy to get the schedule updated and disucss it with us. We talked about some of the difficulties that we've had, and he acknowledged that they were having some trouble. He said that it didn't look good for them to blame their trades, but he made it clear that they were trying to establish a relationship with the plumber and they were not having good results. He also indicated that our on-site guy is relatively new to that position, and the supervisor had intended to be more involved in our project. He indicated that he would be providing the on-site guy more support. He voiced one concern with the schedule - the windows. Their supplier was supposed to
have the windows delivered weeks ago, and the new delivery date is April 5th. The only issue would be with the framing inspection; if the inspector didn't require that the windows actually be installed, we could continue to make progress. But if they did require the windows, we wouldn't be able to do insulation or sheetrock or flooring until the windows were installed. It sounds like it's a somewhat vague area, and it is entirely up to the discretion of the inspector. So for now we'll just cross our fingers.
After the call we opened up our disposable paint kits (plastic tray with roller), shook up the quarts of paint, and painted up some big old areas of wall. I also did a little of the ceiling, as our architect prefers that the wall, trim, and ceiling all be painted with the same color. The room was pretty dim, since all our lighting isn't installed yet, but we were able to get a feel for it. The Techno Grey (my preference going in) seemed a bit darker and more grey, while the Sedate Grey was more of a silvery white. We both preferred the Sedate Grey, especially if we were going to use it on the ceiling.
Techno Grey on the right, Sedate Grey on the left.
THURSDAY
We were headed out of town for a long weekend and left first thing in the morning. Before we left I checked out the work area and noticed that they had run the gas line for the dryer. I asked the builder about it, and he said that the plumber had initially thought the main gas line was 3/4", but realized yesterday that it was 1", so there was adequate capacity to meet code. The builder was pretty much just waiting around for the inspector to show up before anyone else could do work.
Kitchen Sink Area
Laundry Area with Gas Connection!!!
We stuffed towels under the bedroom doors and made another assessment of the paints - now dry and in daylight. We were still leaning towards the lighter color (Sedate Grey).
I called the builder late in the afternoon for an update and he indicated that the electrical inspection had passed, but the framing inspector never showed up. The framers moved the pocket door.
FRIDAY
The builder said that the framing inspection went well and they got approval. They installed the insulation, and are now waiting on the insulation inspection before they can progress to drywall. So they aren't able to work over the weekend after all. They're hoping to get insulation inspection early Monday so that they can get started on drywall, else it will be Tuesday before they can do drywall.
He indicated that they had put together a schedule for the rest of the project, and we would talk about it next week. He also mentioned that the appliances had been delivered to the appliance shop, so we wouldn't need to wait on them at all.
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