Where Has The Time Gone????

I spent over 24 hours during the last two days working on the house, but I don't seem to have much to show for it. A lot of time was spent running to different stores (and stuck in traffic between stores). A lot of little items were needed, like wood filler to cover the nail holes on the baseboard and casing, and some big items too, like the double bowl granite/composite kitchen sink.

We're still waiting for the plumber and the electrician to show up. The electrician said he'd call when he's back from visiting family. I'm guessing that'll be some time in 2010. The plumber was scheduled to come yesterday to connect the gas line to the hot water heater, install the heat trap, the temperature control valve, and the expansion tank. He didn't show up, but he sent his father. He puttered around for an hour or so, installed the heat trap, and then left for the day, saying they'd be back Tuesday or Wednesday.

It seems like we're so close to finishing, yet so far away. Hoping to get closer and closer to the "finishing" idea, we are moving forward with Access National Bank to get our ducks lined up for the conversion from construction loan to mortgage. The appraiser came today to measure and look around. He seems to be familiar with the neighborhood and with green construction. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the appraisal comes in the same, or higher, than it did last year at this time when we were working to obtain our construction loan. I'm taking it as a good sign that today's Washington Business Journal email news summary led off with a story about real estate prices climbing in the DC area. Hopefully our appraiser read that story!

The highlight of today was when Jason and Matt, two City of Falls Church officials, came to inspect the final grading. We passed that inspection! Thanks to Bob DeMarr and his crew for fixing the job Bartley didn't get right but still wanted to charge a premium for. Immediately after passing the inspection, I called Maryann Ogle from Terra Landscaping to schedule the gravel driveway/parking area and the permeable paver walkway installation. The weather forecast isn't great for the next few days, but Maryann will monitor the weather and send the crew as soon as there's good news in the forecast. Maryann pointed us in the right direction to schedule wood chip mulch delivery from the City, so we'll soon (hopefully) receive a truck load of mulch to scatter along the lot.

I spent some time today working on the master shower. Another challenge I dealt with was that the master bathroom shower pan wasn't poured properly. There should have been a slope to the drain, but it ended us more like small hills and valleys. That left lots of places for water to settle, instead of drain. I rented a grinder from Ace Tool Rental in Falls Church and spent a good bit of the afternoon grinding down the high spots, checking with the level, and ensuring the water now heads towards the drain. I poured water into the shower pan and it all went in the right direction. Yay!

After that task was successfully completed, I laid out the 1" x 1" tiles for the shower floor to find the best fit using the least number of tiles. When we ordered the tiles at Amicus, we thought it would take 21 of the 12" x 12" tile mats, but I was able to configure it using only 17. Since we had to buy a box, which contains 24, that leaves me with an extra 7 sq.ft. of beautiful carbon floor tile. Hmmmm, what can I tile with that?

Tomorrow I'll mix up some Thinset and install the floor tiles. The wall tiles will follow. Another one of my shopping stops today was to order a threshold/sill for the shower curb. Actually, on my way back from IKEA yesterday, I stopped at Community Forklift (kind of like Habitat for Humanity's ReStore) but they were closed. I was looking for a remnant of granite, Silestone or marble for the threshold. Since I couldn't get it at Community Forklift, I bought a remnant retail. The advantage of buying the remnant retail is that they will polish both edges for me. The likelihood of finding that at a second hand shop was pretty slim.

Here are some miscellaneous pics, as well as the long-overdue photos of the completed deck (well construction has been completed - we'll stain it and seal it in the Spring time).

Thanks, Tim! And Sunday Progress

Last night, Andreas and I enjoyed a delicious bottle of Prosecco, which a neighbor (Tim) gave us several weeks ago as a thank you gift for the tour of the construction site we gave him. The gift was unnecessary, but greatly appreciated. We raised our glasses toasting Tim and the other, gracious, residents of Falls Church, who we have enjoyed meeting over the past several months.

Today we cleaned more. It's not glamorous, but it is necessary. We vacuumed in the basement, preparing for more scrubbing of the floor. And the upstairs, where we cleaned up around the duct system registers. And Andreas broke up more concrete that was dropped around the lot by Bartley's crew. I think that's the last of it. Finally, we placed plastic sheeting down over the newly-poured concrete floor to protect that when the windows are installed tomorrow - at long last. Sorry, no photos again today. Except one of the tasty Prosecco!

Saturday Progress

We started work early this morning. The first task to tackle was filling in the basement window wells with stone. Of course we didn't want to fill them up all the way, but there was a deep mud pit area in each window well and that needed to be filled in, up to the base of the window well insert. We bought 1/2 ton of inexpensive #57 crushed stone to fill up most of the pit, and 1/2 ton of a more expensive decorative stone (it's called chalet) to top that off. So what you see from inside the basement is only the decorative stone. We couldn't have put any more stone in the bed of my little Ford Ranger since we already were close to maximum weight. So we thought we might have to make a second run for stone. Then it occurred to me that we could make lemonade out of the lemons Bartley's crew handed us this week. We broke up the leftover concrete they had carelessly dumped on our lot and put that in the window well pits first. We covered the broken up concrete (which is as if we had just put some larger rocks down first) with the #57 crushed stone next. It worked out well - we didn't need to make a second trip for stone and we used some of that concrete and didn't have to take it to the Fairfax County dump. There's still some left, but we think we might be able to use that for another project.

After a quick lunch, we filled the bed of my truck with free Wood Chip mulch from the City of Falls Church. We used some of it to freshen up a neighbor's yard area where some muddy water from our construction site ended up after a heavy rain earlier this week, some of it covered over the mulch Bartley's crew dumped concrete on, and the rest of it went on the corner of the lot to stabilize some soil, hoping to minimize any future run off.

Now came for the hard work - cleaning the basement floor. As we wrote in a post some time ago, before the sump pumps were installed (and once after they were installed when a crew unplugged the sump pump right before a heavy rain) we ended up with water in our basement. The water brought with it some very fine dirt that sat on the basement floor for months while we've been focused on construction. We decided to clean that up so we can soon stain the basement concrete floor. It took a few hours on hands and knees with a scrub brush, and now the basement bedroom, closet, and bathroom is clean. The floor is drying and we'll test the coloring for the soy-based stain tomorrow before we clean another part of the basement and then put down some plastic tarp to try to keep the area from getting dirty again.

Sorry there are no pictures today; we were busy working and I forgot to snap some photos. It's too dark in the basement to take good photos with the iPhone, so I'll try to bring a real camera tomorrow.

Friday Progress

A few steps forward, a few steps nowhere. Bernie from Clarke County Plumbing connected both our sump pumps, and removed our temporary sump. Once power is connected to the house, we'll have two sumps running as necessary to ensure the water level stays tame (below the house, that is).

The sump outflow into the drain tile:

A step nowhere was the power connection. Dominion Power talked a good talk about service standards to connect the permanent power, promising an install within three weeks of the order date. We originally were told it would be last week. Then on Monday, we were promised this week, absolutely, the power would be connected. Miss Utility has spray painted all of our neighbors' yards so often that it looks like kids came through marking graffiti! But still no permanent power service. We'll stay on their case - we need the power to be connected on Monday, or we may have to manage new challenges.

That new challenge is the delivery of the rainwater recapture tanks. Three tanks, 1,400 gallons per tank, totaling 4,200 gallons of rainwater. Those, too, were supposed to have been delivered this week, but they didn't make it. We didn't push that at all since Dominion Power's subcontractor has been a no-show.

The folks at ARS continue to do a great job installing the ducting for the TRV. They'll be back on Tuesday and they expect to finish then. The weather hoods for the TRV were supposed to come in today, but...you guessed it...they didn't. We're hoping they'll arrive on Monday, and Bob DeMarr's crew can come out to drill the holes in the TerraBricks for the TRV air inlet and exhaust, as well as the dryer exhaust and fireplace fresh air inlet. Demarr has a core drill which will work perfectly for each cut. Tools are a wonderful thing!

Piedmont Roofing came today and installed the flashing around the East, South, and West side of the house. It looks like they did a nice job, but Aaron will have to inspect it when he's back on our project next week. We don't know if Piedmont re-sealed the flashing on the Northern side, which seems to have been allowing water through at the seams.

And we inspected Bartley's work with the concrete floor. Overall, the floor is really cool and it's definitely the contemporary look we're going for. Bartley's crew did a pretty good job with making the floor as smooth as possible. My three complaints are: 1) the shower was poured to the wrong height - it's too low as compared to where the drain was set, and now the water won't go down the drain unless we install tile on the shower floor which will cost us more money and is not the look we want. 2) they tracked mud into the still-wet concrete, so we have a few spots throughout the first floor where one can see mud in the now-dry concrete. The crew knew this was to be our final floor finishing - nothing on top except some soy-based stain. We explained that to them before they poured and insisted they be extremely cautious as to not track any dirt or debris in, or allow any dirt or debris to rise to the top, so it was irresponsible of them to allow this. The good news is the soy-based stain color is espresso brown, so it probably won't be a problem at all. I just can't understand why workers simply ignore such important details. 3) The workers were extremely sloppy and they did not clean up their messes. There are drink containers around the house. But most disturbingly, they dumped concrete all over the place and did not clean it up. I heard Aaron give them very clear instruction, and I heard their acknowledgement understanding the instructions, that they needed to be extremely careful about where any concrete is dumped on the lot. It needed to be dumped on OSB (leftover from the parging project) at the front of the lot. Again, instructions ignored and it's extremely disappointing that Bartley's crew did not clean up after themselves. This weekend, Andreas and I will be out there cleaning up after Bartley's mess once again, then driving the concrete to the dump and paying for it to be recycled by Fairfax County. Question for any sub-contractors reading this - why is it so hard for your colleagues to follow some simple instructions/requests?

You can't see clearly in the picture, but here's the shower poured to the wrong height:

Here's their mess:

And, the moment you've been waiting for, the concrete first floor:

More Pictures From Yesterday's Concrete Pour

The pump is controlled via remote control:










Pouring the Shower:




Tools used to smooth the concrete:

Concrete Pour

They're boarding my flight to Fort Lauderdale (quick, overnight work trip), but I wanted to post these pics from the start of the concrete pour this morning. I haven't seen the end progress, but Andreas said that Bartley did a great job. P.S. The concrete is a green mixture with 40% slag (or fly ash, I didn't catch which one).

100th Blog Post

This marks our 100th post. And I'm happy to report there's been some more progress. In the past couple of days, our recycling dumpster was hauled away. We filled two dumpsters during the construction, which is less than 1/2 what typical construction sends to the landfill. And many of the items placed in our dumpster will be recycled instead of dumped.

Bob Demarr's crew spent about 7 hours fixing the problems with the rough grading caused by Bartley Corp's team. Bartley's job foreman admitted to Andreas that they really don't do grading work - they don't have the right equipment or labor. That showed with the mess they created. It took Andreas more than 30 hours to dig out tree protection fencing Bartley ran over with a machine and dumped dirt on top of. I spent another 10 hours uncovering the Holly Tree roots they graded over, even though the root protection zone is clearly marked on the grading plan. Alas, we're now on the right path with grading. Demarr's crew hauled away a few truck loads of dirt today, leaving the lot looking much better than it has the past six months!

Inside, Bernie from Clarke County Plumbing, continued work on the rough-in plumbing. He put the vent pipes through the roof (now Piedmont Roofing will come back to seal that all up) and worked on the basement bathroom. Ferguson delivered the tub, toilet wall carrier and shower faucet rough-in and Bernie will install that soon. He also drilled through the EIFS to prepare for the outdoor shower piping, the hose bibs, and the sump pump piping. Unfortunately, he drilled the sump pump holes too high - the sump pump pipes were supposed to come out beneath the deck - so we'll have to work with Bernie to get that resolved.

Also inside, Aaron laid the pex tubing for the bathroom radiant floor heating. I want the shower floor to be as toasty warm as the rest of the bathroom floor, so that had to be laid today so a first layer of concrete can go over the pex tubing in the shower tomorrow. Bernie can then protect the shower floor properly with the rubber membrane and when the concrete floor is poured, it will work out perfectly.

Elmer's crew started work today on the parging. They spent the day applying a metal lathe around the doors and windows. They'll finish that tomorrow then apply the thin layer of cement to the walls and round out the edges by the doors and windows. After that cures, I can apply the American Clay Earth Plaster over the cement parging.

Jay with Quality Window & Door hasn't provided the exact date yet for the corrected clerestory windows to be delivered - hopefully that will be in the early part of next week so the cedar siding can go on Thursday morning.

Progress!

While I was out of town, a lot of things happened at the house. I need to get out of town more often, so progress continues!

Bob DeMarr and his team did the street cut and trenching to the house, as you saw in the photos from the other day. Later in the week they drilled through the 12" thick concrete foundation to bring the water and sewer lines through into the house. Meanwhile, Bernie from Clarke County Plumbing was on-site working on the rough-ins for all of the plumbing - bathrooms, kitchen, laundry, etc. Southland Insulators came back to finish the air sealing in the first floor. And Bartley's crew came back to re-do the deck piers they excavated and poured way back in February (the ones that collapsed when the excavation for the basement began). So we now have footers for the deck framing that will begin on Monday. Also this week, Bernie will continue with the rough-in plumbing to connect the sewer/water lines and the sump pumps; Elmer will be on-site to do the parging over the interior TerraBrick walls (except the pantry, which we're leaving as bricks to show them off), and Aaron will continue with his to-do list of items he needs to follow-through on, such as correcting the height of the baseboard outlets, installing the fireplace chimney and 6" duct for the range hood, etc. We're close to plumbing and electrical rough-in inspection time, which is very exciting.

The latest word on the corrected clerestory windows is they should be here early next week. Once that's done, we'd like to move quickly on finishing the exterior, laying the radiant floor pex tubing, and pouring the concrete first floor so we can then close-in the walls with drywall. It now looks like we're aiming for a mid-October move-in. Stay tuned!

EIFS and Window Framing Progress

It's wonderful to stop by the lot after a long day at work and see that some progress was made on the house! I had a big smile on my face tonight. It was starting to get dark, so the pictures aren't the best, but they show the EIFS scratch coat that is being applied to the Compressed Earth Blocks and a few shots to show the new, corrected framing for the windows.

We've been struggling to get a plumber out to the lot to do the rough in plumbing and arrange for the sewer/water hook up with the street. The plumber we plan(ned) to use (that's still TBD depending how some open issues get resolved) was unavailable for an extended period of time, so we tried to get quotes from three other companies. One provided a high quote with no supporting detail. Despite multiple requests, they never provided any detail so, for all we know, they just picked a number out of the air. Two other companies came by and promised quotes quickly. Despite multiple follow-up phone calls, and even paging one of them after hours, not a single return call or quote has come our way. Last I checked we were in a recession of biblical proportions and people were desperate work. Guess that's not true for plumbers. Or it is true and none of them are good business people. Any thoughts on that readers?

The EIFS crew dropped their scaffolding off on Friday, the extruded foam board arrived today, and they applied their scratch coat to three sides of the house - West, North and East. They have only enough scaffolding for those sides, so they'll get to the Southern side later this week as they work their way around the house. Tomorrow they'll apply the foam board and the two coats of synthetic stucco follow.

The framers came back late this afternoon to complete what they couldn't last week because of the thunderstorms. They completed the framing so the 22 clerestory windows can be installed when they arrive. Our Construction Manager has left multiple messages for Jay at Quality Window and Door to get a status report on the windows, so Aaron can schedule the crew to come to install them. The new/correct windows supposedly were ordered on May 28 and would take 4-6 weeks for delivery. So that means late this week or sometime within the next two weeks we should receive those. It sure would be nice to get that status report. Maybe Jay's related to the plumbers? Just kidding - he probably is waiting to return Aaron's call until he has an update from the factory.

And maybe the best news of the day - the sump pump was plugged in tonight when I checked, and the basement was drying out nicely.

Grading in Progress

When I was a kid, like most boys, I enjoyed playing in the back yard with big toy trucks, pushing earth around, and having a gay old time getting dirty. Well, I would have loved to have been on-site yesterday as the crew starting moving piles of dirt around as they started on the final grading for the lot.

Bartley Corporation is doing the grading for us. They brought a Bobcat like machine, but one that has rubber treads, instead of metal treads, due to the rain and wetness of the dirt. Unfortunately, they didn't get very far when the rubber tread ripped and the machine became disabled. The machine still sits at the back of the house, waiting to be towed away. It's questionable as to when they'll be able to get a truck back there since the lot is a mud pit right now. At least the grading is now going away from the house which should prevent some of the water from coming in the basement. I checked the basement tonight, after last night's rain, and while it's still a bit damp in the basement, I didn't see any new water. That's a very good thing.