Are we going to survive this???

[JazzDad]

Yesterday was Day One of our home construction. I pick up the phone. It’s Ken, the builder, who is at the site 85 miles away. “Bret,� in his ever-calm tone, “we don’t have any power out here�. I learn they have drilled the holes for the pilings and, “We need to cut some steel, cause I’ve got the cement trucks comin’ later.� I can’t figure out what might have happened. I set the T-pole last week, and it worked fine when we left. My mind races to come up with an answer. He continues, “I’ll get my electrician to come over�. Great. First day and we’re over budget. Like the cartoons, I see the dollar signs flash in front of my eyes, accompanied by that old-timey cash register sound, you know; ka-ching. A short time later Ken calls back. The electrician discovered that the main line is dead. Ken tells me he’s going to another job site. I call the electric Co-op, and Roy in the dispatch office tells me they’ll be out there within the hour. Nearly 60 minutes later Roy calls to say it’s back on: there was a blown fuse inside the transformer box. “It must have been due to the big storm the other day� Roy tells me. I call Ken, but he already knows what has transpired (he and Roy are probably cousins) and is back at work on our property.

I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. Is this how it will be for the next nine months? I wonder what the doctor might prescribe for me.

[Bird]

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Is this how it will be for the next nine months?

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Nope, it'll get lots worse than that little minor inconvenience [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] !

[Pat]

I need to warn you that Bird is an unbridled optimist!

Actually it probably will get worse, much worse at times and if 9 months is the "original" time guestimate it won't get worse for 9 months but probably longer as any given project takes longer and costs more.

Misery loves company so stay and share with your fellow sufferers.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[RobS]

You'll survive but I'm not sure I would. Is the 85 mile distance normal or were you away for the day? Our new house is only three miles from our old and about the same 12 miles from work for me. Stopped out just about every night and I made several quick trips during the workday to tend to various issues. I am a very involved type of person and probably wouldn't have survived a long distance construction project (not that 85 miles is all that long). On the other hand, if your builder is good and you maintain a good relationship that will shorten those miles considerably.

Hey, congratulations on "groundbreaking". What kind of house are you building that requires pilings?

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[AndyM]

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Nope, it'll get lots worse than that little minor inconvenience !

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It's a rocky roller coaster ride, full of ups and downs, high and low emotions. I have a lot more grey hairs than before we had our house built. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

[TimSullivan]

Jazzdad,

Just go with the flow and expect many of these days. Building a house is a strain on everyone. I always look for the worst and then I am happy when things go as planned.

Best of luck all will be fine once you are in your home.

We hope to break ground very soon and I am lucky that I have only to go 1000 feet to the site.

[AndyM]

P.S. Buy a digital camera and take pictures every step of the way at every angle. This not only gives you a scrapbook album of your experience, but also gives you proof if you ever have to go back on your builder on anything.

We literally have over 1000 photos of our house as it was going up last year. Several of them have been sent to the builder for various reasons. Well worth the price we paid for the camera! [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]

We were 30 miles away, and I made the 60 mile round trip almost every day. It's not often you get to see your own house go up, and there's a couple of times I caught them in the act of making mistakes, that were caught early enough to easily fix.

[JazzDad]

Some answers:
It is 85 miles from our current house to the new one. Probably more from work to the new house.

Yes, the builder is great. He's done a lot of houses in the area, and must be OK as he gets invited to all the get-togethers.

The digital camera is on the shopping list for this week. We have been taking 35mm so far.
The pilings are to get down into stable soil. We have a hard clay under about 18 inches of sandy loam. The current house had to have foundation work, so we don't want to go down that road again!

Update: the perimeter beams are all dug, the plumbing is in, and everything was covered in black plastic last night due to the rain. They are hoping to pour the slab this week.

I will have to have a talk with Ken about the jobsite cleanliness. If it's my responsibility, that's cool. I hate seeing all the trash lying around when we've been so neat for the last 2 years.

[em14]

There is an article in either this month or last months M
issue of Fine Home Builder that talks about job site cleanliness. I had the same problem and notice that this seems to be a very common problem around this area. This article puts into print what I have been after my contractor about.
Leo

[Pat]

We are responsible for jobsite cleanliness on our project. It is not so easy. If you clean up, where do you put useable scraps? A carpenter will not walk 5 steps to pick up a 4 ft board to cut down to a 3 ft board if there is a 12 ft board next to the saw horses for him to cut 3 ft off the end.

Candy and fast food wrapers, drink cups, cigarette packs and on and on. Trash barrel or not, if it is 10 steps away the floor or ground is first choice. Muddy feet? Go inside and use the stairs for a boot cleaner.

Cold weather? Just bring in a leaky diesel fired heater, it isn't a concern of the electrician to put ceramic tiile down on diesel fuel coated concrete.

If you have any particular needs for specific considrations like locating a wall switch or something it is a good idea to do something I didn't... Get a notebook with sewn in place pages not loose leaf. Put tabs in it for each trade: plumber, electrician, etc. When you have specific requirements, write them in the book and have the tradesman or one of his crew sign the entry. I worked with this system when engineering and giving instructions to production people. If it didn't get written in the book with MY signature they weren't responsible for any changes to their work process. I was acountable for any changes I made to the process. Similar accountability would ceratinly help on a house project.

I have had discussions with tradesmen, they didn't take notes, later they did whatever they though was a good idea instead of what I said I wanted. For example a set of switches in the great room to be mounted in a rake wall below a staircase to control the covered porch lights and fans. Wall isn't there yet so electricians put switches in wall that was there. Unfortunately that wall will be covered with built in cabinets and book shelves. Oh, that is OK, I won't mind moving the encyclopedia Americana or Britanica to look for the switch to flip.

Most of the inidividual subs don't seem to care about the big picture. The GC can't camp out on site all the time. I need to hang out part of the time to answer questions and explain what is wanted.

House building is controlled chaos. The most important word in that is CONTROLLED. Be sure that there is proper control. Control is best achieved by accountability. How can someone be accountable if there is not a clear understanding of what is expected? Document your expectations. Document your instructions.

If this documentation and control thing sounds excessive, then you have had a charmed, lucky, or extremely protected past. You probably ask for and receive a lot more written guarantees of delivery dates, performance specs, etc. for items that are much much cheaper and less important than a house. So why not have a proportionate response? Your concern should be in proportion to the cost of the project and the cost to correct a problem should guide your thinking of what effort is reasonable to prevent a problem.

10% of the project will provide 90% of the problems. Try to identify that 10% and spend 90% of your effort there. You can't be everywhere and you can't oversee everything. Reserve your input to where it offsets the greatest risk as measured in time and dollars.

Best of luck to you in your continuing adventure,

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]