Night job

Pulling speaker wire by flashlight. Dressed for warmth. What? Is that a moustache you ask? Yes it is. Thank you for noticing. Less than a week into the one month trial and already, the respect level from the fellas on the job site has increased 3 fold. You shouldn't feel embarrassed if you compulsively double-click the photo to get a full appreciation of the beauty.

Love to hate

Why do some people love to hate? At times it seems as if there are people involved in this build that have nothing more in mind than to obstruct progress. Unfortunately one of these people happens to be the inspector assigned to our project by the city of Lakewood. Anytime he comes out there he finds something of zero consequence to identify that inevitably holds up work. No work can continue until he gives his blessing. Unfortunately that often requires repeat visits from subs which equals extra days and more money. Currently he is demanding an on-site meeting w/ the engineer about some structural changes that had to be made. Of course, the engineer is out of town on vacation right now. Why cannot this be done via correspondence? Because then the inspector would not feel like he is flexing his muscle of authority. So we wait.

Sinks (Poll)

So we need to decide what kind of sink to put on our wood countertop. We have selected a few that we like and that we think would hold up well to the heft and general design of the counter (see photos of the work in progress in post below). There will be matching wood slats about two feet below the counter. The bathroom is plumbed to have the faucet be wall mounted. And we like this one or something similar. It also comes in oil rubbed bronze.







We will be doing a vessel type but want a look that we won't tire of over the next few years and that we can easily integrate into the shower and flooring selection in the room which we have yet to choose.

White Rectangle Granite Square

White Oval

Dark Dreams

(tortoise shell-like)

Blue Circles

Blue Squares



Koi

Green Glass

Blue Rectangle

On the poll you may select more than one if you have multiple favorites - we do.

All of these sinks come from Ovestock.com where there are hundreds more equally stunning sinks and faucets in many shapes, materials and colors if you are in the market for a new sink.

Bathroom Countertop and Bench

These are photos of the countertop and bench we have built using left over structural beams. You can follow the process from natural-sanded, to stained without varnish, to the finished product (the bench). Believe it or not, this is your standard fir beam. When it is all finished we think it looks rather exotic.

Windows

They installed the windows today. It must have only taken them a few hours because I went by at 10:40am and they were already done and long gone.

Cupcakes and Tile

Up until now I've been content to browse magazines and library books for design ideas, marking or ripping out a page here and there, sketching ideas, then stuffing it into an ever growing folder of design ideas - some for this house, some for homes to come. But going into a store, putting together concepts and colors - actual commitment - that seems so scary! I guess we've made quite a few decisions thus far - from the big decisions like the floor plans to the small decisions that come up daily - like which lights do you want to switch on at the same time or how do you want this or that window to open? But for some reason tile and countertops scare me to death. They also happen to be the most exciting. A recent (yesterday) trip to a tile showroom doubled as a workout since my heart rate was kept up for so long. (I get the same condition when perusing the high end architecture and design magazines at Barnes & Noble) First of all, they immediately put on a movie for my kids and gave them candy. On the other side of the room they had a plate of chocolate cupcakes with a sign that said - help yourself - don't mind if I do. Then Ben and I were able to roam the displays of tile at will (I know why they didn't want kids accompanying the parents, they barely wanted us to touch the samples on exhibit). In the floor and on the walls they had examples of how their tiles could be used - fabulously at that. I fell for a particular tile. A grayscale paisley that would be super cute in the kids bathroom. Unfortunately it was $53.20 PER TILE. A 4 x 6" tile at that. I could maybe afford one.

Unfortunately the tile selection turned out to be the least of our coveting/champagne-taste-on-a-beer-budget issue. Next we went to the stone warehouse. There I fell for the quartz, then the granite, then the basalt, then the limestone... Natures artwork, quarried and polished by man.

We left, awestruck, with samples in hand so that we could go home and try to figure out how we could work some of this fabulousness into our budget. Who knew tile shopping could be so much fun?

Some of my favorite tile stores that I can't afford but love to look at and you might like to look at too:

http://www.annsacks.com/home.html-

http://www.pentalonline.com/

http://www.redrocktileworks.com/images/prelude%20collection/texTILE%20Catalog.pdf

Nailing Patterns & Certified Mail

So our windows and siding are supposed to be going on tomorrow but there is an inspection hold up. Something about the nailing pattern used as well as a missing beam? Whatever the problem is exactly, the inspector won't let the framing be covered up by siding until the issue is resolved with the approval of an engineer. The engineering company that we used had to downsize and they now only employ one engineer. And he is on vacation.

Meanwhile I keep getting certified mail deliveries from law firms, which after the threat of a lien makes my skin crawl everytime. They all say somewhere near the top that THIS IS NOT A LIEN and then proceed in legalese to sound like legal action is being taken but what they really are is due warning that the company who is hired to perform service for us has the right to put a lien on our house should we fail to pay. I don't know if this is business as usual for building a house or if word got out that we might not be good to pay.

Lighting Upgrades

We made some lighting upgrades today. Being that the Northwest is not known for it's sunshine and abundance of natural light we wanted to make sure we had ample wattage and then some. In the kids room for instance we oringinally had planned to have one light in the center - be it a ceiling fan/light combo or whatever. We upped it to be four cans and wired the center but put a cap on it in case we wanted to add a center fixture at a later time. In our bedroom we also added cans - which instead of the $35 per can that the normal ones cost us - it is $95 each because the ceiling is slanted. We also added a few more on our back porch and a couple in the dining room. Let there be light!

Does anyone else hate this bathtub? (Poll)

Originally this bathroom was supposed to have one of those drop in fiberglass faux tile shower/tub combo deals. I was looking forward to not having grout or caulking to have to clean. It turns out we have a window in the way and so that decision had to be changed. Imagine my surprise when I come to the house and discover this tub upstairs in the kids bath. I did not choose this tub and I dislike it very much. I don't want to be a jerk about it but the wave design on the side doesn't really go with...well anything.

The only pro is that the tub is huge. But I'm confident that I can find a decent tub with less decor on the side for a reasonable price. Unless this one was free I don't really want to look at it for the next few years.

Am I being unreasonable? Does anyone like the looks of the tub? I'll put up a poll.

Range Hood

This beauty arrived today.

36" Spagna Vetro (also marketed as Cavaliere and another brand) Glass Canopy Range Hood.

$469.95

Security vs. Insulation

After much research we found that insulating the inner walls and second floor wasn't going to do much in the way of sound proofing or energy efficiency so we spent that $1000 on a security system instead.

After having been broken into once (while at home) it was an easy choice. I don't mind the sounds of a lively home flowing through the walls as long as we are all safe and sound.

If I were a builder...

I would give my clients a calendar or list of when certain decisions have to be made. It doesn't have to be accurate, just projected. I know why they don't they don't want to be held to anything and I love our contractor but it would save him some exasperation when he calls for info at 7:30 in the morning and I have NO CLUE.



For instance. Last week the electricians needed the schematic for our oven so they could see where to place the plugs and such. Luckily we have chosen our oven. But we don't have possession of it and I certainly don't have any installation documentation for it. I had to scramble and search online to find a installation PDF matching the model number we purchased. Had I known ahead of time I would have called the appliance store and hadthem fax it to us. Crisis averted. Also in that phone call I was asked about our range hood and the size of it's pipe. Well, guess what, we've looked at some but haven't picked one out yet. So we had to scramble and buy a hood. Appliances go in the very last so I thought we would have time to shop around before we had to make decisions. I love the shopping around, researching etc. I hate the decision making part. It's so final. Luckily Ben loves that part. He loves to take my findings into account, pick something and say, definitively, "done".



The whole door thing through me for a loop too. It's a door, how many sizes can there be (turns out there are two or three standard sizes, and when you add sidelights, windows or multiple doors, not to mention custom sizes - the options are unlimited). Also plumbing fixtures have to be selected before they do the rough-in plumbing, which I think is a ploy by the plumbers to get you to have to buy the fixtures and have the finish work through them, but I thought I had at least another month before I even had to look at plumbing fixtures. Instead we had to go to the plumbers plumbing supply showroom and after being dazzled by all the shiny objects we walked out of there over budget. Had I been able to complete this process from the comfort of my own computer and been able to read reviews, cross-check prices etc. That would never have happened.



So back to the problem at hand and my solution to solve it. I've never built a house before. I don't know in what order things need to be decided and provided. But my builder has (and I've heard this has been the case for other people who have built) and I would appreciate a little warning on what is to come and what to spend or not spend my time on.

Draw Funds

Draw Funds finally posted today. $67,543.67
We're rich!

Oh wait... we owe how much.... $67,543...

Under Budget

As of right now we are about $11,000 under budget. Thanks to diligence on our part and Bob's we were able to get competing bids that drove our costs down. And we still ended up using the guys our builder has worked with before and likes their work.

While this is great news. $11,000 can be spent very quickly in the finishing aspects that we have coming up - tile, carpet, lighting, appliances etc. In fact, I just spent it in my mind just now.

Lien on me.

This could be a very long entry, but I'm drained from dealing with the problem at hand so I"ll keep it brief.

This morning I got a call from Ben who got a call from our builder who got a call from the framers...they want their money. And if they don't get their money TODAY, they will put a lien on the house.

Why haven't they been paid? Well first of all, they just barely finished framing yesterday but that's beside the point. We wrote checks out for everyone over a week ago (1/6). They just couldn't be released because our draw funds hadn't come in yet. But everyone was supposed to have a check in hand for work completed on Jan 10. Our draw sheet was submitted on Jan 7. , the bank inspected the work done the next day and in many situations the funds would have been wired the next day. Well our bank (Chase) takes 4-5 business days to process the draw. That's also fine, as long as we are working with these lead times in mind. From now on we will be. The problem is we are now on business day number 7. The problem? An inept account manager. Harsh, but I don't know what else to call someone whose primary role is to be an interface/client relationship manager between us and the bank and make sure we can get our funds when needed. She doesn't return phone calls or emails and if you do get through to her she doesn't give you any real information she just says 4-5 business days...

So we had to call our loan officer who helped us get into the construction loan. He was on VACATION skiiing AND it's not his job to manage our loan. But guess what, he took the time to help us figure out what the hold up was. Peter McNally knows customer service.

So back to noodlehead client relationship manager. What she had not told us was that we had been credited $2,000 too much at closing and they wouldn't release the funds until they got it back. They had 6 weeks to figure this out between closing and now and it's like someone hadn't even opened our file to see if we were ready to roll.

What she had told us we were missing: 1) A building permit. Wrong. We submitted it to Chase before we closed. 2) Cancelled checks for the pre-paids we got credited for at closing. Wrong. Also submitted before closing. 3) Proper building insurance. Wrong. Again, they wouldn't have let us close without it.

Three strikes she's out. We asked to get a new CRM. Peter said he wished that was the first time he had heard that about her. Hundreds of thousands of bright, capable people are out of jobs and this chick still has one? (I don't want her to get fired, I just don't want her touching our account).

So back to the lien. Bob, the builder, fronted $5000 of his own money a few days before to buy us time. Now we had to do the same to protect ourselves from potential legal troubles. We will all get reimbursed when the draw comes through. We are already waiting for a hefty sum we had to spend on the fence and wall we built.

Moral of the story. If you don't have cash reserves of your own or a builder willing to front you cash or someone to borrow money from or you don't mind not paying off a large credit card bill on time then building a house can be financially straining, if not crippling.

Plumbing Started

We have a roof!!!

Please don't fall.

Entry choices

Did you know these aren't referred to as front doors? The proper nomenclature in builder vernacular is "Entry system".

Which would you install? Please vote at poll above.

#1
#2

#3

More pics to come...

The holidays have kept us busy and away from the blog. For all of you who have been refreshing your browser every hour in hopes of catching an updated photo from the build, your wait is almost over. Despite Mother Nature's best efforts at putting a halt on the build all together, our builder and framers have pushed along. The two week framing schedule has now surpassed the one month mark, but alas, the end is near upon us. The framers will be finished on Monday and the roofers will start on Tuesday. The window manufacturer will measure all the windows on Monday also. We hope to be "dried in" in 10 days.

We will post more up-to-date photos soon.

Above is our newly-enlarged deck off the master.

Left is Bob the builder. For scale, the retaining wall is 48" tall.