Progress report -- Week 2

Progress completed this week:

--Portions of concrete floor in existing garage removed in preparation for footers and installation of floor
--Excavation for footers completed for addition area (i.e., adjoining area outside existing garage)
--Excavation begun for detached garage but not completed (see "obstacles")
--Landscaping removed and gravel put down in area for dumpster (which will later be paved over to provide backing-out space when we exit the new garage)
--Rebar put in footer area in addition space to prepare for concrete pouring.
--Sump pump for addition installed
--Cable company replaced TV/internet cable with one that has lots of extra line so we can route it around new garage
--New refrigerator brought in for crew. Morale restored.
--Negotiations begun with neighbor regarding relocating fence. (How's THAT for a positive spin? See "obstacles")


Obstacles encountered this week:

--Dump truck too big; we got a smaller one.
--Job foreman no longer on job. Wagner described it delicately as a "personality conflict" when I asked about it. He is currently looking for a new foreman and in the meantime doing all supervision himself. This is okay because right now our house is the only job he's got active. But in November he starts another job for the VA, so we need to get another foreman before then.
--Because of Hurricane Ike, Kentucky Utilities (the electric company) is busy restoring power to the homes that (still!) don't have power, so they can't come out and mark the power line for us. This means we can't excavate everywhere we need for the detached garage portion of the job.
--This means we can't get the building inspector to approve the footers of that section of the job, which will delay us a couple of days.
--Any way you cut it, the prospect of having to initiate legal action in the second week of a home renovation is Not A Good Omen (re: our discovery that our neighbor's shed sits on our property but he refuses to move it; see the "good fences" and "bad fences" blog entries for detail).

Summary: All in all, I feel like a lot was accomplished this week. Wagner is not as happy and said "home construction operates on a different time scale than commercial construction." But we don't have control over delays like those caused by hurricanes, and if I start getting stressed out over things like that, it's going to be a LONG six (or eight... or ten...) months.