Final Inspection, Failure #1

Why does underperforming continue in such a blatent fashion even after a meeting last week Thurs. 12/15 during which the issues that Sam saw during his site visit the Tues. before were articulated...the edges of the windows and doors that were supposed to have been flush w/ the door frames, how people normally go around after the framing is up and correct for any dimensional inconsistencies in the lumber so AS TO AVOID problems at drywall of precisely the kind that we are now stuck with.

And GC left w/ the action item that he would go take a look and come up w/ an action plan to resolve the issues. But on Thur. he was not on site. On Fri. I didn't see him there either. Thurs. was the last day the drywall guys were there making corrections to the pieces Andy pointed out. Fri. the drywall head guy tried to collect his final payment. No dice. I am not paying a sub for work the GC failed to supervise and hence was done incorrectly. The sub is under contract w/ Luca not w/ us. At no time did either Andy or I witness GC even looking at the issues Sam discussed w/ him. Nor did we hear of any action plan that would be taken to address the issues.

I am astounded at what I witnessed this morning. I was over there working w/ the gutter guys trying to figure out w/ them the best placing of the downspouts. Then I was working w/ the stucco guy trying to help him understand where pieces of stucco needed touch up. And then discussing his final payment due him. And during this discussion w/ him, the inspector shows up. This is what happened.

1:15 p.m. the inspector showed up but he wouldn't even go upstairs. Construction debris hadn't been cleared from the driveway even though the dumpster had been delivered at 9:00 a.m. on our tab. [most insp. won't get out of their cars when they see this w/ reasoning being that once they clear the house for move-in, it needs to be accessible to emergency services] Inspector did a 5 min. look around which generated a page of action items. Luca didn't greet him and didn't say a word in explanation or defense of any of the items that were raised but acted pseudo invisible hovering behind Andy. He had no paper or pencil w/ which to write any of the things down that the inspector was pointing out. The nail in today's coffin - code knowledge: the stairs that he had built as a temporary measure out the back patio to the slider didn't have a common rise to each stair. What more do we do to help him start doing his job?

All his subs and him are coming to us for $ to pay for things Luca contracted for. Luca is hitting us for funds to pay his crew for things that were in his orignal contract.

It's Raining

And all our drywall is sitting outside under a very flimsy wrap of plastic. I will be stunned if tomorrow any of it is useable. But it's mostly contractor's issue b/c today his foreman, thinking that he'd be such a superstar by saving $250 for one workday, sent the drywall crew home b/f we could stop him <8:00 a.m. b/c his perception was that there wasn't sufficient work for them to be kept busy for the work day....

Unbelieveable. And b/c of this, he had to then go buy paper to cover up the iconene walls to protect them from concrete polishing dust...it would have been far simpler and now, w/ the rain, far less costly to have the crew work-finish the garage walls, the office walls, and the strips that are still unfinished in the greatroom, the librarywalls, and then they could have moved upstairs to finish the roof deck. All of this w/out interfering w/ Andre's work of putting the J-mold where it needs to be b/c the FIRST time they installed it, they installed it WRONG.

If they were so behind w/correction of the original, incorrect J-mold installation, they should have been here on Sat. to keep ahead of the drywall crew but were they? NOoooooo.

I wonder in times like these why we even continue to bother trying to help the GC make money when all his mis-management or more precisely, lack of on site job management, causes him stupid losses...like now having to reimburse a drywall crew for materials left out in the rain...

Kitchen Cabinets Saga

I have NEVER in my whole life been witness to such complete incompetence as I have in observing Home Depot's efforts in screwing up THE SAME kitchen cabinet order FIVE times. The objective was simple:
order wall cabinets, all finished inside, all door cut for glass made from the Eden style door w/ a chocolate cherry finish. All the cabinets were supposed to have frosted glass ordered w/ them. order base cabinets, all plywood construction, all w/ premium glides, from the Monroe style door some of which would be finished in natural cherry, others to be finished in chocolate cherry.

This order was finalized after ONLY 5 trips to the store to meet w/ whom I now know to be more of a contributor to the problem than a solver of the problem. The order was finally placed on Oct. 5, 2005 giving me a delivery date of Nov. 2. The following Sat. I logged on to the Thomasville web site only to find a number of things wrong w/ the order. Two of the wall cabinets that were supposed to have been finished inside, were not. One of them that was supposed to have been cut for glass, was not. A few were missing their glass. One of which that could not have glass attached to it, did and so the order was rejected by Thomasville. Thankfully so. B/c if it hadn't been rejected, there would have been little chance of me finding all the other errors. And so on. When I tried to get in touch w/ the store to correct the problem, I was told that the expeditor was gone for the day, that yes, indeed there was only one person who could help w/ getting this resolved and she wouldn't return until Monday, could I please call back then? Astounding.

Merav, the non astute kitchen designer, said she'd met w/ the Thomasville rep and corrected everything...she wouldn't hear there there were still issues and that her "corrections" were insufficient, and instead said there was nothing more she could do, so I countered w/could I please like to talk to the store manager. Enter John. Clueless idiot. After only 4 phone calls spanning 2 days when it was supposed to happen the same day, he called me back to say that yes, he'd be happy to put the c"orrections" in but that he couldn't garantee that there wouldn't be some error. "There are risks w/ me going ahead w/ this. " "Fine, what are the risks?"
"I don't know." Blown away by this response I said, "Well, if you don't know then I certainly don't know either and unknown is not better than a try so put the order through." "O.K." Duh.

On Mon. I check w/ Thomasville. Still issues. Turns out that now it's worse. In "putting the order through" they canceled out all the prior orders, effectively jeapordizing my original 11/02 delivery date. And the good parts of the order were now still connected w/ a the wall cabinet piece of the order that had new issues. And one of them, that an 18x36 did not have glass attached to it, was so obvious I thought I was going to keel over w/ frustration. So back to Home Depot. This time I talked to someone who talked a good spiel, Pete Moreno. I had hope renewed that this would get resolved. Until I got a message from clueless idiot George who turns out to be the manager of the dept. and verbatim he said, "I just took a look at your order and understand that there is a question about it. I am working on it." No articulation of what HIS understanding of "the question" is, no articulation of what he is doing to solve who knows what problem. Can you even believe it?

So then they repeat THE SAME mistakes. They still do not have glass attached to a cabinet AND they are still trying to order glass for a cabinet that cannot be made for glass. So the order, naturally, gets rejected a third time by Thomasville. Of course, I don't have the priveledge of verifying this round of screw ups until Thur. a WEEK later. I am so livid at this point that I get on the phone w/ Pete Moreno and tell him I am sending him a detailed FAX of instructions received directly from Thomasville and could he please deliver it to one of his staff AND supervise that it be followed EXACTLY. "Sure, no problem. Here's my fax number." Hope springs eternal.

Only to be squashed AGAIN. When I follow up w/ the store the next day, Merav knows nothing about a fax. She has never seen any fax of instruction. The order was canceled again, but she worked w/ the rep and together on Fri. the 14th they resubmitted the order and she's sure it is correct. And so I wait. And on Monday I follow up w/ Thomasville. I am FLOORED by what I find out. In the cancelling and submission of the "new" [read: hopefully corrected] order, they canceled out a portion of the order that SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN TOUCHED.

Where Do We Stand on Windows?

Well, so far all the specs are pretty much decided except the interior finish. I vacillate between a light natural finish, either what's called out in the Norco catalog as "clear lacquer" or "wheat" and some prefinished white. Unfortunately, I may have to make yet another trip to the showroom to decide which white [there are 4; I'm leaning toward "Extra White" or "Pure White"]-which thing I am NOT looking forward to doing principally b/c the rep there is a little too enthusiastic about the product; he gets carried away and then doesn't do well about pausing and staying focused on answering only the question that I'm asking.

And then sometimes he doesn't remember to answer the question that we're asking. For example, so far, I've asked him twice what the uplift would be per window for low2 w/ Ar [an performance option he never even mentioned and didn't until I started asking about it] We met over the phone last Thurs. @ 3:3o and I asked him specifically to include this itemization in his quote and he did not. The software that these guys use [from the quotes, I'm 99% sure they all use the same company provided Jeld-wen software ] doesn't make for including these things as line items very easily. They have to hand write it in. But then our local rep sens us the printouts but he covers up the itemized pricing info. When A. asked him about this, he said he'd be happy to share the itemized pricing w/us when we signed the contract. Unbelieveable.

This past weekend I met Chuck-the regional guy who's our reps boss. He clarified what our rep didn't which is that, contrary to what the Norco catalog advertises, there are no longer 8 standard cladding colors for Norco-there are only 6-and black is no longer an option. LAME! We now have to be satisfied with what the catalog says is "ARCHITECTURAL BRONZE" but what the rep and the quoting system says is "Chestnut Bronze." If you want Black, now you have to upgrade to the Pozzi window line. The other helpful clarification that I got from Chuck that I never got from Dave is that if you do opt for pre-finishing, Jeld-Wen farms this out to an outside contractor-they make the windows up in Bend, OR but then ship them to a company in MN somewhere for the finishing...and NO WAY per Chuck can you get windows in 3 wks. if you order a prefinish on them. The question then for Dave is, is this also true if we order the interiors primed?

So, so far we have:
Premium clad double hung windows
Either primed or prefinished [natural or white] interiors but prefinished may not even be an option now b/c of timing
w/ nailing fin
4 9/16" jamb
low e w/ option for low e w/ Ar
all one lite
Jambliner white
tempered low e where requisite by code
aftermarket hardware
chestnut bronze exterior cladding
chestnut bronze screen [matches whatever chosen cladding color]

The Velux Skylight specs were sent to Sam months ago-I will need to check my email for those specs....here's what it is supposed to do:
· On timer so that they can be programmed to open automatically at a specific time and close again at a specific time
· On a thermostat so they will automatically open once they sense an interior temp of –X degrees.
· Isolative, non-visible glass


Per my construction doc of months ago, the windows were to perform to the following: Solarscreen TM Low e glass, VE 1-85
· VLT 76%
· UV 25%
· R. out 12%
· Winter U = .31
· Summer U = .31
· SC .62
· SHGC .53
· K value 1.7
· One egress compliant window per sleeping room.
· Existing window conflicting w/ stair placement shall be replaced with a new window. Note that all new windows are to have full flashing, no “replacement” windows are to be sued on this project.
· 2nd story windows to tilt in for cleaning.

Still to do:

1. understand why our local rep still has not given us price for lowe Ar
2. insure that quote includes the right model, size, and options for the Velux skylight
3. understand who is bidding mulling [edge joining] certain windows and who is not
4. finalize the schedule going over it w/ Luca-same if necessary

Discovery of Richlite Countertop Material

A rad discovery seen in this past weekend's Breezehouse...it's a not-technically but look and feels like a solid surfacing material made from paperwaste streams...and it's rumoured to have great cantelever and span characteristics but the technical info. on the web is way sketchy...I wrote for samples, pricing, specs, leadtimes...perhaps I can use this for lots more than just countertop material.

The Old Framing-true, square, plumb?

Since the crew seem to be rearing to go to put up the 2nd story framing, I am hoping to secure a time slot w/ Luca this week BEFORE any of that happens to get a tour of the existing framing and how they have succeeded in getting it to be true, square, and plumb....

Nanowall specs

We got confirmed yesterday by the Nanowall representative present at the Sunset Publishing celebration that yes, we would need to settle on specs soon since leadtime is not short. He also eliminated for me something that had been a huge barrier to purchase, namely the presence of what they call a wiggle wall-a small section of wall that is present immediately next to the point of opening, in our case, next to the pocket into which all the panels slide. He confirmed that the wiggle wall would be hidden by the pocket and not visible. How this is, I have no idea; on the website, the graphics show it visible and not contained w/in the pocket.

But the rep. insists that hiding the wiggle wall by the pocket is indeed not just feasible, but the way our wall would work out. He also confirmed that we need to insure that part of the preparation for the concrete floor pour be that a wooden 2x4 type section be prepared w/ the exact dimensions of the track that will be later recessed into this gap...a spec sheet w/ this information can easily be provided by the Nanowall people. Requisite w/ this door but not yet included on their original quote to Andy is their motorized screen that is installed near the ceiling.

Last and perhaps most important, I am NOT convinced that the intended and much communicated [in writing via many emails to the architect] size of this window is 8' tall by 12' wide [4 panels of 3' each]...Why? Because when I measure from the edge of the strongwall that was installed last week over 12', my 12' endpoint is in the middle of a pre-existing window that they have already spent energy placing 2x4 framing in. If it shows on the plan that the door will fill 12' from the strongwall, why did they frame up that portion of the window? The other reason I'm not convinced: the header from the old Al slider is still incorporated in the existing framing under the paralam and it doesn't look like anyone has any intention of moving it anywhere...which may mean someone is thinking that that new door is only 6' high....and not 8'....I'll have to ask Sam.

The Iconene Contract

Yesterday during the Sunset Publishing Celebration in Menlo Park, we got to visit directly w/ vendors that we hope to be using on our project. Calpak, a company that has a bid in for Iconene insulation and the roof, was helpful in educating us re: benefits of iconene. Still unclear for me is the real R value...mostly b/c in all the marketing blurbs they gloss over this trying to move the reader from the R value to how it's measured and why the actual R value isn't so critical as the factoring components...which, for me, just gets me wondering MORE why they don't just come out and state that the R value is less than other, cheaper, materials. We need to insure that contracturally, the following are reflected in any contract we sign with them, namely:
that there will not be any $ provided at the time of contract signing and if this cannot be possible, that the $ deposit be instead funded to some account to which access is not granted until close to the time of work commencement.

1. that all parties are aware that the iconene application will be phased into 2 parts, the subfloor and "mini"-subfloor as phase 1 and the walls and roof as phase 2.
2. Regarding phase 1, the access to the subfloor is limited in some areas. It may be beneficial to all involved to have the existing holes to different portions of the crawl space still open for access during the spray. Templates of these areas could be built before hand or immediately after access to that particular section is no longer needed.
3. After finishing the section, these "pre-fabbed" mini-sections of new mini-subfloor can then be laid into place right after the applicator comes up from the hole. Then w/ all the holes closed, the "mini"-subfloor that is going to be built on top of the existing subfloor can then be filled w/ iconene in the same visit.
4. b/c, per code, we have to maintain a minimum distance of 18" above grade to the bottom of the floor joists in the crawl space [a distance that currently looks to be borderline less than that in some places], it is imperative that the contract state that care be taken such that the amount of iconene sprayed in the crawl space will be limited such that the subsequent expansion will not extend to below the level of the floor joists and wherever it does, it will be removed from the floor joists AND the crawl space cavity.

It is also important that the contract state that since we are not yet settled on the exact type of composite shingle that we will be choosing that this can be decided at a later date.

This is the interior from a few days ago b/f the roof joists came off. 

The Steel Beam

Last week the steel beam went in. It's pretty rad. The evening after it was set and welded, I went in to check on the days work and felt bravado. I gazed up at that high ceiling for a long long time. When I inspected the welds, it became obvious that they had to have made a decision at some point in the setting of the beam b/c on the kitchen side, the beam is perfectly square to the plate to which it is welded. But on the outside living room wall, the plate is offset to the beam by about almost 1/2". I will have to ask what the decision tree was that yielded this result.

Last Tues. 05.17.05, Andy went over to check out and turn on the irrigation clock-the power to which had initially been indescriminately cut when the electrician had come out on Thurs. 04.28.05 to cut the power to the house and install it to a makeshift power pole. When Andy turned the clock on, he found at least one very obvious fountain near the edge of the driveway. On day 1 of the job, 04.25.05, when the boys drove in the stakes to string the plant protective orange PVC type fencing, they didn't bother to check whether they would be disturbing any irrigation tubing. Andy felt his way along the tubing in the dark, and then using a flashlight, he cut out the damaged piece of the most obvious fountain, and rejoined the tubing. We'll have to be a little more aware w/ the crew about the potential consequences of their actions.

Yesterday Luca came to me with a bit of a sheepish look on his face. "Catherine, we have a bit of a small problem." After which he admitted to forgetting to add in the thickness of the steel plate into his calculation of the height at which the steel beam would sit; which height, at the end of the day, is our finished floor to ceiling height. He very meticulously wrote me out a diagram on the beam, explaining that he had done all the calcuations over and over again in his head, and that had he thought of the thickness of the plate before the concrete pour, he could have raised up the beam 1/2" to accomodate for the thickness of the plate. To compensate, he suggested shimming the whole drywall ceiling down. Not an option.

He then admitted to what I'd discovered in a seperate conversation w/ our surveyor-that he'd asked the suveyor to mark our BFE [base flood elevation] at not 8' per requirement, but at 8'1/2 " so that he has a 1/2" margin for error. He then presented the option of using this 1/2" to compensate for his calcuation mistake but w/ understandable hesitation since if he uses up his margin of error here and later on it's found that on any tiny segment of the floor, the BFE is <8', the project is red-flagged and the whole floor has to be redone.

Trying to take this in stride but completely thrown that one of my two requirements driving the whole remodel project was about to be blown to bits on wk. 3 of the project, I explained that this requirement had been a request to Sam our architect project manager, from Day 1. And many times throughout the design process, different issues, esp. the structural issues towards the end of the design, would attack the 9' finished floor to ceiling height...I explained that letting this become 8'11.5" was NOT an option for me and that I would go away and try to figure out what to do w/ this issue.

I really like Luca's honesty in acknowldgeing his mistake and presenting potential solutions. If he had tried to cover it up, to dismiss it, or to minimize it's effects, likely I would have had a much different response to this development. Every experience of this type that I have [not the mistakes part-the honesty, integrity, solutions part], I become more and more convinced that we made the best choice in hiring Luca.

Tonight when I was over there inspecting today's work, I decided that b/c there is NO WAY I am willing to float the whole 1st floor ceiling down 1/2" b/c of two small steel plates, regardless of how conspicuous they are; they are right in the middle of the span of the great room and in the center of the house. Instead, and after reaching agreement w/ Andy, we decided to let the drywall float over and be flush w/ the underside of the steel beam as per plan w/ cut outs near the plates, letting the plates then show through. If I'm right about their thickness, the plates should end up almost flush w/ the drywall. If we like the look, we will plan on having the mistake become a design element, letting it be a constant reminder of the integrity of the material and a metaphor for unforeseen consequences of decisions. If we don't like the look, we will epoxy prime coat them and then cover them w/ a thin veneer of plaster to match the walls and ceiling.

Luca and his team are doing an incredible job of working fast, working safe, and keeping my plants relatively unscathed. Yesterday when I went over to spray down the plants on the east side from all the construction dust, I checked out much of the plant material and patio protection. The cherry tree next to the house has only 2 broken branches. Most of the other plant material looks great. The patio's are still pretty much protected though the ply they're using to protect with is getting some serious use. I checked the hole I'd asked Luca to clean the insulation & building debris from b/f backfilling the hole and it looks like they did get it pretty clean [or they just covered it up?]. I am watching the interminably slow ripening process of the 12 or so cherry's my tree produced this year-it really outdid itself...this is the first year I've had such a bumper crop. :)

Because of the rain during most of the morning today, much of it managed to get under the tarp and b/c they had to have the tarp removed from the areas in which they were working b/c most all of the subfloor was wet. They were supposed to have kept all portions of the house bone dry.

We'll need to check out the subfloor again b/f they begin building the mini-subfloor on top of it.Today Andy told me about how Luca, w/ his "play" in where he can set the library room shear wall, had placed this wall over just sufficiently to give us exactly 10' of interior wall space on the outside wall. Frustrated that I'd missed that in the notes of last wks meeting, I asked if anyone had considered what effect this would have on the placement of the stairs. The stairs turn at the landing and the last two come down right at the front entry way; with the minimum stair tread width is determined by code, it may be that every inch Luca moved the wall would then result in an intrusion by that same amount into the entry space. The last thing you want when you walk into a 2M home is to turn to enter the main living space, and trip over the stairs that are jutting out into the walkspace. The discussion of this is on tomorrow's meeting agenda. Leasons learned: Do not read meeting notes at 10 p.m. after a very long day. For Andy and Luca, do not make any structural changes from plan w/out letting me know. I have spent almost a year considering every aspect of the interior space and how it works together. Every inch is accounted for. Changing things an inch here or an inch there is NOT an option.

Today they raised two of the beams that go on the outside walls. At two points during the afternoon, I heard a ton of hooting and hollaring; a chorus of mens voices filled w/ directives and bravado. Wondering what all the commotion was about, I peered out my window to see them trying to hoist and place these INCREDIBLY heavy beams.Tonight Andy took a bunch of pix of how they are currently resting-much of which looks pretty precarious and not the least bit structurally sound. Hopefully much of that will be clarified in tomorrow morning's early meeting w/ Luca.

Here's the steel beam. It's welded to a 1/2" thick steel plate, which is welded to the steel column. 

The Secret to the Hardwood Floor Demolition

About week 2, I was wandering around the site in the gorgeous CA evening light, and I noticed very slight saw marks in several portions of the subfloor. Putting some rebar next to them so they would be obvious in a photo, I photographed these and will post them to the site later. Why? Because on day 2 of the j0b, foreman A. told me that he couldn't easily save the sidenailed hardwood b/c of the difficulty of it's removal. But in the photographs of that day, there are several large pieces, none of which showed up in the "saved" pile of the hardwood. And when I saw those residual parallel saw marks, obviously an overcalculation of the blade height of a saw, and b/c the marks track perpendicularly to the direction the flooring had been laid, it occurred to me that w/ Luca not onsite that day to supervise, the marks may very likely be a result of cutting across the hardwood to faciliate it's removal. If so, why didn't A. just tell me?

The Adventure Has Begun

We moved Sat. 4/23 [the amebic mattress photo], said goodbye to the old house, Sun. 4/24 [the family portrait in the empty LR] and by Monday night 4/25 [& 4 dumpsters later] the old house was stud walls and plaster dust. Gratefully and most surprisingly, we had only 1 2x4 that showed any termite activity [and this piece was completely disintegrated], and only about 6 boards in one corner of the house that showed any dryrot. Incredible that the structure of this 50 yr house is so sound. The old lumber is beautiful. Unfortunately, the hardwood underneath the carpet was also beautiful [had I known, I'd have ripped out those carpets 5 yrs ago] but sidenailed every 18" w/ 4" nails so trying to save it when ripping it out was impossible for the long pieces and difficult for the short pieces. [Yes, we had to pull this floor b/c flood plain regulations prevent any untreated wood beneath the base flood elevation...our finished floor will be concrete...]

This wk. they cut the holes in the subfloor, dug out clay to place forms for foundation footings and reinforcements. The Romanian crew diligently show up frm 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. M-F [one set of 2 leave at 4p.m.], have worked the past 2 Sat. but per our agreement and theirs, reserve Sun. for church. We're supposed to be back in by end Oct.