Change of Plans?

This is the color scheme that we wanted, but when we got back from Texas, the stucco was pink. The stucco guy said that the pink would go away as the stucco dried, but it hasn't.
This is what the light green would look like with the "pink". Yuck!
Red would look good, but red is one of the worst exterior colors so would probably cost a lot more up front and would need to be painted more often.
This dark green looks ok, if we are stuck with the pink stucco.

Merry Christmas!

Windows are in, tar paper is on, and the house leaks like a sieve! But hey, it's progress. Rudy (sub of a sub of a sub) did a great job on the roof framing but David had to hound him to get everything done right. And at the end of the job, Rudy tried to get us to pay more - like there's one price to do the job, another to do it right.





Here's a picture of the back windows being lifted for installation.


And the Coast Guard finally made it to our bayou to clean it up. They are taking out all of the dead trees along the banks and any debris left in the water (like the 2 boats and a refrigerator in the canal). They didn't get too far before they were done for the day, so they will have to come back up after Christmas.

It looks like a house!

Progress & The Coast's Most Wanted Criminals

A sub of the sub of our contractor built the cinderblock walls for the front and back porches. We were impressed when the crew leader came out and made them tear down a wall and rebuild it. We didn't even know what the problem was, but were thrilled to have something substandard get fixed without us having to point it out. Then the next day, the crew left just before lunch with the job finished - if you didn't mind that the wall wasn't straight or level. It was another 4 or 5 days before the crew leader came back out, agreed that the wall was garbage, and had the top two rows of blocks fixed. You can see the repaired wall in the picture. Two steps forward, one step back. Then there was a rush to get the dirt inside the walls and compacted so that the other crew could pour concrete. Which never happened (it did rain a little the day they were supposed to pour). So now the lack of poured porches is starting to delay the deck and stair construction. Maybe tomorrow...Eduardo and crew started framing last week. Because they couldn't work on the decks, David had to scramble to finalize details and materials for the interior walls. The crew worked on Thanksgiving, which worked out ok since Thanksgiving at Diane's wasn't until late afternoon.
Lastly, Michael Patrick Serge (the old contractor) is one of the Gulf Coast's 12 most wanted criminals!

Update

It took a while to get the new contractor going - we didn't have a firm price from Baylee, and meanwhile other crews were stopping by giving us prices. We finally decided to stick with Dwain from Baylee (who did the last concrete pour) and things moved quickly. Too quickly. The last 10 days have been extremely hectic.

Eduardo and crew came out on Thursday to set the flooring. David stayed with them until the first sheet was glued and screwed, then went back to work. When he checked on the crew a couple of hours later, all the sheets were in, with the first sheet "Norboard" side up, and the remaining 64 sheets with "this side down" on top. (It was also in spanish, but to be fair, it was really difficult to read.)

The concrete pour was set for Tuesday, but luckily no concrete was available until Thursday (they would never have made it for Tuesday). The crew built bucks for the windows and doors on Friday and Saturday. (The bucks are the wood frames around the windows and doors that are attached to the foam ICF blocks.) The ICF walls were set Saturday and Sunday, and the rebar stirrups and brackets were set Monday and Wednesday. Or was it Tuesday and Thursday? Anyways, Thursday was rainy, so the pour ended up being rescheduled for Saturday.

And while the blocks were being set, another crew was setting the forms for the columns. You can see the rebar for the columns in the picture above. There were lots of problems with the columns - one of the workers hurt his arm, and they didn't always show up when they were supposed to. So it was a rush to get the columns set correctly, plumb, and level for the concrete pour. Not sure that they were ever completely fixed, but they are what they are.


Dwain would often show up on the job with a badge from the Lutheran charities Katrina volunteer organizations. Sometimes he would bring the permanent volunteers with him to show them an ICF house. We teased him about when the volunteers would be showing up to work - next thing we knew, there were 15 kids mostly from Illinois, with some from Minnesota, the Bronx, and Texas, at our house ready to work. Apparently they had run out of work at the other jobs, so they stayed busy cleaning up around the new house (including busting up some concrete slop from previous pours) and working on the jungle gym for the girls. They were a great bunch of kids.
There won't be any more work done on the house for a couple of weeks, so I won't be posting for a while, unless I just decide to bore you with SBA versus Bank loan problems, or dealing with the geniuses at the code office to get them to write a letter to say that we can't repair the old (now non-existent) house. Without the letter, we can't get our $30K from flood insurance to build higher. Nothing is easy!

Not much progress

The trusses are up, and thanks to David's supervision, are mostly level. Other than that, no progress. Hopefully things will start moving this week.

We've given up on Juan's crew setting the forms for the pilings, so David is making the forms himself. The $350 of trusses that we were scrapping because of rot/termites work perfect as one side of the square forms, so that saved him a little work.

Pat skipped town

That's what the note on the yellow paper said. Pat left a lot of houses incomplete, and a lot of outstanding bills. I'm guessing 14 houses with an average of $40K owed - that adds up to a lot of money. The business card is the lawyer that is handling his bankruptcy, but rumor has it that Pat can't file bankruptcy because not enough time has passed since the last time he filed.

Concrete pour went well

Or at least as well as can be expected. There were problems at the corners - the walls started bulging. Most were corrected before they became a problem, but the one in the picture had a blow-out (the foam broke and concrete poured out). In the picture, Joe is cutting loose the broken foam so that the rest of the adjacent blocks can be patched smooth.

We owe Joe a lot - he is the one who made the last contractor pay him back for using our blocks.

The new contractor worked out well - we are meeting with him on Friday to work out details for going forward.

Concrete Pour Tomorrow!

The concrete pour was supposed to be last Tuesday, then Thursday, then next Wednesday. Poor Juan is swamped with working 4 jobs and is trying as hard as he can to get to our project, yada, yada, yada. In reality, Juan has the people to work our job, he is refusing to until he gets paid the $15K that Central owes him. When Pat (Central's owner) told me that he would have his own crew out to set the pilings if Juan couldn't get out here by Monday, I realized that Juan is not going to get paid anytime soon.

We have paid Pat for this concrete pour, but with three delays already, lots of lies, and a hurricane heading into the Gulf, I decided that it was time to move on. So we have a new contractor to pour the concrete Saturday morning. Having them come out on short notice, on a job that they've never worked, means that we are paying a premium ($1K). That plus the $800 pump truck means that we're paying close to $2K for work that Pat owes us. But at least we will be moving forward again. If we decide to stick with this new contractor, it will be a cost + 15% contract and I am hoping that the rest of the work will cost less than what we would have owed Pat to finish.

I tried calling Pat yesterday, but nobody answered the phone, as usual. So I sent him a nice e-mail telling him that we were canceling the contract. I'm not sure if we will hear from him again. He might send us a bill trying to get more money out of us, or he might tell us we can't break the contract, or he might say thanks and good luck with the rest of the project. My guess is that one of his crew will show up early one morning to pick up their ladder and that will be the last we hear from them. Hopefully they'll pay some of their bills - I have two subs to check still, but I do know that Pat owes $6.5K of concrete and $1.5K of pump trucks on our project alone. My guess is that he will be filing for bankruptcy sometime in the next couple of months. I just hope that his bond covers our accounts.

Of contractors and openings

David's put a new opening into one of the back walls - just in case anyone else questions our "enclosure".

We are still having contractor problems. Central has been storing our ICF blocks - we checked last week to make sure that they still had them. Turns out that they used our blocks on another project, but Joe, the ICF supplier, realized this and so made Central pay him for our blocks before he would sell them any more blocks. So now Joe has our blocks. Thank goodness that Joe was looking out for us or we would have been in a world of hurt.

Central still owes us a concrete pour (not to mention that they still need to pay $8.5K worth of bills on our job). One of Central's subs, Juan, was supposed to set the forms for our pilings this weekend but never showed. David had Juan's number so gave him a call - surprise, surprise - Central owes Juan money so Juan isn't doing any work for them until he gets paid.

We are going to let Central pour the walls, hopefully sometime this week, and then we will break the contract. We will probably use Juan to finish the job, although Juan doesn't want to take the job until Central pays him - he's worried that he won't get paid if Central finds out that he's taking over. Hopefully he'll get paid this week.

Using Juan will bring its own set of problems - Juan has 200 people working for him, and they've always done great work on our project. But there aren't a lot of english speaking workers in his crews.

Twilight Zone

Our lawyer presented our case, then it was the brick wall Code Enforcer's turn... "I recommend that the Board allow the Carter's to continue..." And then I woke up. No, seriously, that's sorta how it played out. 35 minutes of discussions, but bottom line is that we can go on. I guess that when the Board got the petition from the lawyer, they did some investigating and realized that their code was written wrong. So they are going to fix it - but instead of fixing it to the way FEMA intended, they are taking out the term "fully enclosed" and are just leaving the word "enclosed". They will leave the limit under the either/or clause, so I guess they'll fix that the next time someone threatens to sue.

Bottom line, the brick wall came across as reasonable and knowledgeable and kept his prestige, and we get to move forward. And the lawyer was extremely generous in his fees, so we got off lightly there.

For now, we'll keep with Central Development - but won't be paying them a dime until the financial aspects of our project are taken care of.

What a difference a day makes. Maybe I'll actually sleep tonight!

Good thing we have a lawyer

I didn't get yesterday's mail until this afternoon. I was surprised to find a certified letter from a lawyer (not mine) in the box. Of the three concrete pours, we paid Central for the concrete for two and paid the concrete yard directly for the third. Turns out that Central never remitted for the two pours - they owe $6,452. The concrete yard's lawyer has instructed us to make no further payments to Central until they have paid their bill in full, or we may be liable for the entire amount due.

Good news is that they are not asking us for the money. Bad news is that they are not asking us for the money "yet".

So now we have the added complications of having a contractor who has not paid his subs in full, and we have to find a new contractor.

At this point, I am hoping that we lose in front of the Board tomorrow - if we go to court, we can sue for damages. Otherwise, I have a feeling that the money situation is not going to be good.

On a sad note, we said goodbye to our sweet Tigger on Monday. At 15, she had lost all hearing, most of her sight, and over the previous week had lost so much strength that she couldn't walk.

Kicked out...

After all of the "Richard is so nice...", "Richard is the god of flood ordinances", and so on, I think that our lawyer figured that we didn't have a chance to convince the board of supervisors that Richard might be wrong. And I think that he thought that any reasonable person would be able to work with us to find a good solution. So the lawyer had high hopes of a good outcome from this morning's meeting.

My goal was to give Richard the opportunity to review the documents that show that we exceed the requirements he said we are in violation of. That way, when we went before the supervisors, he wouldn't be able to say that he had never seen the documents.

Wanna guess how the meeting went? David and I weren't the least surprised when, after reading the new documents, Richard stated, "I don't care what this document says. I have to follow what's written in the Harrison County Flood Plain Ordinance". And once the lawyer pointed out that we met the ordinance, on the basis of having a PE stamped drawing (either have a stamped drawing or meet these other requirements), Richard was out of sound arguments. So he resorted to "I told you the citation" and started yelling about how we (David and I) were granted a permit based on a house raised on pilings and that we were building to unapproved drawings. The lawyer pointed out that we had submitted the revised drawings but that the code office had failed to review them. Things went downhill fast - the lawyer got frustrated, Richard got defensive, and ultimately we were kicked out.

So, another $10K in lawyer fees for the couple of weeks, and we will go before the Board of Supervisors on August 6th.

Lawyer

Here's an exerpt from an e-mail the lawyer sent me today:

Erica,
We have been pulling every document that potentially applies. Also, made numerous attempts yesterday to get us before the Board ASAP, however, the earliest is Aug 6th. (BTW, in talking with secretaries for Benefield, Ladner and someone else, they all thought Richard Herrin was "so nice," the "one we all rely on for the Code," and similar remarks.) Ladner's secretary told me, in so many words, that if Richard Herrin said it then Ladner believed it.

Ladner is the supervisor for our district. He refused to meet with us, saying that Herrin is the expert and he only cared about Herrin's opinion. I said that our next step would be to bring it in front of the Board of Supervisors, to which he replied that there's no telling what the other supervisors might rule. i.e., don't count on his support, regardless of our arguments.

Next steps - we get an opinion regarding our "enclosure" from the surveyor and we meet, yet again, with Richard Herrin. Either Richard will say "wow, I had never seen that document from FEMA that clearly shows that your foundation is not an enclosure", or the lawyer will be correct and Richard will say "I don't care what your piece of paper says, your foundation is illegal." After that, we go in front of the Board of Supervisors. And then on to court. If it goes to court, the lawyer will be suing for damages - that's how ridiculous he thinks the code office is being and board of supervisors might be.

So, either we go to the meeting and Richard is "nice" and reasonable, and the lawyer fees were a big waste of money, or we go in front of the Board of Supervisors, who are reasonable and who realize that their "highly trained expert" isn't so smart after all, or we go to court and the lawyer earns his fees.

In the meantime, we have hit the jackpot - we were randomly selected to receive a Katrina cottage. Not sure what we would do with that. We haven't decided for sure, but will probably decline it. But if our building is stopped for another couple of months, we might need the cottage. We would have it for 2 years and then would have the option of buying it.

Quick Update

The meeting went terribly. We were wrong, code guy was right. He did not listen to a word we said.

After the meeting, we called our supervisor. He wasn't interested in anything we said - the code guy is a god. If the code guy says we're wrong, then we must be wrong.

Our new lawyer was very nice and thinks we have a great case. Amazing how nice and agreeable people are when you are paying them a lot of money!

And we were doing some more research tonight and came across a section in the flood insurance pages that say that 50% open walls do not form enclosures. This was in the same document that the code guy says we violate. So now we have a slam dunk case, assuming that we can get anyone to listen to us. That's where the lawyer gets to earn his fees.

Typical Day

We wake up optimistic, full of ideas on how to keep the majority of our foundation intact. We are sure that the Building Code Administrator will see reason if we point out this or that. As the day progresses, we start to doubt that things can be resolved. The Administrator won't be reasonable - he's got the same issue with a casino. If he gives us any leeway, he might lose his fight with the casino. By the end of the day, we are completely depressed.

So it's the middle of the day as I'm writing this. David and I have been arguing this for over a week now - one or the other of us playing the role of the intractable administrator. Common sense is not going to prevail, so we are taking a legal approach (without a lawyer, for now). Our arguments hinge on the definitions of two terms: "fully enclosed" and "either/or". Since "fully enclosed" is not specifically defined, we fall into "shall be interpreted so as to give them the meaning they have in common usage and to give this ordinance its most reasonable application." We have three possible definitions:

Our first definition is the common usage argument - all enclosures that you see on the coast and all the pictures of enclosures in FEMA documents show solid walls with small vents. We are nowhere near this. Also, if we were to list our house for sale, saying "2000 square feet of enclosed area below the house", this would imply that the space was secure and protected from weather, neither of which is the case. Our foundation complies with this definition.

The second definition is that enclosures are surrounded on all sides by walls. Fully enclosed, by definition, means that all sides must have walls. So we take out one wall and replace with columns. Now we have no enclosures.

The third definition has to do with how much of the area is enclosed. If it is the whole area, it is fully enclosed. If only a portion is enclosed, it is partially enclosed. And then the either/or sentence comes into play - either the enclosure is certified by a professional engineer, or it is less than 300 square feet.

We're still not positive we'll win, of course. We have about a 10% chance of winning against the administrator, and a 75% chance of winning in front of the Board of Supervisors, and a 95% chance of winning in a court. Let's hope the Board sees reason. We don't want this to drag on another 3 years!

It's 1:30 now - the pendulum is swinging and I am starting to get depressed...

Nothing New

We got a copy of the code which says:

"Elevated Buildings New construction or substantial improvements of elevated buildings that include fully enclosed areas formed by foundation and other exterior walls below the base flood elevations shall be designed to preclude finished living space and designed to allow for the entry and exit of floodwaters to automatically equalize hydrostatic flood forces on exterior walls.

a) Designs for complying with this requirement must either be certified by a Mississippi registered professional engineer or architect or meet the following criteria:

(i) Provide a minimum of two openings having a total net area of not less than one square inch for every square foot of enclosed area subject to flooding;
(ii) The bottom of all openings shall be no higher than one foot above foundation interior grade (which must be equal to in elevation or higher than the exterior foundation grade); and,
(iii) Openings may be equipped with screens, louvers, valves or other coverings or devices provided they permit the automatic flow of floodwaters in both directions;
(iv) Limited in use to parking, storage, and building access; and
(v) Limited to less than 300 square feet."

The way I read this is that we can have a fully enclosed foundation as long as we have a PE stamped design that says that floodwaters can enter and exit, and that the foundation cannot be easily converted into living space. If we didn't want to pay a PE, then the county would accept the foundations as long as it met the provisions in (i) through (v).

That being said, the building inspector is not a reasonable person and he has indicated that he will not approve the foundation until we replace all walls with columns. Hopefully the PE can meet with him next week and then we will know for sure. Next step would be to bring it in front of the board of supervisors, and if they waffle about approving us, we will threaten to go to the media. We followed the letter of the law, are trying to build a house that exceeds all requirements, have hired a professional engineer, but because the building code office did not do their job (never reviewing the revised foundation plan), and because they are trying to rewrite the laws after the fact, we will be forced to spend a substantial amount of money to rebuild a weaker/lower house. I think that some members of the board are up for re-election...

In the meantime, it looks like our contractor is close to going belly-up, so by the time we get all this worked out, we might be looking for another contractor. There's $5K worth of trusses sitting in the yard that will probably have to be scrapped by the time we get back to building.

Happy 4th of July to everyone - the next post will probably be in a week, after we talk to the PE.

Our foundation is illegal

I stopped by the code office this morning to see what the resolution was for tying the rebar. Joe Riddle (Nudura) was already there, meeting with them. Turns out that our foundation is illegal. Because we are using ICF "walls" for our columns, the space inside the walls is now considered enclosed. The maximum enclosed area allowed is 300 ft², and ours is 2400 ft². (We had submitted our revised foundation to them, but they had no record of ever receiving it. Typical for this office.)

Any amount of logic was immaterial to the conversation. Hydrostatics versus velocity was irrelevant. To satisfy code, we have to tear down the walls and put columns in - i.e., we need to weaken our foundation. Seeing that it was a losing battle, Joe turned into damage-control mode suggesting meetings to make sure that this isn't a problem for other houses that are being designed on the coast right now. I gritted my teeth and kept from threatening to burn their building down until I got outside.

So, our pour for this afternoon is cancelled. Our worthless engineer is heading out of town on vacation for a week, so Joe is going to set up a meeting between the engineer, code office, and himself for the following week to figure out how elevated ICF houses on the coast should be constructed, hopefully resolving our issue at the same time.

Crunch Time

The pour is scheduled for noon today and the crew showed up at 6 a.m. to finish the bracing, set the brackets for the framing, fix anything that needs to be fixed, and do a general clean-up. The big issue though is that we failed our inspection yesterday. The county says that the vertical rebar in the walls needs to be tied to the verticals coming out of the chain wall. We had the same question earlier in the week, but the contractor and the Joe the Nudura rep all said that they didn't. We went along with their decision, but in the meantime also tripled the number of verticals in the walls (that was Tuesday's crisis - the PE stamped drawings are worthless and had not specified the rebar, and with our large openings, none of the standard design tables are applicable).

Anyways, the building inspectors are meeting this morning to make a decision on tying the rebar. The only way to get to the rebar is to cut holes every 2' in the bottom of the walls, which then need to be patched. All the ICF documentation strongly recommends that the rebar be tied, but does not require it.

It's shaping up to be a long day!

ICF 102

The ICF blocks are like giant legos that have teeth that snap together. The ICF crew took great care to ensure that the teeth and the studs (plastic embedded in the blocks every 8”) would line up correctly. And after that, things have gone downhill fast.

For this pour, the walls will be 7 blocks high (18” * 7 = 10.5’). Here’s how things should have progressed: once the first two levels of are blocks in, they are supposed to make the walls square, level, and plumb. They add shims as needed, and glue everything down (shims and all). Then they make corner braces (out of 2x4’s or 2x6’s) and place these at all the corners, making sure the braces are square, level, and plumb. That way, after the 10.5’ wall is assembled, the bottom and the corners are right. Then they brace the entire walls to be square, level, and plumb before coming off the braces so that the walls are slightly out of plumb (between corners) for the pour. After the concrete is poured, and before it is set, the braces are used to push the walls back plumb. (Strings are run prior to the pour that help with this.)

As far as I can tell, the crew never checked for squareness. The slab is close to square, so hopefully this isn’t a big deal. They have 6 blocks up and no corner bracing. They checked for levelness at about the 3rd block high, but used a defective level, then a good level, but the bottoms of the walls still don’t look right. Shims were not glued. We also had them redo a lot of the rebar work to get the correct laps at splices and to ensure that splices were spaced apart correctly.

The pour is scheduled for Tuesday – it’ll probably be Thursday or Friday. So hopefully we will get Joe out for a pre-pour inspection on Wednesday, after the crew signs off that the walls are done.

Frustration, frustration, frustration

David took a neat picture from the bridge - you can see the old slab on the left side of the picture, and the new slab on the right side. The new slab is almost 5' higher than the old slab, and is significantly larger.

It's been a long month with no progress. And now that they are working, things are crazy again. Sorry for the lack of updates. Here's what's been going on this last week:







Here's the cast of characters:

Erica: me
David: my husband
CDG: Central Development Group, our contractor
Pat: The owner of CDG
Chris: The latest guy that was assigned to manage our project
Roy: CDG's sub-contracts administrator - he's ok, he fishes
Joe: the local Nudura sales-rep, who we bought our blocks from
Lintel: Opening (new word for me)
Kiercey the dog: "It's hot out here"

As expected, they started back on our house on Friday (only a day late). Chris told the guys that the plans and the Nudura blocks were at the job site. We have given every plan we have to CDG, and they have all of our blocks. Disorganization seems to be the rule. We were not at all confident that CDG has thought out the details of the next pour so Joe met me at the house to go over the engineer's drawing and to talk concrete. I won't bore you with pancake batter concrete versus brownie mix that needs more oil concrete, and the differences in vibration and pour depths based on the concrete consistency. I certainly didn't get it all. While here, Joe looked over what the block guys were doing and showed them how to do the corner detail correctly. The way they had it would have blown out. Later that afternoon Chris showed up - not sure what he did. I'm not even sure if he got out of his truck.

Over the weekend, Joe showed us another Nudura house that has the rebar and stirrups set above the lintels. Our frustration is that we are stuck doing all the QC (Quality Control) on our project and we don't know enough about concrete, rebar details, or framing around the lintels to be comfortable with this. Talking with Joe was a big help, plus he promised to visit our job site frequently to make sure everything is being done right.

Roy has stopped by several times in the last two days and has essentially taken over managing the project. He has also been consulting with Joe. Chris has been next-to-useless. In between talking fishing, David and Roy talked about brackets, concrete, and placing the joists before the concrete is poured. They decided that placing the joists before-hand was one of Pat's hair-brained ideas. I guess he must have gone back to the office and told Pat that we weren't going to set the joists because Pat showed up to talk to David about it. He's supposed to come back again tomorrow. We'll see. Honestly, I don't care how they do it as long as it's done right, but I can't tell that they've thought through all the details. In fact, we still don't know what brackets to use for some of the walls, and the brackets we think they should use might take special ordering. Funny, I thought that hiring an engineering and using an experienced ICF crew would have made the job go smoother.

Then there's the Grade 40 rebar that I bought versus the Grade 60 that the engineer drawings specify. For the most part we're just as strong since we are using a larger rebar. And I double checked the sizing requirements and determined that we are ok.

Still trying to order doors. Our back doors will cost more than our front door! But I have decided on a door and a brand (Neuma) and am just waiting (still) on the quotes. Well, waiting for one more quote. I've given up on the idiot I ordered windows from. She's had 2 months to get me a quote. I have no idea how they stay in business. Joe sells Neuma's so I'm waiting on a quote from him. I have a qoute from a salesman in AL. Pricey! But I like the 8' tall french door quad-unit so will pay what I have to pay. At least they're cheaper than the Pella's ($4,200!).

I wouldn't recommend him to my worst enemy...

We went to see one of Central's other houses tonight (I am trying to choose doors and wanted to see some on another house). We encountered the home owners, who were not at all complementary of our builder. Their house was supposed to be finished May 5th, and the owner said she would be going into litigation if it wasn't finished by July. Given the amount of work to be done (siding, fireplace, cabinets, plumbing, sheetrock, flooring, etc.), I guess they are going into litigation.

After yet another week's delay, the builder assured me that they will be starting tomorrow or the next day. So maybe they'll start Friday or Saturday! I'm not too concerned about the delays (other than the frustration factor, and the fact that we have a bunch of wood sitting in the weather for the last month), but I am concerned about some of the quality of the house we were in this evening. None of the openings for the doors and windows were right. Where they had cut the foam and boards away to increase the size of the openings, the concrete had voids. I have contacted the local Nudura Rep. and we will either get a crash course on how the concrete is to be poured and vibrated, and/or we will hire him to oversee the next pour.

I did order windows last Friday. The dealer was busy at a job site (I think that the job site is her house that is, coincidentally, also being built by Central Development). So she had her son meet me at the office and I acted as an employee of the company and ordered my own windows. I am still paying her a 20% mark-up, but at least I don't have to pay Central their 10% cut. After 2 months of getting the run-around from Central on ordering doors and windows, I am trying to find a different source for our french doors.

The doors for our living room are going to cost more than our front door. Depending on the source, they may cost more than all the windows. And we are looking at the "cheap" vinyl doors. The Andersons and Pellas cost 3x more! Going to 8' tall doors, and having a quad unit (two operating doors flanked by two fixed doors) has driven the cost up substantially. I think there is a "luxury" factor at work, although it may be that they just don't sell as many units of these so maybe that's why they are so expensive. Anyways, so far the cheapest quote for this unit is $2200. Ouch!

I've been super frustrated this week. Mad that I had to order my own windows. Mad that I might have to pay Central a 10% mark-up even though I spent 3 hours making sure the windows were right, mad that I can't get a door quote, and mad that our build was being delayed yet another week while our material that I rushed to get ordered sits in the yard and rots. But Pat was super-nice about not charging me the 10% mark-up, the windows are ordered, and (maybe) they will be back on our project this week. With David on-site, and with advice from the distributor, I think that the next pour will go ok. Yeah, it sucks that we have to jump through so many hoops, but I think that we would be dealing with these issues with 95% of the contractors in the area.

Would I recommend my contractor? Yes, but with major reservations. If my friend needed someone who would do a turn-key job and would do a good job with little oversite, no way. But I'd also be wishing my friend good luck in finding that perfect contractor! So I'll be going to work tomorrow and will tell Mark that maybe Central isn't the best contractor to build his mother's house.

No house yet...

Looks like it'll be another week before they start working on the house again. Windows still have not been ordered - maybe by the end of the week. I am working directly with the vendor now, so maybe they will actually get ordered this time. One good thing came out of the delays - we found out that our sill heights need to be 18" or we need tempered glass.

Today we got our deck samples from East Teak - starting at the top left and working clockwise is Cumaru, Tiger Wood, Garapa, and Ipe. David likes the 1.25" thickness of the Cumaru, so that's what we might go with. The other 3 are dense enough to be 1", and going to 1.25" makes the Ipe more expensive than the Cumaru. I like the Garapa, but David likes the darker wood. The Tiger wood is pretty, but I think we prefer a more uniform grain. So, it'll be either the 1.25" Cumaru or the 1" Ipe (pronounced E-pay). Whatever we go with will be about 2/3's the cost of a composite deck and will be prettier and less mainenance/repair than the standard pressure treated deck. We're also looking into Aluminum ballasters(?) to use for the verticals in the railing - they won't distract from the view as much as wood ones would, and they're cheaper (a lot) than cable railing is.

We might also look into ordering flooring from East Teak. They have 3/4" Ipe plank flooring in 8'+ lengths, and judging by the decking price, should be in our price range. And it would give us the look that we both love. If only we had a house to put it in...

I'll try to post stucco pictures later this week. David's worked really hard on it. I was waiting until he did the final coats, but that's not going to happen until after the next stage of construction. And maybe this weekend he will have the marble cut for the half-bath vanity.

Doors, Windows, and Lumber

The first delivery of our subfloor was the cheap OSB. We sent it back, and they brought the right stuff back a couple of days later.


All of the trusses for the Main floor have been delivered. We are still waiting for the next stage to start. We have a new person managing our project (Chris). We can't tell that anyone was specifically assigned before. The guy who we heard had been assigned (Mike) hardly ever showed up. Mostly we dealt with the subcontracts manager (Roy) and the owner (Pat). Mike was working on ordering our windows, but that got completely messed up. Chris is handling the order now and is much more responsive.

We talked to Pat yesterday, and they will either start our project or a house in Pascagoula tomorrow. If not tomorrow, it'll be Wednesday, or so Pat says. He tends to be optimistic, so probably next Monday.


Yesterday, we ordered our interior doors. They will be knotty alder, 8' tall. Here's a picture of a similar door (the center, solid door). The 7 doors cost $1400 w/tax, and are just the doors - no frames. A little more than we originally budgeted for, but they are pretty doors and will look nice in the house.

To OSB or not to OSB

Every so often, this subject shows up on the building forum that we frequent. OSB stands for Oriented Strand Board and is essentially layers of strands of wood. On each layer, the strands go in one direction, and the layers of the final board alternates in direction. This is similar to plywood, except that plywood is made up of layers of wood that are peeled from the log.

OSB has a bad reputation - it is often confused with wafer board, and the early OSB's had problems with the glues not holding up. Also, if OSB gets wet, it tends to curl at the edges. Current building codes do not differentiate between OSB and plywood.

The OSB vs. plywood is a hot debate, but the general consensus seems to be:

- they don't make plywood like they used to

- generic OSB is garbage

- in general, plywood is better than generic OSB

- Advantech OSB is the greating thing ever and is better than plywood. Advantech holds up to water better than anything on the market

- Solid wood or super-premium plywood is probably the best quality but is prohibitively expensive.

Our original lumber quote included 3/4" T&G (tongue & groove) Advantech subfloor, but when I went to place the order last week, they no longer had the Advantech and were substituting Norbord Stabledge OSB. Not knowing anything about Norbord, I left the subfloor off the order and spent the week trying to find out more about their product, finding someone who carries Advantech, pricing plywood.

All I could find on Norbord Stabledge is that, like Advantech, they have a 50 year warranty on their product. It is supposed to hold up fine to normal exposure seen during construction (i.e. it shouldn't warp if it gets rained on).

After numerous calls, I finally found some Advantech subfloor - for a mere $32/sheet versus the $20 for the Norbord. I never did price the plywood. We had to order the subfloor by Saturday so that it will be available later this week. And the winner is - Norbord. I think that Advantech's stellar reputation has resulted in the high cost, but I can't justify an extra $1K when the Norbord has the exact specifications and warranty.

Sorry for the boring update - but every step involves decisions that we obsess over! It feels good to get this decision behind us so that we can continue our 4-year research of induction cooktops! Hopefully there will be lots of progress this coming week, and hopefully our windows will be correct when they come in. (Can't remember if I posted this before, but they guy who ordered our windows quit the same day that he placed the order. Pat's short-handed, and is managing 13 projects, and so has not been able to confirm the order, despite my daily phone calls. Sigh.)

Proud New Owner...

After Katrina, if you asked someone how they fared, a common answer was "I'm now the proud new owner of a bare slab!" Well, now we're proud owners of two bare slabs!


As we are going up, we're starting to get a better view of the bayou. Here's a view from the back corner of the slab:


David's starting to stucco the chain wall. I'll probably wait until he's done before I add a post showing all stages. There are three layers of stucco, and it will take a couple of weeks since each layer needs about a week to set up before the next layer is applied.

Pat (our contractor) came out to the property with the framer today. They are going to try a new method of construction - they are going to set the main floor trusses before they pour concrete in the walls. This will complicate the bracing, but will allow two crews to work simultaneously, and the trusses should help to hold the walls square. They will be able to use the floor as scaffolding, and they'll be able to start laying block for the next pour within a couple of days of this pour. It'll be exciting, but hopefully not too exciting! Barring bad weather or complications with other jobs, they should start next Tuesday (5/15).

Front Door

This is the door I wanted (8' door, 2/3 glass, with sidelights). And I would have gone with a different glass pattern. I found this one on-line, from Texas for $3K (unstained). Our builder found one for $6K and put us in contact with two door suppliers who had them for $4K and $5K.

We ended up with the one below. It was the original one that we saw at Phillips (one of the local lumber yards). I guess they've had a hard time selling it because they've on display for $2K for a couple of months. It's actually almost the same door as the one from Texas except that it has 3/4 glass and isn't stained yet. One less decision to agonize over! (Jenny, is this the same door that you have?)

By the Light of the Moon

Not sure why they couldn't pour the slab tomorrow, but because the inspection wasn't until this morning, the pour didn't start until after 3 p.m. They almost ran out of concrete - they under-ordered, and the concrete supplier shut down at 5, right after the last concrete truck left for our job. Luckily they ordered a full load - they ended up with half-a-yard excess concrete. The only other problem was that one of the trucks got lost and took an hour-and-a-half to get here! They finished pouring the concrete at 6, but with the sun setting, the concrete is taking longer to set. So some of the crew is still out there, trowelling and smoothing. It's late, and I'm off to bed.

5 Minute Epoxy

Getting the footings in the fill, termite spray, and laying out the mesh/rebar has taken a lot of coordination. The foundation crew was a no-show on Thursday, presumably because of the heavy rains on Wednesday. They showed up Friday and dug the footings, but left before the site was ready for the termite sprayer. Miscommunication was the order of the day, and they had to redo part of the forms to add the spacers we requested. The spacers are 2x4's along the back wall and 1x4's along the front and north walls to allow for the next set of walls to be squared correctly and to buy back some of the 2" that were lost in the back sunroom due to the wall being placed incorrectly. Once the language barriers were worked out, the crew did a good job of setting the forms, even setting shims in places where the chain wall jogged. They finished up Saturday morning but could not continue until the dirt was sprayed for termites. It was late afternoon before they could come back, but they came back Sunday afternoon and finished what they could.

Sunday evening, David and I realized that the engineered foundation drawings call for two rebar on either side of each opening. Only one rebar was placed during the chain wall pour. The contractor's fix was to drill 4" holes into the chain wall concrete and use 5-minute epoxy (unmixed) to add the missing rebar. (And we didn't have enough rebar so David made yet another unscheduled trip to the lumber yard.) We weren't too keen on this fix, so had them add angled rebar between the epoxied rebar and the rebar in the slab. The engineer never called us back, but we think that this is an adequate fix.

We were supposed to get the inspection this afternoon, but the county offices were shut down for the Confederate Memorial Day. (That's not a federal holiday, is it?!) So David will call first thing in the morning and hopefully it will be inspected early in the afternoon. Right now, the concrete pour is scheduled for 3 pm. It's been a long week!

Friday's Post

Sorry - I meant to post last Friday but got busy, had a sick child, etc... Excuses, excuses.

Anyways, all 530 yards of fill are in and compacted. The compaction test was done on Thursday and it passed!
And David's plumbing also passed. This is the trench for the sewer pipe at the deepest part. David rented a wacker-packer and filled in the trench and compacted it as he went. And so the saga continues... Stay tuned for the next update where we will cover today's events with our non-english speaking crew!

'Got Dirt?

Dirt work started today. It was a slow start while the contract between our contractor and the dirt subcontractor got worked out. There was some confusion as to who would pay for the dirt work outside the chain wall. We thought that the contractor should have paid for it since a ramp is needed to get the dirt inside. The contractor thought that we should pay for it since they only bid for the dirt inside the chain wall. Ultimately we agreed to pay for it - we are paying for the dirt either way, so it was really just the compaction that was an issue. And since we agree that the contractor didn't bid for it, it is fair that we pay for the compaction. (And it's not that much money, in the whole scheme of things.)

I stayed home from work today, finishing our 2005 taxes. (Now we need to file an extension for the '06 taxes.) What a pain it was. Hopefully we won't get audited! Anyways, it was nice because I was home when the dirt guy showed up. (I wonder what percentage of "dirt guys" around here have the last name "Ladner" - I'm guessing 75%!) We asked how long he thought it would take, and how thick the lifts would be. He said it will probably take 5-6 days, and that they would place the layers 4"-8" thick. Less thick if there's more clay, more thick if there's more sand, since sand compacts easier than clay (although clay holds the compaction better than sand). We're happy because it appears that Mr. Ladner knows what he's doing, and is going to take the time to do it right. He is also going to place some dirt to direct water shed away from the foundations.

Now I've got to install TaxCut and get working on the extension... Next update will probably be Friday.

Concrete Poured

Concrete was poured on Wednesday. A pump truck is used to pour the concrete into the foam blocks.
Here you can see the concrete truck pouring concrete into the pump truck, which pumps the concrete through a large boom, which is being directed into the foam blocks. David took a video of the concrete going into the blocks, so I am going to try to link it here. It also shows them vibrating the concrete after it is poured, which is important so that there are no voids in the concrete.



There was one "blow out", where one of the ICF blocks broke and concrete (about a yard) came pouring out. They patched the hole and repoured the area. They think that the ICF may have been cracked during all the attempts to get the walls square.

After all the assurances that the walls would be leveled after the concrete was poured, we now have walls that bow out in places. Not a big deal at this stage, but we will be on top of it during the next pours.

The contractor's dirt sub-contractor recently lost all of his equipment in a fire, so they have been calling around to find someone new. We get to be the guinea pigs! The new sub came out yesterday, and David was happy with his knowledge. They will probably do the dirt work on Tuesday. I calculate 430 cubic yards needed to fill the walls in, plus another 50-100 for the driveway ramp.

Glue Once, Measure 600 Times

David and I checked the foundation dimensions Sunday evening - the back wall was 2" in from where it is on the plans, and the whole house was out-of-square. One wall wasn't vertical, and the front wall and back wall differed by 1.5" in length. So most of the day today was spent fixing the wall lengths, making them vertical, placing rebar for the parking slab, and measuring. And measuring. And then measuring some more.

Now I realize that a 44'x53' structure is not going to be perfect, so I went on-line and found a standards for wood framed houses that said that for our size house, the diagonals (measurements from corner to corner) were not to differ from each other by more than 2". Ours are off by 3". Finally Pat (the owner) came by and after still more measurements, ordered the walls to be knocked loose (they were glued and braced). Now the problem is that the rebar from the footings are often touching the plastic pieces in the Nudura blocks, and this is limiting how much the walls can be moved.

There are ways that some of this might be corrected in the next level of blocks (above the slab). If we were sure that it could be corrected, we might agree to this, but at this point we are not convinced. Also, David thinks that Pat is tired of telling his crews to measure the diagonals so might be eating the cost in order to teach them why it is so important.

The Nudura rep is coming out tomorrow with a fancy laser level that does 90° rays. Did I mention that the block is pretty pricey? Guess that's why he gets the cool toys! Hopefully they'll figure it out tomorrow. I think that by this evening, everyone (us included) was tired of trying to figure it out. Needless to say, no concrete tomorrow.

ICF 101

ICF stands for Insulated Concrete Forms. There are many companies that make the blocks - the one we are using is Nudura. These blocks are 18" tall and come folded in packages of 3. Each of the straight blocks is 8' long:


Here is a corner block - it's smaller than the straight blocks, presumably so that it ships smaller. This block has not been pulled apart yet - the center pieces fold for shipping, so that the two sides of the block are stacked. Some of the other blocks do not, which makes shipping more difficult.


The blocks have plastic studs, spaced 8" apart. These are what the siding and sheet rock will be attached to, using screws. The plastic pieces that hold the two sides together (the same ones that fold) are shaped so that the horizontal rebar locks right in. Some of the other blocks use ties to hold the rebar, which makes the installation more costly (at least in theory - seems like they all charge the same!). There is also some steel mesh that runs along the length of the block, stiffening it in that direction.


Here's a view looking down the blocks at a corner. There is vertical rebar every 24" coming out of the footings, and horizontal rebar every block high (18"). Our contractor uses 5/8" rebar, although 1/2" could be used. The rebar are overlapped by 24" at the ends. The strength of the ICF walls can be increased by using wider blocks, more rebar, and larger rebar. The literature says they can be designed to withstand up to 300 mph winds. I believe ours will be rated for 150 mph. The blocks they are using for the foundation will have 8" of concrete (width), and the main part of the house will be 6" wide. The overall width of the walls include the 2 5/8" of foam that makes up each side of the block, for a total wall width of 13.25" for the foundation and 11.25" for the house.


Ideally, the rebar is supposed to be a embedded in the concrete, so is installed a couple of inches from the sides of the foam. The rebar from the footings on one of our walls touches the foam, but this wall will have dirt compacted on either side, so is not a big deal.


They have placed a couple of pieces of rebar for where the center footings will be dug into the fill dirt. Notice that there is a vertical seam to the left of the rebar. Most of the blocks are staggered, like bricks in a wall, but there are two vertical joints in our wall. I think this is unavoidable unless the size of the house is made to conform exactly to the available lengths of the blocks.


The installers used a gun to inject foam at the base of the blocks. It's not a complete seal, but will be sufficient to hold the concrete in.


After the concrete is poured (they have to use a pump truck to get it in the walls), and while it is still wet, they will place rebar that will tie into the parking slab.

Next update Tuesday night after the concrete pour, if I have time...

Happy Easter!