Slow Progress

We finally got the roof on - stripes & polka dots were not fired - they apparently just quit without letting anyone know. The new crew that was supposed to start Monday never showed up. Best we can tell, they also quit. So the roofing contractor had no workers and pretty much stopped answering his phone. David called another roofer out to get a revised quote, and that roofer showed up with workers. Even though we still had a contract with the first roofer, we went ahead with the new roofer. They fixed stripes and polka dots mistakes and roofed the house in 3 days. We never did pay the first roofer for what little work his crew did.

One thing with building your own house is that you have to make a lot of decisions. Like what size water heater to go with. The on-line sizing charts say we need 65-80 gallons. So, we could go with two 40 gallon heaters zoned, two in series, or buy a single, larger water heater. We decided on the single heater. Well, Home Depot doesn't sell heaters over 50 gallons (or maybe they just don't have them in stock). Lowes has a 50 gallon heater, and the next size is 80 gallons. 80 gallons is probably overkill, but 50 is probably too small. So, we decided to go with the Lowes Whirlpool 80 gallon heater with lifetime warranty. Until I read that the control boards on the heaters are junk and the "lifetime warranty" only covers one replacement. People on line were on their third replacement with a 5 year-old water heater!

So a little more research, and I found that Sears Kenmore brand has water heater - 66 gallons and 80 gallons. We'll probably go with the 12 year heater. The 80 gallon heater costs $70 more than the 66 gallon heater, and the operating cost is the same. So we'll probably go with the 80 gallon, unless they only have the 66 in stock when we go to buy it.

David continues to spend every free moment working on plumbing. The drain side is done, as is the cold water. Now he's working on the hot water. Then comes the electrical. We also have our preliminary HVAC sizing - 3.5 tons, which is way better than the 6 ton quote we got last year!

We're still waiting on the french doors. Joe said that they needed to be out of his warehouse last month, but Dwain didn't have the fork lift. We haven't heard from either of them in a couple of weeks, but hopefully they are communicating. They'll probably give us 2 hours notice when they're ready for us to get/install the doors!

We're also waiting for the third labor quote to install the hardi siding. The first was for $6400, and the guy didn't seem to know what he was talking about. The second seemed very knowledgeable and quoted $9500. The third mostly supplies hardi, but also installs it. Once we've heard from him, we'll make the decision. I've conveniently lost the first quoter's phone number, but that is no loss!