Inspection time

Sorry for the three weeks since the last posting. Since my last posting a good deal has been accomplished, but not as much as we were hoping. The plumbing is now complete. The upstairs bathroom has a shower base and bath tub installed. The contractor did not understand that I wanted to choose every item placed in my house, so he got away with buying a cheap shower faucet and tub. The problem was he payed a plumber to come out and install both, so I would have to pay the plumber to come out and uninstall, and then re-install new materials. In the end, I lost another battle and accepted two mediocre items. From now on the Contractor understands I will choose and probably buy everything that will be installed.

With the plumbing all done the Contractor then moved on to finishing the electrical work. I made sure to stop by every day, so I could talk to the workers and ensure they put all the lights in the correct places and light switches in logical spots. Just a few changes were needed and overall they did an excellent job. The contractor's plan is to do all the work himself and then pay an electrician to come in and inspect the work and put his name on the work. The contractor called me at the beginning of this week to tell me I had to buy the wire to connect the new circuit breaker to the meter outside. After several arguments I caved again and agreed to pay about $75 to $150 to get the electrical system completed and ready for inspection. Everyone at works keeps laughing at my regular arguments I have with my contractor. The common comment is "you get what you pay for."

About two weeks ago, the contractor hired a sub-contractor to install an HVAC system into the house. In total the workers spent about five days installing the ducting in the house. Both myself and my Dad spoke to the boss and ensured they installed everything to our drawings. The most important thing was that we only wanted the ducting to be lower than the ceiling in two locations. In all other locations the ducting was to be located within the joists, hidden above the ceiling. The company is supposed to be putting the new units on the roof today or tomorrow. In order to do so the will be reinforcing the roof with iron rods. I have been pushing the Contractor to get these units installed ASAP, so we can call the inspector's to come and inspect everything.

During this time I had been working on installing the alarm system and wire distribution system. Both are now complete, but I still have to install the TV/Internet/Phone wire and will also install some more speaker wires for a surround sound system.

The Contractor's goal is to finish the framing, electrical, plumbing and HVAC inspections this week and possibly early next week. I am hoping for the best, which is he actually passes everything and we can start putting in drywall sometime late next week. It is very possible though that he will fail some (for reasons I don't feel like writing), and will need to address those required corrections. I have my fingers crossed!

Exterior wall complete, now electrical and plumbing.

The past two weeks have really gone by quickly.  During that time the contractor was mainly focused on building a new front wall.  To do so they had to first build a temporary wood wall inside the house.  With the temp wall in place they delivered a dumpster and tore down the old wall in one day.  The next two days the contractor built the new wall with 2x4s.  We had a few issues getting the windows framed where we wanted them, but after a few minor arguments my Dad helped center the first floor window and ensured the new look was symmetrical.  Another feature we requested was to expand the front door from 32inches to 36 inches, 4 inches can really help when moving furniture in. 

  

I was pleased on the fourth day when an expert brick layer showed up for work.  I was a little worried that the contractors general laborers were going to do the work, but instead they just mixed mortar and carried the bricks to the expert.  Overall the construction of the wall went fairly fast.  As they were constructing it, my Dad and I suggested they make two lines of brick come out of the wall a little under the windows and that they place the bricks vertical above the windows.  These two features definitely made the wall more original and to the theme of other rowhouses on the street.

Well my Dad unfortunately had to leave this last week.  He ended up spending about five weeks here in total.  I still can't believe it went so fast.  His last few weeks he worked on a wide variety of important projects that were not part of the contract.  His jobs included fixing leaks in the roof, installing a garage door, installing a new vinyl fence, installing retaining stars on the rear exterior wall, additional framing and a few other jobs.   Each Saturday I helped him for a full day, but other than that he did it all by himself, I was/am very thankful.

 

As soon the contractor finished with the walls, his guys went right back inside and have been trying to finish the electrical and plumbing work.  Their goal is to try and finish both these items by this weekend so they can be paid another big chunk of cash.  All my remodeling costs are financed by a Wells Fargo loan.  So in order for the contractor to get paid, he must complete a large portion of work, ask the bank for a inspection, and based on that inspection he receives a portion of the total renovation loan.