Day 12

In the previous entry I wrote about our first on-site annoyance. Today we had our first contractor annoyance. He didn’t read our foundation plans. Our foundation bid (which we only received today—even though he’s had it since the beginning of June) did not include the additional 6’ slab we want to pour in the backyard; or the slab for the entrance to the garage bays. Last night he said he didn’t know about them and then this morning he said he knew about the patio slab but not the entrance slab. We always thought it was a little strange he had the raising crew put the wooden blocks where they did—in the way of the new slabs, but we assumed he had it under control. Why would we think he hadn’t analyzed the plan our engineer made and that he, the contractor, passed on to the City to OK?

Today we’re feeling a little deflated, to say the least. For us the biggest issue is that he contradicted himself. I’m trying to stay away from the word “lie,” but I’ll admit it keeps popping into my head. If we didn’t know about the great work he’s done for two other couples we know (and more people that those people know) we would definitely feel as though this guy was trying to pull one over on us and we wouldn’t have any confidence in his ability to be a good contractor. I guess the silver lining is that we do know he gets things done and the work that’s done is good, but he’s really going to have to stay on top of things in order to regain our confidence in him.

Now that that’s out of the way I can move on to the progress that’s been made. The demo crew showed up this morning and demolished almost all of the walls and started jackhammering the floor out. The dumpster didn’t show up today but will be here tomorrow. Right now there are piles of cinderblock all over the place.

We found an old newspaper tucked between the two floors. It's dated February 2, 1949. We assume the garage was started in 1949 and finished (or at least put on record) in 1950.



And finally, I must mention the name of the demo crew lead—Manor Foster. Yet another fantastic Texan name. I thought he’d be about 70, but he’s probably closer to 40. He took over his dad’s business, just like Junior Brown did. He’s a really nice guy too. His team will also pour our foundation and frame it.

Before and After, Day 12: