Bill's Views on Most Everything

We are adding a two car garage and solar electricity to our 1937 vintage house.  We thought it would be a fairly straightforward project, but it is not working out that way.  We had a brick one car garage, an ugly carport, and a parking pad, all on the alley.

Step one, I mangled the sprinkling system in an attempt to move it out of the way of the larger garage.  It cost $140.00 to get that fixed after a three week wait, then the concrete form setters drove their stakes through one of the lines.  Ed, our contractor and a great guy, replied to my email with “oops, sorry”.  Of course, I found the leak while watering the lawn and garden just before two big thunderstorms.

The main problem is delay.  We waited two weeks on the demolition contractor.  We saved 800 bricks from the garage for walks and a patio.  The demo contractor recycles bricks, so saving those bricks cost us $300.

We waited another week for tree removal, than another week to get the tree stumps ground.  After another wait, the concrete contractor showed up to start setting forms.  They had to chop out two stumps.  The first forms they set were too close to the alley.  They had to take them out anyway to bring in road base (50% gravel, 50% dirt).  That entire process took two more weeks.  Yesterday, they poured the concrete.  The evening rain was perfect, cooling the concrete as it cured.

All the delays are part of any construction project these days.  The recession of 2008 put a lot of construction people out of business.  Now the economy is back, but the companies are not.  Those in business are overbooked and having trouble getting skilled workers.  None of the subcontractors’ workers have English as their first language.  They are all good guys, hard-working and fun to be around.  I provided some cervezas as they finished the day.  One cause of the labor shortage is the oil boom in North Dakota.  Natives up there used to say that the climate kept the riff-raff out.  Lots of riff-raff up there now.  Lots of money as well.  People go where the work and good money are.

Ed is going to do the fencing, which is a good thing as I called three fence contractors and only one returned the call.  We called three solar contractors, got responses from all three, but one never submitted a bid.

The garage should go up starting next week.  Many decisions to make.  Doors, lighting, roofing color, whether to replace the roofing on the sunroom where more solar panels are going, what kind of gate latches, finding a hardscape contractor (I was going to do it myself, but decided I am too old) paint colors, on and on.

In addition, we added painting the north gable on the house to the project.  I got up there to scrape the old paint.  The trim on the bottom of the siding and the bottom board of the siding are rotten.  Another task and some more expense.

The next door neighbors are learning about home improvement as well.  They decided to replace the roof themselves.  Mom, dad, and kid brother came from Omaha last week to help.  five people, fairly skilled, worked Friday through Monday and didn’t finish.  Mom and kid brother had to go back to Omaha, wife went to work.  Dad and husband worked Tuesday, Dad on Wednesday.  Thursday morning Dad worked two hours and left for Omaha to deal with the water in the attic and basement from the big storm there.   The roof is about 95% finished.  They will finish this weekend and have a nice roof with new skylights.

A lot of this story is about things that are fairly normal for any project, but the delays are somewhat unusual.  We did the kitchen last year with little delay as it went along.  When it is finished, this year’s project will make our little nest more livable and more fun.  I don’t call the process itself much fun.