Concept and creation of a Concrete Cottage

So, I’ve got a question for you: Have you ever known someone who’s ‘building (or built) a house’? Yeah, they talk all about it at work or at the bar, they talk how they and their spouse had to go to all kinds of meetings to ‘pick colors and appliances’, maybe window treatments and paint colors, and oh I just want to punch them both in the face right now. And I’m really not a violent person. Anyway…You go to the housewarming, on the way there passing the rows and rows of stunningly similar cookie-cutter houses built quickly and swiftly - in this brand new housing development.. There they are, beaming like the dickens… Jenny and Bob are proudly standing in their kitchen or living room or on their fancy deck - telling everyone all about it. They ‘built a house’.

Well, I’m here to tell you - no, they really didn’t. Oh, Jenny and Bob...you're so precious, the both of you.

I'll however say that it's ok to be constrained by the limits that a production home builder imposes; you'll still end up with a nice house, but it'll just look pretty much like everyone else's around you. And you can't be assured of the materials and workmanship that went into your home.

Ya see, Jenny and Bob had their house constructed by fleets of tool-bearing drones that most likely constructed all the houses surrounding them. J&B had no idea about the entire operation of permitting and licensing and filling out forms and writing checks and waiting on replies from any given entity. Behind the scenes, veritable armies of people handle all of this administrative bs (and let me tell you, there is no small amount of this, by any measure) downtown and elsewhere. This process of ‘building a house’ for this sweet couple was a relative breeze because of the above. And for the builders/developers - once the first ‘model’ passes engineering and the building dept, they do that about 5 more times for 5 more ‘models’.. Then they just start permitting and building...permitting and building....and clearing...and building. It becomes a relative breeze for them too.

And all these charmingly similar homes are most always baggaged with a HOA… Pros and cons, I know, but most aren’t given a choice.  

But I digress. Custom-designed residential architecture from more, shall we say, independent parties, seems to be subject to more scrutiny..if I can put it like that. And expense. And frustration. However, the bigger the house and the more you’re pouring into the city in taxes... well, I’d have to imagine some types of priority would be assigned in the whole red tape-laden admin process. IOW - a reputable builder will find a way to get you through the process quickly if you have the Benjamins to grease those wheels.  

I’m really just here attempting to tell you about building a custom house on an Infill lot. I’d only recommend reading this if you are going to be doing the same crazy fucking thing yourself, because I think you are out of your mind and you are going to need all the counsel you can get. Because there is nothing incredibly easy about this. And sorry mom, for all the F-bombs to come...but this process drove me to it!!

This is not a short story. This isn’t a feel-good, planting a spring garden or building a nice little gazebo kind of writeup. This is about dealing with government entities and subcontractors and designers. This is about waiting and waiting some more for things to get done. This is about testing your patience, for a long time. Re-read the paragraph before this one.

Ultimately, this thing is for me, I've no doubt. It’s been so far, and will clearly continue to be, one of the big adventures of my life - though not quite as fun or interesting as some of the others.

This paragraph is a halfway (approximate) through the build edit - if you are going to take such a project on in the way I've taken it on, you'd better be ready for it. It's more overwhelming than I'd even imagined. Rewarding as well, but being on site almost every day during a Florida summer is almost too much to handle. There's too much to think about and too much to do. You're getting asked questions constantly by people and you'd better know how you want things. This is not for the faint of heart. There's realities you'll constantly be dealing with. Shit like tons of extra roof material stacked up in your garage. Sweaty runs to Home Depot. Waking up in the night with a oh-shit thought. Constantly dirty and filled-with-stuff car. A nagging feeling you're missing something. Wondering if the next inspector will be cool. Oh man it goes on and on. Anyway....

I’m not 100% sure how I found myself building a house. I sold my previous one of 21 years in Downtown Orlando for a fair enough profit (again, another story) and I found myself ‘houseless’ and living on my friend Tom’s tree farm, in my camper. Oh, and I was career-less at the moment too. I know, this is not normal grown-up stuff. All of this was going down in early 2018. I had just gotten over an absolutely terrible break-up. I was depressed. I was living underneath a pole barn in my tiny teardrop camper- that tiny thing, and the bathrooms, were the only air-conditioned areas. So, it was days of getting bit by all kinds of various bugs, chafed armpits and crotch, boredom and sitting out major rain storms. I'm surprised I didn't start smoking crack. I even had to put a raccoon out of its misery, it was out during the day and clearly dazed and disoriented. Poor sucker had been poisoned. So, me having to put this poor guy out, it didn’t go as easily as I planned. It was more like this:

https://youtu.be/MX7Yo0tWDgk

Sigh. So during the next couple of weeks during trips to Orlando, hearing my brewer bro Tom (it’s rather confusing sometimes to have two extremely close friends named Tom, when trying to talk about them) talk about buying a lot and building a custom house downtown, Obviously the thought got in my head too. I mean, come on- many of us have had this romantic notion of ‘buying a piece of property and putting your dream home on it’. Ah, it's so easy to say. I wasn’t really necessarily looking for anything necessarily like that, when one piece of property popped up on Zillow, a nice .4 acre lakefront lot on a quiet dead-end street, a tad north of Orlando. It was fairly close off of I4, so I had a look. When I drove by, the sign out front was so old, it had fallen down. WTF? Seems that it was recently reduced to 70K (from 85)....and still available. It looked cool! Lake Weston is a small private lake with lots of fish, and no development happening on the north side, as it’s too close to a road. The property has a seawall, a little ramshackle ramp, and full riparian rights well out into the clean-looking water. I put my offer down two hours later, volunteering to use the sellers agent, thus saving them money if we transacted. I did my due diligence, and found it was going to be very fucking expensive to build a house, and I was going to pay 35K for water, sewer, county impact fees (and other shit) before any shovels even hit the ground. When you read the next paragraph, you’ll see I’m at 100K minimum just to get to the point where you can build. None of that shit obviously stopped me.

For the lot, I was able to negotiate 65, settled/closed at 67.5. I was a property owner again, a month after my last real estate sale. Yet, I was still very houseless. It was a strange feeling. Here’s how it looked around the time of purchase:

It was no doubt an exciting era for me. Yeah, it all sounded great. The conversations, the way everyone talks about how they would build their own house and their own suggestions for mine, the questions, all of it. Well I now say, fuck that. I don’t regret it yet (though I’ve come close many times), but boy oh boy.. You think there’d be some better ways in place to put up some walls with the least amount of hassle. But bureaucrats like hassle. They like process. They find secret happiness in shoving that process straight up your arse. I’ve joked from the start that ‘everything is in place to keep you FROM building a house’... I swear, it’s true. The tedium and hassle and forms and application fees alone are enough to make a person want to put their head through drywall. But I’m getting ahead of myself; you now know that I’m a happy property owner and I’m searching for an Architect, and someone to build my house. Tom recommended ICF to me, as he was looking into it for his own house at the time. I did end up liking it. It’s more expensive to build with, but you end up with a totally monolithic, energy-efficient structure that will last forever. Check it out! It’s cool shit. So I started talking with John Riddle from Turning Leaf. John and his team were very efficient and structured and eventually got me hooked up with an architect, John Drake at Green Apple Architecture. He was neither cheap nor fast, but he at least seemed to know what he was doing. And he could do his own Structural stamping.

We proceeded to design a nice two-story house, one that seemed reasonable enough in design and finish. Long story short, I brought this design to the builders and was quickly priced out of it. These guys are high-end builders for sure, and all the subcontracting prices were at a total premium. This was a definite snag in the whole grand scheme of things with this project; it’s safe to say that I was fairly devastated. About 2 months and a few grand blown, just so I could be told that I was looking at building a house, that in the end I would have almost 450K into in total. How could it cost that much to have this reasonably-designed, and rather small, custom house built? It really boggled my mind, because what I had envisioned building was at least 150K less than that; I wouldn’t even be able to expect to sell it for 450K, let alone make a nice profit. WTF...is this even real??

Now..through all this, I've also had my other great friend Tom, a Commercial contractor whose farm I was living on, give me counsel. He helped with a lot of information, but also stressed me out at the same time...was hard to explain... Tom's just a very smart and driven guy. I informed him I was going back to the drawing board, and he gave me continued advice through it as best as he could. He’s also an extremely busy fella who’s taken on a lot in his life.

But I digress a bit. I sank into a bit of a depression for a while through the end of the Fall, but through it I decided that I was going to try a new architect and a new design...and likely new builders. I contracted another architect, Natalia, to design me a new home; I gave her my own sub-standard design, and she took that to come up with a tidy little one-story ICF cottage. Well, small house… but I like the word cottage. On top of it, her newly-retired contractor father agreed to come out of retirement to help me get this house built. Branko is 84 years old, and been doing it for 30 some years. Big ups to that fella, for sure. This was a huge victory for me in the whole saga. He was asking a fair price of 18% of the hard costs that he managed..which was intended to be most of them. So, onward I went with the due diligence and pre-construction stuff. He was hopefully going to really be jumping in once the permit was complete.

Time passes and by now, it’s Christmas.. And by the time designs got passed around, and things got stamped, as well as waiting on a structural engineer to get back from Europe, it was mid-February. Sometime during this as well, just to add to the stress a bit, I found that I needed to get a Conservation Area Determination (CAD) assessment completed on my property..you know..since it’s on a lake and all. It’s really just a cool way for the county to pull $700 (application fee) from your hide, as well as paying an Environmental Engineer $900 to drop the initial flags and fill out your paperwork; then you can pay surveyors more money to come and pick up those flags, and complete the process. Yup, 2K and 5 weeks for some awesome red tape bs like that. The amount of phone calls I had to make, between OC and the Surveyors, and the back-and-forth, and levels of coordinating were staggering. I’m not kidding when I say I made about 40-50 calls before this was all done. And most of them were to the Surveyors.

All through the fall and through struggling with trying to find a design I could afford, I was living in a shithole house with a weird old roommate near Pine Hills. I was not happy there. In a nutshell, I was given the opportunity in February to move back downtown, to a house where my roommate lives in Germany. The house has a pool and is in the heart of Sodo. I’m good for now! Sure is nice to have a pool to jump my ass into.

CAD done, drawings done, we finally submitted to Permitting early March. Since this was done electronically, I was able to watch the painfully slow process make its way through the gauntlet. I had to go and pay for a “Concurrency Review” whatever the fuck that is, as well as procure (fill out an application and pay a $40 fee) a Floodplain Permit, since of course, the property was in the 100-year flood radius.

At this point, I could wish all the bloodsucking was coming to an end, but shit..it was just ramping up.

Other entities, like Winter Park utilities (for water and sewer), was happy to do some blood-sucking. These are some great numbers I’m about to throw at you. Sewer Lateral Hookup fee: 2675 Sewer Impact Fee: 3375. Water Meter Hookup Fee: 992  Water Impact fee: 1375 Total, $8417. However, digging a septic tank and yearly pumps costs dollars, too. Pooping is far from free in the civilized world.

And don’t forget about those County Impact Fees now!! SFR, 2018: $15,023. That’s for schools, roads, parks, other shit. And it’s kinda fucking expensive, no? I’m at $19,773 in total Impact Fees alone, in case you were paying attention. I deferred the County IF's, but they must be paid before I get my COO (Cert of Occupancy).

Whilst in Permitting as well, another thing I had to get set up was the electricity. I met my rep from Duke Energy, and got that ball rolling for a plan on permanent power placement. Of course, setting a temp pole involves all kinds of rules and considerations...and an inspection. Just for a temp pole. Didn’t think we were getting away without that, did you? And of course they are ready to take plenty more of my money before I finally have permanent power. Two separate apps and permits for temp and perm power respectively. Separate hookup fees. You know......

Little by little, over the course or six weeks, some things within the overall permit process got approved (the CAD of course, as by now everything was in order with it), while others (Zoning, Building) had deficiencies that had to be addressed and/or revised. By the time the Building plans were looked at, there were two pages of deficiencies. The levels of minutia got down to things like Florida Product Approvals not being generated because the bore holes in the doors were not the correct length apart. WTF?? FPA Cover Sheets and ICF Product info needed..... Many, many other things as seen below in Comments on the screenshots. Ugh.

These are Permit comments. Seas of red tape. Seas. The people at the County have to validate their presence. They do it in awful ways. I’ve actually come to find out that a lot of this minutia and process has pretty much everything to do with insurance companies lobbying to make sure that everything is done within extremely tight constraints...makes for a super huge pain in the arse as illustrated here. I’m surprised they don’t make you specify which way the doorknobs will turn. Seriously.

After many more phone calls and a few lovely visits downtown, (does it really take two full weeks to look at the resubmitted corrections and revisions, guys??) we were finally able to get what we wanted: Approval. Date Property Purchased: 6/1/18   Date Permit Approved: 4/19/19. Almost a year later and I finally get to break ground. It’s felt like I’ve been house-less for a lot longer than I’ve really been.

Finally, after 1.5 months, I finally got to see this:

After all this, we can start! It’s 4/20 and I’m excited for multiple reasons.

The problem I seem to have now, is that I now always expect the worst from the County. I know they’re going to make me do something extra that I have to pay for, make me jump through hoops over, make me wait, whatever. But I’ve been (with much help) slowly knocking down each obstacle as it tries to rear its ugly head. And it’s not been easy so far. The range of emotions I’ve felt are pretty much all of them, at any given point through all this. With just this pre-building part alone, it's truly been a year of ups and downs.

Broken ground notwithstanding, I’m somewhere near 95K into this lot and we’re just now planning the very first phases of construction, ordering dirt and getting corner surveys. But hey, it’s about time I’d say.

It’s now April 30th and ground has been broken, 11 months after I closed on the property. I’m still dealing with many hassles. As I’ve been complaining about all along, I’ve been left to deal with both the pre-construction planning stuff, as well as trying to hurry it all along. I don’t think Branko still yet understands that I’ve been pissing away $900 a month in living and storage expenses. I should be happier, and I guess I will be as I see this progress… right now, this is April 28th:

It begins

It was admittedly nice to drive up to the lot and see Branko standing there with his tablet, and the grader doing his work. We have a porta-shitter, and it looks very different on my lot already. And now, see below… for $350 we got that huge Magnolia, Carlee, pruned. It’s out of frying pans and into fires, as it were.

At any rate, this is pretty much how it’s been. The best advice I can give so far is to already be living somewhere comfortable, and prepare for it to take way longer than you think. Because it in all likelihoods will. Be patient, unlike I’ve been up until now. But I’ve been pissing away rent money too, so yeah, my cheap arse is trying to keep things moving right the hell along. I did tell Branko about this, and I'm hoping it made him think a bit.

When you’re dealing with a full-service builder, they’re the ones who are taking care of all this pre-building Zoning/Regulation/Inspection bullshit. They’re the ones (or their direct people) who are supposed to make the calls and they know who to ask for when calling. And how to talk to them. It’s been an extremely enlightening crash course on what to probably NOT do when you want to build your own house on an infill lot and you’ve never done this before. In essence, it’s not easy...but it is do-able; I also had plenty of counsel from my contractor-bro Tom.

But man, what a ride so far. Now, I’m finally having Branko spread his wings a little bit. It’s Sunday the 5th (Cinco De Mayo, anyone?) and supposedly forms are being put in today. Here’s what things looked like before and after Carlee’s trim:

And a nice haircut it’s been. Looks a bit extreme, but it was the best way to ‘train’ her to grow a little more upright. The whole tree will fill out nicely upwards, I’m hoping.

So now the next thorn in my side will be seeing about power. I’m waiting on electrician Yury (Natalia’s hubby - yup, this is a true family affair, lol) to fill out some information for the Temp Power application. And I have to talk to Duke again to see if I can get another pole..but maybe not since this Magnolia pruning was completed. There’s room for almost anything on the lot now.

The lot is finally at a place where true construction can start. After a year of past events described, this will now become a chronological story, to be updated frequently. Enjoy!

Moday, May 7th, 2019

Branko says he’s coming to Orlando at 9am, calls back at 11 saying he can’t make it. No worries, I guess not too much is going on today. Yury has finally contacted me, he’s working on the Temp power process.

Wednesday, May 8th 2019

After meeting with Plumber yesterday, he today came in and completed the first rough-in. Yury came and placed the temp power pole placed as well. City of WP people came too, water is getting hooked up.

Thursday, May 9th

CoWP came by again, sewer lateral is going in Monday. They’re also doing a repair on the street. We also decided, hesitantly, to remove Carly. She’s too close to the house.

This when I realized that some shit was really going down - first rough-in

Friday, May 10th

Rebar delivered today. Forms being prepped to pour footers and slab next week. Not too much going on now, but will be a mess come Monday.

Monday, May 13th

Here's the state of things this morning:

These dudes know how to party with their lack of safety equipment..

So it's been quite a mess along the whole street; even though it's a dead-end section, the city still requires two flaggers...come on now. They got rained out by noon but finished this and other street drainage repairs by Wednesday morning.

Tuesday, May 14th

Temp power inspected. Lateral finished and what a freaking mess left behind. Water meter hooked up.

Wednesday, May 15th

Not too much going on today, just termite treatment and concrete liner. By this point, I hadn't heard from the tree company, so I called them to find out that their stump grinder is down. And here we go.....

Thursday, May 16th

Interesting day indeed. Casey and his associate were taping and rebarring, busy busy. The tree people were of course messing me around about the grinder. Casey then informs me that the stump must be removed or I'll have to pay extra for boom and pump. Shit. I start calling around like mad, and at the end I'm going to be out another $250. This is not the first time this has happened to me, where I paid up front in good faith and then got screwed. If I'd have withheld part of the payment until the stump was done, I'd have looked like a complete asshole... As well, Casey accidentally depressurized the pipes, so there's another thing I have to be concerned with. He was digging around roughed-in pipes, and while I'm sure he didn't hit any, I knew I need to pressure test them before the pour.

Friday, May 17th.

This was a productive day, we got everything done that we needed to ahead of the pour. I arrived by 10, tended to the stump guy as he ground the magnolia stump, and did a couple Home Depot runs. Removed much of the sawdust and got a hose running. Duke also came in the midst of it all and hooked up our temp power. Dudes from COWP came and cleaned the sidewalk debris that they were supposed to have done prior. Now, the cement mixers could get through. Tom, Branko and I setup a wet pressure test on the pipes, and they held steady. The inspector finally showed up later in the day, and Branko was finally able to leave. Poor bugger earned it today.

The tree people turned out to be the assholes that I feared they could possibly become. They offered me a $50 reimbursement, which I kindly told them to stuff up their arse. After they told me the stump would be gone by Wednesday, they now say that it's not their fault that the repair does 'not coincide with my timetable'. Oh, the balls.

At 1,300, Carlee ended up costing me a full $300 over what I was originally quoted. But now, I do realize, and I just figured this out - the boom would have been necessary if I kept the tree, so either way she was going to cost me many dollars between the foundation pour, as well as the walls pour. Cheers love, you get the last laugh Miss Carlee.

Saturday, May 18th

Pour day, first mixer was there on deck slightly before 7a. Casey brought on a couple extra workers, who seemingly did a very nice job getting my beautiful slab and footers poured. Branko and I stayed there all morning. The sidewalk and ROW were absolutely destroyed. We were all out by 2:00. I came back about 6:00 to spray the slab, and JR came over to shoot some footage with his drone. I got to crack my first beer and christen my 'kitchen'.

It's been one month since the permit was approved, seems like we're moving along nicely.

PROTIP: If you want any special kinds of designer drains, like really nice cool recessed ones or anything, that begins at pour time. This detail should be discussed with your concrete person before the pour. Research this before concrete hits dirt.

PROTIP: If you are wanting to do concrete floors, special concessions must be made prior. Concessions that I had no idea about. It needs to be a special, more resilient kind of concrete, it needs extra special care when finishing, and your contractor or builder needs to know about this!! Otherwise, other trades will absolutely destroy your floor like they did mine; I've been left with no economically viable option for a finished concrete floor.

Casey slowing the cure

Wet Slab

Monday, May 20th

No work on site today, but lots of planning and phone call type of things. Tim's on site tomorrow to grade, and we're taking delivery of ICF forms and CMU blocks (for the garage). Now I need to figure out why the survey company charged me $250 for a simple stake-out, sounds kinda high. And, need to decide if I want to pay nearly $1,200 more to have underground electrical, as opposed to overhead. The nickel-and-diming continues.

Took a drive up to the site to find the Turning Leaf trailer parked right where Tim needs to be...Texted John to see what can be done about this little quagmire.

Tuesday, May 21st.

OK, so the ICF got delivered today and they started putting it up. Holy crap. It's looking very good - they said they plan to be done by Friday, and hope to pour by Tuesday. Tim is still supposed to come and level out the lot and take some crap out of there. Hopefully he's removing those hedges as well.

Partial view from living room

I've been getting comments about Legos or Igloos

Wednesday, May 22nd

My designer Natalia showed up today - it was cool to see her work with her father to double-check the openings. The lot is crowded with trucks and all kinds of shit. Walls are going up.

Thursday, May 23rd

Holy shit, lots happening today. When I walked into the structure this morning, it really hit me. Most of the walls were up. and I was looking at this...place. It was pretty cool. At any rate, these fellas from Turning Leaf doing the ICF have their work shit all over the place. Equipment, mainly. Two trailers, rebar everywhere, all kinds of shit all over the place. Very equipment intensive, is this ICF process. So of course the block and sand truck came at the same time this afternoon (garage), we had to play musical trucks and tetris a bunch of crap around. But we made it work.

My level of involvement with this entire process is much more than I envisioned. It's actually pretty cool. And Branko is almost 85 ffs... I'm not expecting him to do every damn thing. He's explaining everything to me in great detail and he's really watching the job very closely. I still maintain big kudos to the fellow, he's pretty damn awesome.

Friday, May 24th

It was early on this day that I found out that Branko had a minor heart attack scare. It wound up not being one, but he landed himself in the hospital for a couple days. He was very dehydrated and this exacerbated some symptoms. So, thankfully he's ok and we'll be continuing on Tuesday.

Tuesday, May 28th

The boys will be back to finish up the ICF bracing and prep for pour Thursday. Branko is trying to round up the masons, so we can pour CMU wall headers at the same time, as originally planned. I headed to IKEA this morning to spec out the final details on my kitchen. Branko will be onsite tomorrow, and I'm going to make damn sure he's hydrated, and staying in the shade as much as he can - until the roof is on.

Wednesday, May 29th

Not a whole bunch today, but Branko did chase some hack masons away from the site; they supposedly showed up grossly un-equipped, both mentally and gear-wise. We called Casey and got Ruben and his crew lined up for tomorrow. ICF bracing and pour prep continues. They're putting in screws and filling any open holes. And it's just hot. Oh so damn hot.

I received some sticker shock today when I talked to Yury about how much it would cost to wire up my house. The estimate included can lighting, but it also included me paying him to hang ceiling fans and wall lights. Because, he can't 'sign off on it' for inspection purposes unless he does it. And he's damned expensive too. I just can't bear the thought of paying someone $25-35 installation fee per light; that shit adds up the the 100's, yo! Since he's Branko's son in law, I'm not sure what options I have with another electrician; he's going to have to compromise with me a bit or something.

Thursday, May 30th

I showed up mid-morning, and Ruben and crew almost had the garage walls up. Branko was running around getting some supplies for them. ICF fellas still doing their thing, through they're done with prep today and we'll be pouring next week - more on that in a moment. It's already a scorcher...and here's these masons working out directly in it. It's a very tough thing to do. There is no shade, and nary a cloud. Anyway, the dumpster was supposed to come today. There's a mess of trucks all over the lot, it looks like a freaking war zone or something. B had to leave by 2 to be back for some family engagement, so I waited around for the dumpster, because we had to make sure it was placed correctly. That wound up being a whole lack-of-communication fiasco (between dumpster people and Branko)...long story short, the dumpster placement is happening tomorrow morning.

Tim showed up with his Bobcat in the midst. He was really there just to place the huge lintel beam on the garage, but for 300, I had him do a bunch of other shit as well.

The pre-pour inspection of both the ICF and garage WAS going to be for tomorrow.. until I found out today that I needed both an "Slab Certificate" and a related "Elevation Certificate". Both surveys, both costing a cool 200 each. Branko wasn't aware of this, he said he'd never seen it before. It's not like my survey company, or any damn one else it seems, knew that this would be coming. Shit. So, I call DSW and find that they can make it Tuesday to do the work, so it shouldn't throw the schedule off too much. The walls will hopefully be done by next Friday, if the stars align or some shit.

But this slab certification and elevation requirement (so many extra of them for Orange County) is just the type of red-tape fuckery that keeps on happening, and has been happening from the beginning.

And between the breakers and what's left, Branko over-estimated almost 100 blocks. HTF did he manage to pull that off? Not to mention 4 bags of mortar. This is not the first time he's wasted my money, it all adds up...

What a day in the oven. The mercury topped out around 98. I hid out in my truck when I could. How these fellas endure that oppressive and brutal heat, working all day in it, is beyond me. The sun beats down so hot, you can't even touch the rebar for a couple seconds without burning yourself.

Tim placing the huge ass lintel beam

Standard hole bracing

Friday, May 31st

Well, there was nothing going on today but getting a dumpster placed, but even that seemed to get rather messed up. Let's get one thing straight - it's just freaking hot out.

So, after previously verifying with the dumpster people that they'd give me a half hour notice, yeah...never happened. I got a call about 9:00am, stating that the dude was onsite waiting for me. I commended the company on their fine coordination skills. So, I eventually got to the jobsite to find that he had pretty much placed the dumpster where it was needed, but Paul (ICF dude) had just about filled it with a bunch of styrofoam and air, with no consideration that the fucking thing costs $350 a pull. 8 dumpsters filled like that, costs a dude like me around 2K, or a refrigerator if you want to look at it that way. He did not do me any favors by cleaning up his jobsite. Already cranky when I saw this, I fussed at him and then proceeded to rip everything back out and re-throw it. I rearranged blocks and rebar afterward; I was so soaked in sweat, I was dripping. I immediately developed a dehydration headache, this one took no time at all.

Monday, June 3rd, 2019

Happy Birthday, brother. So, I spent the whole weekend working on my budget. It's going to be very tight in the end, even after my bridgegap loan. It's ok though...I've realized that Branko is so cool, that he's basically letting me carte blanche with a lot of this stuff. I'm collecting bids, researching companies, haggling..I'm keeping him in the loop the whole time. Even though I'm handling a lot of stuff myself, I could absolutely in no way do this whole thing on my own.

I caught a great break with the fellows at Titan Doors, I think Matt is going to get me hooked up with all of my doors..at a nice savings over the Home Labyrinth. The Turning Leaf contractors have been coming in and tinkering with the walls and still preparing them. They are on slow pace now with all of this survey and inspection ballyhoo.

Tuesday June 4th, 2019

I just kind of went to the lot and started throwing away the masonry slag pile that was left over. I'm packing the dumpster like I'm playing a game of Tetris for my life. The surveyor came, he and his apprentice shot the slab, and they got on their way. I found that the elevation was indeed correct, thankfully. Branko's battery broke and he couldn't make it. He didn't really need to be here today anyway.

Wednesday, June 5th 2019

Branko came and did rough measurements, and then we went to lunch and discussed the budget. I'd like to think he was fairly impressed at how I managed things. I'm basically a fellow who's trying to squeeze a Buffalo Nickel and make it shit. I'm once again very thankful that he's giving me the power to advocate for myself, and not force contractors on me. I'm unfortunately probably not going to be using his son-in-law Yury, just because he's astronomically expensive. I want to pay him a very generous rate, but we can't seem to meet at a number. Branko understands this and he's got no problem with me going somewhere else. I really appreciate him for that. That's why I'm not trying to send chumps for contractors his way; it's tough to put your name on something if you don't have a relationship with that tradesman. He also knows that if for instance, the foam insulation falls off, or my kitchen cabinet breaks, that's on me..not him. If one of the garage walls or trusses heaven-forbid fails, he and Natalia would be sharing some of that responsibility. But that part won't be a problem.

So, needless to say, this is all starting to get very exciting. I went and picked up hurricane and roof straps yesterday, very cool.

And then we found out that we now probably won't pour until Monday. We can not get the rebar inspection until the slab cert is validated. So now, we're looking at Thurs-Fri for those, and Monday for pour. Yup, that's how she goes sometimes.

Thursday, June 6th, 2019

This is all rather exciting, even with the inspection BS and all that other crap. Branko didn't come today, no real reason to. I hung out on the lot and luckily, Paul was there. I needed to verify that I could put in gas dryer venting and gas tube penetrations. I got on with that, finally installed a decent water hose, and then dealt with a hurricane strap debacle (the big ones wouldn't fit..).....all in a days work.

PROTIP: figure out as many penetrations as you can, before you pour a concrete wall. You'll save all kinds of dollars with your core drilling.

Then the inspector showed up, just as Paul was getting ready to leave. And he seemed happy with the elevation cert. Whew... And we got him to agree to come back in the AM.

So now, we think we can get the rebar inspection tomorrow morning, and be pouring by the afternoon. The sucky part is that I won't be around to see it, I'll be on a gig. That's ok.

The trusses will be delivered Tuesday. Branko found a good quote on a roof. It's looking pretty good so far, I've even found a pretty good quote on the foam insulation.

JR wanted to come over and shoot steadycam on top of the wall, I figured why not. He almost tripped when he was up there, the crazy bugger..scared the crap out of me.

Friday, June 7th, 2019

Branko sent me a picture of the pump truck and boom truck doing it's thing and filling my walls with concrete. It would have been nice to be there, but at least I was making a few bucks and not having to stand in the heat all day. I drove up Saturday morning because I could just not wait to see it, and it was just starting to rain. Walls looked nice and truss straps are in. The fellas were there cleaning up. I found out that they experienced one blow-out in my master bathroom and there was concrete all over the floor. They fixed it all up though.

Yury sent me a revised contract, and I wrote him back offering him a slightly higher bid and thanked him for working with me. In the end, I'm paying a bit more for electric than I might have liked, but I know Yury does good work.

Monday, June 10th, 2019

Not too much today. Didn't even go to the site. Just made calls and did research. Gotta get the windows rolling now that the ICF activity is going to be all cleared out of here. Trusses coming tomorrow.

Tuesday, June 11th, 2019

So, I called the truss company today and found that we're not on the schedule. Though, we were indeed told last week that we'd be on it for delivery today. So, I called Branko, who already happened to be on the site, and let him know. He was not happy about that, I don't blame him. So, he got the truss delivery arranged for tomorrow, and we even got the framer lined up for Thursday - Gabriel seems like a pretty nice fella. This is all looking pretty good again.

Oh, the structure looks really cool now that it's all cleared out. I was so busy talking with Branko about things, that I the only picture I took today was for the garage door dude. You can see one of the poured-in-place beams. Pretty cool.

I've been a busy lad too.. I'm arranging windows, the garage door, doors, foam insulation, floor polishing, and landscaping. Got people coming on site tomorrow... it's really cool when things are going like this - but that is just not always the case. Also found out that the're like a 5-6 week lead time on the windows.

Why does no one tell me these damned things??

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

I got up to the lot about noon I guess. The truss delivery came about an hour later; cool dudes. They were very careful about their drop point, and the driver nailed it.

Thursday, June 13th, 2019

Met with John Riddle and gave him a huge check for the ICF. Shit, did that hurt. Met with France today and she sadly informed me that my floors were not up to snuff to be polished. Sealed, perhaps, but no polishing for me. That sucks. So, I may have to do tile after all, we'll see what happens after I talk to a designer. Hung out with Branko on the site today, he's here preparing for the trusses going on tomorrow. We're also getting the interior rough framing done as well, all for a good price.

I've been researching finishes, house claddings, and appliances like a freaking madman. This is kinda fun. And often all-consuming.

Friday, June 14th, 2019

Truss day. By the time I got to the lot, the fellas already had the garage trusses installed. There's five hombres running around, shouting out orders to each other in Spanish, mariachi music blaring from their work tunes box. These dudes have the ass-busting job of getting my trusses up top, sans crane. They're dinging up my styrofoam on top of the wall, but I suppose it's nothing a little Great Stuff can't fix.

One of my arsehole neighbors called the city on me as well, as I guess I have some clean fill runoff from rainstorms, into the canal a bit. They don't seem to care that everyone else runs their rain gutters into it, all that crap that's on your shingles and all...... But, I fixed it for now, screw those people.

No crane, but maybe a hernia

Please watch my styrofoam, and don't decapitate yourself

Saturday, June 15th, 2019

Today, there were six hombres total, and they just about had the ass kicked out of these trusses.Spanish people are building the majority of my house so far, and by far. I think that's pretty cool. Though, I don't think my brother would be pleased to learn that at least a few of them have got to be illegals. ;-) It's at this level: I know more Spanish than most of my framers know English. it's hilarious. And they seem to be very, very good craftsman. Branko is pleased with them. They were referred by Casey, so we know the head guy Gabriel is indeed on the up and up as I mentioned. He's a good boss and has what seems to be a capable foreman. They all talk and laugh and communicate and yell..I like the dynamic of the crews that I've employed. Low-drama, hardworking and skilled people demanding much more reasonable labor rates. I'm overall pleased with the trades Branko has been finding. And he's still being very liberal about me finding contractors as well, it's indeed saved me bucks and evened me out where I went over budget with things. That kind of balancing act will be a fight to the very end.

JR crashed his drone while doing some filming of the trusses, a nice breeze off the lake sent it right into the electric service pole. RIP, little drone. He's not allowed to find out that Branko and I laughed about that one pretty hard once he was out of earshot. He's already working on another, bless his heart.

There's been a bit of rain to work around, but that's ok once you have a cured slab. Soon enough the roof will be on and we'll really be able to cover some tracks inside. I've still been at the research. There's deals to be had on the big 2 (Amazon and Ebay) and elsewhere..it's just a matter of looking and striking. I'm starting my collection this week. Soon, the delivery guys from Amazon Prime, FedEx, and UPS are going to hate me. Because the poor bastards are going to be delivering about half of my house. I seriously have a fuckton of shit in my Amazon and Ebay carts. Whoops, sorry mom... shit.

Can you spot the bonus room?

Sunday, June 16th, 2019

I went to the lot and covered some plywood. It was nice to be there with it all quiet, I'm sure my neighbors appreciated it too. It was also nice that the crew cleaned up the lot of all the wood bits and such. Don't get me wrong tho- there's enough nails laying around all over to give an entire battalion tetanus or something. I've already picked up enough good ones to make a treehouse. Just got to plant some trees. Got lots to do this week. Needing to get windows squared away, and supposed to be meeting Matt from Titan Doors about my entire door quote. Looking forward to that, I think I'll come in under budget and have some killer doors. Big doors. Talking to some designers to figure out some simple designs and colors for the interior and exterior. Branko suggested stucco on the garage, and some kind of cement board for the house. I really like where he went with that.

I just wish everybody would quit putting holes in my damned floor though. The framers now drilled into it a few places, for truss bracing. The more holes and cracks, the more I'm thinking that this concrete option is going to go out the window. I can fill the holes and seal the cement, but if I decide to do any kind of flooring after, off comes at least half of the bottom wall trim in each room. Probably all of it in any case. It's shit like this that comes into my brain at 6am and then, well, yeah....up and at it.

Lots to do. So glad I'm not gigging right now. Too much to think about with this. I hope I do some serious turkey-type talking this week with window, door, and hvac (havoc?) people...

Monday, June 18th, 2019

Hot. So damn hot. The decking is on the garage for some shade, but there's so many damn workers running around that Branko and I just stay outside. They are all over the place- 2 or 3 on the roof, couple in the trusses, another two or three outside cutting and running shit. There's now two women on the crew too.

Tuesday, June 19th
On this little memoir as it were, I can safely tell you that I don't log even half of the shit that goes on in one day. If I haven't been on the site today, at least one bad thing would have happened, maybe two. The crew was going by some incorrect door schedules, and they were already building 6'8' interior door frames when they should have been building 8'. Glad I caught that.

Other various shit, from crew chiefs asking me questions I can barely understand, meeting with the door dude and new gas guy, to having to ask Branko to call to have the nearly overflowing dumpster changed out. Why do I have to ask this??

Branko and I also had to do an 84 Lumber run. It's times like these that make building a home definitely less glamorous. As soon as we got back and got the lumber in the garage, it started to piss down rain.

It's been a very constant struggle to try and keep expenses in check. I shave an expense or find a deal somewhere, and a whole new expense or needed purchase pops up. I mean, I definitely should've budgeted for gas service installation, as well as a tankless hot water heater. Yup..I just gave birth to at least a new 3K expense right there in that last sentence. I'm trying to save dollars with whatever, and Branko's definitely trying to help me with that cause. With what were saving together, and what keeps popping up, I'm hoping to finish somewhere *near* my budget. I really have no damn choice.

Thursday, June 20th, 2019

Well, this was a day for the books. One that'll cost me at least $500 more for the framing fees, but what the fuck ever. It's just par for the course at this point. Last night I started doing some measuring on the plans and I got a bad feeling. I have everything lined up in the kitchen a certain way. Starting from the small powder room, there's about ~21' or so of usable space for the kitchen. And the hood has to line up between the twin windows that are up in the vaulted ceiling. There's no room to move shit around without affecting something else in a big way.

Now see, I'm already on the shit list with this nice crew of people, as they have to fix a few 6'8 doors that need to be 8'. Or at least I feel I'm on it. So imagine how I feel when I show up with a dozen donuts early this morning, only to come in the house, do some measuring, and realize that yes, yes indeed- the hood will NOT be aligned with the windows. Shit and double shit. At least I lost a lot of sleep last night for a good reason. We came up with a solution, but it took two of them all day to fix the problem (moving a window closer in to the other; it's just for light and was easier than moving two). It's going to cost at least what I mentioned above.

This is kind of the way it goes when fine details aren't a part of your builders plan; in my case, Branko's looking to get some fucking walls and a roof up, and while he's looking at everything, he's also missing some of those very important things. In the end, the fine details are up to you, dear potential home custom builder, and you'd better be really, really aware of those... because look what I've missed and messed up so far in this small little cottage. It's up to you to make sure everything's perfect in the end. And it takes a lot of time. And concentration. And consideration. For starters.

I'm just glad that the new employment I've taken up is virtually dead in the summer. Very glad. This is all becoming full-time for me. I'm constantly thinking about some kind of un-addressed element, like landscaping or house cladding for instance, or I'm constantly looking for things that are needed for the kitchen (or house in general). And always fighting for a way to do something cheaper. Always.

And today was another hot one. Oh my was it hot. In between Home Depot runs, I noticed the porto-let was definitely getting gamey. I mean, some of the hombres were shitting mad in it. Some of their co-workers who spoke some English started complaining about it.. rightfully so. The thing was getting out of hand. Badly. So I called the company, and they tried to tell me that it was getting serviced every Friday, which shit no it wasn't! And they said that some dude named Chris, from some company I've never heard of, was paying for it. And they recited the right address.....I literally was in bizarr-o world at that point, I didn't know wtf was going on. I was actually thankful that Branko didn't have to deal that phone call...nobody should have had to. Holy shitcrackers was that a confusing situation. And I'm still unsure if I'll have a cleared out job-john tomorrow.

Finally, on a lighter note, it was good today to sneak up a ladder (there were many to choose from) and go up into my 'bonus room' as I call it. Pics of the view below. I also went to a stone place that wasn't so overwhelming. Just trying to figure out what countertops I may be looking at for the next 2 or 3 decades. I'll get it all figured out eventually.

And here's some pics of the house getting near framing completion. I think that as of today, they're about 90% framed. And I still cannot converse with about 90% of the crew.

And I'm now finally realizing... for a one-story, this concrete cottage is TALL.

PROTIP: Your windows will take at least a month. You will benefit greatly to find a way to get them ordered as soon as possible. This may mean that you have to trust your framer to build out the openings EXACTLY as specified. Otherwise, you will have to wait to get your framing inspection done, like I'm having to do. Windows are required for this inspection.

Friday, June 21st, 2019

So, Branko went home yesterday evening, for a 3-day weekend. He figured that the framers would show up in the morning, cut and hammer the last few things, and Gabriel got them to cover the roof with the peel and stick underlayment. Yeah, right. If it were even only slightly that simple.

Let me tell you, it's hot. So, oppressively, unhumanely hot that it's just freaking ridiculous. There's been no rain for the last two days. But there's been plenty of sun..and 98 degree weather. So, like the awesome guy I am, I went to the lot early because I figured the dudes would need shit. Fellas already up there on my roof, roasting and sweating away, it's kinda madness. Right away, they needed some yellow pine. I'm half asleep and go to the Depot, and pickup up 15 pieces of spruce instead. I'm told this under hot sun already getting hotter, and I'm getting so damn cranky. And the day is just beginning.

I hung out on the lot all day, picking up the construction trash and putting it in the dumpster all nicely so I can completely fill that damn thing up like the last one. They probably all think I'm nutz. I did that in between HD runs. I went there 4 times today. The last one was because they forgot to put in my clerestory windows, that face the canal. They were not too pleased with that, it added at least 3 hours to their time. Not my fault, look at the damn plans. I'm glad I was there to catch it. Again. Poor buggers had to install two 2x6 windows in the vertical roof juncture.

Well, it was no fucking day at the pool for me either.

I ran out of water and thought I could hold out. We never learn. I'm not going to go into great detail, but I got a touch of heatstroke today and it wasn't pretty. I almost passed out and puked in traffic on the way home. That's two separate instances at two separate stop lights. It's a fairly awful feeling. In the end however, I got some really good work done for a very reasonable rate. He charged me $400 for the roof work, and $200 for the kitchen window mistake I made. Just glad I was lurking the lot, or there would've been costlier mistakes being made. Cost of the lumber wasn't bad too.. even with all the home store runs. Overall this item was a win for coming in under budget. Not many are like that.

These guys were really tough workers that did not take breaks, except for a long and well-deserved lunch. They worked hard and were fairly professional; they cleaned up after themselves and they seemed very nice. I ended up making one more trip- I got them a case of beer and ice for when they finally finished, which when I was leaving there, was 5:20. Whew.

And in other news, the shitter fairy swooped in and serviced the shitter sometime in the night too. Good thing too, framers were getting up in arms. I'd bet that at least two of them have a nasty case of IBS.

Oh yeah.. and the house is now completely framed and somewhat rain-covered.

Post-move

View from the top

Bonus room

Often the reality

Saturday, June 22nd, 2019

I went to the site in the morning, and what a change at how peaceful everything was. The crew did a pretty good job at cleaning up; they left a few things lying around but it was easy to straighten up. They did leave a couple little things un-done, but nothing I can't fix myself. It was nice just to sit in the structure and look around...it's really taken shape and now really easy to see how the whole house is going to be laid out. I got up in the trusses and inspected every strap. I got on the roof and inspected the outside as best as I could. I then just poked around and picked stuff up.

Monday, June 24th, 2019.

Check day. Boy did I write a few of those today. Branko came into town. I asked him if he had any trades lined up for this week, and he said he'd start calling. I asked why he didn't start calling last week, when we knew the framing would be done. He didn't have an answer. This is why I get frustrated sometimes. But I try to be patient.

I wrote a check for the windows, the roof, and the framing today. Ouch. All good though. I also in the morning picked up the Prosoco Cat-5 liquid-applied home barrier. I come to find that Coastal Bldg Supply is more expensive than Amazon... wtf? I got the stuff anyway, I couldn't be too concerned. First step is to gun in the Gap and Seam Filler, and then, roll on the barrier. It's just that it's been so ungodly hot that, I'm having to seriously consider time frames where I can do this without getting heat stroke...again. Supposed to meet Ezra Mason tomorrow morning about the AC. I may let Branko meet up with him so I can go to IKEA and get my kitchen finalized.

PROTIP: Start lining up your roofer well before the framing is done.

Monday, June 23rd, 2019

So of course Ezra and Branko never met up and of course I never got a phone call. Still trying to be patient. I don't even know if he's going to be here tomorrow or what he's got lined up because he never really communicates with me. On the bright side, I did go to IKEA and I think I got it all figured out.

Late in the day I went to the house and started prepping for the gap and seam filler application, and I did a mad inside clean-up with the blower. It started raining after a while, so I just decided to wait to start it tomorrow. It was cool to be inside and not be getting wet. It did leak in a few places, but that was kind of expected. It's just underlayment up there.

Tuesday, June 24th, 2019

I started the upper floor seal-up today. It's going to be a long process. I purchased a sausage gun, and you should too, if you're doing this. Sausages hold twice as much as standard caulk cartridges, and the guns are geared- I'm getting a 12:1 ratio for dispensing...it's easy. Which, something needs to be easy... my shirt was absolutely drenched by 9:30. It takes a long time to fill nail holes and seams, that's where I started. Every little gap and seam needs to be filled with this pink shit until the fluid applied barrier goes on. It went much slower than I had anticipated, and I ended up getting heat exhausted once again- so stupid. Not as bad as last Friday, but bad enough nonetheless. You literally can almost not drink enough water. I'll be glad when the outside work is done. But who am I fooling, I'm going to be doing outside stuff until at least mid-September.

Wednesday, June 25th, 2019.

Up and at em early to try and beat some heat to finish this tedious task. Plumber was supposed to come today, didn't end up showing. He should be here tomorrow. Branko was not supposed to come but showed up early afternoon. Tim Roseland showed up too with his trusty Bobcat, it was time to remove some hedges and finally get the lot straightened out. Roofing supplies coming tomorrow, so this needs to happen today if it's going to. The fabled Yury is supposed to come too. We'll see how that goes. Hopefully he's nice to me.

Today, I got to start on the shaded side, and I really didn't have to work in the direct sun much at all. It was still high-up ladder work, very deliberate shit. I still managed to give myself a heat headache - I brought and drank a gallon of water, literally..and I still ran out and still jacked myself up a bit.

If someone said to me, "so today, we can go work all day in that weapons-grade heat, or we can bathe feral cats in the air conditioning..." I'ma be like, where's those fucking cats. Give me a bakers dozen of the things.

But I digress. Got the seams and holes all sealed. Starting the fluid house wrap tomorrow. Chatted with Isaac, and he now thankfully wants to do a wood fence, just like I wanted to do all along. I don't know what the hell he was talking about before. We can go halves on this no prob. In a few years we can get something different if we want. I can do the same thing on JR's side, so that'll work good. Gotta have me some privacy. Isaac's yard looks like a bit like a flea circus.

And Branko still doesn't remember a thing I tell him.

If I didn't fill about 2,000 holes, I didn't fill one...

I named him Scott

Hedges gone

Friday, June 28th, 2019

When I arrived on site this morning, there was already one turd chaser there. 2 or 3 more were due to show up. Branko was about as well, by 8:00. I got to work. I completed the entire back and canal side with the R-Guard Cat 5 liquid home wrap. The plumbers had the second rough completed by 2:00. By then, I'd drank 5 quarts of water, and I still jacked myself up. It's just a normal thing now. If I work in the heat in the direct sun, I'm going to get a bad headache. My shirt could've stuck to the wall, I'm glad I brought another one along. Trying to drive that rubbery liquid into OSB with a thick ass roller was hellish. My home will be both super protected and draft-tight, but man it's a lot of work. On the bright side, I may be able to get away with one bucket, saving myself about $550. That's a score.

I didn't take a picture today. I just wanted to get done and gtfo.

Saturday, June 29th, 2019

Clouds. Lots of them. They were a blessing amongst blessings. I finished the outside Cat-5 treatment with the sun behind the clouds the entire time, and it was awesome. Still hot, but way manageable. Still sweaty as shite, but no headache. Ran out of Cat-5 right as I finished the last area of OSB. The 100 sf of the garage OSB will get regular ol' Tyvek home wrap.

I finished that up and took the blower up in the attic area, blew all the construction debris down to the bottom floor and worked it all out of the house from there. It was extremely messy and dusty, but needed to be done.

Tim did a good job leveling out the lot. It really looks like a much more legit jobsite now.

Um, I think you missed a spot up there

Sunday, June 30th, 2019

I just putzed around on the site for a while. I did some spray foam, fixed up some window opening coverings...plugged up a couple small penetrations. Been doing lots of going around and trying to find any place that air can infiltrate. Used up a whole sausage tube of Gap and Seam filler. Met with Yury finally, he's a nice fella and I think he's going to do me right with the electric, I just wish it wasn't going to take him so long.

Monday, July 1st, 2019

Hit a snafu today, found that the roof materials weren't going to be delivered. I didn't go to the site to work today, just took a ride up to show Heena my digs. The hood delivery came in. I hope it's not dented.

Tuesday, July 2nd, 29019

Got the delivery thing worked out for the roof, the materials will be here tomorrow and the roofer should be starting Friday. Damn holiday week.

Did lots of stuff all around the property. Worked on more 'tightening' of the house. One more can of Great Stuff, and I should be at a point where I'll be totally ready for the spray foam insulators in about 3 weeks.

I climbed onto the high roof. It was cool.

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2019

Still struggling like the dickens trying to get my exterior figured out. It's the same battle - it's gotta look cool, but not break me..so much easier said than done.

Yury was there when I showed up, and stayed most of the day. His associate came in in the afternoon, and was still there when I left. This wiring may get done quicker than I had expected. Also arrived were the exterior doors I found in the garage today, they are beauties. 8' doors are a trip. The HVACers showed up as well. It was a busy day in the house. Then came the roof delivery. Lots of pretty galvalume metal panels. The delivery guy was an expert driver for sure. JR let us come through his yard, made things much easier.

I got my tools out of storage and got them all sorted. Going to be some fun work coming up. The heat prevails..they actually issued a heat advisory today. I think every day in Florida summer should see some kind of heat advisory, ffs. Don't even know why they bothered issuing it.

Oh, and when they were pouring the ICF walls, the blowout in the master bath leaked a bunch of concrete into the shower pan, while there was water in there. When the water was gone, the ugly monster reared its head. I'm going to have much more fun chipping away at this mess.

Did I mention how fucking hot it is?? You literally can't even stand around without sweating.

Thursday, July 4th, 2019

Well, since it was July 4th and all, not too much was going on. Ezra and his business partner and friend Gordon were there working on the HVAC for a bit though. I was surprised when I met Ezra, to see that he was a youngster..25 to be exact. Good for him, he's apparently good at what he does already, and he apparently works hard to support his three kids.

I then just messed around with some things once again...cleaning shit up and putzing around..I ended up back at my roommates house, doing some work there...why not.

And while downtown, I got a call from Branko. He was on site, and figured out that at least two of my doors were not going to fit...damnit. Going to call Matt from Titan about this tomorrow morning. If it's not one thing it's another. We also found some problems with the framing that Gabriel will need to address.

Friday, July 5th, 2019

No sign of Ezra today, but he said he'll be roughed in by the end of day Saturday, so I'm not sweating it. Yury was there working furiously, and Branko and I got to assessing the problems. Then Matt showed up, and we began working toward solutions. One of the doors was just straight screwed up, Titans's fault, they sent us a totally wrong door for the entrance to the garage. It was not wide enough, and way too tall. Not sure what happened there but they're sending us a new door. We've decided that I'll meet Matt tomorrow, and we'll re-do one of the main entry door jambs, and dry-fit the other 3 doors to make sure. Going to be fun doing this with rain threatening... I guess this is easier for Matt than to have the other doors re-ordered. I'm sure he doesn't want to go through all that with his boss or whatever. He's a former GC, so his solution is to get some tools and get on site. I'm not going to argue, I don't care how my damn doors get installed.

Casey showed up today too...he's apparently going to collect some fellas to install my roof, under Branko's supervision. It's not shingles, so I think this'll be fine. And, will be much cheaper than caucasian labor rates.

Yury is cranking along, he was cutting holes in the ICF today for gang boxes, amongst other things. He's already found two issues from the framers. There are three of those total; my list grows. But it's been nice to work with Yury; he indeed doesn't want any of my help, so I'm staying out of his way until he needs me for any questions about placement of things or whatever. I think he's finally starting to like me a bit (I've been cracking jokes and making him laugh), so from what it seems, I think I'll be able to get (within reason) whatever kind of electrical configurations that I'm desiring.

Always try to stay on your contractors' good sides.....I think it's a pretty solid rule.

Saturday, July 6th, 2019

Heat, sweat, and sawdust. This was a productive enough Saturday. Matt showed up ready to go, and I assisted him as best as I could while he took on the task of shaving down one jamb, and completely removing another- we replaced one side/top from 2x12 to 1x12's. It was dirty work, sawdust everywhere. The tapcons holding the 2/12's in place were poured, not drilled... so they didn't want to come out. A 4# hammer and lots and lots of resolve remedied this. All my doors will fit now...for 3 hours time and some pizza for the worker, crisis averted.

Yury and Kiah were there today, now the electrical rough-in is about 2/3 complete.

The rest of the day, I cleaned up the site and went around back to continue my 'grading' project. I've been going around picking up stones and raking/shoveling earth, trying to establish a gentle grade to keep water from pooling around the structure. I don't like the thought of lots of excess water constantly soaking into my new foundation.

Now the next crisis is what Gabriel the framer will have to deal with; we've found at least 5 mistakes that need to be addressed.

I've picked up buckets and buckets of rocks and concrete slag, and whatever other undesirable garbage is laying around.

Sunday, July 7th, 2019

I got on site late in the morning, as Yury was leaving. I swept up and re-measured the door frames. Ah, the interior door frames. Remember when I said that those framers were good craftsman? Well, they were, for the most part. But damn. They messed a lot of things up. As soon as Matt got done with the door re-framing yesterday, he started measuring internal openings. A third of them were messed up in at least some way. There are now several framing mistakes that have been identified by other trades. I started making a list for Gabriel. Damn it. He'd better get here fast, it's apparently growing by the day.

And then the roof. This is where I get a bit frustrated with Branko. The underlayment is protecting most of the osb, but certainly not all of it. A storm came, and I saw just how wet it could still get in there. The water runs under the ripples in the underlayment, and comes raining down on the interior. It's soaking areas of the osb, especially the edges...never a good thing. At this point, I'm sitting in there and just wondering why, I mean holy shite it's been 18 days now since we've been framed, still no roof on my house yet. Materials have been in my yard for a week. The holiday week didn't help anything either...but the ball was really fumbled in the grand scheme of it all.

So I texted/called Branko, and he said he was working on it. The last text I got from him was that his roofer friend was going to do it starting tomorrow morning. Shit, I hope so. I know we're held up on the framing inspection by the windows, but it'd be nice to have a dry interior.

And it would be nice if people texted. Ezra the HVAC dude is obviously busy, but please don't tell me you'll be done by Saturday and then not show up or call at all for the entire weekend.

On a positive note, Bela Tech has been kicking complete ass. They are ripping through the rough-in, they should be complete in within a week. All the runs are very neat and they are even tunneling receptacle holes in the garage blocks. Yury's opened up...he's got a good sense of humor and we joke around now. I proudly showed him one of my electric multi-tools, and he asked me if I stole it from a child. Zing.

Low spot

I named her Pearl. She hunkered down with me. 

Monday, July 8th, 2019

Production. Professional roofers showed up, things were looking good by the time I got there. Also on site was Gabriel, ready to send his two fellas along to fix the issues, which he did. We ended up getting those things taken care of, as well as finally talking to someone about fencing. Spray Foam dude showed up to survey the scene as well. I fixed a low spot in front of the garage that was getting lower. I hate those. More grading. I borrowed Isaac's shitty little wheelbarrow next door, and the handles almost snapped. I mean, sheesh.

At any rate, a couple of nagging issues have been addressed. Roof will be done (from what they say) by Wednesday afternoon. I really wish I could get those windows quicker.

I was so glad about the roofers. I mean, I like Casey and all, but he's a concrete dude ffs. Branko figured he could have directed him and his workers somehow. But in this case, this is a real roofing crew putting this on and it's kind of weird that they're all white and speak English. Must have something to do with it being a metal roof. But they are doing a fantastic job so far, and for a reasonable rate from what it looks like.

Tuesday, July 9th, 2019

The roof continues. The dudes have been hitting little snafus that are keeping them from finishing in a timely manner, like missing tool belts and hospital visits for stitches. Hazards of the job I suppose. I just hung out as usual, cleaning up this or that. Yury and Kiah showed up. Electrical rough-in almost done. There sure is a lot to that shit.


Wednesday, July 10th, 2019

I installed two bathroom fans today, one more to go. I'm not going to know what it's like to have bathroom fans. Crazy. Roof continues, they're almost done.

Been less 'outside' work the last few. Which basically means just working in the shade of the inside of the house, but still sweating absolutely profusely from the insane humidity.

Thursday, July 11th, 2019

I installed the last bathroom fan in the guest br. Ezra and his crew showed up today to finish the HVAC rough-in.

I continue to look for cladding options. I'm still thinking I need to go with smooth lap siding for the house and stucco for the garage. So, I've been looking for options around that configuration. Still a bit maddening trying to get it all figured out.

We ran out of a couple pieces of material for the roof, AND the supply place won't be able to get said material until Monday. Shite. So, just the North edge of the very top is uncovered. And some drip edge around the rest - but that's ok, it's all like 95% done.

That's some tough buggers up on that there roof.

Almost done

Friday, July 12th, 2019

This was core drilling day. Good stuff. Some other shit too, of course. I'm still trying to figure out when to do the Bora-Care treatment and run my security camera ethernet. Both have to be done before foam insulation.

So, I went through a lot of pains to make sure that the ventilation hood was positioned just right (in my case, 34 inches from the counter as it's a firey-ass gas cooktop) and I also got the long tapcons drilled so they'd be ready when I went to finally hang it. Then the concrete fella came with his badass water drill, made easy work of 6" of concrete wall. I also had him punch me a hole in the garage back wall, so I can air condition the garage in the summer if I want to work in there.

Aaaand, Ezra's boys came in and positioned the AC ducts right in the way of my attic access. These are some of the things that you have to deal with along the way...things will get messed up and you just have to deal and move on. The important part is dealing with someone who will always stand behind their work, and address issues professionally and promptly. So far, I've been pretty fortunate with that.

Saturday, July 13th, 2019

This was a fun day. Well, not really but kind of. I decided that I was going to seal all the outside styrofoam block joints, to make sure that any water that infiltrated behind the house cladding would run straight down the styrofoam and not collect between any gaps. I also see way too many ants climbing around on it, and I found some nesting in a section inside the house. Definitely got to seal them all out. So I filled all the seams with caulking. It took a while, as you might guess. I did most of the house, and left the East-facing side for the morning. It was gratifying and extremely tiring all at the same time.

Yury and Kiah were there, they're getting close to being done with the rough in.

Not a single open seam

Sunday, July 14th, 2019

I showed up before Yury with the lumber he requested. I kept working the rest of the blocks, and then turned my attention to some preps on the outside door openings. I'm really wanting to get the doors in, but Branko seems to be in no rush...I'd do it myself, but they are heavy ass 8' exterior doors. So I press on. I'll bug him until he gets someone there. Yury showed up and pretty much didn't stop until the rough-in was mostly complete. He's a Belarusian wiring machine. I helped him clean up and did the usual answer any question he had when he had one, and all the other various bs I do on the site at any given time. I developed a really nice headache and I wasn't even in the sun full time. Still have it at this writing. Joy.

A new problem has reared its head. I've been doing a lot of house-based shopping and research..and lately I've been pulling the trigger when I've been finding deals. And shit's been rolling in. So much shit that some of it's been getting delivered to the next door neighbor. But it's all cool, they're friends with Heena. I came home last week and found about 6 packages on the porch and they all weren't small. There's boxes and housewares all over the living room and I hope I can get my house secure enough in a month to get it all there before my roommate comes home on her next visit. And shit, I think I gave her my url. Heena, if you're reading this - Namaste from Florida! It's all under control here. ;-)

It's times like this when I'm relieved that my roommate lives in Germany

Monday, July 15th, 2019

Well, the roof completion wasn't happening today either. The supply place was still a day behind. So, Branko didn't come out as there was no need. Still a ton of shit to do there. I double-checked all the outside sealed joints, and I swept up as usual for starters. The place was still a bit of a wreck.. this took a while. Had two different fence appointments, for which I never got replies. Seems normal at this point.

I visited two different distribution houses trying to get the siding figured out. At this point, I'm just going to throw it in Branko's lap, let him figure it out. That's why I'm paying the fella. Too frustrating for a civilian like me.

Tuesday, July 16th, 2019

A few of the roof dudes showed up to complete the final day on the job. It's funny how what they said would be a 2-3 day job has turned into 8. Whatevs. Branko and I had to put out two different fires with the drip edge, first being that we all couldn't figure out how to bend a 90 degree piece into a deeper 75-80 degree bend. It wasn't as easy as you'd think... that shit has a seriously thick gauge to it. But one of the tradesman figured out a way and we were both able to do it. Branko and I then had to go to HD to get some more drip edge that needed to be cut all the way down to make a usable piece because if we ordered the right ones correctly, it would've been a special-order several day wait, and a 1.5 hr round-trip to get them. But those dudes grabbed the cutters and persevered. Another very long day. I brought them some drinks and beers.

Wednesday, July 17th, 2019

So, I've got the house to myself today more or less and I knew I wanted to get some cabling done for net and cameras. I also checked out the roof. Found an immediate and glaring problem with one of the boot flashings. As you'll see in the pic below, all I can wonder is if they would install that on their own roofs looking that way. Holy shite and I even brought them drinks. I texted Mike and he said he'd have someone over to 'fix it right away'. We'll see. I haven't paid them yet. Man, it's shit like this, I tell ya. Someone's mother should be embarrassed that they bore a son that did this. For real. Would this get by an inspector?

Holy shit it might, because the last roofing inspector I dealt with at my former home didn't even bring a ladder. It was kind of amazing. It's a story I tell to contractors for a laugh.

Anyway, I got to cabling. It was slow going as well. I had to run two cables to each room (tv and net each) and one to the living room for the TV there. I also had to get way up in the trusses, so high up above the kitchen, and so damn precariously that I had to hang on with at least one hand, while I ran camera line. It was all a hot damn sweaty mess. Damned dangerous too, I was 18' up and on the wrong side of the wall. Between various other things (met with Todd the tile dude, he may be doing the floor) and running out of cabling, I called it a day. Was still a full one.

Thursday, July 18th, 2019

My Amazon delivery came and I had more cabling. So I was able to finish my last two runs to the master just in time for Yury to come in and start grumbling about my 'low voltage' install on his permit. Come on man. I even told him I was doing it! Belarusians... He was cool about it though, I think my runs were ok enough and he's got other things to worry about. He ran the 'big cable' in today. The main feeder. Crazy shit.

He'd have been overall done so much quicker if he didn't have OCD. That works against him, but for customers like me.. I also think that since this is his father-in-laws project, he's just going to shine for it. More so than he normally might.. but I speculate.

This morning I stopped by Coastal and grabbed about $600 more of Prosoco products. The last batch. I got all the Fast Flash that I think I'll need, with Air Dam, and more Joint and Seam filler. I got up on the roof with some of that and back-filled the flash joints that sit on the front gable and back roofs, respectively. Going to go over those with Fast Flash, and once that's done we should be tight for decades to come. Lots of work but will be worth it.

A nice little storm came soon after, just enough to cure the product.

All the other little 'expenses' are adding up, stuff outside of my budget. Not big things, but things that again, accumulate the costs. Shit like application appliances for Boracare or the Prosoco Cat5. Various other tools. Various rough-in fixtures. I'm trying to keep receipts and maintain control as always.

Other fun things:

Shit keeps stacking up at Heena's house. Luckily, the garage door dude is going to come on Monday and install my door, and Tom O is going to help me with the entrance one. This way, we can secure the garage and I'll have a place to put all my housewares. I hope so. It's a huge ass garage, at least by my standards.

Recycling..it's every freaking week now for me. The neighbors must wonder what the hell I'm doing, all manner of trucks dropping boxes of shit galore...then they see the whole front-yard ritual of cutting and breaking the damn things down every other day, after I've removed the merch, and stuffing the boxes in the can. They must think I'm nutz.

And my truck. It's constantly in a shithoused state. The front of my service panel is in my front seat, Yury wanted me to take it away from the property.

And that's about that for now. Electricity inspection tomorrow.

Friday, July 19th, 2019

Partial pass on the electric, some things just weren't in place to get the total green light. Things like gas (real disappointed in those propane fuckwits) and AC..Ezra was balls to the wall at first, but we'll see how he handles the ventilation fix, as well as working with Yury for the power.

I got on site late in the day and Yury had run my network drops, he's one cool cat. I squeezed out the rest of the sausage of Joint and Seam filler in some good places, soaked my shirt in sweat doing so. I think I'm going to have some cool AV options setup for my room and the living room. No surround sound or any shit like that, but I can easily do it later if I like.

I'm just constantly thinking about and researching ideas and products..it really never stops. Even when I take a break and watch TV I'm on my phone, pricing stuff on Amazon/Ebay, or reading about some kind of construction or installation practices. As I said....it really never stops. Having an elderly builder is not helping that either, because half of the shit I worry about, he most certainly should be worrying about instead. But his mind is just not in it for the details and planning ahead. He certainly took another payment from me the other day with great vigor...so I'm going to try and have him earn a bit more of it. Because up until now, I've made his job fairly easy. Minus the driving - he's certainly done a lot of that.


Sunday, July 21st, 2019

Not much doing today, just took a bunch of measurements for: siding and trim, cement backerboard for the showers, wood for the bedrooms and bathrooms. The quote I received to do the tile for both the showers and main area of the house was reasonable, but my margin is still running super tight and I may be putting down all wood flooring, because it's reasonably enough priced and I can do it myself. So it's a consideration for saving a few dineros.

Got everything ready for Tom to show up tomorrow and help me with the entrance door. Maybe a bit more if I can work him for it. Maybe going to do the IKEA run after garage is secure..got to do it tomorrow or Tuesday if I want to save me at least $500 on a promotion..

I'll have to see how Branko handles this siding thing tomorrow. I have all of the measurements to hand over to him..I can't be expected to be more involved than that.

Monday, July 22nd, 2019

Tom O showed up early and we got to work on the garage entrance door. The people installing the big door were running late so that worked out. We got that in, and Branko showed up as we were finishing. I then had him help me install the pocket door frame, and we worked on a concept for the master shower bench. I wish he would have taken the twenty minutes to build it (it will take me probably 3 hours). After two hours total of helping me, it was like he couldn't get out of there fast enough...ok thanks and talk soon..lol.

Branko got on the phone and started calling people. I finished running the rest of the cabling up into the attic and other places.

The garage install guys were fantastic. They showed up and worked neatly, efficiently, and professionally. Dan @ SohoStone garage doors has a great business going, and I'd recommend him to anyone who's needing a new or replacement garage door.

Branko spent a bunch of time researching and calling about siding. Now, what's going to happen is that he's going to be totally focused on that, and likely forget about scheduling and coordinating things like drywall, soffit/fascia, or trim carpentry. And he's going to be gone from August 12th to the 22nd. Yeah, there's a great chance I won't be moving in officially until November 1st.

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019

Kitchen day. I had to catch the 10% promo before it ended on the 28th. So, after a fairly uneventful morning at IKEA, I got most of the kitchen transported to the house in my Escape. Some of the rest that they didn't have in stock is being delivered, including the built-in dishwasher. Not sure how I wrangled that one but hell yeah. It was nice and quiet in the kitchen dept this morning, I had full attention of the staff. It's likely going to be a hellish weekend for them with the promotion coming to an end.. All of the stragglers will be rolling in. Got the cargo loaded into the garage and headed out, no work to do today.

Branko emailed and said he has someone for the siding...we'll see. Still lots of things to concern ourselves with.

Tuesday, July 30th, 2019

And I'm back after a nice and relaxing stay with the family up in Pa. That went too fast. Back on site today, and lots to do. I have found out that the windows are being delivered tomorrow. This puts a bit of stress on me to finish detailing and flashing the window openings. The AC fellas were there today, lots going on there and we failed the 1st inspection apparently, because I wanted the fan vents routed through the soffits, so there weren't vent caps sticking out the side of the house on the street side. So, the dudes routed them to the back of the house and we put the vent caps there. I think I screwed up and had the vents put up too high, now they're in the way of the soffit a bit. Oh well, it's in the back and the preferred view is not up there.

Gas guy came to do a pre-check. I explained how everything would go, and we came up with a solution. He said they'd be back tomorrow, I said shit I hope so.

I spent the majority of the day (between personal interruptions) on those window openings, squeezing out Joint and Seam Filler. I used some on the vent openings as well, from inside and out, as seen on the vents in the pic below. I'm finally getting to apply FastFlash tomorow, we'll see how that shit works. Stoked for the windows, didn't think they'd be here until next week. One of them is backordered until then...this is a blessing in disguise because it takes the pressure off of me to finish the windows as quickly as possible. We can't get an inspection until they're all in. So I can focus on getting these things in right...and the rest of the doors. Then the damn Boracare. Gonna be a busy next few days.

Wednesday, July 31st, 2019

So they day just started off busy, and it got busier. I was pretty stoked about doing the Fast Flash on the windows, as I've watched a shitton of videos on it and I pretty much felt like I had it down. I got that stuff on there, but like the Cat5 application, it's not easy. The first window opening, as expected, took me a long ass time and I went through a sausage of material quick.. but I ended up getting the hang of it. I was on my third opening when Branko arrived. We caught up, and he made a bunch of calls.

The gas guys finally came. After explaining how it was to be done for the 3rd (literally, the 3rd) time to the same company, they got to work. Nice guys, but I ended up wondering once or twice how they could work with gas and not die.

The framer crew boss that did my roof came by, and agreed that it was a total hack job on the boot flashing that I bitched about in an earlier entry. Don't know how him and Branko are going to fix that, and I don't give much of a shit. The plus is that we negotiated 4,800 for the labor...a really good deal.

The AC inspector came today. I was expecting Ezra or one of his guys to be there, but nope. So, we failed for some of the dumbest crap ever. The fella started asking me about CFM (cubic feet/min) from the fans, and me being the geek ass I am, recited from memory the exact amount for each one of them. As it turns out, code was just effected a year or so ago stating that the CFM of the fan has to match the duct. So in the end, I needed 6" ducting for my 90 CFM fan, 5" for my 80 CFM, and the 4" for my 50 CFM fan. Since I had 4" on all of them, I failed. The inspector was cool, because he knew it was bullshit code, but whatever...they were still going to have to come back. The solution Ezra and I came up with is going to be to put up 50 CFM fans, because there is no way in hell I want them to go back up there in my attic and put bigger holes in my substrate. Man, screw that. We can put in the other ones after they pass the inspection.

This, ladies and gentleman, is some of the minuscule, red-tape bs you have to put up with on the reg. It's enough to make you lose your shit. Man, I've never had a shitter fan- I thought they'd be so cool, but the damn things have proven to be a complete pain in my arse in many ways.

PROTIP: Heed this info and find the code for what applies to your bathroom fan's CFM. Install the right ducting, and keep the documentation for each fan in case your inspector is a dick.

It got into the afternoon, the flash was cured up enough. So, we said screw it and we hung a window - the master bathroom (well, shower) window. A good one to start with since it was small and double-hung...bad because it was directly in the damned sun. After arguing about air gaps and whatnot for half an hour, we finally got to getting the window in..it worked pretty good and I was happy with what I saw. Branko too. Ultimately we have mostly casement windows and those damn things are a snap. It wasn't until the master windows (operable, side-by-side awning-type windows) that we started running into issues. Thankfully our salesman Nathan came by and showed us how the mull bar operates for the install and we got past that - only to find that the window frame was bowed so much, we couldn't install the bar without chipping some wood away from the center. It was awful, really sucky.

I totally hate ICF sometimes. This is one of them. It'll be different when I get my utility bills.

We ran out of workday and good weather before we got the funky master windows in, but we came up with a plan at least. We'll get them in on Friday, and whatever else we can do. Casey is going to come Saturday to help install the doors and whatever Branko and I didn't finish. The 6x2' clerestory in the kitchen, 18' up, is for instance going to be real fun. Tom will be there to help us put in the biggest one, the living room bay window.

There is still so damn much do do.

PROTIP: Don't use any Prosoco products while wearing clothes that you like.

Cooktop gas supply

Flashed

Chipped away at top, prob more to go

Success

I made him stay like this for 2 hours

Entry epilogue:

Another Life. At least I can chill with this silly Netflix show at the end of the night. A week or so ago, my brother told me that he watched it, but totally left out the fact that KS stars in it. Hmph. I'm not mad, just disappointed. I mean, come on Andy.. it's Katee Sackhoff, ffs.

I'm not even sure what the story's about so far. Doesn't matter.

Love her madly

Thursday, August 1st.

Halfway through this heat. A bit more than halfway through this project. The level of things to juggle is insane. The day started with the roofers calling and saying they were finishing up with the boot flash fix, and they were waiting on me for payment. Off I go. So, they fixed it up like nice gentleman, and I wrote a check and started my day. I realized that the grass is just getting way too long. It must be driving some of my neighbors nuts, but I'm under permit so they can't do shite. It's just another one of those issues that pops up that needs to be taken care of. They're like everyday things. Inspectors for instance. Today's HVAC inspector was concerned with the plans, and how Ezra changed up a run a bit that differed from the initial design. I mean, holy fuckall... two different inspectors- one's worried about shitter fan CFM's, the other's worried about plans and shitter fan duct venting. It's insane, there is no uniformity in how these chaps do things and it's pretty maddening. Damn those shitter fans, trouble from the start.

I took the rainblock plastic off of the last few window openings and did the Fast Flash treatment to them. I went through two sausages of that, and 1 of the Joint and Seam filler. Also went around and re-detailed intrusions that AC and other trades made.That took a while.

So, to have these awesome window openings detailed and ready for the brand new windows just sitting there..if I'd been able to put them in myself safely, I'd have damn well tried. Kinda blew to see all that rain come washing in at the end of the day.

Let's see what else. Since I was solo and couldn't do my windows, I got to work on the main entrance shoring up the top 1x6's, a job I was meaning to do. I then got to work on the shower bench. I got it about 2/3 done before I ran out of PT.

There is a company pouring sidewalks and shit in the neighborhood. Some ballsy mofo backed his work truck up on my property and started unloading trash from the back into my dumpster. I just sat and watched this. It wasn't a lot, but it was definitely a ballsy move. I then asked him what he was doing and he spoke in such jibberish that I just let him go and keep unloading. It was too hot.

10+ hour day. 12 by the time I went to Lowes to pick up my sill pans. Still so damn behind. I'll be kinda screwed if Casey doesn't make it on Saturday. Trying to install 12 sf double-paned clerestory windows 17' up with an elderly gent is not my first choice. I feel bad seeing him on a ladder..I like him coaching better.

I had it down by the end

Good for paintball

Friday, August 2nd, 2019

I was onsite early and Branko showed up an hour after. We got to work on the windows. After fighting with the master windows last time, we needed a quick success before we went back to those. So we installed the kitchen twin casements. It went easily. We then got to installing the twin awning windows in the master; oh how much of a pain in the ass was this? You don't even want to know. We got it done though, but not without some serious angst.

We then tried to do the guest room casement windows, and found both openings to be too big. WTF? So, I had a bit of the Fast Flash and a PT 2x4, so we re-bucked a window and I flashed it. We got one installed... It then started raining too hard to do the other, so we left it for later re-bucking and installing. Too many things being put off for 'later'.

Also got a nice slap in the face to find that the huge bay window opening is too small. That's the problem we've had with these stupid ICF openings; the concrete expands as it's curing and shrinks the opening size. So I've got a date with a saw and whatever other funky cutting tools to chop a 1/8" piece off of the opening.

And to top it all off, Casey can't make it tomorrow, so we're putting off the doors and rest of the windows until Monday, when Branko promises to have a strong back available to help us. So stressful not being able to have the resources to get this done. I really hope we can get our framing inspection by the end of the week, but will neither be surprised nor disappointed if we don't.. all I can keep doing is pressing on. It's all good though, still thankful to be doing this.

So for the coming weekend, I'm going to install sill pans for the doors, finish the shower bench, and do the Boracare treatment. As long as I do that before the spray foamers come, I'll be good there.

Just going to keep pressing on. Holy shite am I a busy mofo these days.

Bastardly windows

Re-bucked and plumb

The fearless (brainless?) author spreading Fast-Flash

Looks like this on any given day

Saturday, August 3rd, 2019

So, even if I can't get in some windows (and all of those heavy-ass doors) by myself, there's still plenty of shit to do. I started with finishing out the bucks on the two windows in the guest br that were messed up. I got the returns fixed up and the other window re-bucked...I moved on to the shower bench and finished that up. It's built really well, and I hope the hell so- I think I've got about 5 hours into that frigging thing. I didn't put the worst job off until the end though. I just figured I'd get it overwith..cutting/shaving down that bay window opening. It was awful, sawdust everywhere. And I had to cut into my flash job. But I got it done and I think that window will now just barely fit.

From there I moved on to bringing down the headway opening for the laundry room, to accommodate the roll-up door I plan on putting in there. It lowers the opening by 4", so it shouldn't be too noticeable. Lots of saw-work and hammering and shit. Fun, but it was a long day.

As our stupid-ass president would say: Sad!

Pro-level, yo

Sunday, August 4th, 2019

Well, I wake up with something new sore every day.

Onsite by 9:30 and got on the Boracare treatment I've been threatening to do. Along with the subterranean termite foundation pre-treatment, and the fact that my home is mostly concrete, I should be fairly protected. I did a through sweep-out and got ready- It was really easy, just mixing the stuff up, putting it in a sprayer, and hitting all the sills and beams about knee-high up from the floor. I waited 20 mins and re-soaked married beams, and I was done with the lower floor. I've got to do more research before I hit the attic, but definitely need to get that done before the spray-foamers arrive in (hopefully) around a week or so.

Then it was the sill pans. They protect from water and air infiltration from under the door frame. And they're pricier than you'd think for some stupid pieces of plastic. I fit them to the frames and glued them together as instructed, then I glued them down to the slab with silicone. I flash-taped the bottom openings, and now we're ready for doors.

Tom the beer fella showed up, right when I was able to use a strong back to help me get in the guest window to the newly re-bucked opening. After addressing a slight problem with the opening, we got it in there.

That's the 5th window I've gotten in, and with each one, the house gets a little quieter. It's kinda cool. With any luck, the house will be real damn comparatively quiet within the next couple of days.....man, those high clerestory windows are going to be real fun.

Monday, August 5th, 2019

Another roaster, but this day was progress all the way. I showed up just as Branko and the crew he had called upon had arrived, four hombres ready to put in my freakishly heavy doors and the rest of the windows that I was dreading to install. They got done by about 2:00, and had to do a few extra things. So, it was worth the 650 bones, a load of stress off of me. It was a lot more interaction with them than I'd expected, but it all worked out pretty good. (almost) All openings are now plugged - this means that if the backordered powder room window comes in tomorrow as expected, we can call for our inspection on Wednesday. Frederico, today's crew boss, is quite the carpentero it seems. He'll be doing the siding and the soffit/fascia. Bonus that he speaks pretty decent English.

I realized that I could secure the house tonight, and not have to put all my crap in the garage like I've been doing. Branko and I started putting on hardware, and of course, the bolt didn't match up with the strikeplate. So, we had to bust out the chisels and move them down on three out of the four doors we did. It was tedious and time-consuming. It's daily little kicks in the balls like these that sometimes make me get up in the morning and wonder what the hell I'm doing.

After all of this bs was complete, I stepped out into the long grass in my lot (still can't get a landscaper there for some stupid reason) and looked at the structure. It's starting to look like a house.

And because I've gotten a little obsessive about air and water infiltration, I top-flashed the doors with both Fast-Flash and 3M flashing tape. A bit much, yeah. But I'll be either pushing daisies or in a nursing home by the time these openings need any attention.

And I just realized that I still have to backer rod/caulk that 17' high clerestory window. Shit.

Tuesday, August 6th, 2019

Oh man, it's hard to believe that the house will be dried in today. The powder room window came in at 1:00 and Branko and I popped it in easily..but not before we spent a nice sweaty morning doing pre-inspection tasks and siding estimations. Frederico left his big ass ladder so I was easily able to get up in the high clerestory and backer rod it. After doing the same to it's twin in the attic area, I was bathed in my own sweat.

Spray insulation and siding starting Monday pending a passed framing inspection, that was actually called on for tomorrow. Finally.

It's Inspector Dickey (for real) on the roster, but that doesn't mean it will be him. I say that because he's actually a nice fella - he inspected our ICF walls and was cool with Branko. No one needs to mention how beneficial it can be to have a bit of familiarity going with these people. So, I hope it is him.
Branko went to look at some siding and I kept going into the late afternoon, first cleaning up and then finishing up air/weather sealing the door frames. Two cans of spray foam, half a sausage of the red shit (aka Fast flash), and about 30' of flashing tape later, I was done. Like, exhausted, get the hell out of dodge done.

This inspection is a biggie. Shit, hope all goes well.


Wednesday, August 7th

Well, Inspector Dickey wasn't who I thought he was, I had him mixed up with someone else. But this one thoroughly kicked our asses. For the most part the guy was doing his job. For a couple of other things, he was just kind of living up to his name.

He found about a page worth of shit to hit us on, pretty much all with the framing above the ICF. I didn't have enough screws in the windows as well. Easy fix there. But the other stuff was somewhat unsettling by the time he got done. At some point this issue will need to involve Natalia, the structural engineer, and probably the truss engineer. Also the framer Gabriel. Ah, Gabriel. We've had to call him back twice now. I guess that's what can happen when you crank out work the way his crew does. It wasn't substandard work by any measure- his crew just moved too quickly and they missed/messed up some shit.

Branko headed back, we'll meet Friday. Framing inspections rarely pass on the first shot I'm now to understand. Nonetheless, this one knocked me into the dirt a little bit.

PROTIP: Make sure your drawings are DETAILED. I don't think you can have too much detail in them. Info about fasteners, sheathing, roofing and trusses, lintels, ties, masonry..you name it. These people live for detail. I don't know wtf 'bearing wall uplift detail' is, but I guess architects do.. and those inspectors sure want to see it. They want to see every bit of engineering information available about whatever house element it is that they are inspecting. The best thing you can do for yourself is to have all of this paperwork on hand, have it organized, and understand it as best as you can. Make sure your contractors understand it. You will hopefully only get two or three hits that you can address quickly.


Thursday, August 8th, 2019

I got there by 8:30 to wait for the gas inspector and put more screws in the window. Yury showed up, which was cool because he'll be able to finish his work that requires final inspection as well. That was one of the things that the inspector hit us on, was that some of our sub rough-in inspections weren't completely in order. I installed a shitload more screws in the windows. I spent most of the day doing that..hot as shite..actually took the afternoon off, left at 2:00. Felt strange.

Nothing new for pictures. No siding starting until this damned framing mess is figured out. Meeting Branko and Gabriel tomorrow morning and we'll see what happens.



Friday, August 9th, 2019

I woke up with a serious monkey fist in my upper back, I knew I wasn't going to make the whole day. I got to the site to find Yury there waiting on the inspector, which later on ended up in a passed inspection. Went home and sat my ass on a heating pad for the rest of the afternoon. Aaah, nothing like getting old.

Gabriel pulled a no-call no-show. I swear, I didn't care. At this point, I think I'm just somewhat anesthetized to this kind of dipshittery. I don't know if I should be alarmed by that or what.


Saturday, August 10th, 2019

OK, supposedly Gabriel is showing up at 8:00 to discuss these changes with Branko to get past our re-inspection. Branko's leaving on Monday for his 10-day vacay; when he told me about it six weeks ago, he figured we'd be in the 'finishing' stages by now. Sure. He still hasn't taken control of the siding situation and by the time he gets back and we get it ordered and installed, it's going to be easily three weeks there, realistically a month. It's gonna take a bit still before I can think about occupation of the place, and I need to keep the faith.

Anyway, with some of the things Branko says or does, or doesn't do, or simply forgets, I find it incredibly hard on a daily basis to not bust his balls to pieces and expect the kind of accountability from him that one might expect from a contractor collecting the kind of money he's being paid. I'm having to fight a constant battle within myself...how do I fuss at a dude for constantly messing up when he's 85?? He's a genuinely great person loved by all who know him and his heart is real. He's just lost his edge and I have to keep being patient. I know I'm not entitled to anything, including someone who's going to take the same interest in my house as me...no matter their age or how much I pay them.

Gabriel finally showed up at 10:30 and he and Branko spent the next hour discussing the changes. He said it'll get addressed Monday morning, and that he'd also be around for the re-inspection as well (whenever that took place). That's a relief, anything to minimize my interaction with the inspector. Banko and I went and got another $100 worth of lumber at the Depot, to leave at the house for the fixes. He then left to go back to Lutz, guess I'll catch him in around 10 days.

This is all rather frustrating, no doubt. I feel like production has ground to a halt, because it pretty much has. But ultimately there is a lesson to be had here, and a choice you can always make. You can hire total full-service builders shield you from almost all of the bs and detail that I've been chronicling here, and pay them through your nose.....because holy shit you practically will.

OR, you can do it more along the path I've chosen, and subject yourself to the near-daily shitshows and/or tests of your patience. You'll no doubt save some dollars in the end, but they'll come at a price.

Wait..better yet...buy a house that's already built. Don't know if I've mentioned that (2 dozen times) yet.

I've also come to realize that my posts have become more than just factual everyday statements...I find myself spouting some philosophical platitudes on the way I'm feeling about any particular thing (or things) with this whole saga. I think it makes me feel better or something. Not sure if it helps this blog...well, I don't really care...so there's that.

OK, getting back to it..I'm just going to go on site Monday and make sure the framers have what they need. I've specifically instructed Gabriel that I don't want any of his people asking me any questions about any of these changes. Most of the items are very technical and require some level of background to deal with. I've done my part in it, which was the proper re-fixing of two hurricane straps, and more screws for window and door frames.

We've also got to get truss and structural engineers involved in this mess in the coming days.

Good times.


Monday, August 12th, 2019

Well, at least Gabriel not showing up didn't come as a surprise or anything. I guess he'll make his fixes when he feels like it.

I got the Prosoco Airdam caulk on the interior side of the windows. Those things are sealed like a mofo now, no air getting through.

Not too much else happening. Coming to terms with the reality of not being able to move in until possibly up to mid November/early December, depending on what kind of AV work I have going on. Is what it is.

Wrung out my shirt and called it a damn day.


Friday, August 16th, 2019

This week has sucked, one of the worst ones since I've started this saga.

Gabriel never showed. Phone calls, texts, whatever, he's not responded. Me thinking he was a good person, well, I didn't nail that one. Since he's a dishonest asshole, I'm now having to wait on Branko to get back so we can then figure out a framer to fix all this shit, and then get the structural/truss engineers involved. This thing is dead in the water still, and shall be for a while.

Even though I'd know what to expect, I would probably hike Vermont's Long Trail again, North and Southbound in one season, before I built another fucking house. And that's saying something, believe me. Being at the mercy of so many people is unsettling. I feel like I can only truly depend on myself, and that's not enough to get this thing finished.

I tried to be somewhat productive this week, but when you get punched in the face like this, it's hard to keep your head up and get shit done. I didn't even go to the site for the last two days. Wtf for?

Some smaller things done like the window caulking I mentioned, as well as the garage finally getting Tyvek'd. But I'd rather be witnessing hombres nailing siding to my house and drywall to the interior studs.

If there's a bright note, I went to Thomas Lumber today..they have everything I need for Hardie siding in stock, they have all the interior trim I like, and they also have great fencing material. And here I am once again, doing Branko's job.

Anyone might hope to get a gig like he's had. It's pretty sweet.

I have a bit of a beef with the universe right now. Not a good seat to be in.

Wednesday, August 21st, 2019

Same shit.

Branko comes back to Fl from vacay tomorrow, but I'm guessing he won't be around until Monday. Knowing him the way I seem to, I don't think he'll make a single phone call to even find out if any framers may have any possible availability, until he is on the property. And I predict that his first call will be to Frederico.

Today marks two weeks dead in the water. Speaking realistically and considering the above, it'll probably be close to a month before we're back on track again. I was completely unprepared for this. That said, it's probably prudent to just simply expect a big setback somewhere during your project, because again..that whole having to depend on people thing.

I did meet yesterday with a concrete specialist and the finished concrete floor in the main area may be back on the table. And I'll be able to get it all done for significantly cheaper than tile.. this way I can do still do those wood floor bedrooms, and now full tile bathrooms.

I'm trying not to think too far ahead, until this current mess can be gotten past.


Tuesday, August 27th, 2019

The hits just keep coming. And coming.

Well, Branko and I met yesterday, but could not find a single framer to come help us. It wasn't for lack of effort. Everybody is so damn busy that you just can NOT find labor. At least he started calling before he arrived on site. But...

But that's not the worst part of it.

It's Tuesday morning, and I'm sitting here kind of in shock because Branko just called me...he had another heart attack last night and it's not surprising that his family doesn't want him to continue. First day back from a 10-day vacay, and this happens. I obviously agree with this as health comes first, but this sucks beyond all measure. I'm trying to not freak out, but this is all just too much.

I'm just kind of throwing my hands up for now. I feel a a bit sick..bad no luck or no luck at all with this..


Monday, Sept 3rd, 2019

The past week's sucked for sure, but a few productive things have finally happened. Last Thursday I met with the truss engineer, or more like supervisor, and we went through the whole inspection list. Seems we'll be able to get at least half of the items knocked off that list via re-drawing, re-detailing, re-calculating...and resubmitting. Natalia has been responsive in her father's stead, and things are moving as fast as they can for now...given that we are in the midst of another hurricane and rolling out the red carpet for good ol' Dorian. The people across the canal boarded up their house on Friday morning...that's 96 hours before it got here. Now, it's just going to barely strafe us. There's going to be plenty of wind and rain, but no need for any plywood on windows. I bet those canal people are pissed.

Mr Moench (aka Tom) got me hooked up with a framer named Chris, who is out of the biz but knowledgeable and available. So we met on Friday and it looks like he'll be handling the construction portion of the list. Still thinking we won't pass the next inspection either, but definitely should the 3rd one.

But so far this week, it's just waiting for this stupid storm to go by. Hopefully we all meet Thursday. And it looks like Branko is still in the game. He's just going to have to slow his roll and only come here a couple days a week. I'm not screwing around anymore though. That codger gets a cooler check when he gets on site. If he has no water, we aren't starting anything until he gets his ass up the street to the store to get some.

It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that dehydration brought this on both times. If this happens a third time, I'm firing him and it won't matter, because his family would absolutely (and rightfully) force him to quit anyway. So no more dehydration and hopefully no more heart attacks..now or ever, for that matter.

I'm trying to look up..a good portion of the Caribbean is getting wiped out. No need to be too discouraged on myself.

Thursday, September 5th, 2019

Branko showed up today. He does indeed want to keep working but I read his ass the riot act when he arrived. I performed his cooler check and we got to studying the drawings to prepare for Chris to come and do his carpentry work.

It was a productive day, I worked with Chris and Branko to get just about all of the lumber used up and we have a fairly good feeling about the fixes; we're sure Mr. Dickey will find more shit but this will be a huge help. This, along with the re-worked truss plans and Natalia's stuff, should cinch it hopefully. We've still got to get the structural engineer on site most likely, and we definitely need to re-submit those changes downtown. Then the re-inspection. It's just been too damned long.

It is sad, however, having to constantly remind Branko to drink water. It's seriously like having a pre-schooler around. I want to throw my hands up and let him worry about himself, but that seems to land him in the hospital. So, just another thing to concern myself with when he's around. He's a good sport about my fussing at him at least.

Got a dock guy coming to look tomorrow..hopefully find out some garden-variety price options.

Neighbor's house across the canal still boarded up...been that way for almost a week now. Kinda funny.


Friday, September 5th, 2019

Met with aforementioned dock dude, he surprisingly showed me some of his cards and said that his company is actually looking for work. It should have really surprised me that all the permits (Environmental and otherwise) will likely run close to 1.5K alone, but I swear, I didn't even flinch when he said it. 6 months ago I'd have lost my shit on that little morsel of info. But this is what I've come to expect.

Supposedly the story is that he's going to work up some estimates and ideas and get back with me. Or not.

Branko showed just after, and Natalia soon after that. We worked on some window header detail info and she wanted to see and take a pic of one wall before she got her engineer involved. She said she plans on submitting the changes to the County today and she'll start bugging them on Monday. As soon as that happens, we can call for a re-inspection. I still have to install some kind of header straps on the transom windows before that happens. Or maybe Chris can do it....it's really going to blow. For someone.

After that we went to Lowes to get the soundproofing insulation - all the searching I did for soundproofing options, and this Johns Mainsville Safe and Sound rockwool interior 'insulation' turns out to be quite the shit. It's made for both fire and sound suppression on interior walls, they don't even assign it an R-value. Discovered some fascinating shit about soundproofing..and found out that most options are not cheap ones. I was struggling to find a decent solution for anything under 1.50/sf. When I saw this J-M S&S stuff on the web and found it at the local Lowes for just under 1/sf, I was like count me in bitches. There are so many ways to drain your wallet on soundproofing a room, so this was a score. I'll be able to do both bedrooms at the living room abutment walls. If I said that right. I probably didn't. Rockwool is cool as shit because it's literally made of rocks and metal slag. It just can not catch on fire...at least not without an accelerant.

We then met up with the first drywaller in the early afternoon, a full-service one that Branko knows well. These guys are almost smug, so many of these tradesman, all this work available and it seems they almost feel like they're doing you a favor by coming by. So, Branko is going to collect at least two estimates before we lock someone in because damn these people are not coming cheap. The struggle continues.

Big ups once again to Tom for getting the ball rolling on a lot cutter. Sam's done two cuts so far and it'll be three before it's all under control. This climate is like utopia for weeds and I let mine go for like two months. He's local and has 30+ local accounts, (including JR) and is quite possibly available for other work. Definitely noted.

And to top it all off, I can't upload pictures to Google Drive anymore. I upload them from my phone but the damned things are nowhere to be found when I try to access them from here. Damnit. See that, moms? I suck at computers too. This Home for the Technologically Pathetic will likely be a family affair in the end, I know it. I shouldn't have been threatening to send you there for the last 20+ years.

🔀⬿⬲⬻🔺🔚⬹⭀⬌🔻🔝⬅⬌⧫

I was allowed to put these graphics in, so I did. Technology blows.

Edit: The pics from last week finally decided to upload to my Google Drive. Technology still blows.

Wednesday, September 11th, 2019

We will never forget.

Oh man, this whole cement fiber siding thing is far and away my albatross. It's the one thing I've probably agonized over the most..as outlined in many prior posts. Lots of time to think during my 'break' as we'll call it...and I definitely came to a realization. A while back, my first quote from a siding-related company was for 14,700. Tack on another 5,800 for painting. Are you effing kidding me? I thought that was a joke. Especially when you price out your materials and find that you're South of 5K. That leaves about 10K for labor. Frederico will NOT be charging me 10K in labor. So, it was almost insulting..but I digress. The thing is, those guys will probably be around in 5 years if I have a problem, and they'd likely address it. Frederico and his hombres, I'll likely never see again once it's all done. Do I want to pay several thousands extra for that perceived guarantee?

Nope. That is why I'm going to make sure that these fellas have the correct materials and correct supervision.

The sheer torture of trying to figure this siding out is getting out of hand, now that I've made another visit to Thomas Lumber...There's several different widths of trim, widths reveal for the siding, fastening considerations. I'm in a whole new level of trying to figure out how the fascia will work with the existing galvalume drip edge. Aluminum J-channel? Standard fascia board style? Recommended caulk? And trying to imagine how colors will fit into this is just adding to it all. Watching tons of videos and looking at pictures, spending way too much time doing so. Frederico even called me a few days back..all I could really understand from him was that he's still available to do the project, which is good. When I tried to ask him about fasteners and this and that, I completely lost him. This is why I have to do even more research and make sure I'm ordering the right shit. Add even more complexity when talking about fastening to to different types of substrates (ICF and stud-nailed OSB). These are things I cannot discuss with Frederico to great extent, and Branko tends to glaze over a bit when I go too deep into detail. I know, know......

While I was in Thomas Lumber trying to cull together my aforementioned siding project, I got a call from Natalia stating that the plans had passed review downtown and are ready for the inspection. 5 weeks to the day too. The only problem left is those stupid header clips/straps that I mentioned earlier..they just are not going to fit and Natalia and Branko are trying to work something out with the structural engineer. It's always something. If it weren't for this, we'd probably be calling for the inspection tomorrow.

On a different note, I'm completely decided on LVP flooring now (minus the bathrooms, which will have large-format tile). I purchased a plank guillotine that can be used for easy cutting, no sawing. It can be used to cut the fiber cement siding planks too. I'll just hire a day helper for the bulk of the install. This should be able to keep me within my flooring budget.

Able to upload pics again now...

Hood ventilation complete

Friday, September 13th, 2019

OK, just now realized that it's Friday the 13th. Glad I didn't take that into account when I woke up...because it was a pretty good day. Branko and I met and he showed up with compressor/nailer and a bunch of other tools. We geared up to finally put this window header issue to bed. Spent lots of time on a ladder in the upper gable of the cottage, sweating my arse off..brutal in that respect. These bloody Simpson HH clips....we made them work, but I'm just not going to go into detail about it right now. It was kind of awful. But he brought his big boy ladder that I can use for the remainder and it will come in handy. At least I can get up to the high transom level now. I never realized that this cool, way-high window would maybe come to be an inconvenience. Anyway- that's pretty much what we spent most of our time on, and it was the last item in the list of shit we had to deal with.

Branko headed out, but not before we called for a Monday AM inspection.

All Hail Inspector Dickey.

Not looking forward to it at all. But glad to be finally able to call him back. It's not like I wish Gabriel the framer dead in a firey plane crash, but I can't say I haven't not hoped for him to fall off of a high scaffolding. He's really caused a lot of discord.

I stayed behind and cleaned up, even got ambitious and ran the blower all up in the 2nd level lower stud bays in hopeful anticipation of the spray foam insulators coming to do their thing late next week. Saw my first love bugs of the season, that was promising. Those little bastards bring Fall. Finally. It's been a really long summer.

The first pic below is a graphic that was inlaid over a pic of my window, by the structural engineer...it shows what's supposed to be done from the structural standpoint, but it was just nowhere near as easy as what they had thought. These little pencil-necked engineers just sit at their desks and throw shit like this out there, as if back-fitting such weird connectors into built and nailed enclosures is the everyday norm.

At any rate, that's what I got for now. Oh, and I put the 3rd pic in there for no other reason than my ass. I mean, look at that thing. I was amazed too when I saw it...I'm almost 50 for shits sakes. It looks like I carry two bulldogs down the back of my pants.

Square pegs, round holes...whatever

I know! I wouldn't have thought so either...

Monday, September 16th, 2019.

Today was the second inspection. More on that later.

Got in some productivity for the weekend...reinforced stud bays on the areas of the showers where heavy glass doors will eventually be. I do need to stop with the target practice though. When you have walls made of styrofoam, it's all too tempting to throw sharp shit at them. Knives, nails shot out of the nail gun, old jigsaw blades, chunks of sharp roofing metal fashioned into redneck throwing stars...all fair game to wing across the room and into the wall at any given moment.

Swept the hell out of that place too. I wanted it nice for our visitor. Lots of other little things. Left there feeling tired but fairly ok with what was to come.

And of course, more research when not there. Screws, toilets, paint, attic ladders...very random stuff.

Cut to this morning. Branko showed up at 9:00, and so began the waiting game. Couple hours later Dickey came in all smiles, shook our hands, and waded into all the paperwork I had neatly waiting for him...re-stamped plans, truss repairs, product approvals.. The dude was still quite the stickler and had to fail us on a couple minor issues, one involving one more validation from a structural engineer..which is already in the works. The rest was manual stuff. Couple more shims that needed to be added to the door. Whatever. And in the upper level, more Simpson hurricane straps. And nails. He loves both of those things very much it seems. It wouldn't surprise me if he slept on a bed made of hurricane straps and nails.

And I can't believe we sailed those 'special' header clips past him. It wasn't even a problem.

It was a good inspection though, he was happy overall with everything. That said, this should be straightened out by mid week and we can get our final inspection Thursday. I placed the spray foamer insulation chaps on standby for Friday.

Now, if I can get Mr. B to focus on more than one thing at once, we'll be golden. I'm trying to get a damned soffit estimation out of him. Things really have to start moving now.

So after he left, I got back up on that high freaking ladder and nailed more straps into the upper wall studs. I put the nails in the bottom of the stud bays where he wanted to see them.

Good thing for Mr. Dickey wanting these extra straps and nails, I'm sure my roof would've blown away in the first stiff wind if not. That was sarcasm, in case that got by anyone undetected.

Back at it tomorrow. I also got the go-ahead to finish flashing out the windows.

The Command Center

Nervewracking...

Feeling strappy

Tuesday, September 17th, 2019

Aaah, nothing like walking out into the morning sun for the first time of the day, and 88-degree heat and full sun hits you in the face. And topped out at 96 later in the day. Marvelous. Cool(er) weather is around the corner, but not soon enough. Monday is now the spray foam appt, and that will definitely help with the heat inside the house. But the breeze coming off that lake is is the equalizer...it would have been a lot harder this summer without that.

Today I finished flashing over the window flanges/screws, and shimmed the problem door that dude didn't like. Pounded in a couple more hurricane straps up top for good measure.

Branko asked me a few days back if I wanted some Zip-System flashing tape that he wasn't using. Are you kidding me? Yeah, I want that shit. So today I used it to close up all of Yury's outside wire channel cuts so any water that may get behind the siding, won't go and sit in there and fester. I've been wanting to use that word pretty badly. The process was awful though...the tape wouldn't stick on the blocks while they were dirty, so I had to brush the spots off. Glad it was outside.

My shite is mostly done; the problem now, once again, is waiting on people to get validations for a couple more engineering issues. Also, waiting on an email reply from Mr. Dickey for clarification on an issue. He's not entirely responsive. Doesn't come across as a huge surprise. I just want to get done with this damned framing inspection.

Bringing in Chris in a few days to hang OSB up on the back porch, as well as put up a attic ladder.

I'm getting pretty skilled

Wednesday, September 18th, 2019

All actions and thoughts towards moving forward. Senor Dickey wrote back to me and told me what I needed to know. Truth is, we'd be ready for inspection tomorrow if Natalia's engineer would just get off his arse and take a moment to write his validation. That's it..that's the last thing holding up the framing inspection. Spray foamers coming Monday, wtf.

Once again, having to depend on an undependable human.......


Thursday, September 19th, 2019

Just agonizing waiting on this engineer...Natalia and I both emailed him yesterday. She told me this morning that she's never using him again. Started off strong, and then got like...well, this I guess.

Still plenty of shit to do and I kept myself busy. Did another Boracare treatment of the upper areas where there was a lot of OSB and non-PT SYP studs. This cottage is going to be pretty termite-proof at this point.

Another saga has been fascia. Trying to order something that's not white, brown, or beige? Goooood luck. You either need to buy a case of 24 10' pieces or something ridiculous like that. After calling about 6 places, I wound up back at the special order desk at Lowes. Two weeks to get my grey fascia...shit. But through all this, I found a place just a few miles down the road that has the Hardie products in stock, and can deliver next day...and a buck a plank cheaper than Thomas Lumber. That's huge..for just the planks alone, that's a $325 savings right off the bat.

Anyway...

By 3:00 I was just like what the fuuuuuck. Why is this guy not writing us back. In order to get a next-day inspection, you need to call it in by 5:00. By the time 4:00 rolled around, I sent him a letter and just pleaded with him to save my day...luckily for me it found home and he did his thing. Letter on it's way, Natalia scheduled the inspection.

She said she's never using him again for any work. I second that shit. What a goofball.



Friday, September 20th, 2019

For starters, holy shit it was cool(er). I mean, it was nice this morning. I met up with Chris about 7:15, and wow...such a nice break. I had a new set of attic stairs ready to go, but the insulation that needed to go on the back porch, totally slipped my mind. It needs to be there because the roof shares the attic. I ran to HD while Chris got set up, but man, how depressing of a selection. I wound up getting fiberglass, because that's all they had. I ended up throwing half of it away. I was ok using it where it was because it was outside. That part was more or less a success. Most of the day was.

The attic steps went in easily enough, but of course the trusses were not level with eachother on the bottom. So after much debate between the three of us, we finally decided that I'm going to need to shim the whole truss along the bottom to bring it up to the level of the next one..the steps sit between these two. Hard to explain, but it's just another thing that's fucked up about this framing job. These people did me no favors with their speed...

And the extension and landing of the ladder just makes it.. so close to hitting the wall, but all good.

Soon after Chris got done and left, the inspector came. Now, this was once again kinda messed up, because it was a different inspector. I would have been pissed if he started looking around at other shit than what was on the list. But he didn't. We got right to it, I showed him each thing on the list that had leftover items, and he was good with it. I did have to set him straight with an email that Dickey sent me; once he saw that, it was all good.

Praise be and all that shit, we passed.

Spray foam Monday, soffit and siding starts Tuesday. I'll be there all weekend doing shit. I've got a list.

I've got Frederico lined up do do the soffits and siding. For a good price...but I'm not going to get excited until this shit is done. This is not like framing - I'll know by the hour if they're doing well.

PROTIP: Special-order fascia takes about two weeks. In this case, this means I'll be putting it on by myself. But consider this if you want something other than white, beige, or brown.

September 21st, 2019

Oh man, my neck. It's 10:00p and I'm aching like a mofo.

I scored (not going to go into how, but it was legit) an extra gallon of Prosoco Cat-5 Home Wrap, which turned out to be just enough to finish covering over all the patches I made and all the places I missed...there were so many. But this required a lot of ladderwork and looking up. For most of the day it seemed. The house looks properly wrapped now (no more pink, and red only where it's supposed to be) and will hopefully be ready for siding on Tuesday. They will have their challenges with surface problems that the framers left behind. Oh how I hate them. I'm also supplying the siding crew with a shitton of architectural shims as a result.

The love bugs were out in full force. A lot of them became part of my home wrap. I got a bit too close to some wasps when I was way high up on the ladder. One of them attacked me..well, if you want to call it that, there were only like three (3) of them. I had my latex gloves on..one of the winged bastards landed on my hand and tried to deliver a sting.. I watched it happen in slow motion... because I was like 20 feet up on a ladder and holding a fucking can of sealant and paintbrush...not a good place to freak out...but it was a win for the humans. His puny little bite or stinger or whatever the hell you'd call it was no match for my latex glove. Humans 1, wasps 0. I think they're pissed because I doused their buddies on the other side of the house with boracare a couple days ago. They didn't seem to mind at the time. Wait until Frederico and his band of merrymen come to town...the wasp fiesta will be no mas..

That took me most of the day. But the non-stopping idiot I am, I kept going with other items after. I sealed the joints on the new porch ceiling, foamed (and subsequently sawed out the overfoam later) two doorways, and shimmed the upper truss that was a bit higher than the rest. Its going to be interesting making that attic access door look flush with some trim.

Some of the stuff I'm just beginning to get into now seem to be best suited for someone with a raging case of OCD, like for instance yours truly. At least there won't be much of a punch list to go through before COO.

I'm headed in again tomorrow to get ready for the onslaught this week. I hope Branko can get those drywallers on deck and ready to execute within a week. The price was good enough and they were pretty available....and most importantly they have a working relationship with Branko.

And holy shite I think the Florida Summer is defeated. There'll still be some hot days coming, but the worst ones are over. It felt so damn nice today, what a break.

I hate them

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Getting back in that mode. I'm ready to write more checks and see shit start happening again. I need some new dust in this structure.

As usual, just started working tasks that needed to be done, that would not have gotten done...grinding rebar (so the flooring doesn't have humps in it), just another thing leftover from a contractor that I had to deal with. Foamed and sawed the last exterior door opening. Going to have to do that to all the interior doors too, now that I think of it (soundproofing measure). I won't be relaxing until the spring I'm sure. No worries. Even JR came over and showed me his mad nunchaku skills. In his defense I did ask, once he mentioned he used to be an instructor or something....as long as he has an audience, he's a happy camper. Probably going to have to set some boundaries with him once I move in.

A good portion of the day was just spent getting ready for the foamers. I can't imagine how many dirty and cramped attics and crawlspaces they've had to deal with...I wanted to start their first job of the week on a positive note. Martin, the head dude, already did a site visit and noted how his guys will love how easy it will be to move around in my attic areas. I took it a step further and blew out the stud bays so they won't have to vacuum them before they start. This will be the kind of job they wish they could always walk into. With that, and a dozen donuts, I should be treated fairly well with this install tomorrow.

The place will be closed off for 24. I told Branko to stay in Lutz, and I'll be home all afternoon researching whatever. There's no structure to the way I do this lately, I'm all over the map..one minute it's caulk, the next it's a fucking Wi-Fi Roomba.

The siding order happens tomorrow as well, the stuff will be here Tuesday. Finding Lansing, the building supply place a few miles away that I mentioned, has been a true score. Cheapest materials found yet, and proximity. I'm also having them bring me cement backerboard for the showers so I don't have to lug those ungodly heavy ass slabs from the store by weak ass myself. For $85, they seem to deliver whatever.

I also need to order interior doors. Good thing Branko reminded me of that. I'm just kidding....c'mon now, you know that didn't happen..glad I thought of it though, it would have held the drywallers up until they were in. But I will be ordering them tomorrow from Matt, my trusty door fella.

And (from another local company) I'm ordering my cool roll-up door for the laundry room...setting a reminder to do that...4th one of they day. Without technology, I'd be screwed.

And the days have been getting warm again, but nothing like the ass-beating scorchers that I've dealt with over the last three-plus months. And once this insulation is installed, fuggedaboudit..

Monday, September 23, 2019

Insulation installation day went without a hitch it seems. They even did some extra spots. Looking forward to see a little bit of how it performs tomorrow.

Good news on the interior doors, Matt suggested to not install them before drywall, else I'd have to cover them all up to protect from drywall overspray... he says it's easier to do afterwards. Since I'm getting fairly wide trim, shouldn't be a problem. So that makes things a bit easier for the moment.
I think my house was an impromptu venue for a mosquito convention. Can't tell ya the last time I've seen that many amassed together, hundreds of them were owning my whole west wall.

Siding planks and trim arrive tomorrow morning early hopefully, Frederico arrives at 9:00 with crew to get started. Gonna be a long next few days...going to try to keep the hombres on track with things.

Tuesday, September 24th, 2019

Damn long day like I'd anticipated. Lots got done though. I was on site early, the house felt so damn cool..it felt noticeably cooler the whole day through. Loving this stuff.

Frederico and Julio were on site at 8:45, we made our plans and discussions, and delivery was there by 9:00. They got to work on the soffits. I didn't want a birdbox, so I had Frederico build me something a bit more modern for the return, as seen below.

They flew through those pretty well, and got to work on the trim. This is where I had to get a little OCD on them. These guys were busting their asses and getting product on the walls quick. Now, I've had some suspicions about Julio from the last time he worked for me. He doesn't have the same level of pride in his work that Frederico does, and it came through this time. Add some warped and misshapen window bucks, along with him going too fast...this resulted in some of his work was not going on too neatly. I had to keep making them fix shit, and I finally pulled Frederico to the side and told him to slow Julio down. Because at this rate, they were going to spend more time by virtue of them fixing Julio's speed mistakes. I understand that time is money, but sometimes balances gotta be struck. Ultimately they're having to deal with the work of the previous asshole framer crew..(still suffering those fools) and some not so ideal openings..problems from previous trades. I'm not even going to talk about the upper (framed) Southeast wall.

All the more reason to take it slower.

The soffits went on beautiful and fast, and probably so would've the trim, if it weren't for the events of the former.

So after I busted their balls a bit, made them do a couple pieces over, and told them about my bad OCD, they were cool and understood. Stuff started going on much better. They're good craftsman..I just had to pull the reins a bit.

Speaking of ocd, my main entrance is so out of plumb, I don't even want to talk about the caulking I'm going to have to do in there now that the exterior trim is in. It's debilitating for someone like me..

We're trying to get drywall rolling, and one of Branko's main guys said he's available to start Friday. But I'm totally leaving this all in Branko's lap, so I'm not sure if it's going to happen this week. We'll see. He tried to rope me into helping him count and estimate the drywall pieces needed. Ha! No effing way..all you, buddy.

Finally, the Insulation Inspection was today. I gotta say, I didn't know it would be Mr Dickey doing it, and I almost soiled my drawers when I walked in. But, he was cool as shit, liked the insulation install.. and he even gave us some pointers to pass the final. Good stuff.

3 visits to HD today...no record for me, but not bad.

Wednesday, September 25th, 2019

Another hot, long day. The upside is that there has been no rain, without a chance until Sunday. The downside is that it's reaching the 90's again in the afternoons. Mornings have been rather nice, but mid day starts getting caliente with no clouds to stop the sun.

More siding on today; I figure they're about a 1/3 done and will hopefully be wrapping up on Sunday at the latest. I kept myself very busy right alongside them; call me Sealant Boy. Since I'm doing a lot of caulking, I don't want a namesake that sounds similar to that....

And I am doing a shitload of it. I started today with window joints and corner joints, going to try to keep up with what they're getting done so I'm not going crazy in the end.

Not sure what's happening with the drywall but it won't be starting this Friday, I know that much.

It'll be another hot, long one tomorrow. twss

Thursday, September 26th, 2019

Caulking. Pretty much all day. No fingerprints left on any fingertips on my right hand. I'll be the first one to tell ya that the Dynaflex Ultra is some serious good shite. It better be for 6.50 a tube. And the beige stuff may look (and smell) a bit like butterscotch, but don't believe that hype. Trust me.

Short about 30 pieces planks, and 5 soffit. Better a little short than over I guess. Picking them up tomorrow morn. If we used everything, we'd probably be not short at all. But that would mean lots more joints...with siding, we want the least amount as possible..even if it means more waste, unfort..

Maybe we'll get drywall by next mid-week. I have plenty to do so I'm not going to be his reminder like I usually am..I guess old boy will eventually figure it out and get these trades rolling sometime.

Left my phone in the garage. There's a first. So no pics, but siding's about 2/3 done.

Hombres are going faster now that they can fasten into wood. Most of the exterior ICF is now covered, but I had him leave the back wall of the covered patio so I can do something different in there. Don't know what yet. As if I need to add more shit to think about. And do. Yeah..smart move.


Entry Epilogue:

Talked to my bfam this morning. That's brotha from anotha motha, for those of you that are uncool.

"You complain a lot in your blog" he said. This came at least after a compliment on it, in his defense.

Well fuck you, I thought. This is coming from a fella that can literally make a phone call or text, and the next (or same) day have the best craftsman in his area on his property and ready to work. And he's a master turd chaser. That's plumbers slang for master plumber, I heard. Joking aside he knows anything to do with that like a mofo, and a shitload of other stuff.

But you are correct Sir Roberto, man it does seem like a lot of that. But these arseholes have left me with a lot to complain about I guess. So yeah, eff you! But aside from all that, peace and much love.

Oh, and sorry mom if you had to read those vulgarities. As always, it was Rob's fault.


Friday, September 27th, 2019

Fred thought he'd be done today, but I knew better. I just ran tubes of Dynaflex Ultra into any empty joints I could find. I had lots of choices.

"Hey boss, lemme show you something" Frederico would say in his heavy Spanish accent. I heard this phrase many times over the course of a week - it was almost always the precursor to something screwed up that he had to deal with...it was either the ICF openings, or the same old atrocious framer's craftsmanship, or just something specific to my house. It often meant something was going to turn up uglier than it should, or I had to buy something specific to deal with it. Or something I'd have to caulk the living shit out of, because it was going to turn up a bit funky. Always interesting with Fred around.

I guess the plank estimation came up short, he ordered 35 more. And a couple more soffit pieces. Branko and I went to get them. Crazy shit, driving with 12 foot fiber cement material jutting out the back of his pickup and bouncing as if it's just going to snap at any moment.

During the course of the day, I was running sealant every chance I got. Fingerprints worn off on right hand. Most joints will need two applications to look nice. Be easier if this cottage weren't so goddamn tall.

Saturday, September 28th, 2019

Frederico is pretty good at what he does- but he's a bit too overconfident and definitely shifty. He's ripping off Julio pretty badly on this job, shit..probably most jobs..I see why the chap don't give much of two shits.

Didn't really like the fact that I had to countersink so many nails and pin down some places they missed. It's like they worked just good enough for me to not give them too much shit. Overall I got a good job out of it, and based on my research, more than I paid for. But there's some spots, where at least to me, it's kinda obvious that they just couldn't give shite numero uno.

My mind wanders to what that project would be like, were it left in Branko's hands to manage. He'd let them do whatever the fuck they wanted...oh man it would be some serious shit soup. He just wouldn't catch the things I'm catching...or anything at all for that matter.

Between all that crap, I just kept on getting on ladders and filling holes and beading joints. And filling holes and beading joints.

The hombres finished and started cleaning up. Again, another one of those jobs where it was just enough..it's like they have it down to a science.

Then, I finally realized. There were 36 pieces of planks left. Fred had us get 35 yesterday. I called him on this and asked him htf this could happen.. he started rambling out every excuse he could...he tried everything except humility or fallibility, which pissed me off just slightly. Stated that "oh, it's not a big deal". Sure, neither is an $80 restocking fee (20%) when you're not paying it. He screwed himself out of a $200 tip and future work. I'm done with him. Earlier in the day, he even tried to be the intermediary between a painter and me...so he could rip the painter off and pay him dogshit to paint my house. Yeah, sounds great, Fred. No wonder Julio didn't give a shite, who would when they're getting paid 1 Benjamin a day to do skilled labor. Distancing myself from that.

And for those of you wanting to put fiber cement cladding on your house, don't be shocked by the unbelievable amount of waste you're going to have- it's going to be about 1/3 of your delivery. It all comes down to the joints. You want to have the very least amount of joints possible..because they can be fairly noticeable on the side of a house in the right light. And such a pain in the arse to caulk....

And speaking of that... more than 2/3 done. Have to still fill a few joints, but otherwise it's just some second applications in a lot of them, which is much easier...but my damned fingertips are still nice and raw.

Sunday, September 29th, 2019

My deadline is now November 15th. Going to be very very interesting pulling that one off.

AllI did today was the same thing that I did yesterday. Most of it was second applications. It's actually starting to look pretty finished. Trying to figure out if I want to do something with the extra hardie planks, or liquidate..

Worked until street lights came on. 85% done on the exterior sealing. I still kind of feel like I'm on a ladder.

Monday, September 30th, 2019

I did second coats and touch-ups, but the big job today was to do all the joints on the house where the soffit meets the siding. Two applications of that took most of the day. Most of it was purely ladderwork.

All in all, I've got about 18 tubes of caulk into the exterior sheathing. Probably would have been closer to a dozen were I not dealing with the workers that I had. With a bit of skill and much sealant, I did make most of it look very nice might I say.

Used the last of the remaining daylight to sweep up the inside and get it ready for the drywall delivery tomorrow. Branko's meeting me and we're going to mark outlet and other important wall locations on floors, and shim a couple doorways.

Drywall starts Wednesday, probably be fully completed by Tuesday or so. Stoked about that.

Tuesday, October 1st, 2019

Lots done today, once again. I was onsite at 7 only to find that the drywall wasn't coming until 10. Didn't matter, I immediately got after things. Too damn much to do.

The delivery went without a hitch. These fellas move 12' bundle sheets of drywall around a house like it's nothing; they got that all down to a science.

Today's pain in the arse jobs were shimming down three doorways so that they'd have symmetrical drywall returns leading up to their casements. The tops were easy and made me feel good about myself. The left side of the main entrance was from the devil. Not only was it horrifically bowed-in in the center, it was also twisted so that one of the bowed sides was lower than the other. There was no good way to shim it out other than just starting to nail and tack pieces of wood and plastic in there, and see what works. Without a 6' level it would've been a trifle more difficult.

I wasted so much time on that. I hope the return looks ok. Below is the pic of the doorway. It looks terrible right now.

I then, somehow managed to get the soundproofing insulation put up in the master suite. It's stiff enough to fit between the studs, I found. I don't think Rockwool is any less itchier than fiberglass, but obviously not as much as a health hazard. I still have the guest suite to do..there were stacks of drywall in the way and I'd run out of daylight anyway.

Guess I be needing some kind of shop light now.

For the last act I busted out the vacuum real quick and did underneath the stud walls. It was like dark at that point so I called it a day.

Meeting them tomorrow at 7a. I hope to be able to finish the guest suite and maybe start dura-rocking in the shower stalls without getting in their way too much.

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2019

I was onsite at 6:45 to have the place open and ready to go. I got started right away on the rockwool in the guest suite and continued to work on it while they got setup to do the master. It was to be two hombres today with Luis 'supervising' and being onsite from time to time. These guys come well-recommended from Marjam, as well as Casey knowing them, so this was a great relief to hire this crew for this important phase. Immediately, there was way too much going on for me to start putting durarock in the shower stalls without getting in their way at times. So, I just finished what soundproofing I could (there was rock stacks all over the place and it was hard to get into some stud bays) and remained available to assist with whatever they might need or whatever question they might have.

Plus, I had another problem. My dumpster was crossing 2/3 full and there was about to be a shitton of sheetrock to throw in there.

Same typical themes playing out here. HUGE amounts of waste, all in the name of reduced joints. Same thing I bitched about with the siding. Of course, I called the dumpster company yesterday and they couldn't get me a dumpster for today, even though they told me they do next-day service. I knew that the drywaller fellas would just throw whatever pieces in there and it'd be spilling over in no time. Well, nah...I took over that duty. I policed the house most of the day picking up pieces and tetris-ing them into the dumpster. It was very hard work, but I fit that stuff in there like a champ. That dumpster is going to be stupid heavy. They're used to picking up ones that are filled by contractor goons who couldn't give a rats ass about efficient use of an expensive dumpster, not by people like me who are, yes, still squeezing those Buffalo nickels. The dumpster dude is going to have fun pulling this one.

And while this was happening, the turd-chasers showed up and started digging the sewer line with their little digging machine. This is another reputable company, but I found it quite hilarious when the one fella put on two of my hose bibs slightly un-level (I've learned to say "OCD" in Espanol effectively enough by now, that I always get a understanding nod) and I told him about it, and asked him to watch it when he was installing. For the 3rd and last, it was the most un-level one of all three of them. Wtf?? I made him fix it.

I just keep imagining what would be going on if I wasn't there to keep the ship on course. It's pretty bonkers for me to comprehend sometimes.

But it's all good, because I have hoses at the house front now. And I can put in a loo in the powder room, and get rid of that porta-shitter that's been gracing the property for he last half-year.

Anyway, at any given point of the day, there's music blaring, hombres digging ditches or putting huge slabs of drywall...There is dust everywhere and chunks of drywall flying. Lots going on. The plumbers were only there a few hours, but the drywallers were in it for the day. They were short one chap, otherwise they'd have had the place covered and done. These two dudes put wall up so damn quick though, it was really amazing to watch the transformation during the day. They'll be finished by noon tomorrow they said. Then the mudders come.

Thursday, October 3rd, 2019

The lads got started but the young one had a 'migraine'. His boss is older, in his late 30's. We both knew the kid was hungover bad. So, Roberto took him home and came back and started working by himself. And finished by 4:00. He even did some of the remaining ceiling work by himself. So the drywall is all hung and looking pretty good. One or two things they have to fix, so I'll talk to the finishers tomorrow - hope they start tomorrow - and see what they say.

Yury is the coolest - he was in the area and stopped by to see what was going on, and just happened to catch Roberto mistakenly covering a receptacle..the only one he truly did mess up on. It was just really neat timing. He also told me he's not going to start trimming out any ceiling fixtures until I paint the ceiling. Prick. He also tried to strongarm me to have the walls done as well, like he didn't want me taking off his precious faceplates in order to paint at a later date. Silly Belarusian. He has no idea what I'm going to do to his stuff after I'm all moved in, anyway. So, we agreed on ceiling, but probably no walls. Awesome, because painting ceilings is the most fun thing to do when painting.

Damn..it's really hard to convey sarcasm sometimes when writing.

The house feels really different in the way that it now reflects light on the inside and absorbs sound. It's just overall fairly light on the inside, thanks to some South-facing windows..something I'm not used to. Feels undoubtedly smaller now, but that's what I ordered. The lake-facing windows and high ceilings lessen that feeling though.

Oh and the drywall return to the main entrance that I had to franken-shim to get right? It just needed one more small shim at the top and everything worked. I couldn't believe it. Roberto is a drywall wizard. This team of contractors is a good one to work with so far. Low-maintenance and efficient.

I had 8 big pieces of drywall left in the end. That's after throwing away what seemed like a third of it.

During the day, and after the drywall hanging was done, I managed to get the cement board in the master shower stall all put up. I'll bang out the guest one tomorrow, then I Redgard the shit out of both stalls. In case you were wondering, it's a liquid vapor barrier and crack reducer. It's good stuff and worth the time to apply. Then I get to figure out the tile, about 450 sf for both bathrooms.

Friday, October 4th, 2019

Kinda weird that the finishers didn't show up, but then again I've kinda come to expect shit like this. Luis eventually got a hold of me and apologized, and said they'd be starting tomorrow. This is actually one of those rare times that I know I'm not being jerked around, because this guy's team comes recommended from two different sources. So it was fine, I was able to finish the cement board joints without getting in anyone's way. Made a trip to the depot to get some thinset and specialized carbon fiber tape. Smear the joint and work in the tape. Blah blah blah. I've done this whole operation in 2010 on my previous master shower, but that was a lot of brain cells ago. It was easy enough to re-figure out.

Got both stalls done and totally ready for the Redgard treatment. Gonna try not to get in finishers way to do that tomorrow. Looking forward to getting that done and then eventually getting the ceilings painted, so I can start moving all my crap into the garage.

When I was outside cutting cement board this morning, one of the local Ospreys, Ted, flew over and landed on my power pole. He had a fish. That was cool. I was hoping he'd start eating it, but he flew off and found a quieter place where there wasn't an over-interested, giant fleshy bipedal gawking his scene.

In the afternoon, I saw a trio on this little dinghy (is that what you call those things??) doing some dipsticking all around the lake..that's the only word I was able to conjure in my head.. When they were close by, I yelled out to them to ask what's the deepest part...but they explained that this was a whole new reading they were doing..but the understanding, they said, was that the deepest part is around 60'. Hear that, Ellis lads? That's where those basses hide.

Apparently my side of the lake is shallower, about 18-20' which would explain the occasional alligators that cruise by. And those damn arrogant alligator gar, those things just swim by like they don't care.

And hordes of mosquitoes continue to hang out on my northwestern siding trim and master entrance. It's really damned bizarre. I keep splatting them as vengeance for all the times that their relatives have drained my blood and left nothing but itchiness. It feels so good because I hate them so badly, but now dead flattened bug carcasses are piling up on my new siding. Damned cause and effect.

But yeah- besides splattering mosquitoes all over my new siding, yelling to strangers on boats, or unwittingly harassing local raptors, I got a lot of shit done. Even if another, yet another, potential stucco contractor didn't show up. Maybe I should just tile the damn garage.

Saturday, October 5th, 2019

I eat my words from yesterday. Eat them with hot sauce on them. Like Ted eating sushi.

The finishers never showed today. Crazier, Luis never returned my calls or texts. WTF kind of contractor does that to someone he already has labor into, and not been paid yet??

I'm looking forward to his payday..which will be severely delayed. And I plan on wasting some of his time as well. Luis is going to likely experience the wrath of a gringo who is just sick to death of contractors doing this to him.

I know I said Redgard earlier... I used a product called AquaDefense instead for my shower stalls. Same type of product, different color, $4 cheaper. I watched a video on Youtube of some chap applying it to his shower, and after 3 coats he ran out. On one small shower stall. At $50 a gallon, that wasn't going to happen for me. I got both stalls done with one gallon and a bit of care.

Also made a trip to Lowes to pickup my fascia; for what I paid, I wish I liked the shade of gray a bit better..

Sunday, October 6th, 2019

Since I was so frustrated with what was going on, I just decided to mostly blow off doing any serious work on Sunday, and instead ran a 'sound check'...which mainly involved drinking beer, playing music seriously loud, and pounding drums until my hands hurt. Felt good. There seems to be some really good acoustics in there.

When I happened across some WD-40 in my truck, I put some on the hinges of the troublesome attic steps that gave me so much grief when opening/closing. Worked like a charm. The, I rose up too quick from the application, and smashed my head on the corner of the step frame. It was very hard wood..I heard my scalp crunch where it hit the corner, and then came the blood. The fact that my blood was slightly thinned probably didn't help. The cool part there, was that I was the first one to spill blood on my floor, as it should be. The bleeding stopped quickly enough.

Still no call from Luis. Fucking amazing.

Monday, October 7th, 2019

On Monday morning, I had my ringer off and found a bunch of missed calls, it seemed that the drywallers were trying to get in my place. WTF?

I still didn't care; this just seemed to be another story of a contractor just doing whatever the hell he wanted, whenever the hell he wanted, with no regard for schedules or courtesy. I was already talking with Branko and trying to figure out how to get some new finishers in there to get this thing completed.

Here's how this story goes, and it's just another testament to the luck and timing I've had with this whole thing.

As it turned out, I had originally (last week) given Luis everything he needed to get his people into my house and working, which was mainly the materials and lockbox code. He has two phones. The one that he had the lockbox info on it, AND my contact info, died completely and he could not bring it back up.

Let's keep in mind here, that the drywall hangers were supposed to be done in a day, but they were short a guy and it took 3. Again, normal stuff for this build it seems.

So, here we now are..I'm all pissed off, trying to find new people to finish in the midst of everything else going on. As the day progressed, I found out what really happened. It was all because of this stupid phone of his.

His people did indeed show up on Saturday. They showed up at 7, and they left before I got there at 8. Because, you know..they didn't have the lockbox code because Luis couldn't give it to them. Nor could he call me. And of course, Branko didn't answer any one of the multiple calls made to him on Saturday morning by Luis, either.

But it gets better.

I went to Lowes around noon on Saturday as previously mentioned; the finishers actually came back at this time, to see if anyone was at the house...and you guessed it. Even as I type this, I just can't believe it. I spend at least 10 hours a day at that place, and I missed them fucking twice.

So, I come to find all this out yesterday. In a nutshell, a broken phone has put me at least 3 more days behind production. This morning, they're at my house working, but man, they really should have been done by now. Just amazing, no?

I left a bunch of notes on what to fix..on of the hangers put the thermostat cord 4' up on the wall. I think he thought hobbits were moving in here, not humans.

Every time I get in a good mood and see production happening, something comes along to kick me right in the jewels. Yeah Rob...that's me complaining. Tell me you wouldn't be, mister.

Tuesday, October 8th, 2019

OK, back to production..as seen in the picture below. In fact, Luis is now balls to the wall and trying to have it done by tomorrow evening. One fella taped up the corners this morning, and then a crew of four hombres moved in during the afternoon to really get some mud moving. There were stilted dudes and people running around everywhere..Spanish country music blaring..I stayed the hell outside. They brought along the fast-setting mud so they could do more in a day..if they do get this textured by tomorrow evening, maybe I only lose just a couple days in the end..I don't know.

I'm basically going to wait for this part to get finished, and then wait for the next horrible thing to go wrong. It's much easier that way.

It was slow shitty rain all day and I couldn't do any exterior caulking. There's still a fair bit to be done, the garage soffits are sitting untouched..but it'll just have to wait like so many other things at this point. So I went to look at some stone now that I've found what is supposed to be a fabricator, one of Yury's buddies. Want quartz or quartzite, but there's some really nice granite I'm seeing too.

Just purchased a small paint gun on Amazon, gonna figure that out next. The thought of rollering all those high ceilings makes my shoulders ache. Just gonna get it done while all the splatter protection is up, this way I can start moving shit in the garage and leaving it there for now. That'll be a relief. The soffits should be a breeze with that thing too.

Forgot to mention something yesterday. In the afternoon, I looked up, and across the canal in the neighbors yard, ran a huge ass coyote. I've heard many of them in my time, but never seen one. He was moving too quick to grab my camera as I burst outside to get a better look. He was on to me and making his way down the canal swiftly. That was cool..however comma the neighbors are up in arms about it on Nextdoor.com apparently..as if these wild dogs are some kind of intruders. We're the damned intruders.

Wednesday, October 9th, 2019

I showed up with some donuts for the hombres. They didn't eat enough of them, the bastards. They did a pretty good job with the mudding, they're going to be sanding and skimcoating tomorrow, then texture in the late morning I guess.

I got out of their way and caulked up the garage soffits while it was fairly dry out still, then went to the Depot. Now, I don't really need to tell this story to the internet, but I'm going to anyway.

I needed to get about 10 gallons of paint/primer, so I grabbed a cart. And I noticed it was very smooth-moving. I put my 12" piece of fascia in there, and some paint sample cards that I already had, and made my way towards the paint section. Now, no one has ever accused me of being too serious.. So, me being the goof I am, I just ran the cart, got up on it, and was gliding a bit in the air...it was fun and I've done this so many times before, I'm like a pro anyway. Then, as I was gliding, I wondered if the empty cart itself was heavy enough in the front....and well you know what happens next.

And it happened fast.

I was on the ground with an upended cart. In front of a bunch of people. My little paint cards went flying everywhere...the piece of fascia came clattering out and clanking down the aisle nice and loudly, bringing even more attention to the spectacle. All I could do was get up quickly as I could while trying to grab all of this wayward shit at the same time, and exit that scene asap.

"Did you hurt anything?" a fellow near me asked as I was quickly trying to get away. "Only my pride!" I yelled over my shoulder.

I know I'm going to end up in the store security gag reel. And I deserve that.

Once I had 10 gallons of paint in my cart, I was able to do it correctly this time. And I did. Just because.

The hombres left at noon, and I did odds and ends for the rest of the day. There's a whole lot of those to do. Seeing the place, primarily the floor, in this state, keeps my OCD levels maxed. I just try to cope. Eggs and omelets....Right, Andy?

I had to take a picture of JR's stretch up on a jack. Just looked kind of odd. The only way he could one-up that one was if he put the whole car on blocks.

Went to another stone place today, the last one I need to go to. This joint was fantastic. They had some really nice stuff, very nice people as well. I'm just about sold on "Barranquios".. it's black Brazilian quartzite with greens, grays and some blues in it, just beautiful. And it's well within my stone budget.

The air outside this evening was actually cool. Lots of people were out walking.

I might get a ceiling or two painted tomorrow. We'll see.

Thursday, October 10th, 2019

Well, let's see..skimcoaters and sanders were in and out in a flash. Luis called me, and of course, the texture hombre is on a big job today and won't be able to start the final knockdown/orangepeeling until tomorrow.

Of course.

So I'll work a gig until Monday and then have a crack at priming the ceilings. And I did get dealt a break..Luis is going to leave the scaffolding up for me until I finish priming ad painting the high ceiling (of which it is terrifying to be up on), as long as I need it. It was a huge concern as to how I was going to paint a 20' high ceiling on Branko's rickety old ladder..that thing is a death trap. So that was good news.

Branko helped confirm my suspicion about installing the fascia - or the lack of being able to from what it seems. Part of the drip edge assembly that's already on the roof is nailed in, preventing a 6" fascia flange from sliding up underneath it. So, a 6" flange will need to become a 4.5 to 5" flange. Which will be a huge pain in the arse, as that's going to be about eighteen 12' sections to 'rip' down.

After he left around 1:00, I spent the rest of the day going around sanding, just letting my ocd take control. The place was already sanded down really nice overall, but the light wasn't that great that early and there were a few small spots that got missed. I prepped doorways and door openings (interior doors coming next week) for installs and painting and whatever. By 7:00, I was heavily coated in white dust.

In the morning I also got some Kilz mixed up and thinned down to spraying consistency, wanted to have a gallon ready to go. Easier said than done I'd say. And Luis said I have to wait overnight after the texture is shot...well if that gets done tomorrow morning, then Luis can go suck it - I'm going to start spraying in the afternoon.

And I swept..but it didn't seem to do as much good. These fellas have forever changed the floor in that house. The pic below is on the scaffold with my noggin right at the 20' high portion of the ceiling. I do not like being up there. Do not.

Ted stopped by again, same fashion as the other day. This time I didn't get up in his shit, and he stayed and dined while I observed. It was pretty cool..I sat in my doorway and watched him eat that whole damn fish, piece by piece.

Friday, October 11th, 2019

This was an interesting day. There's a Sherwin Williams up the street from where I'm currently living; I stopped in there to get a gallon of what I thought would be enough soffit and trim paint. I chose the middle of the ground shit and didn't even bother to find out how much it was..until I heard him say $67.. I'll admit it's nice paint and all, but damn. Pouring water in in to thin it was like surreal. But the sprayer did end up saving me a bunch of time..too bad I was figuring out a new way to get painting done, on a ladder, pointing up. I got the hang of it pretty good by the end. But I need one more gallon of that expensive crap.

I finished all the house soffits, ran out paint by the time I hit the garage. Right around this time, the hombres showed up, about 3:00. Three of them started taping off windows and fixtures and doors. "How long once you start?" I asked the head guy who spoke some English. "Eh, 20-30 minutes..". Ha....yeah, right, I thought. A common theme with so many of these contractors is underestimating the work, ever since this property has gained a slab. They walk in and just see a couple rooms, but those tall walls and vaulted ceilings seem to deliver a dependable ass-kicking to all those over-confident mo-fos, pretty much every time.

About 80 minutes later, they were wrapping up. They seemed to do a good job from what I could see, but the place was like nothing I'd yet seen...all taped up and splattered windows, shit all over the floor, and crazy humid and warm from the process. Unable to ventilate the place, I was feeling the full power of the temperature-retention abilities of the house. I left it for the weekend and gonna hit it all hard Monday after my gig.

The head splatter-spray dude thought my soffit work was so nice apparently, that he wanted to add his own little effect to it. Like a little galaxy. Thanks, hombre. You're good at texturing, but your overspraying leaves something to be desired..I mean, you got this shit on my soffits ffs.

While all this racket was going on, Ted came by and perched on top of my roof. He let me come quite close..maybe he's getting used to me. I hope I don't find big old Osprey dumps or fish bones up there. The novelty of him hanging on my house will quickly wear off.

Saturday and Sunday, October 12/13th, 2019

Monday, October 14th, 2019

Primed most of the day. After finishing the garage soffits and touching up the rest of them, I got to work in the inside. Started with the garage ceiling, then the vaulted. It was brutal..my sprayer broke..Amazon sending a new one. Seems these non-airless sprayers don't do well when being pointed up a lot. My buddy Gary (also a neighbor) stopped by, he offered me his airless, big-boy sprayer. I'll grab it tomorrow morning.

The latest issue is stucco for the garage. We just can't get anyone to agree to the job or come give an estimate or whatever. It's getting a bit annoying.

The texture cured up nice it seems. Man, priming feels like a true waste of good paintstrokes. I did a quick cut in on the high ceilings with primer, not that it was really needed now that I'm getting a sprayer. No biggie.

Tuesday, October 15th, 2019

My shoulders ache badly right now. Gary's sprayer did not work, there was a chance of that being that it sat in his garage for 3+ years. So, I went back to basics and busted out the roller.

Completed priming the vaulted area, almost completely done with those. Opened the ceiling paint and did the garage, and cut in the vaulted area. That'll be ready to go for tomorrow.

I can now 'stage' in the garage, that's a very nice thing.

Aaaand, in the middle of all this, my interior doors got delivered. Two damn days early..I wasn't able to put them in the garage yet as I was still painting..... Just the norm as far as these things go.

Wednesday, October 16th, 2019

All the vaulted ceiling stuff, including the high walls and windows, are now complete. I cleaned up the three windows (twins and high transom) and caulked in the drywall returns, and painted my way down. So glad to be done with the major scaffolding work. I was fairly terrified most of my time when I was on the very top. I made a hard and fast rule. Do NOT move your feet until you are looking at them. I'm still here, so I guess it worked. The whole upper area is nice and white and it seems to look pretty good. I like the way a roller drives the paint (or primer) into the new surface; I saw so many spots where the sprayer missed..mostly in part because it was the ceiling, and I had to hold it at a weird angle. Rollering a ceiling is damned difficult to do all day either way. Glad the two most important ceilings are done right now, but man there's so much more to go.

I was very glad that my buddy Alicia got to stop by and see the place while she's in town. She made some food! Houdini was my first canine visitor. Sorry Oz, you weren't fast enough.

Friday, October 18th, 2019

I had a work gig Thursday, so no painting. But painting today, I sure did. Priming is more like it. After an HD stop, I got all the ceilings primed somehow, and I even cut in the ceiling paint for tomorrow. It was fairly demanding work. If my shoulders hold up, I'll be done with the ceilings completely. Then I prime the walls.. and then I'm stepping back from that shit for a while, I don't mind telling ya.
I'm so damn thankful for FM 101.9. This new radio station has changed my life. Seriously. I blast those tunes and sing along completely un-apologetically. And they (mostly) play really good music. They have a request segment once a day, and play one song out of all the picks. I call some cool ones in often but haven't gotten picked until today, where I figured I picked the right one this time and had a good feeling about it. And it was selected immediately by DJ James Steele who loved the pick, and played it as promised at 6:50PM. Oh and in case you were wondering, the song was Chick Magnet by MxPx. Great mellow/upbeat punk song from the late 90's.

Other than that, my shoulders ache. Hopefully done with ceilings tomorrow, maybe fascia Sunday? Man I hope. I can start maybe getting ahead of the curve..is that even a metaphor?

I figure if I keep doing stuff, I''ll eventually come to an end of all these tasks..kind of.

As I was cutting in aforementioned ceiling paint to get ready for rolling out tomorrow, the brush broke literally on the last 2' I had to do. That was some weird uncanny shit there. Couldn't have timed it much better.

Trying to get the ceilings knocked out completely tomorrow. That would be stupid good.

Saturday, October 19th, 2019

I rolled out the ceilings as planned, in a beautiful white. And I took the crap off the windows. Aaand, I kept going.

By just before 9, using some worklights, I had the entire place done..as far as what I'd wanted (at least for now). All the walls are primed, all the ceilings are painted.
So today, not counting the garage, I basically painted the entire finished interior of my house, top to bottom. With a roller and brush. It took about 12 hours..this is something that normal people should not do, and I do not recommend it. To say that half of my body aches severely is somewhat of an understatement. It's genuinely painful to look up.

I am however happy that I don't have to touch too much paint or primer tomorrow. Tom and I are doing fascia...not necessarily looking forward to this, only because of the issues I mentioned in earlier entries. But happy to be getting it addressed.

Finally got some quotes for bathroom tile labor and garage stucco. Ridiculous and ridiculouser, respectively. I was rather proud of myself for finding the fellas, but as good as they're reputed to be I'm going to have to work them down just a bit if we're to do some business.

Can't really remember what else at this point. It's late and I'm wrecked.


Sunday, October 20th, 2019

Well, today was just a fucking doozy. Sorry for leading out of the gate with an ol' f-bomber, but it's pretty deserving at this point.

I knew Fascia Day would be awful, and it was. My good bro Tom came and shared in the misery with me. Thankfully so, because this is one job I just could not do solo.

I spent the morning preparing, cutting down that expensive ass fascia into pieces that had a better chance of being shoved up under the drip edges of the roof. The current ones at 6" wide had no chance, was just way too tight up there.

So on our ladders, we were basically having to shove these modified aluminum fascia pieces up underneath drip edge assemblies that were just so damned crazy tight to the roof edge. Each 12' piece/run was a roll of the dice..it was either going to go in somewhat nicely or it was going to be a shit show. We saw plenty of both. My right forearm started giving out from cutting literally over 150' of aluminum - there were ribbons everywhere. The sun was unrelenting, and we just did the best we could trying to get that stuff up in there.

It was one of the shittier jobs I've had to do lately, and I'm glad I had help. Each piece is too long for one person to wrangle, especially in that environment. We completed 2/3 of the house, and the high gables still remain. At least we have a better idea of how to do things now. It looks really nice, especially next to the new paint on the soffits, but man what a pain in the arse.

I am grateful for your assistance today sir Thomas. I don't believe you did this while you were on a fast, you crazy fool.

Monday, October 21st, 2019


Gig. Yury came in and did some work while there was scaffolding available.

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2019

Branko and I hung all the interior doors today. STILL suffering the hack framers...and we're still not miracle workers here. But we got them hung and level as they can be. Going to wait on the baseboard trim until floors go in. We're beginning on trimming out the doors tomorrow, no idea how far we'll get. But today was a pretty good day.

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019

Happy birthday Tom.

Man, what a good day. It was a balmy 68 this morning and the air felt fantastic. Branko and I got to a late start, but we ended up getting all the sticks of trim hung, which ended up being 90% total after our messups and mis-estimating and whatnot. Some of the walls being tricky as they were a real pain in the arse...We had to unscrew and physically bend a door frame to make it match the bend in the wall. It was bizarre. Other weird stuff too, all once again courtesy of you-know-who. So, some of the miters and vertical reveals were a bit less than on-the-money. Sealant surgeon I am, it's no worries.

During this, one of the gutter people came in. Now, lemme tell ya..If you build your own house, (I won't say the usual) you will not have to worry about finding someone to put gutters on it. These people are like piranhas or something. Lots of quotes, all within the same range.. about 6-700. Fair enough for 3 runs and downspouts. But they come at you and really want to sell you some aluminum.

Except for this fella who came in today, from Morgan Exteriors. I'm so blown away by this, that I had to mention their name. This dude came in - nice chap and all - with all his little props and screens and samples and things, and 'ran some numbers'. His 'economy' line started at $2,700. For fancy gutters. Very fancy gutters I guess. I'm just going to leave it right there..you know where that went.

And also during this...the stucco. This morning, I hired Luis the drywalls guy's fella to do my garage stucco. I was relieved it was someone in the network and price within range, so ok go ahead. They left a bunch of lath and paper and corners on my property this afternoon. Caught the dude as he was coming off the lot, he said he can have the garage done in one day, which was tomorrow.

Now, the first, more expensive, stucco guy asked me about a lath inspection when he came by last week. We looked at the contractor box and sure enough, county requires one. But here's the by-chance thing:

I called Luis this evening and asked him about it. In the end, it seems this stucco guy was going to come and do this with no lath inspection and I assume let me deal with the consequences... consequences likely being Mr. Inspector Dickey. Not out of being malicious, I just think that this is they way they do things.. someone else takes care of everything else administrative while they spread cement on walls. Same with probably most other trades in the 'network'.

Holy shit, what is up with me having to catch that??

I am in a foxhole here. 5 more weeks hopefully, but damn..

I do have to give kudos to the old man as far as the physical stuff. He worked the saw and was right on top of every measurement and every stick that got hung today. And yesterday, hanging the doors. He did really well. Hanging trim is a piece of cake with a good blade, two people, and a nailer. I don't know how they did it before nailers and chopsaws. I guess they just nailed. And sawed.

Thursday, October 24th, 2019

My right shoulder is sore as shite from that nailer, but I'm pretty happy with the trim...given some of the circumstances.

I caught some breaks again today, after having painted myself in the corner somewhat...like a dumbass. Now that the stucco deal is secure and moving (more on that later), the bathroom tile has remained somewhat pain-in-the-assy. I thought the first guy had given me a ridiculous price.. I felt felt kinda bad when I told him no, but what was I to do. I didn't feel great turning down skilled labor when it's so damn hard to find lately. And then he came back three hours later with a 20% price reduction.

It was early in those three hours that I found out that his price wasn't that bad, as bathrooms are much more involved than floors in some big rooms for example. So that was a somewhat uncomfortable three hours, scrambling to find other labor. Let's just say that I was rather relieved when he came back unsolicited, and with the price he did.

And I have help to pull colors and a bit of design together. I met Jean today, her fella Sam cuts my lot weeds. She's retired and excited to help out, even wants to do it for free. But she will be compensated for her time. Cool thing there is that it won't be 2K, it'll be something completely reasonable.

Stucco. It's a relief to see the garage finally getting some attention. They wanted to do it all in one day, as outlined in detail yesterday, but knew that wasn't going to happen. So they left the aging hombre there by himself to put the lath on, and I called for an a.m. inspection tomorrow.

It took this dude all day to lath the wood upper and control-joint/corner-out the garage. It looks pretty good to me, but what do I know at this point. Every time I say that, something ends up totally effed up. Mid-day, the bloke asked me for water. That was a first. Never have I seen a tradesman without some kind of water; they would all have it in some form. I gave him one of my fizzy waters and I tried to explain to him that there was a store about 1/4 mile up the street, but he didn't know wtf I was talking about. l just let him do his thing. Then he cut himself and bled all over. Oh man always an adventure. Even on the drive home. Yeah, that's a bumper flapping in the wind off of the back of this chico's car..and by the looks of the lane he's in, he had no designs on pulling over anytime soon.

Friday, October 25th, 2019

Didn't know if the lath inspection was happening am or pm, so I just started caulking the interior doors. This took way longer than expected by the time I filled the nail holes and applied sealant to all the cracks. You just literally end up applying this shit for hundreds of feet.

I did this pretty much all day. The inspector did show up just before 2, and he was sitting out in his truck for a while doing whatever. I didn't want to harass him, so I went back into the main area of the house and waited for him to come in and talk to me like the rest of them have done. I walked out 5 minutes later, and he was gone. He left a Failure notice in my doc box, this really pissed me off because I didn't get any information from him at all other than the crude explanation on the notice. But I think I know why he failed it and it may be a problem for Luis. I didn't get really bent out of shape about it because it doesn't really mess with my timeline.

Winter Park stopped by. Going to get at least a bit of my destroyed sidewalk taken care of. Casey will have to do some at my expense, it's looking like.

I'm considering putting a floor in one room, the guest suite. It'll be good practice, and I've really got to get started on this shit. It's either that, or the floor and toilet in the powder room. There hasn't been a shortage of shit to do since the framing inspection passed. Lots more planned for tomorrow.



Saturday, October 26th, 2019

I started out slow, finishing nail holes and things like that. Next thing you know, I'm buying baseboard and vinyl tiles at Lowes in the early afternoon. These fake travertine tiles looked kinda cool. Oh and a toilet. They had this really cool one on a $149 clearance that's dual-flush and monolithic-looking..easy to clean and 17" high seat. So I grabbed it, and a Sharkbite valve for the cpvc outlet. I couldn't wait to install it.. but there was so much to do first. Was actually dreading it a bit. I started out with one of the slightly harder Smartcore products to start with, but good practice either way. And in a small bathroom. And good thing, because I fucked a bunch of cuts up, badly. It was a frustrating evening..along with some signature Fl mugginess just raging.

And another week of it before another cool down..

I gave up about 9, wondering if it was even worth it.

Sunday, October 27th, 2019

This post brought to you by OBP2. Because I like it.

I started out with another early morning trip to Lowes, and later took another in the later morning. I won't go into detail...but I did decide to go with higher baseboards, they gonna look much cooler. A bit more expensive of course, but will be worth it.

Anyway- I worked on this all damn day, but I'm stoked to say I got the floor done, baseboard installed and sealed, and the toilet installed and working.

I needed a win, and it was not an easy one. But I finally took a pee in my own home. Yup. I sure did. This was the official one; I'm not counting the times I peed in a Slurpee cup because I didn't want to go out to the porta-shitter in the rain. Speaking of - I can now get rid of that terrible thing soon.

Once the floor was down and the trim caulked, I started on the loo. I just followed the directions, each step worked great. I kept waiting for some kind of roadblock...but next thing you know the tank was filling. The hole was 11 1/2 from the wall, not the 12" required, I was totally unsure if the bowl assembly was even going to go on it once the tank was in place and I lowered it on... But it did, and that tank is pretty damn tight to the wall as a result. The Sharkbite valve worked great.

Then I started smelling the unmistakable aroma of sewer gas. Everything went so smoothly with the installation of the loo that I figured something had to have gotten messed up. But there was no water anywhere and I could smell nothing particular coming from the base of it.

Turns out that when I hammered out the knockout to open up the sewer drain hole, all my test flushing started kicking up the gases out of the other open pipe right outside my garage..I guess it's going to eventually be a cleanout. I taped that thing quick.

Another totally long day, but definitely something to show for it.

Monday, October 28th, 2019

The old fella was onsite by 9:15. I showed him my work, to which he was impressed, and we got on the road. We went far down South Orlando and got my roll-up door and then back into town to Floor and Decor. I think they're starting to know me in there. Anyway, after browsing the overwhelming tile selections, we picked up the deck mud needed for the shower pans.. this will at least get the tiler bloke started tomorrow morn. Didn't want to get anything else yet because the truck was already going to be pretty full. We took it all back to the site and directly from there went straight to Lowes to pick up another toilet, Branko wanted one of the same ones that I had. There were only two left.. crazy. This worked out perfect, because we were able to pickup 120sf of tile that I saw there, that should work for the guest shower stall. I still need to get much more for the other areas, but hopefully this will get Jaime going.

Meeting him tomorrow morning at 10. I need to start thinking about the flooring that I need to do as well.

We met with Casey today as well. He'll be starting my driveway and back patio next week. Then Dan the Garage guy showed up to fix my dented garage panel. It looks great now. At the end of the day, I had two hours of light left to myself..so I started putting together the powder room vanity. I'll have that done early in the day tomorrow I hope.

The stucco saga still prevails. It's getting kinda strange at this point.

Tuesday, October 29th, 2019

I actually did get the vanity built. I was onsite at 6:45, so I had to wait a bit for some light. It was actually a pretty good day, met up with Jaime so he could do the shower stall decks this morning, and he'll start Thursday. This gives me the time to properly waterproof the stalls with another gallon of the green stuff tomorrow. The stucco fella came today. So very strange all of this. He had his girlfriend with him, helping him with this little task. He didn't bring any tools, and their kid was sleeping in the car all afternoon.. but they got it done, they installed this drainage plane under the lath on my garage. Aaah, this inspector...what a guy. I'll be so glad to not have to regularly deal with these inspection douchers once I'm finally in there. But, he will inspect tomorrow, and universe willing, done on Thursday. I'll be a busy day on the property, with stucco and tile jobs rolling.

I ran around and got a bit more tile today, and getting ready to get the rest of it tomorrow morning on the way to the site.

I hope to hang that powder room vanity tomorrow. Due to the placement of the drain pipe in the ICF wall, I've already had to hack a hole in the thing. And for this same reason I'll need a specialized p-trap in this vanity, and maybe all of them. I'll also need some long ass tapcons to get to the concrete, to be able to hang it.

All because ICF. But I'm keeping on.

Wednesday, October 30th, 2019

Well, let's see. I was at Floor and Decor at 7a. It only took me two hours of agonizing, but I think I have my tile picked out. I ended up back there at 8:00p to get one more thing. It was a long day.

I got the stalls sealed up with the Aquagard, all is green. Pics of that tomorrow. It was more work than I'd imagined to seal up the mud decks..real porous.

I emptied 1/3 of my storage locker today. That felt good. It didn't feel good carrying most of those boxes up into the attic. And unboxed a few shipments. The guest vanity got trashed in transit. I found that the same people who make it are the same ones who make the cool toilet I bought at Lowes. And they have great customer service. Andre is working the probem; he's sending me a new one, anything would look better than the one I have. It looks like someone threw it...off a second story rise.

Now that stucco and tile projects are locked down, the main floor and all those planks, keeps popping into my mind. Even Branko is bugging me about it. I have a plan....or at least I think I do.

I have more I want to write about but my brain is fried.

Halloween, 2019

Fixes and hacks. And tile.

I was very proud of the floating vanity I found on Ebay. But like most places where you save money, other aggravations come. I spent a long time hacking this thing to make it work, from drilling a new faucet hole, to adjusting drawers multiple times, to having to buy a wide flange to hold the basin to the cabinet. It's kinda weird, but I've completely come to expect shit like this. Just like the hack I'm having to create to raise my shower drain cover a bit..The cool marble mosaic I got for the shower floor is kinda thick, and will be above the drain a bit without some intervention. And apparently NO ONE makes a square drain extender kit. No one. You can find them anywhere for round drains. So, I'm having to hack shims using plastic grout color samples. Yeah. Don't ask.

Today I did Home Depot, Lowes, then the Depot one more time. The tile guys got more work done than me, that's for sure. Looks pretty good so far; the decorative edge trim I got is about a 16th too wide for the tile, but it still looks good. Jaime put bullnose trim on the bench, that's looking good as well. Apparently the guest bath tile is kinda shitty (American made, too) and keeps breaking when intricate cuts are attempted. So I'll probably have to get a bit more.

I had a glass enclosure guy stop by to coordinate while Jaime is there, and to see if I can afford even afford him. The quote to glass in my shower is kinda over budget, but it sounds very nice...the nicest part not being having to install anything. I'll probably go this route, and get a decent glass slider from Amazon like I'd originally planned, this way I'll only have one install to worry about while saving decent money on at least one. And I shouldn't have to have it done before I move in.

I ordered a porcelain sink for the master bath; upon arrival today it was totally shattered. As soon as I picked up the box it was very clear. I wondered what the UPS guy thought when he was leaving it, with that unmistakable sound.. The big A is sending another.

30 days. No telling how this will go. I absolutely can not start the floor planks till these lads are done tiling, should be about 3-4 more days. I'll start building cabinets and leave them in the garage until ready, if I have to. No time will be going idle. Not that any of it really has since we passed the framing inspection.

Friday, November 1st, 2019

Never really got over 75 today, it was just so freaking delightful. Sorry my northern familia, but we deserve this.

Busy day today too. Tilers and stucco chaps on the lot. I can not believe that the garage is finally stuccoed. Looks pretty good. Branko and I watched the whole production going down while we built a couple cabinets. These fellas had no mixer on the lot. Instead, they were bringing buckets upon buckets of stucco mud in the trunk and back seat of a Honda Civic. They'd run low, you'd see the car disappear, and it would come back 45 minutes later with a load of filled buckets. You can see a pic below, that I took covertly...was kinda funny. Branko figured they were simply swiping it from another jobsite that they had. Whatever. I was just happy because stucco. Yeah. Stucco. Finally.

Tiles looking pretty good too. That should be all done by Tuesday. Everyone was out by 7:00. Found a cool conch fritter popup place on the way home. Bathed in grease but oh so damn good.

Saturday, November 2nd, 2019

Stucco looks good..I was told to hose it down 3 times during the day, so I did it 7. New job will be to prime it, has to happen soon to reduce chance of any cracks. Crax would suck after all that. I mean, I had my stucco mud delivered in the back of a Civic, ffs.

The lions share of the day was spent getting my shit out of storage and putting it in the attic. Maybe I'm getting more like my dad, but I just can't stand the thought of paying someone else to store my meager amount of stuff for 100/month when I have enough space X3 in my attic and garage. My payment as coming due, so I said screw it..I can do this.

Until you have to carry said stuff up attic steps. It sucked just a little.

It's a good thing I have a lot of energy. I did a lot of other odds and ends. Still thinking towards the main area flooring. I want it to happen this Friday. It has to happen by this weekend.

Another issue reared its ugly head. I've been putting together cabinets, vanities among them. Well, the tile fellas brought the tile edges out a little farther than I'd anticipated, and now my 39" IKEA vanity is not going to work. I've been forced to a 32" vanity in the master bathroom, and a 28-30" in the guest. I'm commandeering the 32" one that's supposed to be a valid replacement for my smashed one, if it's in ok condition. No guarantees there. Still looking for a guest vanity solution. I think I mentioned it previously- floating vanities are expensive as a mofo.

Sunday, November 3rd, 2019

Tom graciously came over this morning so we could finally finish that screwy fascia and call it done. It wasn't as near as brutal as last time, thanks to some beautifully cool 70 degree weather and some previous know-how. Once we got situated, we were off and rolling and done a few hours later. Felt good to check that one off. I've got to do a bit more nailing and caulking, but that's easy compared to hanging that awful stuff. And in the end, I had just about enough material.. there was not even half a stick leftover anywhere.

I cut Tom loose after lunch, and I got to work on other stuff. I chopped out the wall for the ice maker water supply line for a recessed box, didn't like the way it was initially situated. I got a new sharkbite attachment for it, we'll see how the plumbers like it. They can fuck themselves if they don't. Shit, sorry you had to read that moms..I'm just really sick of contractors.

And a lot of these contractors are quick to ask me how much I spent to build this house. Their English is fantastic when they're posing that question. It's much different and a bit more intrusive than asking someone how much they paid to buy a house. I was dumb enough to be fairly honest with a couple of them- you can see them start crunching numbers in their head right away, trying to figure out how much I may have made. So now, I'm just totally vague about it.

Monday, November 4th, 2019

Not sure why I've put the year on every entry. I could have saved myself a lot of keystrokes over the last 6 months.

Casey will be working with Bobcat Tim excavating for the driveway tomorrow. Gonna have Tim knock down the shitty old fence and fill in my sewer pipe ditch as well.

Speaking of ditches, some contractors came to dig one for me this morning, for underground power - almost two weeks early. I really appreciated it, but holy shite I just wasn't given enough realistic time to get the dumpster and old fencing out of the way in the week since I last talked to Ryan, my Duke Energy site engineer. I had to get him on the phone again and see if we can come up with a solution..hopefully they'll be back within the week because the dumpster is gone Wednesday. And that blows..because we could still use it.

It's stuff like that.

Throw that in with 2 Lowes trips, one HD, and one Floor and Decor (for 22 rather large boxes of flooring, and because I didn't get enough tile to finish the shower floors), and what a great day it's been...

And between all that, just continuing to tie up whatever loose ends I can. There are so damned many of them and even more details and things to remember. One moment I'm on a Depot run for Jaime, the next I'm putting in backer rod and sealant around the garage opening for the new stucco, and the next I'm putting together a cabinet while talking on the phone to whatever contractor. Lists and receipts are everywhere. I'm surprised that most of them actually do get tracked.

I'm looking ahead to the end of this week..I really need to be started on the main area flooring. All the planks are sitting in my truck, ready to be unloaded tomorrow morning.

Tile will be done tomorrow too, with Jaime having enough tile now to finish. Actually, I didn't really hold him up, he still had another bit of work to complete. It's looking good. The floor has a good slope to it, maybe more than I want, but that's the price you kind of have to pay for a 0-threshold setup.

Tuesday, November 5th 2019

Still crazy. I ran around last night and this morning trying to find the last bits of tile Jaime needed. He ended up doing a pretty good job overall - though there are a couple mistakes that send my OCD off the rails when I concentrate on them. But that also has to do with the master shower being out of square. The guest stall was a bit out of plumb too, Mauricio had his own set of challenges to deal with in there as well.

Around 10:30, Tim came and started tearing up the front with the Bobcat. I had him tear out those old fencepost things, that was great. He's ok with the thing, but boy he can be sloppy too. Casey showed up a bit later when Tim started grading the driveway path. I'd planned it like that. Casey's not the biggest fan of Tims work, so I wanted him there to watch everything. Didn't work out that way in the end - he got called out on an emergency and left a bit early anyway.

I really like the pennies in the guest shower. I probably broke all kinds of design rules or whatever with both bathrooms..I couldn't give less a shit at this point. I think they look pretty cool.

And I found a glass guy who beat the first dudes estimate by over a third. He's coming tomorrow to measure. Big score, I'll hopefully be able to get both done and not have to install an Amazon Special in the guest by myself.

Dumpster goes tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 6th, 2019

Busy day. Casey was on the lot doing driveway forms, and first thing he bitched about was the grade that Tim left. Well, I reminded Casey that he was the one that left. I wasn't even paying attention at that point when he did leave; what, was he expecting Tim or Branko to get it done diligently? That's a good one, I know. Well, he had to dig out a bunch of extra dirt. Also sucks for me, that a-hole Tim just should've taken more out. Casey's got a friend that may be able to take my dirt and give me a little bit of a better grade. No more Tim. Damned Bithlonians. He also jacked up the Miami curb at the foot of what is to be my driveway apron, with his heavy-handed fuckery.

On a good note, I got my replacement vanity today, in perfect condition. Talk about some excellent customer service. I gutted the old one busted for parts and chucked it.

As far as stuff I wanted to get done, I knew I wanted to get the baseboards in the bathrooms, and that stucco primed - that was really bothering me. It's not something on my 'list', but I knew I had to seal that stuff up. I had just enough Kilz, and just enough light by the end of the day.

I'm going to touch up the garage tomorrow, and then pretty much spend the rest of the day prepping for the floors. I've got one of my work buddies, Alex, coming over on Friday to help me get the main area done. If we get in a good groove, then maybe the master as well. But getting the main area (about 550sf) done will be the main objective and I'll be happy if we can.

Also made some phone calls, seeing who else I can get to pay for some of my sidewalk. Half of it will be poured with the driveway by my doing, but municipalities are responsible for the other missing sections for various reasons.

Driveway form inspection tomorrow. If this inspector asks for a Right-of-Way permit, there is going to be huge trouble. Way, way huge.

Thursday, November 7th, 2019

This was a fun 13 hour day. On-site at 7 (go DST) and off to the races. I was doing touch-ups and other various shite (like sweeping.. oh so damn much sweeping) when the electrical contractors showed up. I was happy to have them come along so quick after last week's snafu. They tore up my yard even more and left me a nice big magnolia root pile, but I'm way glad to have that underground service done.

It's that same magnolia root system that's preventing me from putting up the cool cedar enclosure fence to the entrance..Casey and I are still trying to figure that one out.

Then I started calling (again) about the sidewalks. Right now I'm communicating with the two previously mentioned different municipalities (Orange County and City of Winter Park) who each have responsibilities to repair panels..I made enough calls that I think I have the right people looking into and/or doing the right things...I'm just trying to get a sidewalk for my Occupancy cert. If I don't do this, these things will literally not get fixed, and I won't pass an inspection.

And speaking of........not passing inspections seems to be the thing at 5706. Casey was there when the inspector came along today. He marched up to the job box, rifled through it, walked over and pointed to the front of the garage slab. "You don't have your termite treatment there."

What. The. Fuck. My head is going to explode at this point.

The only people that seem to know what needs to be done for inspections are the inspectors, because the contractors I'm paying sure as shit don't. The abutment area where the front garage floor lip will meet the new driveway needed to be treated for subterranean termites. This is just beyond ridiculous, on so many levels. I don't know who wins on this. I lose $200 (+40 for the failed inspection fee) and the pest control company doesn't make much just charging for basically a service call. It was just grand to later watch the fella pump several gallons of poison onto the ground in front of my garage, btw.

So I looked at Casey when this happened. "I don't know man, I don't do driveways normally.." he said. I just thought, what the hell?? And this may come as a surprise, but Branko didn't know about this either when I talked to him today. I'm just kidding about the surprise, of course he didn't know about it. It is in all fairness, a ridiculous treatment. Then, Casey called the concrete people to find out that they can't even get him trucks until Tuesday. Yup. Business as usual in Orlando. At least he didn't ask for that RoW permit, though. Mr. Overstreet had me all hyped up about that one.

This is all a test of patience daily. All I can do I'd keep looking ahead as always, and try not to focus on the mudslide that my driveway will become if it rains a bit. And don't get me wrong..I should still come out ahead in the end, but these bitches are making me work for it on the reg.

All through this during the day, between interactions and fires to put out, I was prepping the main floor and moving shit around. I tried to get the first course done in the fading daylight... this way Alex can hopefully jump right in tomorrow.

I left the house and went to the Depot, then Lowes. I purchased the master flooring at Lowes- SmartCore is a bit more expensive than Nucore, but the colors and textures are way cool and varied. Got me some Glendale Pine. Nice warm tone to it, dig?

Still not enough hours it feels like. I'd stay longer at times if I could but anything past 14 hours of work these days and my brain starts misfiring.

Oh and not having a dumpster sucks just a bit. Thought I'd casually put that out there.

PROTIP: It's not just the slab in the South. I found out the hard way. Look into what else needs to be treated per code.

Friday, November 8th, 2019

Floor day..I guess that's what you'd call it. I didn't even set an alarm, I knew I'd be up at the asscrack of dawn. And I was up a bit earlier than that. A 6:45 on-site gave me a nice head start. Alex showed at 9 and he pretty much took off with it. But, his attention to detail left a bit to be desired. Same ol' shit, it seems. I was in the master, getting started with the Lowes flooring. Every time I came out I caught little things that he was leaving undone. Both styles of flooring are easy to put in, but the one in the main area is patterned. So not only does it require the regular random joint staggering, this one requires following a Large-Medium-Small-Medium (and repeat) pattern. Didn't take him too long to fuck that one up. I would have to later compensate on the pattern a bit, but it wasn't really bad. In Alex's defense, he did work the day through for sure.

LVP flooring is some trendy new shit. You can definitely feel the 'softness' underfoot..kinda different. I like it though, the stuff is waterproof and looks pretty cool. And by far and away the easiest floating flooring I've ever installed. You just whack the crap out of it with a deadblow hammer...crazy.

Saturday, November 9th, 2019

Since I was left with weird cuts on both floors, I didn't know which one to start first..

Yury came over to do lights and receptacles as I was getting near finishing the main area. He and I figured out the smart switch placement, had a friendly argument about 3-way smart switches, and proceeded to rock out to good ol' FM101.9 the rest of the afternoon.

I had 5 boxes left of the main area planks, that'll be a nice refund.

Yury finished up and bailed, and left an assload of boxes in what is to be my kitchen. I was still working on trying to finish finish the master. I've had to do a bunch of door trim under-cuts, and a few cut-and-knock-outs. I have gotten relatively lucky with the placement and layout of the boards and whatnot, but I'm really left with a real bastard of a cut-out and a just barely not wide-enough run for the final course in the master. Still trying to figure that one out. This is a fierce one. I decided that after 13 hours, it was better faced tomorrow. But damn..part of all that is that I just had enough planks. I mean just....until I found the last run was just short of the required width for the trim to fit over it. A final kick in the crotch. A (somewhat) clear head will hopefully bring some solutions.