Rain After Pour

No work being done today, but just wanted to report on my jerry rigged drainage solution…
It FAILED.

Some key things that happened today:

How It Failed

So, I screwed each connection together with one screw, as was done with the downspout segments already existing. They held up, but when the rain turned torrential, the weight experienced at the first few extensions was heavy enough to pull down on the existing downspout. Because there was only one screw, it straightened out, which produced a bunch of slack, and created a low point near the start, and all the water came pouring out there. FML

Thankfully, most of it was caught by the tarp. I kind of froze, thinking it may slow down. Also, I really just didn’t want to go out there, so I just left it like that. I probably should have, because it kept going at that rate for like another hour. Oh well. I think in the end it didn’t do any real damage.

 

More Planning + 1st Pour Prep

No real work happening today, but Armin did come by to drop off a truckload of cement bags for the first cement pour. We talked a bit about some updates too, which I’ll note below


Some key things that happened today:

Cement Bags Dropoff

As I mentioned, Armin dropped off a bunch of cement bags. They’re really heavy, so he dropped them off at the corner of the house, near the job site, but because it’s going to rain again, he wrapped them up securely in a tarp. It looks ok. I just hope no water gets in. It’s supposed to pour. We’ll be crossing our fingers.

Exterior Walls Don’t Have to be 12”

Armin said he contacted the inspector and confirmed that the walls don’t have to be as deep as we feared. I didn’t mention before, but we were worried that if we did have to go 12” deep with the exterior walls, it may make more sense to have the pot filler come up from below and through the countertop. That would suck in so many ways; we would have to run the line through the crawl space, which would force us to dig it out and make it accessible. Also, much less prefer the presentation of a pot filler coming out of the countertop. Not to mention that we already purchased the pot filler. If we switched to it coming out of the countertop, we’d have to return it and find another one.

BUT we don’t have to worry about that, because Armin confirmed that the walls only need to be 8” deep, so we can move forward without any changes to the plan.

Window Decisions

I also forgot to mention that Armin proposed a window called American Craftsman. He said they’re decent, but I researched it and they don’t seem that great. That led me to do some extensive research on other options by more reputable names. I told Armin today how everything has an expected date of like late August to early September. It’s crazy! I did find one option though, by Pella, but it’s over $500 (he said I should be able to find something around $300). He said sure, but I told him I’ll cover the extra cost.

UPDATE: Armin called later in the day, when he visited Lowes, to tell me they have a bunch of Pella options available in the store. Doesn’t make sense why they don’t show up on the site, but whatever. Even better, he said a 36”x66” Pella, double hung, is just a tad over $300, so the cost is fine too.

 

Pre Planning

Having passed the inspection on Friday, our next effort will be to pour the cement. However, we’re expecting rain for most of the week, so we’ll need to delay a bit until the weather clears up. In the meantime, there’s some prep that can be done, and while there won’t be any work getting done today, Armin did drop by to go over plans and answer any questions that are lingering.

Some key things that happened today:

Timeline Update & Changes to Cement Pour Plans

Armin was aiming to begin pouring this week, but due to some changes, it looks like we won’t actually begin pouring until next Monday. Besides just plain availability on the side of the cement company, the weather also is going to be really bad with on and off rain. On Monday, Armin said he will actually prep and pour the cement for the base of the footers himself (referring to the extra 16” wide footings required for the base all around). He recently purchased a mixer that he plans to bring and mix the cement on site, and pour. That would then need like 2 days to set before the big pour, which will be scheduled for Wednesday.

Crawl Space Will Be Shallow Afterall

I think I mentioned that our approved plans had a note from the Permitting Office stating that the crawl space would need to be accessible, but Armin wasn’t planning to dig it out, let alone make it accessible. His hope was that we wouldn’t need to run lines under the new “crawlspace.” He mentioned that he thought the island going to be over the existing crawlspace, but I clarified that no, it’ll over the new crawlspace.

We met at the table today and revisited this. I noted that I actually drew out a diagram of the layout to size, so that I could confidently illustrate where the current crawlspace ends and the new begins (I’ll attach a screenshot to share below). I explained that I think we can make it work actually, because a good portion of it will be over the existing crawlspace, so we can direct plumbing and electrical up there, and run them across to where they’re needed, inside the island. That solves for the island, but we also have a pot filler on the far wall. For that I proposed that we run the plumbing across the walls, on the north side and around the corner to where it would be installed, above the stove. We were already intending to increase the depth of the far wall for extra insulation, but if we are running the plumbing across the north wall, we’ll also need to do the same for the short distance that will be new exterior wall there. With that being said, I don’t think that will be a big deal. It was a concern for the far wall because we couldn’t push the wall out anymore, for risk of breaching into the variance outside, therefore we had to opt to eat into our living area for that extra depth. We don’t have that problem for the side wall. We can increase the depth of that wall outward.

Armin’s only concern was not being sure how deep the exterior wall needs to be for plumbing, according to code. I thought it was just an extra 2” (up to 8” overall maybe), but he said it might actually need to be 12”, but he will check. I’m pretty confident it doesn’t need to be that wide, but we’ll see what he comes back with. Otherwise, he seemed onboard with the plan. He then told us that the inspector got back to him actually, and said we can get by with a shallow crawspace that isn’t accessible. The stipulations would be:

  • No lines running through the space

  • Must be covered with a vapor barrier

  • Must have proper ventilation (Armin noted these small vents he would need to install in the ledger board to vent to the outside)

  • Must pass a “shallow crawl space” inspection (I think that’s what it was called)

Kitchen Walkway Clarification … yet again

Just want to note that I had to make the clarification, yet again, that the kitchen walkway will be 42”. I noticed that the most up to date plans seemed to show that the island will be located in the center of the room, but we want to shift it more into the corner. Not a big deal. Armin confirmed, and I’ll be sure to revisit again when the time comes that they begin work on that.

Choosing the Window Size

We need to start thinking about the type of window we’d like to put in the corner, and how big it will be. Not set in stone, but we ended up agreeing on shooting for a 36”x60” sliding window.

Surprise Increase to Header Height

So, we already know that we’re knocking down most of the wall separating the kitchen and great room, but we always assumed the opening header would stay the same height, which is around 6.5-7ft, and just go across the new opening. Armin, however, said he can raise that to like 9-10ft, which, of course, would be way better! So, that was a great surprise.

Backsplash Has Been Decided

We’ve finally selected the backsplash that we’d like to go with. We found it at Architessa, and the line is called Overlook.

 

Footing Inspection Day

It’s finally inspection day! We’ve been super nervous leading up to this, but we’re very excited to announce that we’ve passed our first inspection!

Some key things that happened today:

Slight Adjustment to Footers

Currently, Armin prepared the footers to be 8” wide going all the way down to the ground. Turns out, according to the inspector, the base needs to be 16” wide, a few inches from the ground, before turning to 8” width. Armin said the inspector told him it’s not a big deal. He’s going to pass us, but we’ll need to place a cinder block below each corner to raise the whole thing, take a few pictures to show the update and send to him for records, and it’ll be all good.

Crawl Space Not Accessible

Turns out the inspector caught where the plans call for the crawlspace to be accessible, which I predicted. Armin was sure they wouldn’t give us trouble about it, but here we are lol. Oh well.

Armin said he explained to the inspector that the space below will only be like 6” and he doesn’t plan to have lines going through there, but the inspector basically said, sure but still ya gotta do it. However, after a bit of back and forth, Armin said the inspector told him to hang back. He’s going to check with his colleague. He may have a work around for us..

When Armin told me about this, at the end of the day, I responded, “yeah, dude, I remember pointing that out.” To which he replied, “sure, but if we don’t have lines going through below, it’s not really necessary. Considering that for the gas line, going to the stove, we could run that through the back wall, instead of from below” To which I responded, “what about the island? We have to have plumbing and electrical go up to that” He said, “isn’t that sitting mostly over the current footprint?” I said, “No, it’s mostly in the bump out, I think.” So, we talked about that a bit and planned to meet back up on site Monday to take a look at the plans and the dig site to access, and see if we can figure out how best to respond.

Unfortunately, because the trenches are already dug out, we can’t really come back with the excavator to dig the middle out after the fact. We’d have to do it by hand. A lot of it is on me, I think. I knew from the start that we should probably just dig it out. I didn’t want to rock the boat, but I should have pushed on it a little harder. Either way, honestly, I’m not too too worried. We haven’t started closing it up. We’re still in a decent position to rectify it.

Scheduling the Cement Pour

To keep the ball rolling, Armin is already trying to schedule the cement pour early next week. He said usually he can schedule it like 2 days or so beforehand, but he already reached out to his places and they said it’ll be like a week out at the earliest, so he’s going to call a few more places to see if he can get some place to come sooner.

I’m fine if they can’t come for a few days, because my main worry right now is the alignment of the trench framing. I swear it doesn’t look straight. When Armin comes on Mon, I’m going to break out the ruler and prove for sure one way or the other. I have a feeling I’m going to be right, and he’s going to have to address it before they come and pour.

 

Work Day Cancelled

The day didn’t start off too optimistic. We got a text from Armin that he needs to head to the site of the last project he was working on to address some final things, and he hopes to be back to our site by around lunch time. On top of that, he said Pedro is not around today, so It’ll just be him. Of course we said that’s fine, but around 1:30 I got a text that it’s taking longer than anticipated and he won’t be able to come today at all. That was very disappointing, but it is what it is. We’ll just look forward to getting back on track tomorrow.

Some key things that happened today:

Backsplash Journey Update

Although Armin wasn’t able to continue work today, he did find time to drive by and drop off a walnut sample that we lent him, which we needed for reviewing some new samples we brought home. Shannon also ordered a number of new samples from other places online, like The Tile Bar.

Rain Delay

Just like Fri, it’s supposed to rain throughout the day today, so the team won’t be coming. Tomorrow should be dry so we look forward to picking things back up then.

Some key things that happened today:

Flooding Scare

At one point I realized that a strong stream of water was pouring into the trench from one of the gutters. When work began, Pedro tore out a portion of the downspout, which was in the way. The remaining piece is angled toward the north side of the trench though, so all the water being routed to that downspout is being poured into the trench (see video).

At first I wasn’t too worried, because I know that the exterior of the foundation is sealed with mortar that water can’t easily penetrate. BUT then I realized that Armin drilled some holes into them for the rebar, and the lowest one was about, I’m guessing, 1.5-2 feet from the bottom, and if the water level rose up to it, it would pour into the cinderblock, which is very porous, and come flooding into the basement. So I rushed out and positioned one of the boards to obstruct the path of the stream and direct most of it away. Thankfully the rain wasn’t heavy for too long. I think we avoided any real damage.

Shannon & Shayan Sick

I don’t think it’ll affect the work, but Shannon and I came down with a cold today. We think we got it from Aeris actually. We thought she had severe allergies the past few days, but now we’re pretty sure it was actually a cold. Oh well. Thankfully the work is just outside at the moment, so it shouldn’t affect anything.

 

Rain Delay + Shopping

With rain forecasted throughout the day, we decided to pause work. With that said, we do have plans to visit the tile shop. The backsplash tiles have yet to be selected, let alone ordered.

Some key things that happened today:

Shopping for Tiles

We ventured to The Tile Shop to peruse their selections on display. We’re thinking of doing a herringbone or picket pattern. Preferably a very light gray tone. I took a few shots of interesting options, but we didn’t find anything that immediately popped out as THE ONE. We’ll be looking at a few more places. Thankfully we have some time.

Start Packing

Armin told us he thinks we may want to move out as early as next Fri, so we started packing away kitchen stuff into boxes to store away in the basement.

Bar Sink Arrives

The bar sink arrived today. With that we just need the bar faucet, glass rinser, and garbage disposal, which are all ordered and on the way.