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.