Don't Lose Hope...Yet

"Concrete" Mike and crew arrived bright and early to continue with the foundation wall framing. I asked Mike if they were planning to pour today. He said the plan was still to pour tomorrow (Thursday). The weather forecast is for rain to move into the area after midnight tonight and to stay in the area through Saturday. Mike also said that they still had a lot of work to yet complete on the framing and would not be ready to pour today. As it turned out, they were finished and gone by 1:00 pm.

The City Inspector (Sharon) came at 11:00 am, as scheduled, to inspect the framing. As was the case on Monday, while they were not quite done with the frames yet, they were far enough along that she could pass judgement, which she did, and we passed. Our Mike (general contractor) arrived later in the morning and, while he also was surprised that we were not planning to pour today, assured me that they would pour on Thursday, rain or shine, unless it was just not safe to do so. I hope he is correct as he also said they typically allow seven days for curing before back filling the trench. Therefore, Mike said he would get in touch with "Bobcat" Bob about scheduling the back fill work for late next week.

Dare I hope that these are the last pictures of the foundation frames awaiting concrete? They did do a nice job around the east bay!

Our Mike told me again that the pace will really pick up once the foundations are in place. We'll see. I would like to be able to say that the pace could not get much slower, but I know that's not true. There is a roof replacement project in progress over on Hawthorne Blvd that was started before Halloween....of last year.

Last night, I got a response to the email I sent to our Ward 6 Alderwoman (Christine) last week. This was in regards to the status of the alley. Her response was puzzling and inconsistent with what she verbally told me three weeks ago which was that the alley may belong to the City. Her email included a quote from the City Street Commissioner who speculated that the alley may be a private drive. Interestingly, her email also suggested that we trust a commercial surveyor and not the City. I will call her to discuss either Thursday or Friday afternoon. I suggested to T that, before we go to the expense of paving over part of the alley, we should get a document from an official of the City stating that we can do this.

Late breaking news: Frank (HVAC) called this evening to say that all the HVAC equipment has arrived. All we need now is a sunroom into which we can install it. Until then, Frank suggested we could go ahead and start installing the stuff in the basement, including the boiler for the radiant floor heating and the on-demand domestic hot water heater. Frank wanted to know if I had any problem with them bringing the equipment out tomorrow and start the basement part of their work. I probably hesitated one-half to one full second before agreeing. Rain being in the forecast, it sounds like a good day to be working in the basement. If we have to shut off the hot water, this would be the ideal time to do it, with T out of town.