Friday, December 12, 2014

Beautiful Friday

Sunny, mild, calm, dry. Perfect weather to be outside working. Unfortunately, no work in our backyard today.

We did get an email back from Tyler (architect) confirming the plans and dimensions for the interior fireplace hearth. In my note of thanks to Tyler I noted that due to the unexpected duration of this project and "the apparent number of inconsistencies, errors and omissions in the drawings", Mike is having to make a lot of judgement calls during the construction. I emphasized that we expected Tyler to be very diligent in keeping track of Mike's progress to ensure nothing is overlooked which might necessitate costly rework or result in a less-than-perfect final product. I do not anticipate this will change what Tyler was planning to do anyway, but I wanted to make our expectations clear...again. We've had three costly errors show up over the past two weeks. I believe theses are due in part to the less-than-accurate construction drawings and the amount of time that has elapsed (four months since we received the construction permit and nine months since we hired the architect).

I also got a confirmation from the fireplace vendor (Bobby) confirming the installation documentation we should be using. All this information has been passed on to Mike. No further word from Mike on truss designs or costs or on the cost of the pine roof boards.

The weather next week, last full work week of the year, is not forecast to be as nice as this week. High probability of rain on Monday.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Thursday Respite

No one showed up this morning to do any project work. Not surprised. We have had roughly 2-1/2 days of work this week, which is actually about average over the past four months. Unfortunately, it turns out that some of the work accomplished this week will have to be undone and/or redone due to a breakdown in communications. Don't know if there will be any more activity this week or not. The weather is supposed to remain good through the weekend.

I did go out and look at the work done by the cable company yesterday, hoping to acknowledge a job well done...finally! The job was not overly complicated and they finished almost all of it. The only thing they failed to do was to hook up the ground wire on their junction box located on the back of the house. In all fairness, this wire was probably cut by the electricians when they relocated the power meter over to the new meter box. There is a red tag on the ground wire cautioning that the cable company should be notified if the wire is removed. Why the cable guys did not reconnect it, I do not know. Obviously they considered it not worth their effort. "Our" Mike also told me that, as he was leaving yesterday evening, he asked the cable guys if they were going to remove the existing overhead cable after running the new cable through the underground conduit. The told him that if he would cut the overhead cable at the house, they would remove it back to the alley pole. Really?!?!? Mike cut the cable (snip!) for them, and they did pull the cable down. I guess they are not permitted to use sharp tools. I found the wire in the dumpster this morning, which I believe is illegal. We were not impressed at all with Charter Cable and doubt we will be a long term customer. I hope I have the opportunity to let them know what I think of their service. If they are smart (no indications of this yet), they will not ask for a review of their performance.

Disconnected Ground Wire
New Cable At Alley Pole
Yesterday "Our" Mike told us that the City had completed their electrical inspection and we are now ready for Ameren (power company) to come out and relocate their overhead power line to the underground conduit. Let's hope someone has so notified Ameren. Once that is accomplished, the overhead lines will no longer be an impediment to starting the truss installation. Mike says he still has some more work to do before the trusses can fly however and he is still trying to determine the best means of lifting the garage trusses into place. He said he found a crane that is adequate for the task and which is mounted on a truck small enough to navigate down the alley, but it is on another job over in Illinois. 

Not having any adult supervision in the backyard today, I decided to take down the telephone wire. It is coiled up and hanging on the alley pole.
Telephone line along west side of house

Coiled telephone line on alley pole
The only overhead line remaining is the power line.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

An Einstein Moment and a Busy Day

Albert is given credit for this definition of insanity:

"Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

This morning I called the cable company for the fifth time in the past two weeks. Thus far, I have talked with Agents Adam, Eileen, Kay, Dee, Charmone and Supervisors Brian, Walter and Mike. This morning, I talked with Supervisor Mike's Supervisor, Eric. When I asked Eric who I would talk with next, assuming results of today's discussion will be similar to my previous results, he said the next level would be an Operations Director. I told Eric I hoped that would not be necessary.

I patiently went over the situation again with Eric, but explained to him that I felt I was reaching my Einstein moment. I also told him that, while shear incompetence is a potential explanation for their inability to execute our simple service request, I was starting to believe there might actually be an elaborate conspiracy afoot to lose our business. I suggested to Eric that it would be far easier to just tell us to "go away". Eric assured me that, despite all indications otherwise, they wanted to retain our business. If so, then I must conclude that we have indeed struck a rich vein (the Mother Load) of incompetence within their organization.

As always, Eric was very pleasant, calm and sympathetic. I give this company credit for training their people on how to remain calm with irate customers. He said he is located in Florida and would personally call me back with a status report before the end of today (4pm CST). In turn, I explained to Eric, as I did to Walter yesterday, that we are getting close to the point at which this issue will become a delay to our project. When that happens, I will cut their cable.

"Our" Mike and Nate are in the back yard this morning and Matt (electrical) is again in the basement. The weather is brisk and I noticed a few snow flurries during my walk this morning with Spenser. Mike and Nate are spending the day building up five layers of 2x4 on top of the hot tub bay window framing, on top of which, the new glass window will be positioned. It looks very stout indeed. Mike pointed out that the end of each member is beveled so as to overlap, providing a solid foundation for the glass roof structure. We found out later that they were going to have to remove two or three of these layers. Apparently Tyler had notified Mike of this back in September, but that information was forgotten. That is another problem with how long this project has stretched out.


I took a few minutes this morning to modify a sectional drawing of the sunroom to reflect the possibility of vaulting all the trusses to conform to the glass roof contour. When I brought this up to T yesterday, she was skeptical. When I suggested it to Tyler yesterday when I talked with him, he was definitely against the idea. Therefore, with this encouragement, I decided to see how the drawings would look if we went forward. The first drawing below is how the glass roof will appear with the current truss design. The second drawing is the view of the glass roof with a vaulted truss design. The exact design of the vaulted trusses is not known at this time.

Current Sunroom Trust Design
A Vaulted Sunroom Truss Design Approach
While I was working on these drawings, T informed me that, upon overnight consideration of my suggestion of making all the sunroom trusses vaulted, she is now of an opinion that this approach has merits and may indeed be the correct answer. I showed her my drawings and she suggested we ask "Our" Mike to stop by and talk us before he leaves for the day. When I later approached Mike, he said that he had given Tyler the new design for the girder truss this morning (presumably, designed by the truss company). While there may not be a wrong answer as to which truss design to use, it was absolutely wrong that the promise to explore this issue was not addressed prior to the trusses being fabricated. If we go the direction of a vaulted truss, and the existing trusses are abandoned, it will represent a significant waste of time and money, and an issue I will bring to Tyler's attention.

Matt ran out of supplies and left shortly after noon. He did get the new 240V recepticle moved to the west wall for the dryer. T is very happy and, therefore, so am I. Matt said he was not certain when he would return.


It was about 1500 hours when the main surprise of the day occurred. A cable company truck drove up and a man came to the door saying he was here to reroute the cable. This evening, it has been done. I will inspect it in the morning before announcing a successful end to this unbelievably stupid drama.


Mike stopped by as requested to talk about the trusses. We reviewed the drawings I put together and debated whether we should vault all, some or none of the sunroom trusses. It became apparent that the main resistance to vaulting all of the trusses stemmed from not wanting to waste the ones that we have already had fabricated. Once we got beyond that concern, it was easy to reach a consensus to replace them all. Yes, we should have had this discussion prior to fabricating the trusses. This was what T and I believe we had all agreed upon four months ago. Yes, it will cost us several thousands more to replace them all. Mike is going to have the truss company work up the designs and get a cost quote, but I have little doubt we will replace them all. This evening, Tyler sent out dimensions of the new vaulted girder truss. I sent him a note telling him that we expected to replace the others with vaulted trusses as well.


While Mike was here, I asked him if he was aware of the interior hearth that we wanted on the fireplace. Based on what I am seeing out there, it was not clear to me that he was. Indeed, he was not and said he would have to modify the framing once he gets the dimensions. A couple of drawings show a hearth and other drawings do not. No where is it specified or detailed. I sent a note to Tyler for details.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Tuesday Tuesday

We got an email from "Our" Mike this morning with the latest Lincoln door/window quote attached. It looked OK except that the doors were listed as "in-swing" and did not specify either right-hand or left-hand. I replied and quoted the note I sent to Mike last night, specifying right-hand out-swung doors.

I called the cable company this morning. I asked Dee, who first came on the phone, to talk with her supervisor. After about five minutes, Walter came on and addressed me by name. I went through the whole mess with him again. In the end, trying to keep it as simple as possible, I told him that if the construction is stopped due to their cable, I will cut the cable line, throw it into the street and cancel service. Walter said he understood and would get back with me today. Why should I have any doubts???

This morning, we have the usual cast of carpenters ("Our" Mike, Nate, "Little" Mike) in the back and the electricians Josh and Matt (his new helper) in the basement. I asked Josh about the power outage Mike mentioned yesterday. Josh predicted he would cut the power around 1000 hours, with it being off for a couple of hours. Sounds like we will go out for brunch today.

"Our" Mike left around 0900. I call him shortly thereafter and confirmed he got my email about the swing of the garage doors. He said he did and forwarded the note on to the Lincoln dealer.

Nate and "Little" Mike left shortly after 1000 hours this morning. Don't know what they accomplished, but they were done for the day. Don't know when they will be back.

Without notice, Josh cut the power off at 0945 hours. Thanks! We left the house around 1030 hours and had lunch at Molly's, one of our favorite Cajun bars in Soulard. Their oysters on the half-shell were delicious! After brunch and going to the store, we got home around 1300 hours, expecting the power to be restored. It was not back on until about 1415 hours. But, the new meter box is in place, the old one is gone and the new breaker panel is install in the basement. The inspection by the City is expected tomorrow. Then we will await Ameren (utility) to pull the new power line. Matt will be back tomorrow to install the new 240V outlet for the dryer.



During lunch, we got an email from Tyler (architect). He said that "Our" Mike had talked with the truss company and they could design and fabricate a vaulted girder truss which would conform to the contour of the glass roof for a "relatively small" additional cost. Tyler asked us for permission to accept the offer and for him to work with them on the details. He got our permission plus a comment that it was what we had requested four months ago. I also asked if the trusses already built could be modified to the new configuration? Tyler responded that it would be cheaper just to waste the ones we had and build new ones (guess who pays for the ones we will not use). Later, I called Tyler and we chatted about this. He said he was surprised at the ease and "relative low cost" of this vaulted truss design. I commented it was unfortunate that this option was not explored, as we were promised it would be, prior to having the trusses built. He agreed it was unfortunate. I am sure he is not too upset since it isn't his money that was wasted! I also told him that I had suggested to T that we could consider modification of all the other sunroom trusses to have the same vaulted configuration. This would address essentially all of the aesthetic drawbacks Tyler had brought up in regards to changing the girder truss to a vaulted design, i.e., the inconsistency with the other trusses. While he acknowledged this, Tyler said he was not in favor of changing the design of the other trusses. He thought it would look better to have those trusses retain their original design. I am leaving the decision to T as I no longer have much faith in Tyler's opinion or judgement. If I see him tomorrow, I might ask "Our" Mike his opinion. I have not lost confidence in his judgement.

At the end of the day, no call back from the cable company! What a surprise!!! Tomorrow I call AT&T about new internet and TV service. Enough is enough.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Busy Monday

"Our" Mike, Nate and "Little" Mike showed up this morning and finished framing of the connecting porch before starting on the fireplace. Mike said that, while it is muddy, the ground is firmer this week than it was last week. Mike asked me if Tyler (architect) had been given the specifications for the fireplace to develop his drawings. I assured him that he had. I later checked and found that I sent Tyler the dimensions and specifications on April 25. The fireplace, along with the hot tub, were decided very early in the project. The reason Mike asked is that the foundations, poured per the drawings, don't seem to be quite right for the dimensions of the fireplace. Mike said they would make it work however.

We can actually step out our back door for the first time in about four months!!
Connecting Porch



Fireplace












Josh (electrical) showed up with a helper and began installation of the new 400 ampere power meter box on the back of the main house. It will be significantly larger than the old 200 ampere meter. They knocked out a brick in the basement wall to bring in the new cable. "Our" Mike said they will need to shut off the power for a couple of hours tomorrow morning to make some tie-ins. Once they are finished with their work, it will be inspected by the City before Ameren (power utility) will come out to relocate the main power cable to the new underground conduit. Mike assured me that they will relocate the 240V outlet for the dryer so we can relocate it to the west wall in the basement.

New Meter Box












Chatting with Mike at lunch, he said he got the note I sent last Friday and would get the price information on the select pine boards versus the Ponderosa pine siding. He also mentioned he got a call from Tyler about the gable trusses. It turns out that Tyler's offer to discuss the matter with the truss company, in reality, actually meant he would call Mike and ask Mike to talk with the truss company. I apologized to Mike but he said it was not a big deal and he would let us know.

Mike said he got the quote for the gable slate and asked if we wanted to use 10" wide slate tiles or 12" wide. He said the 12" wide are actually less expensive, but the main house has 10" so we will go with that for consistency.

Mike also said he was expecting an updated quote from the Lincoln door/window supplier. Mike asked us to confirm which way (inwards or outwards) we wanted the doors to swing and the handings of the doors. Conferring with T, we determined all three should swing outwards and the primary door will be on the right when exiting the garage. This means the doors will all be right-hand outswing doors.


The insurance agent came by as scheduled this morning and we had a nice chat. No surprises.

The time window for delivery of the new 65" television was between 1500 and 1800 hours. It arrived at 1715 hours. They hauled it up to the MIL room, unpacked it, installed the stand and placed the unit on the table. They suggested not to plug it in for a couple of hours to let it warm up. While they were supposed to haul away all the packing materials, they declined to do so. The Chromecast streaming unit showed up as well. We will enjoy learning what we can do with the new toys.


We had a hawk overseeing the progress today. No doubt protecting us from marauding squirrels. We're glad we did not cut down the Ash.

Guess what? The cable company did not call today as was promised. Not surprised, just frustrated.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Potentially Nice Week Ahead

The 5-day forecast for the upcoming week continues to look good. Little chance of rain, mild temperatures (40's-50's) and some sun. The lake in the back yard is not gone, but it is much diminished. Don't know if anyone will show up to work out there tomorrow or not. It will be muddy, but we only have two full weeks remaining for the remainder of the year. The 10-day forecast looks good right now as well. If we don't make progress, it will not be due to the weather.


We expect to have the new 65" sunroom television delivered tomorrow afternoon. We will set it up in the MIL room for now. The "small" 32" TV that was in the MIL room is now in the master bedroom. The "little" 22" that was in the master bedroom is now in the Red room. The old CRT that was in the Red room is now in the closet.

Last week we bought an Amazon Fire TV streaming unit. With the promotions that came with the new 65" TV, the Fire TV was effectively one-half the regular price. T really likes it compared to using the WiFi abilities built into our DVD players. The Fire's voice recognition capability is very good. Last week I also ordered a Google Chromecast streaming unit, which was about two-thirds the price of the discounted Fire. The Chromecast should be delivered tomorrow. We'll see how it compares to the Fire.

We are expecting our insurance agent tomorrow morning to review our homeowners policy and the construction project.

Of course we are expecting to hear from the cable company on when the next appointment will be for the relocation of the overhead cable line. Maybe we'll find out something about relocation of the power cable as well!

We may go down to the lumber yard tomorrow and compare the cost of the siding "Our" Mike showed us last week to the pine board that Tyler recommends we consider for the exposed interior roof and gables. We are also looking forward to hearing what Tyler finds out about the gable truss alternatives, per our discussion Friday evening.