Rainy Good Friday

Heavy rain moved through the area early Friday morning, before daylight. With intermittent light rain and overcast through the rest of the day, I was not surprised John and Tim did not appear as they said they would. While nothing was done in the backyard, some "progress" was made.

Late Thursday evening, I got an email from Frank (HAC) stating that he had learned of the Plan "B" proposed by Bob and Drew (landscaping) to move the two existing AC condensing units in two steps. Bob and Drew had proposed this plan after Mike had contacted them about initiating Plan "A", which Bob described as a "Chinese Fire Drill" to get the east slab pour immediately. This east slab was never in the landscaping scope of work but was to be arranged by Mike (Plan "0"). Mike apparently had concluded that he did not want to do this after all and turned to Bob to get it done. As proposed by Bob, Plan "B" would first move the units to a temporary pad and then, once the east slab is poured (at the same time as the other walkways) the units would be put in their final position.

Frank's Thursday night note was not subtle. He thought Plan "B" was a BAD idea and would cost us a lot of money, potentially damage the equipment and result in an AC outage during the hot part of the year. Frank's note did not copy anyone else. I responded to Frank that perhaps we needed to talk Friday.

Friday morning, Frank called and he reiterated his opinion that the "two-step" Plan "B" was not in our best interest. While he did not give me any quantitative estimate of the additional cost of this plan, I told him that I would contact Bob and ask him to provide a cost estimate of pouring the east slab separately(on a non-emergency basis) from the walkways so that Frank could move the AC units just once. I subsequently did call Bob and made the request. I then called Mike to alert him of Frank's concerns. Apparently Frank, after talking with me Friday morning, went ahead and called Mike and discussed the matter. Shortly after talking with Mike, Bob called back and said they estimated that, due to the "short load" that would be needed for the east slab, the cost would be about $1500 higher than if they poured the slab at the same time as the walkways. These walkways would be poured toward the end of the landscaping effort. I asked Bob if they could do their landscaping work around the AC units in their current position. Bob said that they could.

Later in the morning, I sent a note to all the affected parties (Mike, Frank, Bob and "Solar" John), summarizing the discussions and proposing a Plan "C". This plan would delay movement of the AC units and installation of the solar inverter panel rack until the east slab is poured, which would happen at the same time as the walkways. I concluded my note with a request for any additional information that might drive us to rethink this approach and stating that no response would be interpreted as agreement with Plan "C".

Later in the day, I got another note from Frank stating his disagreement with Plan "C". While he said that the cost of the two-step Plan "B" would far exceed the additional $1500 cost estimated by Bob for Plan "A", he did not offer any new information or suggest any alternative other than to just go ahead and pay the additional $1500. My response was: "If there is yet another option we need to consider, I am willing to do so. Otherwise, unless someone identifies additional costs or other impediments associated with waiting until the walkways are poured, we will save the $1,500, which to us is a lot of money." I have received no further messages from Frank or anyone else. Therefore we assume Plan "C" is a go.

The other development was that, in Frank's note of Thursday evening, he said that despite his efforts to bring Patrick (ventilation engineer) into consultation on our ventilation issue, it does not appear that Patrick has any intention of doing so or even letting us know that he has no intention of doing so. Frank was very apologetic about this since he had recommended Patrick and apparently had gotten assurances from Patrick that he would honor his pledge to work with us. While we have wasted three weeks to come to this conclusion, I feel it is for the best not to have Patrick involved. Damn engineers!

I sent an email to Mike, Tyler and Frank Friday afternoon stating that we were no longer going to wait for Patrick's involvement and were going to go ahead an place the order for the 30" sunroom cupola. We would somehow resolve the ventilation issue between now and when the cupolas are ready to be installed. This morning, I sent a note to the cupola builder asking them to include the 30" cupola in our order.

I noticed that 12 more bundles of shingles had shown up in the garage since Wednesday. Good news indeed. Don't know when the roofers will be back to finish, but at least they found some more shingles.

T returned from her two week Texas adventure Friday night. It is good to have her home safely.

Drew (pest control) was here today (Saturday) to treat the ground under the sunroom and garage in anticipation of pouring the slabs next week. He said they injected a total of 100 gallons. Drew requested that we notify them at least 48 hours prior to pouring the exterior walkways so that they can return to treat those areas as well.

Ready To Pour?

We had some rain move through the area throughout the morning. No heavy rain however and it did not slow down John and Tim who had returned to work on the radiant floor heating system. Intermittently, it would clear off before the next wave of clouds rolled in.

This morning I realized that before we pour the floors in the garage and the sunroom, we were to have a termite treatment done. I have mentioned repeatedly to "Our" Mike that the pest control company requested at least 48 hours notice before the floors were poured. Yesterday, Mike said he was going to schedule the pouring to be done next week. We have already covered the sunroom floor with the radiant heating system. I called Mike and reminded him. He said he does not have a firm date of the pour, but he expected it to be toward the middle of next week. He agreed to my calling the pest control company and give them notice.

I called the pest control company and they said they could inject their stuff through the insulation covering the ground in the sunroom. The company is scheduled to be here Saturday to do the treatment. Frank's crew (John and Tim) said they would plug the holes in the insulation made due to the injections.

John and Tim completed the floor tubing in the sunroom. All the connections are not completed in the basement, but Tim said they would be back tomorrow. They still have to pressure test the circulation loop before we bury it in concrete. They left just after noon saying a City Inspector should be around later today to look at their work. The Inspector arrived shortly after 2:00 pm. Looked at the tubing grid and said "OK". I wonder what it takes to be a City Inspector?

We also had a different electrician show up today. It appears he ran permanent electrical connections for the hot water heater and the boiler for the radiant floor system. Since the hot water heater was installed last fall, we have just been supplying power using an extension cord. We still have a lot of electrical work to completed.

I somewhat expected to hear from Patrick today since Frank said he was going to call him. But no.

April Fool's Day

I was not expecting any activity today. It was supposed to be a really nice day weather-wise. However, with a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon plus having already had our quota of two (partial) days of activity this week, I was very surprised to hear loud voices just after 7:00 am this morning. Looking out the window, "Our" Mike was there with Nate, Frank (HAC) had both John and Tim with him and there was also Josh (electrician).

Josh went over the electrical wiring plans with Mike and proceeded to add more conduits to the floor. He left around mid-morning. I found this strange since Josh had the City Inspector out yesterday to inspect his work. There will not be an opportunity to inspect what Josh does today, but I am not going to worry about it.

Frank, John and Tim started installation of the ground insulation and circulation tubing for the radiant floor heating. They will not finish today.

Ground insulation in place

Stapling the plastic tubing to the insulation

The cement floor will be poured on top of this grid

We have steps!!

As they approached the fireplace with the tubing, I mentioned to Frank that we were going to have a hearth. This was a surprise to him and started asking me the size and what it would be made of. I suggested he talk with Mike. Looks like they got it sorted out.

Frank also asked me about when the slab on the east side of the house would be poured. This is where the AC condensing units will be relocated. Frank is very anxious for this to be done and has asked me about this before. I told him again that he needed to talk with Mike. I don't know if he did or not, but before the end of the day, Mike told me that he had scheduled "Concrete" Mike to be here next week to pour the sunroom and garage floors. I asked Mike if they were going to pour the east slab at the same time. Mike said "probably not".

Later in the afternoon, after everyone had left for the day, I got a call from Bob and Drew (landscaping). They apparently had just received a call from Mike asking them if they would take responsibility for pouring the slab on the east side of the house. Mike told them that "Concrete" Mike would not do that job. They wanted to know about the footings required by the solar inverter panels. I told them that Mike should have those details, but the main requirement from the solar company (other than the overall size) was that the Unistrut posts had to be perfectly vertical. The solar company was going to charge us an unreasonable charge to ensure these posts were installed vertically. Mike had assured them that he could do that. What Bob suggested was to have the AC people (Frank) move the AC units now to a temporary pad and then, when the landscapers come in to install the other walkways, they would pour the pad at that time, using the appropriate exposed aggregate. They said they would get back with Mike for the details of the inverter rack and, if necessary, contact the solar company.

Mike and Nate worked on installing the remaining sunroom fascia boards and the cement panels above the connecting porch door and window and on the exterior north wall of the sunroom.

I asked Mike about his intention with regards to drainage underneath the hot tub deck. Being a concern to us, I have asked about this before and have never gotten a clear answer. I am not sure he had thought it through, but ultimately Mike said he would have them contour the cement slab below the deck toward the surface drain in this area. This sounds reasonable if it happens. I will watch.

While I was impressed with all the activity which started this morning, to my shock, just before 3:00 pm, the roofers showed back up!! They arrived to start work later in the day today than when they quit yesterday. They did not bring any additional shingles but, using the few remaining shingles, resumed the shingling around the two south dormers on the main house. They were gone by 4:15 pm.

Frank asked me if I ever talked with Patrick (ventilation engineer). Frank had recommended that we consult with him regarding our ventilation requirements. I related to him my experience with Patrick and how I have never heard anything back from him in the past two weeks. I told Frank that, while I would have expected Patrick to communicate to us if he did not intend to work with us (out of common courtesy), that message has been received by his failure to respond to my email or return my call. Frank was very disappointed and said he would call Patrick. I told Frank that it was no reflection upon him and that we appreciated Frank's willingness to help us on this matter. No one else seems to care much about it. If Patrick does not have either the interest or the time to work with us, then we don't want him to feel pressured to be involved.

You Have Got To Be Kidding!

Another beautiful Spring day in St. Louis. Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer. Spenser and I spent a nice part of the afternoon in the park up the street. We had the park to ourselves and Spenser ran (walked) with reckless abandon.

Considering the nice weather, it was gratifying to see the roofers return this morning. I noticed that Bret had arrived to ensure his crew knew what to do. I went out and chatted with him. He said that with rain forecast for Wednesday evening, he wanted to get the sunroom and garage finished. I readily agreed, ignoring the notion to mention the last two weeks of rain. I did mention that they still had some shingling to complete around the south dormers on the main house and those same dormers still needed to have ridge vents installed. Bret's first reaction was that "we normally don't put vents on dormers". I quickly reminded him that he had previously assured me that they would install these vents and that they had already done so on the west and east dormers. "Aha!" Bret said he remembered and they would indeed install them (I will watch closely). I also reminded him that I wanted all the gutter leaf screens replaced. He said they would do so along with re-installing the finials. I asked Bret if he thought he had enough shingles to finish the job. He assured me that they did. He also said these high-end "lifetime" shingles are hard to get. Based on what I have seen so far, I expressed my doubts in regards to having enough to finish the job, but Bret is the expert...right?

The roofers left about 2:40 pm. I wish I could say they had finished, but no, they ran out of shingles!! They finished the sunroom and 3/4 of the south face of the garage. They did nothing more on the main house. At least we now have a completed roof over the sunroom. I hope we don't have to wait two more weeks for more shingles. At least they won't (shouldn't) be paid until the job is complete.

I called the office of Patrick (ventilation engineer) about mid-morning. The lady who answered said Patrick was on another line and would call me back. I was not surprised when he did not call. Despite his initial positive response to our inquiry, this guy has wasted three weeks of our time. Damn engineers, they are all the same and they all know each other!

First Week of Spring

We thought we would be spending this spring enjoying our new sunroom. We are not. The weather today, and supposedly most of the week, is very spring-like. Temperature up around 70F with sunny skies.

Josh (electrician) showed up around 7:00 am to continue what he started last week. By 9:00 am, he was gone. He said he was finished with what needed to be done before the floor is poured and said an City Inspector should be out today. Josh also said we were ready for Frank (HAC) to come in for the radiant floor. He did not know when that would happen.

About 10:00 am, a City Inspector did arrive, merely glanced at the work Josh had accomplished and said "OK" and left.

Since the roofers never appeared, Spenser and I thought that was it for the day. To our collective surprise, at 11:30 am, both "Our" Mike and Nate showed up to continue working on the gables and trim. I asked Mike if he knew about the roofers and he said he had not talked with Bret. By 3:30 pm, they had left.

No word from Patrick (ventilation). I will call his office tomorrow and see if he has any intention of working with us. If not, we'll go it alone.