It’s been a few weeks since I updated and it was, frankly, because work was happening at a snail’s pace and it was super frustrating to stare at the same house with the same progress day after day.
There seemed to be some confusion or communication issues that resulted in the concrete cutter being delayed which basically kept everything else from progressing. The concrete cutter was needed to remove the existing foundation walls. Fortunately, when it finally happened my in-laws were at the house checking in on things and caught a video of the last wall coming out. The 2x6s that you see are a temporary wall that is literally holding up the house since they cut out the foundation wall. There is also a closet wall that they left in place for now to bear some of the load. I am now afraid to walk into the house for fear the entire thing will come down. It’s a little freaky to look at the house in this condition.
Once the walls were out, they worked on getting the footings in place and the city came out to do an inspection yesterday. Mike got a call from the contractor asking if we were ever in contact with the engineer or if the engineer worked with the architect. After answering some of the questions Mike asked why they needed to know and it turns out we failed inspection because of the size of rebar used.
If this had happened a few weeks ago, I would have been on the phone tracking everything and everyone down, but I’ve almost become desensitized to “today’s issue” already and finally last night just asked Mike to text the contractor to see if he got it resolved or not. He said they did, but we didn’t even ask what the resolution was exactly. I’ve also started to become desensitized to seeing things I didn’t expect to get ruined to be ruined. There are parts of the fence I didn’t expect to see ripped out and also fence posts the crews have backed into that would have been upsetting at first, but now it’s just adding to the list of things that we’ll just figure out as we go.
We had another inspection scheduled for today at 12:30 and we must have passed because when I got home today we had footings in place.
When I got home there was also an inspector at the from the construction loan company. The way our construction loan works is that there are several loan draws and the inspector comes out at each draw to make sure the work that the contractor says has been done is actually done and acceptable. He seemed very nice and asked me some questions about the temporary power and work being done. I’m anxious to see the details of the first draw because it will be the first time I start seeing how the bid compares to actual amounts spent.
We also started having some power issues this week on the trailer. We noticed that our phones were suddenly losing power when charging at night, like the power is almost cycling high and low. It was noticeable because my phone vibrates each time it gets plugged in and it was vibrating every few seconds. We also noticed that the fans run at high speed then for a second seem to run at a lower speed before picking back up. This has happened a few times that we’ve noticed and then last night the power went completely out for a few seconds. I remember Mike getting up and walking around, but I was so exhausted I remember nothing other than that. It came back on and seemed fine for the rest of the night.
A coworker of mine recommended a mobile RV repair guy when he found out we were embarking on this journey and I called him this morning. The soonest he can come out is next week. I had no idea there were mobile RV repair men until just a few months ago, but I’m thankful for them right now because the thought of having to take the trailer to the “shop” for a few days is daunting. I would have to pack it up so that stuff wasn’t flying everywhere when we moved it and then also get us moved out for a few days- instead, he’ll come to us!
In the middle of all of this, the baby turned 1 yesterday! I am not sure how it’s been a year. She is teething like crazy and super grouchy at night when she is sleeping. As a result, so she often ends up in our little trailer queen size bed with us. I don’t mind the extra snuggles during this period of total chaos. Except when she open hand slaps me in the face to see if I am awake.
