A White Christmas

When you were a kid snow at Christmas was the ultimate. Time off school, sledding, and of course easy traveling for St. Nick. As you get older we tend to see it more of a hassle and inconvenience. Especially here in the Northwest where the infrequency of snow combined with the hilly terrain, wet and icy conditions and minimal removal equipment spells difficult conditions at best. We have over a foot at our house and it was snowing pretty heavy all christmas morning. The white stuff has been around for over a week and it is now turning wet and much messier. The Audi handles the snowy conditions great as I have no problems getting around. I have minimized driving just to avoid the crazy drivers that are always out there but otherwise no problems.

On the house I fortunately just finished the footing/foundation work outside and I have now been working inside. I have to finish the back bedroom (sanding and painting) so we can move our bed back there. Then we will move the living room so I can demo out that area for the new foundation. My only concern with the weather is how all the snow melt will drain and affect the excavation. I can already see that I will have some digging cleanup to do but hopefully, if I monitor the conditions, it won't be too extensive.

Happy Holidays!

Tif & dp

Paperwork

I spent the day updating my Construction Loan paperwork, organizing and filing subcontractor bids and generally getting on top of the paperwork. Here is an interesting thing about construction loans that I did not know. To get the loan, you break the work down into categories and get bids for the major ones. Once the bank is satisfied they approve your loan, assuming everything else is in order(finances, appraisal, etc). Now here is the interesting part. You get the money for each category once that work is fully completed only. So for example, let's say kitchen cabinets are a category worth $20k. You can only get that money once they are installed in the project. The bank will come out and verify. I guess this stops people not completing the necessary work, switching out stuff just to get the money etc. It does put you in the interesting position of owing the cabinet maker their money and not being able to pay until the cabinets are installed, which might not have anything to do with them.

Another thing that I was reminded of whilst doing paperwork is the variations in bids from different contractors. I have a few trades/categories where one contractor's bid is twice as much as another contractor! Now in theory they are bidding the same work as they had the same information etc. So what is the deal? My opinion is that you should always get a few bids to compare. The high is most likely too high and the low is too low. The high bidder is perhaps busy, doens't want to travel that far or whatever and is throwing a high number at the work. If they get it they will feel good making the $, otherwise no loss. The low bidder might be desperate for work, not paying attention to the scope of work, or bidding low figuring they will add $ through change orders once they have the job. My point here is the dollars does not tell the whole story. Get multiple bids, get references/referals, review the bid carefully to see what is included and not. Remember you will be working with this contractor for awhile so a good relationship is extremely valuable. Plus you will be living with their work even longer!!

TYPICAL LOAN CATEGORIES

(Not the best list, just an example)

1. Plans, Permits, Arch Fees

2. Bonds, Insurance

3. Excavation, Backfill, Final Grading

4. Foundation

5. Framing, Sheathing

6. Roofing

7. Siding

8. Windows, Sash

9. Brickwork

10. Sheet Metal Work

11. Ext/Int Painting

12. Plumbing & Fixtures

13. Water

14. Sewer

15. Electrical

16. Insulation

17. Heating, Cooling

18. Int Walls/Drywall

19. Doors, Trim, Finish

20. Garage Materials

21. Cabinets

22. Vinyl, Tile Work

23. Appliances

24. Underlayment

25. Flooring

26. Porches, Patios

27. Driveway

28. Landscaping

29. Misc Extras

30. Cleanup

31. Sales Tax

32. Financing

33. Real Estate Commisions

34. Profit & Overhead

35. Lot/Property

If you are looking for a more complete list just let me know. I have worked up some fairly good Excel tools that I am currently using to track my Cash Draws on the loan and manage the overall project costs.

Surprises

So I think a large part of successful project management is how you handle what you do not foresee. Today whilst I was finishing excavating for the new footings I uncovered a sewer line in a surprising location by the front door. I thought my house sewer line exited the house further to the east and heading off towards the northeast corner of the property. So I finished my excavation and went back to check out this surprise. The tile was old clay tile sections that looked like stuff used back in the 60's which is when the house was built. I carefully excavated it and as I approached the end close to the house footings it just ended. It turned out to be some old abandoned line for something predating our house. I just dug it all up and got it out of the way. The lesson is stay calm when surprises occur and just work through them. In construction they will always happen, success is based on how you handle them :-)

Surpise #2 was involving the drain line attached to the downspout at the garage corner of the house. I knew this was clogged somewhat because the floor scupper I put in drained slowly when it rained heavily. I needed it get this all out of the way to excavate for the footings and to track the gas line. When I pulled up the black perforated pipe up it was pretty much clogged solid for the first 15'! Even with the fabric sleeve around it tree roots had sought out the water pretty aggressively. I have it all up and out of the way now and will put in a new drain line with lots of gravel when I am done. Lesson learned, don't underestimate mother nature or she will kick your ASS! :-)

Excavation Update

A long overdue update but here goes. My nephew Keith came by before Thanksgiving and gave me a hand with digging out the front and getting the roots of the pine tree out of the way. Then I had a few days off for the holidays. I think I had put in over 14 straight days of work so the break felt good. I spent the last week getting the back and front foundations roughed in and ready. I left myself way too much digging to be done manually. I thought about getting the tractor back for one more day but the labor is free so I just got stuck in. One week later I have everything roughed in for the new foundations. The soil for the most part is rock free and very sandy, perfect digging. Still there was a lot to do. I still have a little work to finish by the pine tree stump at the side of the drive but that should be done this weekend. Then I need to demo out the Living room ready for new foundations in that area.

PS Shoveling is not natural! Your back gets all twisted and your arms hurt, but not equally. I recommend massage and back adjustments! Both of which Tif has been taking care of for me. Remarkably I feel pretty good. Tired but good :-)