Friday, August 29, 2008

We have a foundation


Today they poured the foundation for the house. It is a pretty slick operation with the big concrete boom they have. We were there around 11:30 and they were on the 7th cement truck. So it was probably about 8 or 9 all together. They were packing up to leave at 12:30 when we stopped back.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Couple of Riddles

Jen and I have been getting pop cycles as a treat during the summer here. They are really a great deal, we get 24 of them for 2.50, so about 10 cents a pop cycle. Much cheaper then most other desserts I can think of.

Anyways, they have riddles on the stick that I quite enjoy and I thought I would post two pretty good ones that I have seen.


Where are the largest diamonds in American?

Why was the pictures sent to jail?

We have footers


Today "Poured Foundations" put in the footers for the basement. It was pretty exciting to see where the outside walls and supports would be in our new house. I went out there at lunch to see the progress that was being made and set up my camera (which again didn't take pictures...).

When I got out there I was informed by the crew that Lighthouse was supposed to be out there 45 minutes ago to discuss some issues. I called Rob and was informed that Steve was on his way. It took him a long time to get there...

The issues turned out to be that the window well for the basement hadn't been excavated and now, Tom couldn't get back to the area to do it. We discussed some options and I said that we could do something other then a concrete window well, either a plastic one, or I am thing now that a timber one might look nice.

Steve had me sign the invoice for the permits, which was 1600 more then we anticipated and were told we wouldn't have to pay. But Steve was in a crabby mood and I figure we can fight that one out at the end when we have to give them their profit. He was pretty cordial after I signed that, so I figure he thought it would be a fight. Next time I will send Jen, cause she wouldn't be intimidated by him... ;)

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

We have a hole


TJ Excavating dug the hole for our foundation today, regardless of the going on's with the Bank. We went out there to check it out it is pretty cool. I think the issue with the Bank will resolve itself very soon. Lighthouse will come to realize that what they think doesn't really matter, the Bank is going to do it the Banks way. He who has the money and all.

Jen and I are getting excited again now that things are moving along. We are supposed to have the basment walls up by the weekend. It seems a bit fast to me, but I have been assured that all will be fine.


Time-Lapse of the lot

The first draw request


Lighthouse submitted the first of 4 draws to have the bank send them cash to work on the house. We were a little surprised to find it in the amount of almost 200,000... This was not what we or the bank were suspecting.

Apparently, there has been some misinformation between the bank and the builder. This is the first new construction the builder has done, and it appears they didn't really understand how a construction loan works. You do the work then you get paid for it.

They wanted all the money for each sub up front, even though there hasn't been any work done on the lot yet. Not going to happen.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

IGH screws us over

Our builders went to pick up the permit and the city decided to charge us twice for the permit review (a cool 1600 bucks). Lighthouse isn't going to charge us this though apparently... Not sure why not, but cool by us.

The city employee that Rob spoke agreed that it wasn't fair, but said that the decision is made by a higher up city official. This was the same official that took over a month to get back to Rob on some other things as well.

In addition, the official was in the office and Rob wanted to speak with him. He was standing next to the assistant Rob was talking to, however wouldn't speak directly to Rob. Telling his assistant to tell Rob to set up an appointment at another time.