‘not yet’ … ‘too late!’

We’ve had a couple weeks of unusually fine weather for this time of year. Much relief that progress is, um, progressing.

The day after I posted the views of the footing forms in place, I learned (via phonecall) that they had just poured the footings. In northern climates, footings must be located below the frostline, and act as an anchor that locks the rest of the foundation (and thus, the house) to the earth and prevents it from shifting with the freeze/thaw cycle.

So we drove up to get a look at things and found they had already put up the foundation walls. These are ICFs (insulated concrete forms), which get the foundation built quickly and solidly, with 2” of insulating foam inside and out. Of course they cost more, but everyone I talked to said that’s the way to go. Easy to assemble, including cutting the openings needed for windows and doors.

Windows and doors — that’s where I started noticing things weren’t quite right. On the front of the house, I had asked waaaay long time ago for another basement window, scrawled here in blue.

So I texted the contractor “Don’t forget the 5th basement window, on NNW corner. Is the concrete pour scheduled?”

He wrote back “Concrete truck comes tomorrow at 8am. That’s the mechanical room.”

Which translates to:

a) it’s too late to form up that fifth window; and

b) he doesn’t think that window was needed anyway. Even though I had first put it on the to-do list back in May.

While I was texting back something like “but your proposal includes another window there,” he phoned, and delivered the second unhappy surprise du jour. Perhaps you’ve already spotted it in the photo at right: look at the levitating house, hovering over arrow-straight forms beneath. The doorway is recessed a good 15 inches. They’re not going to match up. He says “we” need to rebuild that whole recessed area so it’s flush with the outer wall. It’s assumed that the door has to be over the footings, which have already been poured (i.e. set in stone), and are ready for the rest of the concrete, which is coming at 8am tomorrow.

Gaaa. I know I told them to leave the recessed doorway as-is. I know I requested a fifth window. And a couple times over the past few months, I’ve sent emails asking “when should we work out details on these items?” The answer has usually been “not yet.”

Well, “not yet” just turned into “too late.”

Gaaaaaaaaa.

I laid awake a long time that night, replaying the phone conversation in my head. I accept the premise that the door needs to be over the footings, but I did not ask for this. Next day I ran through old emails and found the trail of both window and doorway.

So (ta-da) I’m right and he’s wrong. But it doesn’t matter because by the time I’m writing this, the foundation walls are where they are and they’re not moving.

If you know me (all seven of you) you probably have noticed that I don’t relish confrontations; most of the time, I’m more likely to bend than to push back. And it’s never a good idea to piss off builders and tradesmen. So how do I keep the construction project constructive AND get what I want?

Reminds me of the simplest and best advice, given a couple summers ago when the pandemic caused worldwide supply-chain constipation and prices and interest rates were blowing up. A conversation with my neighbor, slightly abridged:

Me: Sounds like it’s getting harder to get anything built.

Lenny: Yeah. Sucks.

Me: But I don’t want to give up.

Lenny: Then don’t.

<scene>

<short intermission, involving leftover Thanksgiving treats. All hail sugar! —cooling the fevers of frustration>

I do admire his give-no-shit-take-no-shit outlook. And a I have a good imagination, so best to focus on what I want and make that as clear as possible.

Months ago, I had started sketching out an idea to remove the 1970’s fake gable and add a squarish window over the door. But my plan was to do that after the house was set down, and probably not until spring, given the way the building season has slid by. And this was not even on this contractor’s scope of work.

Here’s one piece of inspiration, clipped from the endless parade of ideas that float around the web: a very cool renovation project somewhere in RichPeopleLand. Never mind the garage with its huge balcony and the extra-deep overhang, I do like the high-up window, pouring daylight in to the center of the house, upstairs and down.

I could have a window like that, and I’d also add a bit of roof over the doorway, like this:

(yes, I’ve been playing with SketchUp)

So I spent the downtime over Thanksgiving working up a couple drawings, and stuck them in a longish email to the contractor, requesting that we meet (in person!) to confirm decisions that I believe we’ve already agreed on, and to add details to ideas that have been suggested but are not yet finalized.

We need to be working off the same plan, and it’s not enough to try and convey details and confirm decisions over the phone, when one or both of us is in the middle of something else. (And actually there are three people in the conversation: the builder guy, his wife/project manager, and me.) Heck, back in the days before email and cell phones, meetings were the only way a client and their builder could share ideas and get on the same page.

The email went out Friday midday, and I’ll make a phone call in the morning (Monday). Wish me luck and fortitude, and stay tuned.

A final image, from the department of Taking the Long View: