tuesday - after noon

Watch out. You've got me on a music kick now.

After Monday, Monday what else but Tuesday Afternoon? Moody Blues. . . . an old favorite.


Here's a picture I didn't post yesterday. Grand Avenue. The view off the left side of the house. This, however, is from down the stream, looking up. The house is at the top of the hill. I don't know if you'll be able to see the house (after it's built) from this far down in the woods. I rather hope not. . . .

Let's see now. Update. Yesterday, we went back and forth with the engineer, who (because I keep asking for the final numbers) apparently was preparing to "transfer the new numbers onto the last architectural foundation plan" just as he'd done for Tom-builder. Second, he was going to review the first floor plan and have that "ready for pick up" that afternoon. 3rd, should this be billed to the stake-out portion of the program or did we want to start a new billing category?

Wha?!

Email back.

Dear engineer-Dan:

One: I want a copy of what you've already given Tom-builder, not for you to do the work all over again, for me.

Two, I don't want you to do a first floor review (or any resulting document), I want you to tell me what the final numbers were (see 'One', above - and if you'd given this to me when you gave it to Tom-builder maybe we wouldn't be going through this right now? Well, maybe we would. . . .) Two: I want you to tell me (based on what numbers you used - and you know what numbers they are - see 'One' - and can I please have a copy?!) whether a 1st floor plan review will be necessary. NOT to do a 1st floor review, in order to see if it's necessary.

As to three. . . .

Hoo buoy. . . .

The king got the call back. Right. Much better to talk to a man. I used ALL CAPS on one word in the email. "That's shouting," the king advised. Maybe I scared 'im. Didn't mean to!

The upshot: the house was initially staked based on engineer-Dan's first set of numbers, which were some 6 inches wider in the back than in the front. (the mistake that that king found).

I'm not sure how that translated to the additional stakes Tom-builder put in, having been given new numbers by engineer-Dan.

Sometime after getting my email (and before returning the call to the king) engineer-Dan met up with Tom-builder ("On my lunch hour - you won't be billed for this," engineer-Dan volunteered) at the greenwood to assess the extent of the, um, foul-up.

Tom-builder wants the corners of the building to be "pinned" by the engineers, since he dug to wrong numbers and it will be hard to see where changes need to be made. He says he can take care of any first floor alterations (which are now said to be minimal) without "expert" "assistance".

(I'm so sorry. I just had to put those two words into their own, separate, little 'scare-quote' jacket. . . . )

sigh.

Does everyone go through stuff like this?

The hardest part is that I really do like all the people involved. All these mistakes and miscues and miscommunications just seem like a joke.

Until you have to go through it, and be billed for it on an hourly basis. Then it's not quite so funny.

Ok then: we're just going to have to negotiate the hourly rate for miscommunications, jumping the gun, and do-overs. . . . That's clear. And that'll help.

I look forward to the day when I can look back and say:

"Remember when we had all those different sets of numbers and no one knew if the house was going to be bigger? smaller? or maybe the same size as the house we [thought we'd] designed? ha! ha! ha! That was a good one, eh?! Ah, the good old days. . . ."