12 - Bathroom, Windows, Doors, Eaves, Landscaping

Cool fall weather was already upon us as we arrived in October to work on a few projects.  The first project we decided to do was soffit work.  Installing the soffits in the eaves would keep birds and other unwanted flying nuisances out of the rafters.  We bought some vinyl soffits, the vents, and a lot of f-channel.  We started off by tacking the f-channel inew, then sledding the soffits into place. This was not a difficult task, but was a lot of cutting and ladder work.

Since our contractor had done such a poor job, we had piles of rocks to move and some earthwork to do.  My wife is skilled on the tractor, her dad taught her to drive it when she was a kid, so she got to work on trying to finish what the contractor failed to do.  He left large rock piles in what we hope one day will be the front yead.  We moved several of the larger rocks to the driveway area to create a retaining wall and graded the area we filled that was the old driveway turnaround.  This task took hours and hours to complete, and since it was unplanned, it meant we couldn't work on other projects we had planned on focusing on.

Our custom window order came in, and we were disappointed.  When we placed the order, we discussed having internal grilles with the salesman, my wife was very specific as to the look she wanted.  However, when we were e-mailed the order to sign and pay for, it just had an order code, and we didn't think to ask about the grilles and we obviously didn't know those manufacturer codes.  We depended on the salesman to get it right since we had a 20 minute in-person conversation with him and we already took delivery of the exterior doors that matched. This was the last time we would make this mistake.  Imagine our disappointment when the windows showed up without any grilles, but the company told us it'd double the cost to get it fixed.  That company will forever lose our business and we spread the word on their service.  Oh well, lesson learned.  We would verify every detail before signing, ordering, or paying for anything again.  My brother-in-law helped me install the windows, and while not exactly the look we want, they do look okay.

Lastly, we roughed in a bathroom on the first level.  While we don't plan on having plumbing or running water, we knew we'd be installing a composting toilet.

11 - Weather Tight, Garage Door, and Earthwork Finally Done

With the roof completed, we felt like a big weight had been lifted.  We had been on site building this project for 12 days, and we thought we got a lot done with assistance from family and a couple of professionals.  We knew there was more to do, but our goal was to get the structure built and weather tight in one trip.

We finished the wall sheathing on the second floor, which involved a lot of cutting for the angles under the eaves, windows, and the back door.  After finishing up the wall sheathing, we did a little clean up to remove obstacles and make the site easier to get around.  We got a few ladders out so we could reach the higher wall sections.  Since we didn't install any windows, or any other doors except the side door on this trip, we sheathed right over some of the openings.  We will have to cut those out later--in the Fall.

We started applying the house wrap from the bottom up, stapling the housewrap to the sheathing and making sure each upper layer overlapped the one below.  We taped up all of the seams and did a little more cleanup work when we finished that task.  At this point, we were finished with everything we could do on this trip.  The structure was built and it would survive the weather and elements until we got back again to do more work on it.

Oddly, we hadn't seen our earthwork contractor in 10 days and he still had work to finish.  The remaining earthwork could have been completed over a week earlier, but the contractor was missing in action.  He still needed to finish up the driveway, complete the backfill around the foundation using the large piles of dirt he left close by--which actually created obstacles for the rest of us to work around while we completed other tasks.  We can't even count the number of times the dirt piles he left caused someone to trip.  Also, working around the piles resulted in more effort to maneuver materials or equipment around, and the lack of backfill around the foundation walls caused ladders to lean, sink, or fall--unacceptable.  Our entire experience with this contractor was not only inconveniencing, it was a nightmare.

We ordered a garage door and scheduled the installation.  Unfortunately, the door would not arrive until two days after we finished our work and left Maine.  When the garage door arrived, one of the panels had a blemish that the installer found unacceptable--we never got to see it, but he was looking out for us, so he used a blank panel he had on hand and went ahead and installed the door so the building was secured until the new panel arrived.  

The replacement panel with the windows arrived about two weeks later and they installed everything as soon as it arrived.  Once the garage door was installed the entire structure was sealed up, secure, and weather tight.  Then along came the earthwork contractor, finishing the job over a month after he started....sort of. 

Throughout this entire phase of the project, this contractor put us and everyone else behind schedule. He left a mess of the site, neglected to perform a couple of minor tasks, argued over what was and wasn't in the contract, and even tried to squeeze us for more money at the end, which he didn't get.  His justification?  He said he felt he should get more money because he thought he did a good job despite the list of shortcoming we cited.  Even worse, he also said that we had good jobs, so he believed we could afford to pay more! No, that's not how it works.  We paid him what we contractually agreed to--not a penny more or less despite his shoddy work.