The tiling has been completed and the bamboo flooring was going well until it was discovered that we are about 10 pieces short. We should those on Tuesday.

Another surprise was that when the crew went to pick up the cabinets they found that they were all flat-packed, not what I was expecting. So this weekend my wife and I are constructing the cabinets. Once a rythmn is established they can be put together quite quickly. The biggest headache, literally, is the heat. Even with fans going full blast it is still about 96 degrees inside.
On Thursday my concrete crew laid the concrete for the front car park and on Saturday they did the handicapped ramp at the rear entrance. An excellent job as always.

We have also started work on the siding. When we went to Lowes to get it they told us it was a 2 week wait, which is no use to us. By asking around we soon established that there was a supplier in a nearby city which had what we wanted in stock.

Someone forgot to tell us this when we purchased 1015 back in November. We thought that we maybe able to renovate the back one but they are both beyond redemption.
Meanwhile, my interior crew have been working very hard taping and floating the sheetrock prior to texturing.
The bamboo flooring has been ordered and should be arriving at the end of next week.

On Saturday the brick masons turned up and got all their equipment and bricks set up for starting today. Jose the owner asked when my electrician was going to put the external boxes in. Oops! Thankfully John has said he will come today and install them, even though it’s labor day weekend. I will be going in shortly to see how things are going.

Instead of side-by-side we will have to have them stacked. I went and priced them up and it came out $600 more than I had budgeted. The cabinet for the security equipment is a bit of a tight fit but will work.

The sheetrocking should be completed by Wednesday.

Wednesday saw the retaining wall completed, the concrete forms erected, and the reinforcing grid laid.

Thursday the concrete was poured. We were out of town and got back about 6:00 to find the rear car park completed. T he curb is not quite how I envisaged it, The crew free-formed it. The finished effect looks good though.

With the wall insulation complete and the exhaust fan ducts installed, along with the dryer vent ducting, I called for a re-inspection for Friday afternoon. I recieved a call from Danny, my interior guy, that there was a green sticker. I was prety sure it was going to pass but it was still a relief.

I have also installed the cabling for the TV’s and telephones.
We shall, at last, start sheetrocking on Monday. It’s scheduled to take 8-10 days.

I had a call from the inspector saying that everything was still not 100%. There were no vent hoses from the exhaust fans in the restrooms. Thankfully he said that we can go ahead with insulating and to make sure that the vents are installed and visible when he carries out the insulation inspection.
I was hoping to start on the masonry on Monday but my mason says that he would rather do it after the sheetrock is up. So it could be another week before that gets done. I want it done as soon as possible before the bricks start disapearing.

The city will not pass the framing inspection until the doors are installed. The building supplies company is backed up so I have had to wait for them to fabricate the frames.
My framers did install the windows and now the building has some kind of character rather than being just a box.

The sign pole and box was also erected this last week. We were somewhat shocked when we saw it as it is facing at the wrong angle to the street and at the height it currently is it will be almost totally obscured by power and telephone cables. We also thought that the shade of green would clash with color of the trim on the building.
Geoff at the sign shop was as helpful as ever and said that we can chop about 4 feet off the height and roatate it to the correct angle.
Today should see the doors in and hopefully the inspection done so that we can start insulating tomorrow.

For the first time I had a budget over-run. My electrical contractor had to revise his estimate for the job as raw materials have increased since he gave me his original estimate six months ago, and also we have included some additional task lighting. This has pushed the cost $3,000 over the original estimate, but because we have made savings in other areas we are still on course to come in on budget.
I was pleased to notice that the a/c contractor has installed vents in the restrooms as this was not on the plans but was something that I wanted.
A bit of a drama when I went to the site on Friday morning and found a small pond on the right side of the building with it’s own little waterfall. At first it appeared that it was eminating from under the slab, but I traced it back to the shut off valve. I called the plumbers and they shut off the supply. Hopefully it has been fixed.
First thing Monday I am going to call in for the rough-in inspection so that we can start insulating the walls Tuesday. Also the bricks should be arriving Monday or Tuesday.

Speaking with my electrical and air conditioning contractors it looks like they won’t be able to get on site to do their rough-in’s until late next week at the earliest. That’s okay, we can continue on the exterior. The brick and the car park can be done in the interim.
I went to see the sign company and Geoff, the owner, said that he would like to get the pole for the sign erected before the concrete for the car park is laid as cutting through concrete is not the best choice. I assumed that when I pulled my permits that I had all of them, but it turns out the sign one is seperate. This was confirmed when I called the city. I went down to see Bill, the plans inspector, with plans in hand. The land we are building on has a 25 ft building set-back line at the front and a 7ft easment down the sides. After taking those areas out of the picture we were left with only one choice for the location of the pole in an area about 10′ x 2′ ! Also I found out that the minimum height to the bottom of the sign must be 14ft for clearance by fire trucks. I shall go and see Geoff today and finalize plans.

The last two days have seen great progress. I was very impressed with the framers, they completely framed the building including the roof decking in two days. It was good to be able to walk around inside and get an understanding and feel of the spaces. With the 9 1/2 ft ceilings the work area seems quite impressive for it’s size. The storage area in the hallway seems massive and should accomodate all our needs.

I have set up the order for the bricks, which will be delivered from San Antonio. It is a 5-7 day delivery time so I will be overnighting a check to them. The framers say they can’t set the window and door frames until the brick masons start, so for the time being we will just have to screw paneling on the doors until we can use the construction doors.
I met my roofing contractor yesterday afternoon and he started work right away, putting the roofing felt over the decking.
My framing contractor seems quite keen on making the cupola for the roof, I think it will add a real touch of class!

Both the framers and sheetrock crews turned up which was very good as a line of communication was opened and we were able to sort out who is going to do what when it comes to things like window and door installation. Earl, the framer, suggested that I got in touch with the building supply company to make sure that we got construction doors. We want the sheetrock in the building before the framing is completed, for ease of access, and I don’t want an $1,100 mahogany front door sitting there unguarded during construction.
I spent about an hour at the building supply company paying for the framing and the window and door packages. The time was spent trying to figure out what doors we needed emergency kick bars on and whether the construction doors would work okay in those. On the way back to the office it dawned on me that at the pace we are setting I will need the bricks fairly soon. I seemed to remember the rep saying that there was something like a 45 day order time so I called them staight away. I was discouraged to find that Hanson Brick, who manufacture this particular brick, no longer use this distributor so I had to call their head office in Dallas. The time was 4:57 so that call was doomed to failure. I shall have to pursue this on Monday.
By the time I went back down to the site in the evening the form work had been removed and one shiny slab was revealed in all it’s glory.

My wife and I inspected it with great satisfaction, the sweet smell of success was somewhat overpowered though by the the nearby porta-loo! I will need to call that company on Monday before we get complaints.

The concrete is going to be arriving at 11:30 tomorrow so this is excellent timing.
I called my framing contractor this afternoon and he is ready to start Monday morning, so I paid a visit to the building supply company to get that sorted out. We are going to have three deliveries on consecutive days which will minimize the security risk.

Today, Juan, my concrete contractor was out in the blazing heat putting down the vapor barrier and setting the rebar. His brother was kind enough to mention about putting warning tape around the site to warn people off entering and getting injured. So off I went to Lowes and purhased a roll and some stakes. With the temperature at 98 degrees I was sweating like a pig on a spit banging the stakes in and taping off the area. It’s a small detail but when considered definitely not one to overlook.

Apart from catching some fish we also got completely incinerated by the sun!

Speaking with another of my contractors yesterday I learned that any retaining wall over 4 feet will require an engineers report to meet city requirements. Right now we are at 40 inches. I am not sure whether the 4 feet includes a concrete curb or not. I will have to check that out Tuesday.
Yesterday I cut some more branches off the last tree and today I will take down the trunk. I think I will need to invest in another new chain, I’ve resharpened this one 5 times now and it seems to have worn out.

When ever I look at photos of the site There is always those derelict houses behind. Hopefully the city will come along sometime soon and bulldoze them. Once the wooden privacy fence is erected it won’t be such a visual issue.
Yesterday I looking at our cabinet options again and realised that the choice I had selected awhile ago really is not of a good enough quality. So, after talking with a sales associate have gone with a better quality unit design. This will only put another $600 on that budget so I am okay with that. Still looking for a good checkout console. Searched on the internet and just got frustratated. Maybe a bit of lateral thinking is required here.