Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - Inspection Day

Today is Inspection Day, the first of many trips the esteemed inspectors from the Metropolitan Nashville Codes Department will take to visit our little piece of paradise to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to the work taking place. It also means everyone sits in our backyard looking for something to do until the inspector arrives. Since the hired help has hit all of the tennis balls into the creek or across the creek into our neighbor’s dog pen, I’m not quite sure what they plan to do for entertainment. The call came about 1:30 that the first inspection of the project was good and we can keep on keeping on with the foundation work. I arrived home to see that the first of two concrete pours had taken place. Unfortunately, the cement truck sat in the driveway for about 45 minutes before the truckload of workers showed up. Then, once poured, the smoothed-over (yet not quite solidified) concrete was found to be about three inches too high. So, it all had to be broken up, scooped out, and smoothed all over again. At 6:45, after all of the outside light had well been exhausted, everyone packed up and went home. Can't wait until morning to see what kind of work they did in the dark. The second pour will take place once the block wall to support the west side of the excavated area is built. The wall will basically reinforce the eight-foot high, three-feet wide wall of dirt that will remain between the existing house and the planned addition. Basically, this three-foot wide swath of dirt that is the only thing supporting the house at this point, and the core-filled wall will simply support and tie everything together. Hopefully work on this will begin tomorrow, but our unseasonable wet October will continue to be unseasonably wet with up to two more inches of rain Thursday afternoon and Friday. Seriously? And, if it’s scheduled to rain Thursday afternoon, you certainly can’t have people hustling and knocking things out early in the day…right? I forsee no more trucks, noise, or concrete until Monday.