Thursday, December 17, 2009 - The Front Porch Blues

The front porch has been a point of contention for a while. I know, I have had several points of contention since this project started. The front porch, however, is a part of the project I thought could be knocked out early in the process when the workers had a little bit of time to kill. Let's see, there were several days when they sat around doing nothing waiting for the inspector to make an appearance. There was a day or two when our architect, contractor, and newly hired engineer sat around trying to figure out how to attach the new structure to the existing house in order to appease the aforementioned inspector. There was also a little bit of down time while the plumbing was installed...and another wait for an inspector.

So, I was excited to learn they were finally going to start on the porch today. We are again waiting on inspectors to come look at the electrical and the framing, but the contractor has decided to use the down time to demolish the old porch, which is less than a porch and more like a waterlogged overhang. Then the call came from the contractor, not long after I arrived at work. After special ordering wood for the porch, which by the way was another delay, he realized that the plans didn't call for cedar. Cedar cannot be painted real well, which sort of defeats the look we were going for. The contractor said we could simply just use the cedar posts and then wrap the post with thin planks of composition wood that could be painted, which would cause the posts to be much wider than originally planned. Luckily, our architect stepped in and said this was completely unacceptable, and contacted the foreman who seemed to understand our dilemma better than our contractor. I came home tonight to a half-demolished front porch, and I'm not quite sure if they have stopped work on it or are simply waiting for more wood to be delivered.

On the bright side, we do have almost all of the electrical outlets and wiring for lights and fans in the correct place. Everything seems to be in order with the exception of one light whose placement will be tough, squeezed in between a door frame and drop-down area hiding the ventilation.

Speaking of ventilation, our new HVAC was delivered and installed. Tax credit! In fact, we are looking at tax credits for the HVAC, the new tankless water heater, the new windows, and any insulation they use. Not too shabby as long as the contractor keeps up with all of the paperwork and receipts for us.

We also had five pallets of brick delivered today, along with a pallet of mortar mix and 2,000 pounds of sand. Not sure if they can start placing the brick on the house before the inspections or not, but that was thrilling to see under the dim light of a flashlight with failing batteries. Friday should be interesting. It will be my first day at home with the workers since this project started. I'm not just a phone call away for guidance, I am mere footsteps away to answer any questions. It will probably rain.