Reformation Begins

Excitement this week came beyond the work on the house itself.

This week, demo reached about 95% complete. All signs (including the debris) of the fomer slabs in the garage and dining room are already gone and off the site. They were both here just four days ago! The fireplaces, too, are gone. The brick planter that was in front of the garage was demo'd just this morning.

Earth has been moved to make room for the new foundations. The spots for the new bedroom, great room and garage have been excavated. During our visit, the crew was digging the footings for the foundation along the back side of the house.


The new master bath and closet are showing up as well. The foundation footings there uncovered the former septic tank (the house has been on city sewer since before we bought it in 1996).

All that was proceeding as expected.

For grins, I gave our builder, John Hammerschmidt, a gift. Remember our demo party? Remember the wall with the "guess the completion" calendar? I made a four foot wide print out of that and gave it to John, emphasizing that while that wall was now gone, we did have evidence of his prediction that we'd be in by Christmas. John took it well. He turned and showed the print out to Jorge who was doing the survey work for the foundations. John explained his prediction, and noted that it would be one of the reasons why he'd be continuing to press Jorge to keep things moving on schedule!

The other unusual thing was a little less fun.

Since the demolition permit was signed off, I'd latched onto it for records. I was on my way back to the office when my mobile rang. John was calling, as the city wanted to see the signed demo permit before issuing the building permit! I turned around at the next exit.

Since I was already meeting John at the city building, I went in with him. The demo permit evidence was satisfactory. John started looking at the plans, and immediately noticed that they were stamped "must have sprinklers". Uh Oh.

The city passed a code ordinance effective March 1st that all new construction must have fire sprinklers. "New Construction" was defined as any increase of more than 50% (we're adding about 40% total under roof to the prior footprint). Our permits were submitted in late February. The city hadn't mentioned this sprinkler requirement in an earlier review that completed after March 1st. The same ordinance also required underground power, but the plans did not bear that requirement. Hmmm.

Oh, and the inspector who'd stamped the plans was out Friday.

Next week, more fun! Not only will we get clear on the plans and building permit, but we're expecting trenching for drainage and forms and rebar to get placed for the new foundations.