Thursday, May 17.
We swung by the lot looking for evidence that some pouring activity would be going on. There was not. What there was, was a little red sticker. Our footings had failed inspection.
The results at home were predictable, and need not be explained here.
At 2:40 an e-mail arrived from Elite, asking if there were any evidence that the inspector had been by. We informed her that yes, this had indeed happened, and that we had failed because (a) a big cave-in at the back of the lot was covering the forms up, (b) the forms were still full of water because nobody had pumped them out, (c) the column pads were the wrong depth and (d) the bottoms needed scraping. This mail was cc'ed to everyone involved at President Homes and to the framer, who had been inquiring about the state of affairs on our lot. It also reminded her that lumber was to be delivered on May 31 so it would be important to get all the work done by then. She assured all of us that they would take care of it immediately, and reminded us that the excavator had cut the garage wrong thus leading to more delays when it rained over the weekend. Whatever. She contacted the city to arrange another inspection for Friday afternoon the 18th, and scheduled the footings foreman to go fix the problems and wait for the inspector.
Friday, May 18.
Paul went to the lot around 11:15 a.m. and found John and a co-worker kicking back and smoking in their truck. They had hand-dug the huge cave-in and were pumping out water. All right, yeah, you earned that smoke break. Asked when the inspector was coming, they said after noon. Off to the office for the afternoon.
Things happened fast that afternoon, all without any of the involved parties knowing the full story. Around 2:40 Kathy went to the lot. Guess what. The inspector had failed the job again. Too much mud in the bottoms of the column pads, and the inspector wanted somebody on site for the next inspection. She was furious. Paul notified Elite via e-mail. She said they had mucked out the pads and she had looked at it herself around quarter to two. The crew had left at 2:15, the inspector arrived at 2:30. Elite's guys hadn't stayed for the inspector.
4:25. We were informed that the owner himself would be dealing with the inspector on Monday morning. Excuses were offered. They earned no response from us. The weekend arrived.
