The day started at 7:30 when the phone rang. It was Shawn advising me that his co-owner Troy was on site to cut the lumber as the inspector wished. So Paul got dressed and off he went, and was surprised to find not only Troy just finishing up but the excavator was on site with a front-end loader doing finish grading. Well, never mind that now, there's carpentry to be dealt with. It looked good, and he asked Troy to also look at the fireplace to even out its physical location in the box. A couple of 2x4s fixed that problem too, and off he went.
At this point Paul learned an interesting fact, which was that the garage door installer from Overhead Door had been by at 7:30 and then left. Okay, have to deal with that later. Went to talk to the grader, who was just evening out the lawn and refilling our settled backfill around the house. Apparently not in his job description was fixing the window well in the basement. Paul called Darren Travis about that, and also about the fact that the fill pile was sitting on top of where the gas line needed to go, and about the requirement that the side yard be filled up and a retaining wall installed. Darren offered to put in a bid on building the retaining wall. We'll see what he charges. Anyway, we will definitely have him dig out the window well all the way to the footing and fill it back up with stone so it stops draining into our basement.
After the grader left Paul called Susan at Overhead Door. Apparently the installer had left because of all the activity at the house. Fortunately their site is nearby, so he returned a few minutes later and went to work. In the interim Paul waited for the inspector, who was to come between ten and noon.
Well, the inspector didn't show up. Also, there was a problem with the garage door - Overhead Door had forgotten to order the window panel and was installing a completely plain garage door. Well, that won't do; Paul called Susan up who apologized and said it would be in in two weeks. Meanwhile the garage door is functional as is but it doesn't lock; and Kathy doesn't want it rolled down until it's corrected so she can only see it as it is supposed to look. So up it stays.
Paul used the time to keep up with his mail, drain the shower and pull his coax, then went home for lunch and returned to the house just before two. Finally Jeff, the inspector, arrived at 2:30. The first thing he said was that we needed to bury the bottom of the silt fence into a trench. This was news to Paul, as the original fence hadn't been installed that way. Anyway, Jeff provided a sheet of erosion controls showing how to install a silt fence. Well, we'll see about getting a trencher and doing it again. Anyway, he went inside and looked approvingly at the fireplace vent, then went over to the window.
It was still wrong. Jeff showed Paul what was supposed to be sealed up and why; apparently it had to do with the roof sheathing being too short and the living room being part of the attic space because it had air contact with the outside wall. He explained it a couple times; Paul never really understood exactly but at least he knew what to do, and apparently it just had to be something solid. Even R-5 sheet insulation would work. Well, heck, we can cut R-5 ourselves but if it didn't pass that will delay the insulation install tomorrow. So Jeff agreed to pass the building, but wouldn't approve the insulation unless the blocking was done. All right then. Jeff green-stickered the building and left, and that was that.
Paul went straight to Lowe's for a sheet of R-5, cut it up and installed it as required. Then Kathy and the kids returned from the hairdressers' and Paul finished up installing the in-wall speaker wire in the bedroom. Here's the insulation work.
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After supper we went back briefly to clean up for tomorrow's installers, and went home. Good progress today, but still this job just can't get done fast enough. Kathy is chomping at the bit to pick out finish materials. Paul just wants it done. Hoping for continued good luck.
