A call for patience

Siding installation

Big mess to clean up

Taped and ready for painting

It's now the middle of November in the Northwest.  You might catch a few sun breaks, but you have a better chance of catching quite a few gray and wet days in a row.  Most of this is not relevant to a home that is closed in with a roof on, but it sure can throw a wrench in painting and flat work.

Today is one of those gray, wet days.  I feel myself getting impatient as I look out the window wanting to see my back yard, not an apartment fence.  While it might appear as if progress has slowed on the house, well, it has but it hasn't.  The exterior, for the most part, is moving toward completion.  If we're able to get some paint on it, get the flat work done (which also needs a little dry weather) and then get the rock on the outside installed, it will look like the house we've been thinking about all these months.

Inside, the plumbing, electrical and other such items have cruised right along.......well, except for the Fire Sprinklers (have I mentioned how I really feel about the sprinklers?).  Turns out, the Fire Marshall that inspects these systems is on vacation.  So insulation is waiting on vacation, and so is drywall.  Flat work and grading are waiting on drywall, because you don't want a heavy drywall truck driving over new flat work.  Outside rock and down spout adjustments are waiting on flat work, which is waiting on drywall, which is waiting on insulation, which is waiting for the Fire Marshall to come back from vacation.  You would think, since the City has made these sprinklers mandatory, they might have a back up plan for inspections, so that an entire project, and all the people who need to work on the project, aren't waiting on one person........but alas, we sit.

All the other things with the project continue to be exciting and interesting.  During our big outside clean up weekend last weekend, my brother in law tripped and seperated and broke a bone in his shoulder.  This brought the paramedics and all the excitement that flashing lights bring to a neighborhood.  Obviously this put a damper on the clean up effort, but we are happy to report it all got picked up, we tore down the wood box in front of the house (of which the scraps were sitting in) and my brother in law is home safe.....albeit a little sore.

What can prospective buyers learn from my experience?  If you're installing fire sprinklers, plan everything well in advance!  This also reminds me how intricate every part of the home building process is to each other, so make sure you make your choices up front, so no little changes throw a wrench in your construction schedule.  I'm hopeful we're still tracking to move in before our apartment lease is up, which will make for a great start to the year 2011!