Maybe it's just the sheer number of contractors we've had to have dealings with. But we're running about 75/25 good to bad.
Our electrician, Max, has been spectacular. He will be getting business from us in the future. If you need an electrician, ask us; we'll give you his contact information.
Our roofer was great. Depite delaying starting on our roof for about a day, he was fantastic. Cleaned up all his debris and left the job done right and both Karl and I completely satisfied. (We're happy to give you his contact information, too.)
Our drywall guy was great, too. Came in on a Saturday to do some work and, over all, did a nice and professional job. (Need drywall? Let us know; we'll give you his info, too.)
Our A/C guy was darn good, too. His crew went above and beyond what they were supposed to do and helped make us satisfied customers. (Yeah, you know....)
On the other hand, our roofing framer (you know, the one who left us without a roof for a week in the rain...) I simply can not recommend at all. He can't even be counted on to hammer in a nail properly. (Literally.)
And, now most recently, our refrigeration guy for the walk-in cooler. He doesn't follow (or doesn't remember) directions well. He tromped around on our roof in the heat potentially damaging some of the brand new shingles beyond repair. (Roofer guy is coming to take a look at it to give us his opinion; hopefully tomorrow.) Claims to never leave a job without being paid right then and there for the work. (The first I'd heard of it was when he was demanding payment in full after the job was done.) Seems to have been offended that I found several problems with his work (which, if he had done it the way he had been directed by Karl, wouldn't have been a problem). He freaked out when we called him today asking about the damage to the roof threatening to come back and rip the condenser unit off the roof. (Which, by the way, is now ours since we paid him for the equipment yesterday. In other words, he threatened to steal my equipment; not exactly professional.)
And perhaps the cause of most concern is the fact he did not return our phone calls for three days. (Granted, one of those days was a Sunday.) We had expected the unit to be ready on Thursday. We called on Thursday afternoon and left a message. Left at least two messages on Friday; no call back. Same for Saturday. And one message on Sunday. Finally, on Monday, he called back saying that he'd be able to come Tuesday to install the unit. Communication does not seem to be this guy's strong point.
Honestly, I think the poor guy is just completely, utterly overwhelmed by having been handed the business by his father. He doesn't seem to have the business sense needed to run a business well (or at all). He volunteered that he had lost his credit because of the economy. I think the guy has a major cash flow problem and a major problem with listening to his customers. (Is it my fault he doesn't follow directions or take care to not damage the roof he's tromping on?)
Regardless, all the stuff needed for the fire repair has been done. (Aside from a little plumbing work I'm going to have to do on the roof tomorrow.)
You read that correctly. The fire repair is complete.
We have the county Health Department coming on Friday. I know we'll have some concerns to correct. Most likely having to do with clean up of the dust and assorted construction debris. And we'll take care of that over the weekend with a final inspection to take place on Monday. (Now that I'm reading all of this, I think I should have them come on Monday instead.... Meh! I'll think about that tomorrow!)
Showing posts with label Delay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Delay. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Coming Along
Things are coming along nicely. There have been a few additional surprise delays that have the potential to throw off our carefully constructed schedule. Mainly delays that could cause our inspections to take a day or two longer than expected. We're trying to get it right the first time now rather than doing what we think will pass and correct it later if asked.
The light fixutres are up and the A/C registers are in and the walls are mostly painted. It really is starting to look like a bar! And our LED pool table light looks quite nice!
The insurance adjuster has been out for the vandalism and I believe we're only waiting for a final determination which I expect to be favorable.
This weekend, we have friends coming by to help paint the rest of the place.
Next week, there's more clean up work to do and orders to place and inspectors to call and a bunch of small touches to finish up the job. And I think you'll find all the diamond plate you see on our sites will begin to make a little more sense. (It looks pretty darn cool if ya ask me!)
(And, ya know what? I kinda envy you guys (and gals) who will walk into the bar and get the impact of all these changes all at once. I've (obviously) been living with it for months and months so I've seen it change over time. We really think what we've done with the place will impress you. At least we hope it does.)
The light fixutres are up and the A/C registers are in and the walls are mostly painted. It really is starting to look like a bar! And our LED pool table light looks quite nice!
The insurance adjuster has been out for the vandalism and I believe we're only waiting for a final determination which I expect to be favorable.
This weekend, we have friends coming by to help paint the rest of the place.
Next week, there's more clean up work to do and orders to place and inspectors to call and a bunch of small touches to finish up the job. And I think you'll find all the diamond plate you see on our sites will begin to make a little more sense. (It looks pretty darn cool if ya ask me!)
(And, ya know what? I kinda envy you guys (and gals) who will walk into the bar and get the impact of all these changes all at once. I've (obviously) been living with it for months and months so I've seen it change over time. We really think what we've done with the place will impress you. At least we hope it does.)
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Amazing People
We know some truly amazing people.
We're less than two weeks away from our planned opening (and still on track) and more and more friends are popping out of the woodwork to help us!
There's a guy we know who is going beyond the call of duty to help us change the look of the bar itself to something that's going to be really, really cool. (We think.) And it'll make the background of our website make a little more sense, too.
There're others who are helping just do "whatever we need". Yesterday, our ceiling got painted by one such of these. Our fence has been strengthened. A toilet was fixed (it was broken by one of two of our contractors but everybody denies it was them. Patches have been made for stucco. There are many, many examples; these are just a couple that I can think of right now.
Frankly, we could not even think about meeting our June 20 deadline without these people.
Now, back to work. The electrical and A/C guys are at the bar today finishing their work and should be done by early afternoon. Our refrigeration guy is coming tomorrow and he'll be done with his stuff tomorrow. Then, we think we're ready for our final building inspection on Friday.
(We did have a vandalism "issue" again this past Thursday night/Friday morning and again Monday night/Tuesday morning. Some donkey--and by donkey, I mean jackass--broke into the back yard and destroyed the old walk-in refrigeration roof unit as it was waiting to be put onto the roof. It should be covered by insurance (adjuster arriving this morning to check into it) but it has caused a bit of a delay; and that delay shouldn't be too bad.)
We're less than two weeks away from our planned opening (and still on track) and more and more friends are popping out of the woodwork to help us!
There's a guy we know who is going beyond the call of duty to help us change the look of the bar itself to something that's going to be really, really cool. (We think.) And it'll make the background of our website make a little more sense, too.
There're others who are helping just do "whatever we need". Yesterday, our ceiling got painted by one such of these. Our fence has been strengthened. A toilet was fixed (it was broken by one of two of our contractors but everybody denies it was them. Patches have been made for stucco. There are many, many examples; these are just a couple that I can think of right now.
Frankly, we could not even think about meeting our June 20 deadline without these people.
Now, back to work. The electrical and A/C guys are at the bar today finishing their work and should be done by early afternoon. Our refrigeration guy is coming tomorrow and he'll be done with his stuff tomorrow. Then, we think we're ready for our final building inspection on Friday.
(We did have a vandalism "issue" again this past Thursday night/Friday morning and again Monday night/Tuesday morning. Some donkey--and by donkey, I mean jackass--broke into the back yard and destroyed the old walk-in refrigeration roof unit as it was waiting to be put onto the roof. It should be covered by insurance (adjuster arriving this morning to check into it) but it has caused a bit of a delay; and that delay shouldn't be too bad.)
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Opening Day Fallout
Thank you all for the positive response to our opening date announcement(s) yesterday! For the first time in a while, I became excited about the bar.
It's really been a struggle at times to make this work out. On top of that, it's taken far longer than I had anticipated it would back in October when the discussions turned toward purchasing the building. It seems amazingly naive now but I first thought we'd be open by February! And we know how that worked out.
And, as it turns out, we'll be opening about three months after we got our building permit. Had things moved a little faster with engineering and The City, and we got the permit in November like I thought we might have (and we were told) we would have opened in February.
Which brings up another positive thing. As we get bids from contractors and the like, I've learned that my out-of-the-blue guesses on how much they'll be have been pretty darn close. That means we've been "Under Budget" since the beginning. (I'd still like to have a little more breathing room in that budget but what can ya do? Especially at this point...)
We're a tad behind on our contractor schedule right now (but by only about two or three days) but I still think we're on track. (We wouldn't have broadcast to the Interwebz the June 20 and 25 dates if we thought otherwise.) We came up with this schedule about two weeks ago when we were trying to find an opening day so there's bound to be a few little hiccups.
Regardless, Karl's at the bar today again with (I think) the electrician and (definitely) the AC dudes. I envy him that; one of the AC guys is kinda cute. He even seems alright with gay folks, too. He mentioned yesterday he saw our news story on ABC30 about the graffiti and laughed when I told him what it said and spelled it for him (F-A-G-E-T) he laughed. So, he's cool. Hopefully, we'll see him at the bar; regardless of whether or not he's straight. The world needs more Cool-With-The-Gay folks.
It's really been a struggle at times to make this work out. On top of that, it's taken far longer than I had anticipated it would back in October when the discussions turned toward purchasing the building. It seems amazingly naive now but I first thought we'd be open by February! And we know how that worked out.
And, as it turns out, we'll be opening about three months after we got our building permit. Had things moved a little faster with engineering and The City, and we got the permit in November like I thought we might have (and we were told) we would have opened in February.
Which brings up another positive thing. As we get bids from contractors and the like, I've learned that my out-of-the-blue guesses on how much they'll be have been pretty darn close. That means we've been "Under Budget" since the beginning. (I'd still like to have a little more breathing room in that budget but what can ya do? Especially at this point...)
We're a tad behind on our contractor schedule right now (but by only about two or three days) but I still think we're on track. (We wouldn't have broadcast to the Interwebz the June 20 and 25 dates if we thought otherwise.) We came up with this schedule about two weeks ago when we were trying to find an opening day so there's bound to be a few little hiccups.
Regardless, Karl's at the bar today again with (I think) the electrician and (definitely) the AC dudes. I envy him that; one of the AC guys is kinda cute. He even seems alright with gay folks, too. He mentioned yesterday he saw our news story on ABC30 about the graffiti and laughed when I told him what it said and spelled it for him (F-A-G-E-T) he laughed. So, he's cool. Hopefully, we'll see him at the bar; regardless of whether or not he's straight. The world needs more Cool-With-The-Gay folks.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Pulling Teeth
On Friday, we contacted our roofing contractor. He was to start today putting our roof on. Materials for the roof were delivered yesterday to the roof in preparation of installing said roof today.
This morning, just before Karl headed out the door to drive to the bar to basically supervise the roofing, we called the roofer to make sure he was going to be there today. Turns out, no, he wasn't going to be there today. (When was he going to tell us this?) Oh, and he dropped the bombshell that he'd need electricity. (Why doesn't he have his own? Is he Blanche DuBois relying on the kindness of strangers?)
So, here were are in more rainy weather without a proper roof on the bar. We impressed on this roofer that, yes, we know you may have other customers who might have a leak in their roof today because of the rain. But, he said he'd start on Tuesday and -- although I know our own problems are almost always more important to us than the problems of others -- my roof has a lot of leaks in it. You can't go more than four feet across our roof before you come to a leak. So, if Roofer is concerned with leaky roofs, why does my leaky roof (which probably has among the most leaks) not get at least temporarily fixed?
This is getting ridiculous. Why is it like pulling teeth to get some people to do the work I want to give them money for?
This morning, just before Karl headed out the door to drive to the bar to basically supervise the roofing, we called the roofer to make sure he was going to be there today. Turns out, no, he wasn't going to be there today. (When was he going to tell us this?) Oh, and he dropped the bombshell that he'd need electricity. (Why doesn't he have his own? Is he Blanche DuBois relying on the kindness of strangers?)
So, here were are in more rainy weather without a proper roof on the bar. We impressed on this roofer that, yes, we know you may have other customers who might have a leak in their roof today because of the rain. But, he said he'd start on Tuesday and -- although I know our own problems are almost always more important to us than the problems of others -- my roof has a lot of leaks in it. You can't go more than four feet across our roof before you come to a leak. So, if Roofer is concerned with leaky roofs, why does my leaky roof (which probably has among the most leaks) not get at least temporarily fixed?
This is getting ridiculous. Why is it like pulling teeth to get some people to do the work I want to give them money for?
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Lessons Learned (So Far)
Now that the roof framing has finally passed inspection and we're done with Demo Guy for ever (unless something awful happens in the next ten years) here's a few valuable (and the occasional expensive) lessons we learned the hard way when hiring contractors:
Check the contractor's license three different times: When you get the bid, when the contractor is hired and again before work is started.
Lots of things can happen between the time you get the bid and the time work actually starts. For example, the contractor might come onto hard times and have his contractor's bond cancelled and therefore have his license suspended.
Demo Guy's license was valid when we hired him but by the time work started the state's website for checking licenses said it was "under Contractors Bond Suspension". That means it was illegal for him to be doing contracting work valued at more than $500. (It also provides information to help determine if the license is no longer suspended.) And, to be fair, we don't know what happened with Demo Guy's bond and, frankly, it's none of our business what happened to cause the bond to be cancelled.
In construction (at least this project) there is not much worse than having problems with a contractor and then seeing "SUSPENDED" next to his license on the official site to check licenses. Your jaw drops, your heart falls into your butt and you stop breathing for a few seconds. (At least that's what happened to me.)
We're somewhat embarrassed by this. We really should have checked before he started work. It could have been one of our biggest mistakes. (In our defense, it seems the incidence of this kind of thing happening is fairly rare.)
As of today, the contractor's board website shows Demo Guy's license back in the "Active" category with a bond effective May 6, 2011. So that's good. Despite the problems we had with him and despite never recommending him to anybody ever for even so much as hammering in a nail I'm glad he got that SNAFU sorted out.
Take high quality pictures of the areas your contractor is going to work on.
Having documentation of what things were like when the contractor begins helps avoid the contractor saying "It was like that when I started." Here's the story.
Demo Guy claimed that some of the damage caused to the building was actually caused by the fire fighters who worked on the fire back in September, 2010. Specifically, the weather head that connects the electrical service box to the utility pole in the alley.
During the days the bar was without a roof, the weather head was left unsupported for four full days(contrary to what was agreed to) and was pulled away from the wall by the weight of the line to the utility pole. Being pulled away from the building cracked the electrical box which then had to be replaced at a cost of over $1,000 including materials and labor.
We didn't have to take Demo Guy to court to recover these costs but we were prepared to. Despite having what we believe would have been a solid case, we weren't really looking forward to small claims court. Part of that solid case is the pictures we had taken of the bar. Of special note in this case is a picture of the bar we took in February that just happened to show the weather head still attached to the roof; it was not removed by the firefighters as Demo Guy said could be a reason why the weather head was broken.
Keep a Blog
I suppose it doesn't have to be a blog, per se. A journal (which is like a blog) would work just as well.
This blog proved to be a valuable source of information in making the time line of what happened. For example, the "Vandals? Shocking!" post pin-pointed a time that we had PG & E out to fix some damage. (They never mentioned anything about a broken weather head.) Without that post, that part of the time line was "On or around February 2011". Changed it down to "Week ending February 18, 2011".) The more documentation you have in court, the more likely you are to win.
Don't pay the contractor until the job is finished.
Seems straight forward but it isn't necessarily so. By "Finished" I mean "Passed inspection".
We paid Demo Guy what he asked before the final roof framing inspection had been done since we thought it would pass easily the second inspection but it did not. (The first inspection brought up issues that seemed to be easily and relatively quickly corrected.)
What we should have done was pay him half of what he asked for at that time. And then paid him the other half when the roof framing passed its final inspection. In this case, this weakened our bargaining power with Demo Guy to eat the cost of his negligence with the weather head and delayed getting the final truss installed correctly (you know, like he should have done in the first place.)
Take clear pictures of the work.
This is especially true of any abandoned or incorrectly completed work; it'll help your small claims case should you have to resort to that.
Remember this: your camera's macro setting (the little flower; see my crappy example to the right) is your best friend in these cases. If you don't have good photo editing skills, make sure the lighting is clear in what you're photographing. And, if you're photographing small items, include something to show scale. If you've watched CSI, you've probably seen those little white "corner" things with rulers on them. That's what I'm talking about. It doesn't have to be a forensic-quality thing; lots of other things would work just as well for these pictures: a quarter, your finger, library card, your keys, etc.
I really don't mind learning new things but I hope these are the only lessons we learn from this project. They weren't massively expensive lessons (aside from delaying our opening date and the weather head problem) but they added far too much tension and anxiety to an already anxious process.
Check the contractor's license three different times: When you get the bid, when the contractor is hired and again before work is started.
Lots of things can happen between the time you get the bid and the time work actually starts. For example, the contractor might come onto hard times and have his contractor's bond cancelled and therefore have his license suspended.
Demo Guy's license was valid when we hired him but by the time work started the state's website for checking licenses said it was "under Contractors Bond Suspension". That means it was illegal for him to be doing contracting work valued at more than $500. (It also provides information to help determine if the license is no longer suspended.) And, to be fair, we don't know what happened with Demo Guy's bond and, frankly, it's none of our business what happened to cause the bond to be cancelled.
In construction (at least this project) there is not much worse than having problems with a contractor and then seeing "SUSPENDED" next to his license on the official site to check licenses. Your jaw drops, your heart falls into your butt and you stop breathing for a few seconds. (At least that's what happened to me.)
We're somewhat embarrassed by this. We really should have checked before he started work. It could have been one of our biggest mistakes. (In our defense, it seems the incidence of this kind of thing happening is fairly rare.)
As of today, the contractor's board website shows Demo Guy's license back in the "Active" category with a bond effective May 6, 2011. So that's good. Despite the problems we had with him and despite never recommending him to anybody ever for even so much as hammering in a nail I'm glad he got that SNAFU sorted out.
Take high quality pictures of the areas your contractor is going to work on.
Having documentation of what things were like when the contractor begins helps avoid the contractor saying "It was like that when I started." Here's the story.
Demo Guy claimed that some of the damage caused to the building was actually caused by the fire fighters who worked on the fire back in September, 2010. Specifically, the weather head that connects the electrical service box to the utility pole in the alley.
During the days the bar was without a roof, the weather head was left unsupported for four full days(contrary to what was agreed to) and was pulled away from the wall by the weight of the line to the utility pole. Being pulled away from the building cracked the electrical box which then had to be replaced at a cost of over $1,000 including materials and labor.
We didn't have to take Demo Guy to court to recover these costs but we were prepared to. Despite having what we believe would have been a solid case, we weren't really looking forward to small claims court. Part of that solid case is the pictures we had taken of the bar. Of special note in this case is a picture of the bar we took in February that just happened to show the weather head still attached to the roof; it was not removed by the firefighters as Demo Guy said could be a reason why the weather head was broken.
Keep a Blog
I suppose it doesn't have to be a blog, per se. A journal (which is like a blog) would work just as well.
This blog proved to be a valuable source of information in making the time line of what happened. For example, the "Vandals? Shocking!" post pin-pointed a time that we had PG & E out to fix some damage. (They never mentioned anything about a broken weather head.) Without that post, that part of the time line was "On or around February 2011". Changed it down to "Week ending February 18, 2011".) The more documentation you have in court, the more likely you are to win.
Don't pay the contractor until the job is finished.
Seems straight forward but it isn't necessarily so. By "Finished" I mean "Passed inspection".
We paid Demo Guy what he asked before the final roof framing inspection had been done since we thought it would pass easily the second inspection but it did not. (The first inspection brought up issues that seemed to be easily and relatively quickly corrected.)
What we should have done was pay him half of what he asked for at that time. And then paid him the other half when the roof framing passed its final inspection. In this case, this weakened our bargaining power with Demo Guy to eat the cost of his negligence with the weather head and delayed getting the final truss installed correctly (you know, like he should have done in the first place.)
Take clear pictures of the work.
This is especially true of any abandoned or incorrectly completed work; it'll help your small claims case should you have to resort to that.
I really don't mind learning new things but I hope these are the only lessons we learn from this project. They weren't massively expensive lessons (aside from delaying our opening date and the weather head problem) but they added far too much tension and anxiety to an already anxious process.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Spinning Wheels
I'm not sure what to say today.
This week we should be (finally) getting the work finished by Demo Guy. You know, the work that should have been completed a whole month ago. If it goes well, I suspect we can have a finished roof within a week or so. Demo Guy has caused us nearly two weeks (if not more) in delays.
We should also be able to get the electrical work finished. We've a meeting tomorrow with Electrical Contractor's former employee to see if working with Employee can work for us.
This was also supposed to have been the week we were going to announce an opening date. But I don't think we're quite ready to do that. First, we wanted to be open for the Rapture on May 21 and have a Post-rapture hang-over party on May 22; that's not happening. Then it was Memorial Day and that's looking increasingly unlikely. And finally, Fresno Pride on June 4; and that's not looking promising as an open date either.
This week we should be (finally) getting the work finished by Demo Guy. You know, the work that should have been completed a whole month ago. If it goes well, I suspect we can have a finished roof within a week or so. Demo Guy has caused us nearly two weeks (if not more) in delays.
We should also be able to get the electrical work finished. We've a meeting tomorrow with Electrical Contractor's former employee to see if working with Employee can work for us.
This was also supposed to have been the week we were going to announce an opening date. But I don't think we're quite ready to do that. First, we wanted to be open for the Rapture on May 21 and have a Post-rapture hang-over party on May 22; that's not happening. Then it was Memorial Day and that's looking increasingly unlikely. And finally, Fresno Pride on June 4; and that's not looking promising as an open date either.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
In Too Deep
Well, well, well....
What a difference a day makes. Demo Guy called us a little before Noon today with a proposal.
He wants to fix the problems we brought up yesterday and one other major problem that we didn't notice until he had left. I told him I'd have to call him back after talking to Karl about the proposal Demo Guy offered. And, after a long discussion between Karl and I, we agreed with the proposal.
We will be watching pretty much every move this guy and his crew makes. I'm 100% certain that we all want to be done with this project and done with dealing with each other. And, frankly, Karl and I want to move on. (But that's not to say we won't take appropriate action later on.
What a difference a day makes. Demo Guy called us a little before Noon today with a proposal.
He wants to fix the problems we brought up yesterday and one other major problem that we didn't notice until he had left. I told him I'd have to call him back after talking to Karl about the proposal Demo Guy offered. And, after a long discussion between Karl and I, we agreed with the proposal.
We will be watching pretty much every move this guy and his crew makes. I'm 100% certain that we all want to be done with this project and done with dealing with each other. And, frankly, Karl and I want to move on. (But that's not to say we won't take appropriate action later on.
"Is There a Lawyer in the House?"
Turns out, it wasn't all resolved on Monday.
As I mentioned very briefly yesterday (it was a mobile blog posting) we met with Demo Guy yesterday afternoon. And it turns out we're going to have to take him to small claims court to recover the costs of repairing the damage we firmly believe beyond any shadow of doubt to have been caused by his construction crew and his own negligence.
Rolled into that claim is going to be money to finish the job correctly. We discovered yesterday that the two guys Demo Guy sent on Saturday did not install the truss correctly at all. Even after Karl had shown the crew the plans which clearly show the proper way to install the connectors they were not done correctly. At all.
We're considering naming names here with this contractor. We don't want to get caught up in a libel or slander lawsuit for defamation of character so we have to tread carefully. That's not too difficult; we just have to make sure that our opinions are clearly stated as opinions. There can be no defamation of character or libel or slander if what is said is true; the problem becomes being able to prove in court that what we present as fact is, indeed, factual.
As I mentioned very briefly yesterday (it was a mobile blog posting) we met with Demo Guy yesterday afternoon. And it turns out we're going to have to take him to small claims court to recover the costs of repairing the damage we firmly believe beyond any shadow of doubt to have been caused by his construction crew and his own negligence.
Rolled into that claim is going to be money to finish the job correctly. We discovered yesterday that the two guys Demo Guy sent on Saturday did not install the truss correctly at all. Even after Karl had shown the crew the plans which clearly show the proper way to install the connectors they were not done correctly. At all.
We're considering naming names here with this contractor. We don't want to get caught up in a libel or slander lawsuit for defamation of character so we have to tread carefully. That's not too difficult; we just have to make sure that our opinions are clearly stated as opinions. There can be no defamation of character or libel or slander if what is said is true; the problem becomes being able to prove in court that what we present as fact is, indeed, factual.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Meeting With Demo Guy Completed
The meeting went pretty much as I expected. But we're gonna have to see this guy in court. Whee.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
"Return to The City; The Stamp of the Approver"
Our "back check" appointment with the City for the revised truss plan was a bit sooner than I had expected it to be--it was yesterday. It all went fine and we got the new stamp of approval (really. It says "Approved") and now we can proceed. We next need to have the roof framing contractor install the truss he should have in the first place and then get the framing job inspected and approved (there's that word again). We're not sure yet when that will be. Hopefully sometime this week or early next week.
Also on our agenda for yesterday was a new site plan revising the parking situation. The original site plan (which was approved) showed 19 spaces including two accessible stalls. We had to show a "path of travel" from the accessible stalls to the main entrance. There are rules about where that path of travel can go (which I've now become reasonably well-versed in). Since we showed two accessible stalls, the "path of travel" had to be in front of the two spaces which put them 5 feet further out into the parking lot than the non-accessible stalls and that was just, well, weird. (And probably would have caused some minor accidents in the parking lot.)
But, I learned after reading various parts of the building code that for the number of spaces we have in the lot, we only need one accessible stall and that the "path of travel" can be behind a person's own vehicle but not someone else's. So, we reduced the number of accessible stalls to one, moved it back in line with the rest of the parking spaces, moved the "path of travel", reduced the total number of indicated spaces to 13 and all is right in the world.
(In practical matters, the amount of parking has actually increased from what you may remember from The Den. The storage units are no longer sitting in the parking lot and the stage has been removed so that space is now available again.)
Also on our agenda for yesterday was a new site plan revising the parking situation. The original site plan (which was approved) showed 19 spaces including two accessible stalls. We had to show a "path of travel" from the accessible stalls to the main entrance. There are rules about where that path of travel can go (which I've now become reasonably well-versed in). Since we showed two accessible stalls, the "path of travel" had to be in front of the two spaces which put them 5 feet further out into the parking lot than the non-accessible stalls and that was just, well, weird. (And probably would have caused some minor accidents in the parking lot.)
But, I learned after reading various parts of the building code that for the number of spaces we have in the lot, we only need one accessible stall and that the "path of travel" can be behind a person's own vehicle but not someone else's. So, we reduced the number of accessible stalls to one, moved it back in line with the rest of the parking spaces, moved the "path of travel", reduced the total number of indicated spaces to 13 and all is right in the world.
(In practical matters, the amount of parking has actually increased from what you may remember from The Den. The storage units are no longer sitting in the parking lot and the stage has been removed so that space is now available again.)
Thursday, April 21, 2011
The Best Laid Plans
If I were baking a cake and left out flour, it would not turn out to be a cake. And if I did, I could not go back later and add flour to the mess and call it cake. This is the type of problem I was facing yesterday. One ingredient was left out of our plans and since then many solutions have been put forth about how to fix the problem. "We could put this here, and that there, and then these could go here, and you would only need a few of these..."
Some of them sound like feats of engineering. Consider that the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, The Hindenburg, and the Chevy Vega were also feats of engineering. Others sound very "rednecks with duct tape". Before anyone objects, I know that NASCAR has made great strides with duct tape, but it hasn't yet been approved for new construction. If it was, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would be selling it on TV.
But after careful consideration Bryan and I have reached the exact solution to this problem. READ THE PLANS.
Wow that sounds simple. Now let's see if we can get them to do it. Your favorite soap operas may be going off the air,... but stay tuned for Crisis with the Contractor!
Some of them sound like feats of engineering. Consider that the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, The Hindenburg, and the Chevy Vega were also feats of engineering. Others sound very "rednecks with duct tape". Before anyone objects, I know that NASCAR has made great strides with duct tape, but it hasn't yet been approved for new construction. If it was, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would be selling it on TV.
But after careful consideration Bryan and I have reached the exact solution to this problem. READ THE PLANS.
Wow that sounds simple. Now let's see if we can get them to do it. Your favorite soap operas may be going off the air,... but stay tuned for Crisis with the Contractor!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Correcting the Corrections
We got the revised plans back from the resubmission (or whatever the real thing it's called) to the city yesterday. There's a list of corrections. It's a short list, but a list nonetheless.
And this whole thing is just $%@! annoying. We were told we could get any truss company to build the trusses for us; so we did. We found a company that would do the trusses cheaper than the company the engineering firm had recommended. What nobody told us, though, was that we had to inform our engineering firm that a different company was making the trusses. (If they're made to match the approved truss sheet, why does it matter who makes them???). That omission of information is costing us time and money.
Now, we have to wait through this ridiculous and slow back check bull$#!& to have corrections made that, quite frankly, make no sense to me.
And I question the thoroughness of some of the people doing work at various places. We were asked to move the insulation from on top of the ceiling to directly below the roof. Why wasn't this requested during plan check and back check two to three months ago? Why do we have to pay for this? Who the #*&! dropped the ball two months ago?? And how many more times are we going to have to go through revisions and spending more and more money to get new things approved that should have been caught in the first place?
I'm sure I'm just ranting and raving out of sheer frustration with dealing with something I have no experience in. But, fuck! Make it logical!
And this whole thing is just $%@! annoying. We were told we could get any truss company to build the trusses for us; so we did. We found a company that would do the trusses cheaper than the company the engineering firm had recommended. What nobody told us, though, was that we had to inform our engineering firm that a different company was making the trusses. (If they're made to match the approved truss sheet, why does it matter who makes them???). That omission of information is costing us time and money.
Now, we have to wait through this ridiculous and slow back check bull$#!& to have corrections made that, quite frankly, make no sense to me.
And I question the thoroughness of some of the people doing work at various places. We were asked to move the insulation from on top of the ceiling to directly below the roof. Why wasn't this requested during plan check and back check two to three months ago? Why do we have to pay for this? Who the #*&! dropped the ball two months ago?? And how many more times are we going to have to go through revisions and spending more and more money to get new things approved that should have been caught in the first place?
I'm sure I'm just ranting and raving out of sheer frustration with dealing with something I have no experience in. But, fuck! Make it logical!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
"Saving" Money
Later today, we're headed back to City Hall to pick up our revised plans because of the truss manufacturer "issue". (We didn't know we were supposed to have told the engineering firm that we'd have someone else make the trusses.) In the end, we spent a little more than $300 in order to save $100.
But, we learned a valuable lesson. Ask questions like, "How much is this going to cost us if we do this?" and "Is there anything else we'll need to do if we do X?"
On the plus side, the trusses should be inspected tomorrow and be ready for a roof to be installed.
But, we learned a valuable lesson. Ask questions like, "How much is this going to cost us if we do this?" and "Is there anything else we'll need to do if we do X?"
On the plus side, the trusses should be inspected tomorrow and be ready for a roof to be installed.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Oops Number 2
Here's another "Oops".
We were told we could have any truss company build our trusses for us. So we found one. They were cheaper than the others so we had them build our trusses for us. We had the city inspector out on Tuesday to do the inspection for the roof framing. Turns out, we needed to let the City know that we had a different truss company build the trusses than the one who was listed on the truss sheet for Plan Check.
So, we had to do another truss sheet and submit it to the City as an addendum to the plans. We can't get the inspector back out until that truss sheet has made its way through the inboxes it needs to. We're waiting for that to happen before we can move forward with putting the shingles on.
In the end, we could end up spending more in the addendum fees than we saved with the cheaper trusses. It's still cheaper than having a general contractor do all this for us but is still annoying.
We were told we could have any truss company build our trusses for us. So we found one. They were cheaper than the others so we had them build our trusses for us. We had the city inspector out on Tuesday to do the inspection for the roof framing. Turns out, we needed to let the City know that we had a different truss company build the trusses than the one who was listed on the truss sheet for Plan Check.
So, we had to do another truss sheet and submit it to the City as an addendum to the plans. We can't get the inspector back out until that truss sheet has made its way through the inboxes it needs to. We're waiting for that to happen before we can move forward with putting the shingles on.
In the end, we could end up spending more in the addendum fees than we saved with the cheaper trusses. It's still cheaper than having a general contractor do all this for us but is still annoying.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Not-So-Lovely Rain and Other Bullstuff
(It's a long one; better strap yourself in.)
As you know, we got our building permit on Monday, March 21. That week, it rained pretty heavily so construction couldn't begin immediately. We had been in contact with the Demo Guy (our demolition and construction contractor; not his real name) and he said he'd be ready to start on March 28.
Well, March 28 rolls around and he's not done with the previous job. He blamed it on the rain the previous week. Seems fairly reasonable. Said he would be able to start on Wednesday and that he wanted to meet with Karl on Tuesday to go over the job one final time before getting crews there.
Also on March 28, the A/C guy was going to come and remove the on-roof A/C unit for cleaning and storage during the demolition. He comes with a crane and removes the unit. And that took pretty much all day so it's probably good that Demo Guy wasn't ready to start on the 28th.
Demo Guy and Karl meet on Tuesday to go over the job and Demo Guy says he'd have his crew start on Thursday. On Wednesday, Karl spent a lot of the day at the bar doing "stuff". Fixing stucco problems, building fences where there weren't fences before and that sort of thing.
Thursday rolls around and Demo Guy still isn't ready to start and he'd start on Friday. We start to see a pattern.
That pattern is reinforced on Friday, April 1, as well. He's still not ready. But he will be most definitely, positively, absolutely be ready and start on Monday, April 4. Careful readers will note that's one week after he first said he'd be able to start.
Early Friday afternoon (April 1) Karl heads from home to the bar to do some work (I forget exactly what). Later that day, the truss company called and told us the trusses would be ready for delivery on Monday, April 4; the same day that Demo Guy was to finally begin work demolishing the roof. That seemed perfect to Karl and me but the Demo Guy wanted us to delay the delivery of the trusses until April 11. This said to both Karl and me that the demolition would take a week. (Considering the work, a week always did seem a little long; Demo Guy originally said the entire job would take two weeks. But I digress.)
Karl spent the weekend in Fresno doing various work on the bar. Monday morning rolls around and Karl heads to the bar in the early morning and meets Demo Guy and his crew. They start removing the roof and its trusses and, after a while, Karl leaves to let them do their work.
Later that day, Karl returns and finds the demolition complete. All of it. Trusses, old metal roof, old shingles, old sheathing all ripped off and put into a dumpster. The process that we thought would take a week took a single day. (A very long day, to be sure, but a day nonetheless.) This was a nice surprise! (But then why did Demo Guy want to wait a week to start putting up the trusses and why did he have us delay the delivery of the trusses a full week?)
The demolition broke a few things in the bar--glass counter top, a mirror, a speaker, drink rail, things like that--but that was nothing compared to the problems that were about to occur.
Since the bar was going to be without a roof for so long (upwards of two weeks) Karl wanted to sit at the bar over night to help prevent any vandalism that might occur if nobody was there to watch the place. So, Karl spends the night on Monday sitting in his car staring at the bar. Fun.
On Tuesday, we ask Demo Guy why he is leaving us without a roof for a week. Turns out Demo Guy was doing two jobs at the same time; ours and someone else's. I'm sure Demo Guy has his reasons for leaving us without a roof for a week but I don't know what they could possibly be. Looks to me that this guy seems to have a scheduling problem. It seems more logical to me to knock out one job before starting another. Is this guy so good that he's in this much demand? (Quite frankly, I doubt it; in my opinion, his attention to detail and concern for his clients seems a bit lacking.)
On Tuesday afternoon, we received the lovely "homo fagét" graffiti. And that was annoying and disturbing. I also see that there's a 30 to 70% chance of rain on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. No roof and rain do not mix. Demo Guy has his guys off on his other job and I have no roof. We get in touch with the truss folks and they can deliver the trusses Wednesday afternoon. Why Wednesday? We want to try to get Demo Guy to start work on Wednesday afternoon in preparation of the 70% chance of rain on Thursday and we figured he'd be concerned about his client's project being damaged by rain. It was too late on Tuesday to get a hold of Demo Guy so we have to wait until morning.
For various reasons, we couldn't get a hold of Demo Guy Wednesday morning to see if he could start that afternoon. When we finally contacted Demo Guy, he said his crew could not work on our roof on Wednesday but would be working on our roof at 7:00am Thursday and, unless there's a downpour, they'd continue working to get us a roof. And, even if there was a downpour, we were assured that the crew would resume work when it cleared up.
Wednesday night, it rains. The bar gets wet. All of the bar gets wet. And Demo Guy didn't even bother to try to protect the interior with tarps or anything and didn't even offer to come help put up any sort of protection. (To be fair, we didn't either but that's not the point. The point is he didn't even seem concerned for anything but the pool table.)
Well, on Thursday Demo Guy's crew shows up at the crack of dawn again and beings working. A couple hours later, there was a 45-minute downpour and the crew left. Since Karl had been spending his nights at the bar keeping tabs on the place, he couldn't stay at the bar during the day; he had to sleep at some time, right? Before the downpour and after Demo Guy's crew had installed one truss, he went and took a nap. Mid afternoon, he gets up and heads to the bar to see what progress had been made after the rain had stopped. There was no crew working. The work had stopped, no progress had been made despite having no rain during the afternoon.
We called Demo Guy and asked him where his crew was. He did not know and could not get a hold of them! That's right, he did *not* know where his crew was and could *not* get a hold of them. To say that we were furious is a gross, massive understatement.
Demo Guy assures us up and down that, despite not knowing where they are, his crew will be there at 7:00am Friday to continue working and that his crew didn't come back on Thursday afternoon because "every time they picked up a saw, they were getting shocked" because the equipment was so saturated. (I thought, "SO IS MY BAR!!") (I don't mean to say that I wish his crew to be placed at risk of electrical shock, mind you.)
We have serious doubts about whether or not Demo Guy can even try to make good on his word about showing up on Friday morning; his track record is not exactly stellar in that regard. But, we can do nothing--literally--but believe him. What else could we do? Hire another contractor to finish the job? The place still had no roof. I'm sure we could have hired another contractor to finish the job but the annoyance of doing that would be unfathomably stressful for both of us.
Friday comes around and Demo Guy's crew shows up. I guess he finally figured out how to get a hold of his employees. Karl goes and lays down for his daily rest. Later that afternoon the crew finishes with the trusses and sheathing. The construction is complete in one day.
Also, ABC 30 comes out and does their piece on the graffiti. The police show up and assure us that they do, in fact, care about the (legally defined) hate crime of the graffiti. Ultimately, Friday ended up being a pretty great day for the bar. We simply love the vaulted ceiling (pictures coming tomorrow of that) and are thrilled to finally be at this point in the process.
In the end, Demo Guy scheduled two weeks for a job that only took two and a half days. Why he couldn't have just had the whole thing done by Wednesday before the rain started is simply beyond my comprehension. EVERYTHING was ready for him and he chose to delay things. He is the one who had us delay delivery of the trusses. He is the one with the apparent scheduling problems that made him unable to start when he first said he could. He is the one who couldn't communicate with his employees at a crucial time.
In all, the bar survived. The rain didn't cause too much obvious damage; there could still be some moisture problems with the drywall in the future but we're taking some proactive steps to help slow--if not prevent--that. It could have been a lot worse if the floor hadn't been concrete. But the problems and delays this guy caused for us are reprehensible and wholly unprofessional.
As you know, we got our building permit on Monday, March 21. That week, it rained pretty heavily so construction couldn't begin immediately. We had been in contact with the Demo Guy (our demolition and construction contractor; not his real name) and he said he'd be ready to start on March 28.
Well, March 28 rolls around and he's not done with the previous job. He blamed it on the rain the previous week. Seems fairly reasonable. Said he would be able to start on Wednesday and that he wanted to meet with Karl on Tuesday to go over the job one final time before getting crews there.
Also on March 28, the A/C guy was going to come and remove the on-roof A/C unit for cleaning and storage during the demolition. He comes with a crane and removes the unit. And that took pretty much all day so it's probably good that Demo Guy wasn't ready to start on the 28th.
Demo Guy and Karl meet on Tuesday to go over the job and Demo Guy says he'd have his crew start on Thursday. On Wednesday, Karl spent a lot of the day at the bar doing "stuff". Fixing stucco problems, building fences where there weren't fences before and that sort of thing.
Thursday rolls around and Demo Guy still isn't ready to start and he'd start on Friday. We start to see a pattern.
That pattern is reinforced on Friday, April 1, as well. He's still not ready. But he will be most definitely, positively, absolutely be ready and start on Monday, April 4. Careful readers will note that's one week after he first said he'd be able to start.
Early Friday afternoon (April 1) Karl heads from home to the bar to do some work (I forget exactly what). Later that day, the truss company called and told us the trusses would be ready for delivery on Monday, April 4; the same day that Demo Guy was to finally begin work demolishing the roof. That seemed perfect to Karl and me but the Demo Guy wanted us to delay the delivery of the trusses until April 11. This said to both Karl and me that the demolition would take a week. (Considering the work, a week always did seem a little long; Demo Guy originally said the entire job would take two weeks. But I digress.)
Karl spent the weekend in Fresno doing various work on the bar. Monday morning rolls around and Karl heads to the bar in the early morning and meets Demo Guy and his crew. They start removing the roof and its trusses and, after a while, Karl leaves to let them do their work.
Later that day, Karl returns and finds the demolition complete. All of it. Trusses, old metal roof, old shingles, old sheathing all ripped off and put into a dumpster. The process that we thought would take a week took a single day. (A very long day, to be sure, but a day nonetheless.) This was a nice surprise! (But then why did Demo Guy want to wait a week to start putting up the trusses and why did he have us delay the delivery of the trusses a full week?)
The demolition broke a few things in the bar--glass counter top, a mirror, a speaker, drink rail, things like that--but that was nothing compared to the problems that were about to occur.
Since the bar was going to be without a roof for so long (upwards of two weeks) Karl wanted to sit at the bar over night to help prevent any vandalism that might occur if nobody was there to watch the place. So, Karl spends the night on Monday sitting in his car staring at the bar. Fun.
On Tuesday, we ask Demo Guy why he is leaving us without a roof for a week. Turns out Demo Guy was doing two jobs at the same time; ours and someone else's. I'm sure Demo Guy has his reasons for leaving us without a roof for a week but I don't know what they could possibly be. Looks to me that this guy seems to have a scheduling problem. It seems more logical to me to knock out one job before starting another. Is this guy so good that he's in this much demand? (Quite frankly, I doubt it; in my opinion, his attention to detail and concern for his clients seems a bit lacking.)
On Tuesday afternoon, we received the lovely "homo fagét" graffiti. And that was annoying and disturbing. I also see that there's a 30 to 70% chance of rain on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. No roof and rain do not mix. Demo Guy has his guys off on his other job and I have no roof. We get in touch with the truss folks and they can deliver the trusses Wednesday afternoon. Why Wednesday? We want to try to get Demo Guy to start work on Wednesday afternoon in preparation of the 70% chance of rain on Thursday and we figured he'd be concerned about his client's project being damaged by rain. It was too late on Tuesday to get a hold of Demo Guy so we have to wait until morning.
For various reasons, we couldn't get a hold of Demo Guy Wednesday morning to see if he could start that afternoon. When we finally contacted Demo Guy, he said his crew could not work on our roof on Wednesday but would be working on our roof at 7:00am Thursday and, unless there's a downpour, they'd continue working to get us a roof. And, even if there was a downpour, we were assured that the crew would resume work when it cleared up.
Wednesday night, it rains. The bar gets wet. All of the bar gets wet. And Demo Guy didn't even bother to try to protect the interior with tarps or anything and didn't even offer to come help put up any sort of protection. (To be fair, we didn't either but that's not the point. The point is he didn't even seem concerned for anything but the pool table.)
Well, on Thursday Demo Guy's crew shows up at the crack of dawn again and beings working. A couple hours later, there was a 45-minute downpour and the crew left. Since Karl had been spending his nights at the bar keeping tabs on the place, he couldn't stay at the bar during the day; he had to sleep at some time, right? Before the downpour and after Demo Guy's crew had installed one truss, he went and took a nap. Mid afternoon, he gets up and heads to the bar to see what progress had been made after the rain had stopped. There was no crew working. The work had stopped, no progress had been made despite having no rain during the afternoon.
We called Demo Guy and asked him where his crew was. He did not know and could not get a hold of them! That's right, he did *not* know where his crew was and could *not* get a hold of them. To say that we were furious is a gross, massive understatement.
Demo Guy assures us up and down that, despite not knowing where they are, his crew will be there at 7:00am Friday to continue working and that his crew didn't come back on Thursday afternoon because "every time they picked up a saw, they were getting shocked" because the equipment was so saturated. (I thought, "SO IS MY BAR!!") (I don't mean to say that I wish his crew to be placed at risk of electrical shock, mind you.)
We have serious doubts about whether or not Demo Guy can even try to make good on his word about showing up on Friday morning; his track record is not exactly stellar in that regard. But, we can do nothing--literally--but believe him. What else could we do? Hire another contractor to finish the job? The place still had no roof. I'm sure we could have hired another contractor to finish the job but the annoyance of doing that would be unfathomably stressful for both of us.
Friday comes around and Demo Guy's crew shows up. I guess he finally figured out how to get a hold of his employees. Karl goes and lays down for his daily rest. Later that afternoon the crew finishes with the trusses and sheathing. The construction is complete in one day.
Also, ABC 30 comes out and does their piece on the graffiti. The police show up and assure us that they do, in fact, care about the (legally defined) hate crime of the graffiti. Ultimately, Friday ended up being a pretty great day for the bar. We simply love the vaulted ceiling (pictures coming tomorrow of that) and are thrilled to finally be at this point in the process.
In the end, Demo Guy scheduled two weeks for a job that only took two and a half days. Why he couldn't have just had the whole thing done by Wednesday before the rain started is simply beyond my comprehension. EVERYTHING was ready for him and he chose to delay things. He is the one who had us delay delivery of the trusses. He is the one with the apparent scheduling problems that made him unable to start when he first said he could. He is the one who couldn't communicate with his employees at a crucial time.
In all, the bar survived. The rain didn't cause too much obvious damage; there could still be some moisture problems with the drywall in the future but we're taking some proactive steps to help slow--if not prevent--that. It could have been a lot worse if the floor hadn't been concrete. But the problems and delays this guy caused for us are reprehensible and wholly unprofessional.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Taxes and Other Oops's
Sometimes in being prepared as I like to be, I forget or just don't know to do something. That thing gets delayed until it's pretty much late and causing delays in doing other things. (You remember the electrical plans I mentioned some weeks ago?)
Well, the current one relates to taxes and the California Secretary of State. Turns out we need a "Secretary of State File Number" which is something like a Social Security Number (I guess). Nothing in my preparations (book readings, website goings-over, etc.) made me think I needed anything like it. Until I started to do the taxes for the bar and there on the form is a space for entering the Secretary of State File Number. The alert in the software was yellow--caution--so I didn't think it would be a problem and just submitted the return. Not surprisingly, it was rejected by the state (and the crap software I used for this doesn't give a reason why, just the figurative big red stamp "REJECTED"). Seeing as that's the only error the crap software finds, I assume that's the item that caused the return to be rejected.
So, $70 more out the door and another couple of weeks waiting for yet another number. Yay.
Fortunately, California gives an automatic 6 month extension and no taxes are due so we're still fine. It's just a little annoying is all. Oh, well.
(And what is the plural of "oops", anyway?)
Well, the current one relates to taxes and the California Secretary of State. Turns out we need a "Secretary of State File Number" which is something like a Social Security Number (I guess). Nothing in my preparations (book readings, website goings-over, etc.) made me think I needed anything like it. Until I started to do the taxes for the bar and there on the form is a space for entering the Secretary of State File Number. The alert in the software was yellow--caution--so I didn't think it would be a problem and just submitted the return. Not surprisingly, it was rejected by the state (and the crap software I used for this doesn't give a reason why, just the figurative big red stamp "REJECTED"). Seeing as that's the only error the crap software finds, I assume that's the item that caused the return to be rejected.
So, $70 more out the door and another couple of weeks waiting for yet another number. Yay.
Fortunately, California gives an automatic 6 month extension and no taxes are due so we're still fine. It's just a little annoying is all. Oh, well.
(And what is the plural of "oops", anyway?)
Friday, March 25, 2011
On your mark,... Get set,...
Everything is now at the point of being ready but the weather. But good news is on the horizon. Clear weather is forecast for Monday. Can we believe the forecast? They have been wrong so many times before.
The construction people are what I consider vague. There are many calls back and forth about when they will start. I am told something could start happening Monday. At least we will get a big trash dumpster and the A/C unit will be taken down.
Just seeing the outside of the building change will be such a joy. This excludes the changes that were made by graffiti taggers. Those changes we could do without.
The construction people are what I consider vague. There are many calls back and forth about when they will start. I am told something could start happening Monday. At least we will get a big trash dumpster and the A/C unit will be taken down.
Just seeing the outside of the building change will be such a joy. This excludes the changes that were made by graffiti taggers. Those changes we could do without.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Time to go Shopping!
I'm not as thrilled about this as the exclamation point in the post title might lead you to believe.
The solution to the electrical plans, uh, issue I mentioned yesterday is for Karl and I to go shopping for specific light fixtures that will fit in with the Title 24 requirements. For us, that apparently means we can't have more than 1,115 watts being used for lighting for the entire bar.
Our engineer guy originally specified 35w low voltage halogens for some of the fixtures. But, when he tried to find the fixures online, he, too, found that 35w low voltage halogen light fixtures of that type don't exist. So, we go shopping. Yay.
We have to come up with a lighting plan that will not use more than 1,115 watts for the entire bar. Shouldn't be too dififcult but will probably involve some calculus-type calculations. (Ok, that might be a bit of a stretch but should work out alright.)
In every construction project, there is probably something that should have been done much differently than it was done. (It was that way for us when we got our house; though, I now forget what that was.) The electrical plans and design are probably that aspect for this project. But, no worries. It'll all work out in the end.
The solution to the electrical plans, uh, issue I mentioned yesterday is for Karl and I to go shopping for specific light fixtures that will fit in with the Title 24 requirements. For us, that apparently means we can't have more than 1,115 watts being used for lighting for the entire bar.
Our engineer guy originally specified 35w low voltage halogens for some of the fixtures. But, when he tried to find the fixures online, he, too, found that 35w low voltage halogen light fixtures of that type don't exist. So, we go shopping. Yay.
We have to come up with a lighting plan that will not use more than 1,115 watts for the entire bar. Shouldn't be too dififcult but will probably involve some calculus-type calculations. (Ok, that might be a bit of a stretch but should work out alright.)
In every construction project, there is probably something that should have been done much differently than it was done. (It was that way for us when we got our house; though, I now forget what that was.) The electrical plans and design are probably that aspect for this project. But, no worries. It'll all work out in the end.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Lighting Lacking
Well, here's a great annoyance....
Turns out some of the fixtures our electrical plans called for may not exist. (Or, if they do exist, they're so far out of our budget it's not worth even thinking about them.)
We were originally told to just to to a home improvement store and pick out some fixtures and write down the model numbers and such. When Karl got to the store, he was told by the store's "electrical specialist" (or whatever he was called) that several of the fixtures don't exist.
Karl is meeting (right now) with the guy who drew them to try to figure out what to do about this problem.
Turns out some of the fixtures our electrical plans called for may not exist. (Or, if they do exist, they're so far out of our budget it's not worth even thinking about them.)
We were originally told to just to to a home improvement store and pick out some fixtures and write down the model numbers and such. When Karl got to the store, he was told by the store's "electrical specialist" (or whatever he was called) that several of the fixtures don't exist.
Karl is meeting (right now) with the guy who drew them to try to figure out what to do about this problem.
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